Resources: Strategic Staffing

Hiring individuals who succeed in their jobs

Hiring individuals who will eventually be promoted

Reducing turnover rates among high performers

Hiring individuals for whom the other human resource functions will have the desired impact (e.g., who will benefit from training, and who will be motivated by the firm’s compensation package) Meeting stakeholder needs

Maximizing the financial return on the organization’s staffing investment

Enhancing the diversity of the organization

Enabling organizational flexibility

Enhancing the business’s strategy execution

Not all these goals will be relevant in every hiring situation. Different goals are likely to take priority at different times. It is also common for staffing goals to conflict. For example, it can be challenging to hire top performers who will stay with the organization for many years while simultaneously filling jobs quickly and minimizing staffing costs. Firms that do not staff strategically are often focused on goals such as the time it takes to fill an opening, the number of hires a recruiter produces in a period of time, and the cost per hire. Although these can be useful goals for improving the efficiency of the staffing process, they are not necessarily aligned with improving the strategic performance of the staffing system. For example, if executing the firm’s strategy requires hiring top-tier talent, the company’s recruiting goals should emphasize the quality of applicants versus hiring speed. For some positions, hiring top talent that will stay with the organization for a long time might be critical (perhaps if the positions are in management, long-term research and development projects, or sales). There may be other positions for which average talent and moderate turnover is acceptable. The key objectives of the staffing effort28 can change over time and be different for different positions, too. Because, over time, jobs change and different technologies emerge, the people best able to do a job as it exists today may be less able to do the job in a few years. And because different organizations pursue different business strategies, each organization’s staffing goals are likely to be different as well. Furthermore, differences usually exist in a single organization’s staffing goals across positions and over time because positions change, and different positions require different talents. Each organization needs to identify what its staffing goals are for any position, recognizing that its goals may change over time as the organization changes its strategy or faces changes in its labor or product markets. These goals should be based on the priorities of the organization as well as the needs of the hiring managers.

Table 1-3 contains some key questions managers and human resource personnel need to ask themselves before setting strategic staffing goals. Table 1-3 Questions to Ask When Setting Staffing Goals Is it more important to fill the position quickly or fill it with someone who closely matches a particular talent profile? What levels of which competencies, styles, values, and traits are really needed for job success and to execute the business strategy? What is the business’s strategy and what types of people will it need 1, 5, and 10 years from now? What talents must new hires possess rather than be trained to develop? What are the organization’s long-term talent needs? Is it important for the person hired to have the potential to assume leadership roles in the future?

Believe it or not, planning the “churn” of employees can also be an organizational goal. In some cases, particularly when technology is changing rapidly, organizations prefer a steady supply of new hires whose skills are as current as possible rather than continually retraining their existing employees. If the skill sets of employees who have been with the company for several years become inferior to those of new hires, planning for regular churn is a better strategic choice. For example, a small software development firm that does not have a lot of money to invest in training might plan to replace most of its programmers every two to four years and offer two-year contracts to its workers. Other organizations, like SAS, the world’s largest privately held software company, value long employee tenure with the company and prefer to invest in ongoing employee development. If building and maintaining customer relationships is important, if unique organizational knowledge is critical for getting the firm’s work done, or if the company plans to develop its future leaders from within, then a more appropriate staffing goal may be a reduction in turnover. The goals of the firm’s staffing effort should also be consistent with the goals of the firm’s other stakeholders, including the individual hiring managers to whom new hires will report. Each work group and supervisor differs with regard to the type of person wanted to fill a job. Identifying these differences is important. One of the key roles of the recruiter is to partner with hiring managers to assess their underlying needs in this regard. For example, if a firm’s Web site development function is being outsourced, then hiring someone with Web site development skills might not be what the hiring manager really needs—even if an employee with these skills has left recently. As we have said, jobs change, and the talent mixes of work groups change. Because hiring managers don’t always recognize changing talent needs or know what they need in a new hire, they should see recruiters as partners in this process. The ultimate goal for a staffing system is to hire people who can perform well, contribute to the execution of the company’s business strategy, and increase profits. Doing so as quickly as possible and experiencing a good return on the time and resources invested in the staffing effort are also important. Staffing goals should be identified in the early stages of staffing planning, and the staffing system should be evaluated to ensure that it is meeting these goals. (Evaluating the staffing system is discussed in the next section.) Many resources exist to help staffing professionals stay current and informed. This chapter’s Develop Your Skills feature lists several Internet staffing resources. Evaluating the Staffing System Linking the goals of a staffing effort directly to the evaluation criteria the firm will use in assessing the staffing system is key to its success. For example, if filling positions quickly is an important goal, then the time it takes to fill each position should be tracked and evaluated for each recruiting source. However, it should be recognized that filling positions quickly may require the recruiter to make a trade-off against the quality of the talent pool that will be quickly accessible. If recruiting high-quality applicants is an important goal, then the quality of recruits from different recruiting sources should also be tracked and evaluated. Because a firm’s staffing goals should be closely aligned with the organization’s business strategy, it is important to evaluate the staffing system to be sure these goals are being met.