Strategic Staffing Framework

Introduction

Strategic staffing framework entails the procedures that identify and address the implications of staffing in an organization on its plans and business strategies. The process of strategic staffing has two major outputs. These are staffing plans and staffing strategy. Any staffing strategy is made of directional plans which an organization makes on long term basis. These describe what will be covered by the organizations in their planning horizons. Staffing plans entail tactical plans that are made on short term basis. They define what the organizations will engage in over a short period in order to address urgent staffing surpluses and gaps.

The Use of an Implementation Framework for Strategic Staffing

A framework refers to a conceptual or factual structure whose intention is to serve as the support or to provide guidance in the construction process of something that expands its real structure into something or substance that can be used.¹ A framework in the human resource perspective includes all processes which effectively enable, ensure execution, offer guidance and control different processes through which personnel supply is matched with job’s requirement. Implementation framework may be used in strategic staffing process.

Any time organizations implement new processes two major separate parameters must be balanced effectively. These include impact and scope. Scope may be defined as the size of the group that should be included in a staffing process. This includes the available jobs’ number, job levels, locations, organization units and key functions. Conversely, impact refers to the extent of the positive effect that the new process will have on the organization. The range of impact may vary from high to low.

In strategic staffing, implementation framework employs two approaches in order to ensure the achievement and maintenance of efficacy. This is because funds, staff time as well as other important resources are scarce. The initial approach, which is “approach A”, refers to a step-by-step approach or process whose aim is to ensure high impact or effects on the whole organization. Every step is accomplished with this approach. This ensures that there is some influence on the larger organizational scope when a new process is applied.³After completing the first step, the other one follows. This is repeated until the implementation of the entire process is completed. Accordingly, the approach has four major steps.

The first step entails comprehending the business context on long term basis. The second step entails defining the requirements of the staff and its availability. The third entails specification of the necessary staffing actions and plans. The final step entails the implementation of the established staffing plans.

“Approach B” is the other approach. Effectively, this approach can ensure the achievement and maintenance of efficacy while implementing the strategic staffing framework. The key objective of approach B is also to ensure that high impact is achieved on the whole organization. It is also a step-by-step approach that leads to high instantaneous impact. Consequently, all steps of approach implementation are completed with approach B. Hence, one part of an organization experiences high impact which results in a narrower scope via which the application of a new process is done.⁴After completing these steps in any organization, the whole process is repeated in the second part. The implementation of the process is done part-by-part. Just like with approach A, taking approach B facilitates the application of the framework for strategic staffing for the entire organization’s scope.

Organizational Roles and Responsibilities Associated with the Implementation of a Strategic Staffing Framework Initiative

The persons who identify the nature and amount of the resources that are necessary for implementing business strategies and apportioning them once they become available are responsible for establishing and implementing plans of strategic staffing. Majority of the contemporary organizations give line managers the responsibility of managing material and financial resources within an organization. However, they are not responsible for managing human resources. Consequently, implementing the initiatives of strategic staffing does not provide security for a long term job to the human resource staff.

Instead, the human resource is responsible for ensuring that this task is performed by line managers appropriately. The human resource staff has to play a vital supporting role in order to enable managers to establish and develop better staffing strategies and plans.

Among the organizational responsibilities and roles that relate to the process of implementing the initiatives of strategic staffing include giving the management an explanation of the importance of strategic staffing. As such, the process’ value is defined to make it understandable to the management. The human resource staffs should clearly outline different reasons for implementing the strategic staffing framework in the organization.

The other responsibility and role that is associated with the implementation of the initiative of strategic staffing entails supporting and creating the process of strategic staffing. The management should ensure that the HR staff has the support that it needs to make the process smooth. While implementing the initiatives of strategic staffing, the human resource should ensure that managers have the right resources and tools so that they can define their staffing requirements as well as develop plans for practical staffing.

The human resource should partner with the managers fully in order to identify critical issues as well as to develop effective strategies to ensure the success of the initiative of strategic staffing. Consequently, the human resource staff should play the organizational role of ensuring that managers are trained properly on how to implement the process of strategic staffing.

Additionally, the human resource staff should work with managers closely in order to resolve complex staffing issues and also to act as the conduits in processing and transferring important staffing information.

While implementing the initiatives of strategic staffing, HR professionals should ensure that the entire process of strategic staffing is done effectively in order to add value to their organization. To achieve this, the HR staffs ought to take organizational responsibilities and roles by understanding them. This includes understanding the vision, mission, business strategies, tactics and objectives. The HR professionals should also understand the process of staffing to make it proactive. They should also understand that this process will remain ineffective if people are reactive.

Additionally, the responsibility and role of the HR staff is to ensure that the staffing strategies and initiatives that are developed integrate different aspects of the HR functions.⁸ Thus; the human resource staff is responsible for establishing a support process. This should be customized to suit the organizational standards and managers’ needs.

