Staffing may be defined as the managerial function of employing and developing human resources for carrying out the various managerial and non-managerial activities in an organization. The function is concerned with attracting, acquiring and activating the human resources for achieving organizational goals and staffing also involves upgrading the quality and usefulness of members of the organization with a view to getting higher performance from them and in other words the policy of selecting ‘right man for the right job’ should be adopted. The staffing function includes such activities as manpower or human resource planning, recruitment, selection, placement, training and development, remuneration, performance appraisal, promotion, transfers, and so on. Staffing is a continuous function of managers and this is because the organization’s need to retain and maintain its personnel is a need ending process and managers have to keep a regular watch on the size and composition of personnel needed by the organization. As said by Weihrich and Koontz “The managerial function of staffing involves the filling and keeping filled, positions in the organizational structure”.

NATURE OF STAFFING

Staffing is related to people not with goods and it is a human factor related to people and staffing is also influenced by the social, economical, political, and educational environment of the country. Speaking, staffing is a function of far-reaching consequences and the reason is that managers are not shown as an asset in the balance-sheet of the organization whatsoever money we may have to spend on their selection, education, training and development and hence, we may conclude that staffing is a function of a for reaching consequences. According to Theo Haimann “Staffing is also a liability of the management like its other functions which is to be done by a manager continuously”. Recruitment, selection, training, and development of employees is a continuous process and with the increase in the size of the organization, continuity in staffing also increases. Staffing is influenced by the internal and external environment of the organization and the internal environment includes policies regarding promotion, retirement, etc., while the external environment includes the social, economic, political, and educational environment of the country and speaking both internal and external effect the staffing function.

In management selection, training, development, and evaluation of manpower are interlinked and hence convert staffing into a system and it is treated as a sub-system of management system because it is linked with organizational structure. Staffing is done not only to fulfill the present vacancies but also to fulfill the future vacancies and here we have to forecast the number and type of vacancies in near future and the level of the educated and trained people required for fulfilling these vacancies and arrange for the fulfillment, education, and training for these vacancies in advance. Staffing is not a phase of organizing but a separate managerial function and staffing is the responsibility of the managers. Staffing helps in determining and securing qualified and capable personnel for various jobs and it places round pegs in round holes and square pegs in square holes and it aims at economical and better employee performance.