Affects of the Organizational Strategy on Staffing

Affects of the Organizational Strategy on Staffing

Strategic Staffing, HR594

DeVry University

Instructor Callie Burnley

February 21, 2010

Introduction

An organization’s strategy influences selection by the goals the organization sets for their future performance and development plans. When an organization is planning to increase or downsize production, it affects the strategic human resource management (SHRM) aspect of selection. SHRM is defined as the activities that are used to forecast the number of employees required by the organizations future needs and how their performance will align with the goals of the firm (Sinha, 2007). It requires that the organizations human resource systems are coordinated to ensure they correlate smoothly with one another. SHRM accomplishes this by forecasting HR for future labor demand, future labor supply, or aligning demand to supply. If the goals of the organization were to increase sales, production, or expansion, then the SHRM would require an increase in future labor supply. The demand places the staffing system to recruit new employees or retrain current employees. However, if the organization decides to downsize the staffing system needs to evaluate the labor supply and decide which positions would be eliminated. The employees in the eliminated positions could be utilized by the staffing system to retrain into open positions or laid off. An important factor in organizational strategy is the staffing selection process in all aspects of employee retention.

Problem

If an organization does not consider the business strategy when selecting and hiring candidates it can cause retention issues within the company. This tends to become an issue when organizations do not have an action plan when recruiting employees, because it hinders selecting the top qualified individuals. In addition, if the organizational culture is not evaluated, then the wrong types of applicants can be appointed. These problems lead to the Human Resource (HR) recruiting process to overreact and/or under deliver in selecting new employees (Alder, 2004).

Topical Area

According to Mochal (2003), a staffing strategy and plan is important when selecting and hiring employees. The use of a plan will increase the possibility of employee's longevity with the company, because a hiring is more complex than it was in the past. Companies now need to take into consideration the employee laws and regulations when selecting applicants. This can lead to hiring of a qualified candidate, but the candidate may not be the correct fit for the organizational culture. Instead, an intricate staffing plan needs to be created to select the correct applicant, which will lower turnover rates.

Mochal (2003) suggests that there are eight main parts to a staffing strategy. The first component should be an overview of any important issues and conditions of the current labor market and factors that influence it. This will provide an HR staffing strategy with the available types of candidates. Second, a plan needs to analyze and reflect the organizational goals and strategies when deciding what type of candidate will be the perfect fit for the company. A staffing plan cannot stand-alone. The more a business aligns its strategies with the staffing needs, the greater the chance the turnover rates from employee selection will decrease. This coincides with the parts the staffing plan that involves filling the job openings, staff balance, and diversity goals. If the staffing strategy specifically lays a blueprint down on how to select employees, then it will have an increased chance of selecting a loyal employee. The staffing plan needs to describe in detail what the acceptable rates of retention will be from the hiring practices. This process needs to ensure that it provides measurable practices, which will supply accurate retention numbers. In order to retain employees, the plan needs to include the type of work environment the applicant needs to fit into and the continuing development of the employee (Mochal, 2003). Retention of employees does not stop with the hiring and selection process. Employees are more likely to stay with an organization if they are continuing to feel growth.

Business Insight Technologies suggests that first a company needs to "hire the right employees" (2010), and then develop them. It is crucial to a business to hire the right employee, because it can increase productivity by 64 to 96 percent depending upon the skill level of the particular job. By selecting the right employee for the job, turnover rates for the company lower. A business can accomplished this by utilizing the following key points. First, when selecting a potential candidate, the staffing plan needs to include what the current employee's work ethics are like. Next, in order to increase the success rate in selecting the right candidate, the staffing plan needs to include the traits that will make a candidate more successful in the position. This plan also should entail educating the hiring manager's interview skills. The right skills will increase the affective rate of selecting the right employee for the job. Focusing on the entire selection process and the organizational culture will help to lower retention rates by hiring the candidate that is the best fit for the business.

Beren (2010) provides another insight to organizing a staffing plan before hiring employees. This strategy suggests that the companies take a slow approach when selecting candidates, which allows time to find an applicant that matches the necessary skills, experience, and traits that are needed to fit into the organizations business strategy. However, it is important that all three of these characteristics are looked for together. If you look for skills and traits without inventorying a candidate's personality, then the wrong candidate can be selected. The hiring plan needs to include a personality-screening tool to ensure that the correct applicant is selected for the position. These plans include well thought out questions that highlight traits, personality, and behavioral processes, which may identify which candidates personalities are align with the organizations strategies.

According to Walker, "human resource staff is to provide a framework for developing this understanding and to guide the analysis by asking questions, examining business plans, and facilitating a dialog with and among managers