Staffing Plan Recently a Web

¶ … Staffing Plan

Recently a Web services company, Online Minds, has expanded its operations and opened a new branch in San Francisco. While some staff from the existing company moved there, a number employees are still needed. As the manager of staff affairs, recruiting staff is my responsibility. My first step is then to determine how many staff members will be needed for each functional area of the new branch. These include 1) operations will need 10 staff members to begin with; 2) customer service will need 5 staff members, 3) distribution will need 5 staff members, 4) marketing will need 3 staff members, and 5) accounting will need 2 staff members.

When recruiting employees, certain strategies will need to be followed to ensure that I hire the right people for the job. My first strategy will be to assemble a team who can help me with the recruiting process. This team will be selected for their company-wide expertise and understanding of what is required for each job description.

I will also interview one existing employee from each department to make sure that the job descriptions for the advertisements are appropriate. After having collected all the job information and placing them in advertisement form, my next step is to decide on the most appropriate publications for recruiting the right personnel.

One of the most common ways to advertise a job is to place it in the local paper (Starting-a-SmallBusiness, 2009). An advantage of this strategy is that I will attract employees from the immediate environment of the business location, so there will be no issues surrounding relocating or fees attached to this. However, considering the specialized skills required, especially in the operations and distributions categories, it may also be a good idea to advertise online. This will reach a wider audience and ensure that my search for excellent employees in these fields delivers good results.

For the customer service, marketing and accounting categories, I will used the local paper as an initial strategy; more likely than not, the local employee pool will deliver what I am looking for in these categories. If short listing and interviewing prove this strategy to be inadequate, I will consider other options such as the online job sites and the like. Because employment agencies charge a fee (Starting-a-SmallBusiness, 2009), I will use them only when all my other options have been exhausted.

In terms of online recruiting, this is a good strategy for a number of reasons (AllBusiness.com, Inc., 2010), even if only searching for local talent. There are three main avenues of online recruitment: online classified ads and job boards -- here job seekers will be able to access my opportunities and contact me. I could also browse resume banks for appropriate employee. This option allows me to contact prospective employees myself. The advantage of this is that it will save time in terms of waiting for resumes to come in. I will be able to instantly contact employees who seem promising. Social networking is a third option, which I will only consider once the others have been exhausted. Social networking tends to take a large amount of time in terms of browsing until I can find the appropriate information and the appropriate persons I want to hire for each specific job.

When hiring employees and posting help wanted ads, it is also important to recognize the legal issues surrounding this (Findlaw Inc., 2000). Legally protected status include race, color, religion, sex, national origin, and age. To ensure that I am legally compliant, I will therefore construct ads that avoid any preferential language for a certain demographic group. When posting advertisements in the local paper, I will ensure that it is indeed a general interest publication rather than one that targets specific demographic interest groups. Just to ensure that all potential pitfalls are avoided, I'll add that the company is an "equal opportunity employer." My concern is indeed only to attract the best of possible employees without regard for any demographic differentiation.

For the interview and hiring process, there are also a number of strategies that I will use to ensure that I hire the best employees for the work they are to perform. First, I will once again assemble my team of company employees who are familiar with the type of people to recruit in each job type. For each interview, I will also include an existing employee of the relevant department in my interview team. This person will be important in terms of indicating whether potential employees will in fact be able to handle their duties with the required amount of excellence.

When employees are hired, it is important to train them to do the work required of them in the best possible way. Many authors emphasize the importance of training. Jeffrey Berk (2008, p. 46) for example notes that managers need to play a leading role in the development of their employees. In other words, managers must be enthusiastic about the potential value of the training for employees in order to ensure the employees derive such value.