Chapter 5 – Staffing the Engineering Organization

Learning Outcome:
At the end of the session, the student is expected to:
1. To know how staffing in an organization works.
2. To know the necessary steps in staffing process.
Initiation:
After setting up the organizational structure that has been decided to best serve the interest of a
certain firm, the next move has to be made is to fill up the identified positions with the most qualified
persons available.
Engineering organizations are very sensitive to whatever staffing errors are made. Placing the
wrong person in a highly specialized position like quality control for instance, may bring untold damages
to the firm.

Discussion:
I. What is Staffing?
- One of the concerns that an engineer manager must address is to put the right persons
in various positions within his area of concern. Although come of the important aspects
of staffing may be delegated to the human resource office, the engineer manager
assumes a great responsibility in assuring that the right persons are assigned to
positions that fit their qualifications.
- Staffing may be defined as “the management function that determine human resource
needs, recruits, selects, trains, and develops human resources for jobs created by an
organization.

II. The Staffing Procedure

a. human resource planning
b. recruitment
c. selection
d. induction and orientation
e. training and development
f. performance appraisal
g. employment decisions (monetary rewards, transfers, promotions, demotion)
h. separations

a. Human Resource Planning

- The planned output of any organization will require a systematic deployment
of human resources at various levels.
- Human resource planning may involve three activities as follows:
i. Forecasting –which is an assessment of future human resource needs
in relation to the current capabilities of the organization.
 ii. Programming – which means translating the forecasted human
resource needs to personnel objectives and goals.
iii. Evaluation and control – which refers to monitoring human resource
action plans and evaluating their success.
Methods of Forecasting – the forecasting of manpower needs may be
undertaken using any of the following quantitative methods:
1. Time series method – which use historical data to develop
forecasts of the future.
2. Explanatory or causal models – which are attempts to identify
the major variables that are related to or have caused
particular past conditions and then use current measures of
these variables to predict future conditions.
The three major types of explanatory models are as
follows:
a. Regression Models
b. Econometric Models
c. Leading Indicators
3. Monitoring Methods – are those that provide early warning
signals of significant changes in established patterns and
relationships so that the engineer manager can assess the
likely impact and plan responses if required.

b. Recruitment
- After deciding the different position necessary for the organization, the next
logical step is recruitment.
- It refers to attracting qualified persons to apply for vacant positions in the
company so that those who are best suited to serve the company may be
selected.
- When management want to fill up the vacant positions in the organization,
the following sources may be tapped:
i. The organization’s current employees. Some of the organization’s
current employees may be qualified to occupy positions higher than
their current position.
ii. Newspaper Advertising. It is one of the way to fill up vacant positions
in the organization. Or in the technology age, we have application/soft
wares like Linked, Jobstreet, etc.
iii. Schools. These are good sources of applicants. Schools conduct job
pairs that the students can join to look for jobs that they can apply for
once they graduated.
iv. Referrals form employees. Current employees sometimes recommend
relatives and friends who may be qualified.
v. Recruitment firms. Some companies are specifically formed to assist
client firms in recruitment.
 vi. Competitors. These are useful sources of qualified but underutilized
personnel.

c. Selection
- The act of choosing from those that are available the individuals most likely
to succeed on the job.
- Before selection, a list of adequate candidates must be prepared for easier
selection.
- The purpose of selection is to evaluate each candidate and to pick the most
suited for the position available.
Ways of Determining the Qualifications of a Job Candidate
i. Application blanks. The application blank provides information about
a person’s characteristics such as age, marital status, address,
educational background, experience and special interests. After
reading the application blank, the evaluator will have some basis on
whether or not to proceed further in evaluating the applicant.
ii. References. References are those written by previous employers, co-
workers, teachers, club offices, etc. Their statements may provide
some vital information on the character of the applicant.
iii. Interviews. Information may be gathered in an interview by asking a
series of relevant question to the job candidate.
iv. Testing. This involves an evaluation of the future behavior or
performance of an individual.
Types of Tests
1. Psychological Tests – is an objective standard measure of a
sample behavior. It is classified into:
a. Aptitude Test – one used to measure a person’s capacity
or potential ability to learn.
b. Performance Test – one used to measure a person’s
current knowledge of a subject.
c. Personality Test – one used to measure personality
traits as dominance, sociability and conformity.
d. Interest Test – one used to measure a person’s interest
in various fields of work.
2. Physical Examination – a test given to assess the physical
health of an applicant. It is given to assure that the health of the
applicant is adequate to meet the job requirements.
d. Induction and Orientation
- After the selection and hiring of an application, the next steps are induction
and orientation
- In induction, the new employee is provided with the necessary information
about the company. His duties, responsibilities, and benefits are relayed to
him.
- In orientation, the new employee is introduced to the immediate working
environment and co-workers. The location, rules, equipment, procedures,
and training plans are discussed during the orientation.

e. Training and Development

- After the induction and orientation of the new employee, it is necessary to
assess his/her skills and whether she/he needs a training.
- Training refers to the “learning that is provided in order to improve
performance on the present job”.

f. Performance Appraisal
- Performance appraisal is the measurement of employee performance. The
purposes for which performance appraisal is made are as follows:
i. To influence, in a positive manner, employee performance and
development;
ii. To determine merit pay increase;
iii. To plan for future performance goals;
iv. To determine training and development needs;
v. To assess the promotional potential of employees
- Here are some ways of appraising employee’s performance
i. Rating Scale Method – where each trait or characteristic to be rated is
represented by a line or scale on which the rater indicates the degree
to which the individual possesses the trait or characteristics.
ii. Essay Method – where the evaluator composes statement that best
describe the person evaluated.
iii. Management by Objective Method – where specific goals are set
collaboratively for the organization as a whole, for various subunits,
and for each individual member.
iv. Assessment Center Method – where one is evaluated by persons other
than the immediate superior. This method is used for evaluating
managers.
v. Checklist Method – where the evaluators check statements on a list
are deemed to characterize an employee’s behavior or performance.
vi. Work Standard Method – where standards are set for the realistic
worker output and later on used in evaluating the performance of
non-managerial employees.
vii. Ranking Method – where each evaluator arranges employees in rank
order from the best to the poorest.
 viii. Critical-incident Method – where the evaluator recalls and writes
down specific incidents that indicates the employee’s performance.

g. Employment Decision
- After evaluating the performance of employees, the management will now be
ready to make employment decisions. These may consist of the following:
i. Monetary Rewards – these are given to employees whose
performance is at par or above standard requirements.
ii. Promotion – this refers to a movement by a person into a position of
higher pay and greater responsibilities and which is given as a reward
for competence and ambition.
iii. Transfer – this is the movement of a person to a different job at the
same or similar level of responsibility in the organization.
iv. Demotion – this is a movement from one position to another which
has less pay or responsibility attached to it.

h. Separation
- Separation is either a voluntary or involuntary termination of an employee.
When made voluntarily, the organization’s management must find out the
reason. If the presence of a defect in the organization is determined,
corrective action is necessary.
- Involuntary separation (or termination) is the last option that the
management exercises when an employee’s performance is poor or when
he/she committed an act violating the company rules and regulations.
Summary:
- Staffing deals with the determination of human resource needs, recruitment, selection, training,
and development.
- The staffing process consists of the following steps: human resource planning, recruitment,
selection, induction and orientation, training and development, performance appraisal, employment
decisions, and separation