Staffing is a critical organizational function, which is comprised of a series of interrelated activities and dynamic processes such as recruitment, screening, and selection. All of these activities are primarily concerned with proficiently acquiring and deploying organizational human resource. Staffing decisions are imperative for every business organization and they are influenced by factors like organizational culture, talent management philosophy and corporate strategy. Some major decisions that principally impact the staffing strategy of a business organization include nature of competition within the industry, legal factors, social factors, organizational size, business plan, and organizations market reputation (Phillips & Gully, 2015).
Nature of Competition within the Industry: Intensity of competition within the industry influence the staffing tendencies. For instance, an industry with a cut-throat rivalry requires an organization to attract and retain talent in every possible way. This requires firm to expand their staffing resource and craft packages, facilities and working conditions, which empower them to get the best available individuals that are exceptionally skilled, talented, motivate and committed.
Legal Factors: Legal provision affects the staffing policies as well and restricts free practices such as child employment, and maintenance of minimum wage for a certain job position.
Social Factors: Cultural and social factors influence the staffing decisions due to which certain job positions are offered to certain social categories. For instance, in most of the industries, women are prevented from employing at operations as it requires high amount of physical exertion (Phillips & Gully, 2015).
Organisational Size: Size of the organizations always matter as small organizations may not have the similar practices as the large organizations. This also influences their ability to attract a talented workforce as small organizations also have to remain careful about their cost of acquiring talent.
Business Plan: Business plans directly influences the staffing strategies as it is the primary factor, which determines the type of personnel that is required in future. Therefore, on the basis of their business plans, declining, growing or stagnant organizations determine whether they need to lay off, hire more staff or to retain the existing staff. The staffing strategies are then accordingly crafted.
Organizations Market Reputation: Market reputation of an organization influences its staffing practices. The organizational image is subjected to the working conditions, promotional training & development policies, incentives, and compensation. If all these factors are on the positive side then the organization tends to automatically attract better skilled and talented candidates (Phillips & Gully, 2015).
References
Phillips, J. M., & Gully, S. M. (2015). Strategic staffing. Pearson. Retrieved From http://amberton.mylifeblue.com/media/Syllabi/Winter%202015/Graduate/MGT6174_E1.pdf on June 1, 2016
