How should staffing needs be analyzed?
Before beginning any recruiting efforts, an employer should analyze its true staffing needs. The first question is whether or not the position is necessary. Why should this position be filled? Questions such as the following help to guide employers:
What is the business justification for this position?
What is the strategic rationale for this position?
What is the practical effect of filling this position?
What are the consequences to the organization if the position is not filled?
What are the appropriate qualifications for the position currently?
Are there future changes in the job or the procedures that impact the job that should be considered when determining what criteria is needed to fill the position?
If the position is vacant because an employee has left, additional questions should be asked:
Should the position be replaced with a similar replacement or should there be a change?
If there should be a change, is it in the candidate's qualifications or skill level, or should changes be made in the job itself?
Why did the incumbent leave the position? Are there changes that should be made to ensure there is no future turnover?
With respect to every position, smart staffing requires that you define your objectives for considering the position within in your organization. To do so, you must define and describe your work force through preparation of a detailed current staffing document if none is currently available. Include:
Total number of employees
Number of supervisors and individual workers
Number and kinds of jobs
Next, identify and describe the unique characteristics and specific problems that exist in your work force:
Personnel characteristics and problems
Workload characteristics and problems
Finally, examine workload and job interdependencies. Identify peak workload periods involving influx of outside calls, person-to-person contact with the public, and e-mail or other technical interfaces. Workloads may vary for the organization or for sections within the organization, with a heavy or light load occurring at different times of the day, week or month. Quantify these factors in so far as possible. Identify interdependency among sections or individual employees.
This activity will provide you with a basis for determining the needs of the position and the way it impacts the organizational performance as a whole. It will further provide you with information that should be useful in analyzing the success of any staffing models you choose to pursue.
Investigate internal staffing alternatives
Many organizations utilize existing staff in nontraditional ways to achieve more productive results without the necessity of filling additional or replacement positions. These methods modify the ways in which positions are staffed and include:
part-time employees, including internal temporary staff pools and on-call emergency staff pools
increasing overtime hours
flextime scheduling
Whether or not various internal staffing methods are appropriate for a business depends upon:
Part-time employees. Although not a contingency worker, a part-time worker does not work for the employer on a full-time basis, resulting in reduced employer costs for salary and benefits. The break
point for full-time
versus part-time
is typically defined by the organization. Most organizations define workers as part-time
if they work fewer hours than the organization-defined workweek, which is typically 40 hours per week. The part-time worker may be a former employee; for example, a retiree who wants to work less than full-time. Part-time work may be a temporary or seasonal situation based on employer needs or may be a long-term or permanent working arrangement. Part-time workers are also used for swing shifts, weekend shifts and to form on call
pools of workers to be called as needed.
These workers may be eligible for full or partial benefits depending on the number of hours worked. Although benefits plans may not exclude part-time workers as a class, frequently a part-time worker will not work the required number of hours weekly to be eligible to participate in the plan. Those employers that do provide benefits to part-timers often require part-time employees to work at least 30 hours per week.
Companies wanting to hire part-time employees on their own payroll to make up internal temporary staffing pools should consider permanent employees currently with the company who, for personal reasons, want to work less than full time, such as students, retirees, and those with child care or elder care obligations.
A part-time employment policy should target candidates who really want part-time work and not those who prefer full-time work but who take the part-time positions hoping that they will develop into full-time employment.
In addition, make sure the job is really appropriate for a temporary or part-time worker. Abuse of part-time positions can be a problem because it is often easier to get approval for a part-time position than a full-time position. Make sure that the part-time position is not being used to get someone in the job and then turn it into full-time work.
Overtime. Another option to increase the productivity of existing staff is to offer extra hours' work and overtime pay. Overtime hours, generally beyond 40 in a workweek, must be compensated at one and one-half times the regular hourly rate for employers covered by the federal (or a state) overtime law, and if the employee works in a job classified as nonexempt-not exempt from the law's overtime requirements.
Flexible scheduling. Often thought of primarily as a work-life benefit, the practice of flexible scheduling, or flextime, allow workers-within limited options-to alter the start or end of their workdays or work weeks so that the total hours worked during a given period are not affected. In addition to providing employees with more control over the balance between working time and personal obligations, flexible scheduling may allow an employer to better cover its workload without adding staff.
Conducting the staffing analysis described above will provide you with a basis for determining the degree of flexibility that may be possible in your workplace. Based on that analysis, you should be able to identify and describe those particular work groups that will require special schedules and work adjustments if flexible scheduling is implemented. Pay particular attention to workload and job interdependencies, as well as peak periods of customer contact or required interaction between coworkers, teams, sites, and vendors or other partners. Quantify these factors to the extent possible.
Techniques to maintain control of staffing
There are several methods an employer can use to maintain control over staffing levels and minimize recruitment costs. Typically an employer would require monthly staffing reports and special approvals to hire. Generally, these controls include:
Organization chart. Maintain a current organization chart for each organizational unit. Include each incumbent, title and salary on the chart. Add up the total salaries and reflect that figure on the chart. Adapt the chart to your needs. One method is an electronic file that is easily maintained, analyzed and communicated.
Prepare a form transmittal cover page for the organization chart. This form can recap salaries, headcount and other useful information. Keep the chart current. Report staffing monthly on this form. Explain deviations.
Personnel requisitions. Require a form to be completed prior to any recruitment activity (including internal actions within the same organizational unit); have the form submitted for approvals and require that the job be internally posted before any other activity occurs.
Annual budgeting. The annual budgeting process can be designed to include the organization chart data and personnel requisitioning process as inputs.
Staffing levels can be controlled by annually approving the existing staffing level as of a certain date or modifying the organization chart and approving any personnel requisitions that occur during the year.
A summary form can be used to report staffing in order to simplify reporting.
Adapt any form or process to fit specific needs.
Require a rigorous approval process for any exceptions that increase staffing costs over the approved budget and current organization chart.
<p>Before beginning any recruiting efforts, an employer should analyze its true staffing needs. The first question is whether or not the position is necessary.</p>
How should staffing needs be analyzed?
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