Tools and Techniques Used to Integrate Strategic Staffing with the Organization’s Business Plan

Strategic staffing entails a process via which staffing implications are identified and addressed in relation to the set business plans and strategies. The process of strategic staffing should be consistent with the overall planning process of the organization. Stahl and Björkman argue that aligning or connecting the process of business planning with the processes of strategic planning is not enough.⁹This is due to the fact that only separate components can be linked or aligned. Consequently, for the process of strategic staffing to be efficient and effective fully, it has to be integrated continuously and seamlessly into the fabric of business planning.

There are techniques and tools that ought to be used for the process of strategic staffing to be integrated with the business plan or an organization. For instance, for strategic staffing to yield maximum profit, the management has to ensure that staffing processes and business planning comprises of the right elements. Storey notes that a properly developed business plan has both short term business operation plans and long-term plans.10 As such; the organization should have strategies for long term staffing and plans for short-term staffing. It is impossible to have an effective planning process if these components are not included.

Additionally, for strategic staffing to be fully integrated in the business plan of a company, the major elements of a planning process should be mesh fully. Going by this technique, all elements of the process of planning have to fit together the way a machine does when oiled properly. Although every element of the business plan of an organization is established masterfully, strategic planning will fail if the links of the elements are not dynamic and solid. For instance, a strong relationship must exist (information flows) between the process of strategic staffing and the long-term business plan of the organization.¹¹ As such, if there is a weak relationship (nonexistent or worse), the process of business planning in the organization and its integration with the process of strategic staffing will remain ineffective and incomplete.

Furthermore, complete integration of all elements of the process of business planning must be ensured including business plan and processes. Every element of the planning process of an organization including different pieces ought to fit together while building on each other. For instance, the strategic objectives which define things should be established at the horizon of business planning. Subsequently, strategies give specific definitions of what ought to be accomplished in order to achieve the objectives. When the two major pieces are integrated fully, realizing all planning objectives becomes easy provided that the strategies that have been stated will be implemented as designed initially. Nevertheless, if there is no proper integration of these major pieces, the process of implementing the strategy might not meet some major objectives.

The Effectiveness and Efficiency of a Strategic Staffing Process, and Options of Strategic Staffing

The efficiency (which is doing a job right) and effectiveness (engaging in the right work) during the process of strategic staffing is measured by taking track of staffing performance. Usually, organizations measure staffing efficiency using elements like cost, volume, hiring speed and time. In terms of staffing, efficiency of a staffing process is measured by considering the filled openings (volume measure), the speed of filling the openings (speed measure), the cost of every hire (cost measure).

The effectiveness of staffing measures usually addresses quality in cases where staffing process leads to the realization of qualified and the right staff for the job. In measuring the effectiveness of the staff, detailed gaps of staffing and surpluses are usually considered. Consequently, staffing process is generally effective if the significant gaps in staffing as well as surpluses are removed or minimized considerably during the planning phase horizon.

Costs have to be considered in the process of developing plans for strategic staffing in order to prepare related budgets. The costs associated with staffing include the expenses of maintaining the configuration of the required workforce as well as the cost incurred in the transition of the current team of employees to the desired state. The overall cost of staffing during the planning step is the overall transition and maintenance costs during a specific period. Choices that should be considered ought to account for the most beneficial or valuable outputs which are comprehensive staffing actions and plans.

Nevertheless, the concentration of managers should not just be on these options but on the broader picture while evaluating several scenarios or a single case. Consequently, a broader review should be done on comprehensive plans in order to enable the managers to reach conclusions as well as to make choices that may have been impossible if only the management considered detailed plans only.

The process of strategic staffing should also consider staffing reductions if the company intends to downsize. Nevertheless, a properly designed strategy ought to be implemented in order to enable the organization to make reduction decisions that will be of great important over time.

Organizations ought to define their future requirements according to their staffing levels and capabilities and to come up with a criterion for reduction process. For instance, the reductions can be implemented where there will be minimum impact on the plans of the firm in the future. It is apparent that an organization can develop a staffing strategy effectively when it has an effective and realistic business plan. Consequently, downsizing and consolidations should be implemented only when organizations have defined future objectives as well as proposals for accomplishing the strategies.

Bibliography

Bechet, Thomas P. Strategic Staffing: A Comprehensive System for Effective Workforce      Planning. New York: Amacom, 2002.

Phillips, Jean, and Stanley Morris Gully. Strategic Staffing. Harlow: Pearson Education, 2012.

Schmitt, Neal. The Oxford Handbook of Personnel Assessment and Selection. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

Stahl, Günter K. and Ingmar Björkman. Handbook of Research in International Human    Resource Management. Cheltenham, UK: E. Elgar Publishers, 2006.Bottom of Form

Storey, John. Human Resource Management: A Critical Text. London: Thomson, 2007.

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