If a company has to choose one form of staffing to meet its recruitment needs, the management must understand the various models of staffing. This understanding would help them make the best decision in this direction.Thus, you must know about these models. But, do you know how many staffing models are there?
There are four staffing models. They are:
- Short Term Staffing
- Long Term Staffing
- Succession Planning
- Strategic Staffing
Now, we shall discuss all of these models in great detail.
Short Term Staffing
Although the name speaks for itself, this staffing model is extremely important for a company, majorly for a crucial phase of an upcoming project. In this regard, they require some extra assistance for a shorter time to complete some huge projects. So, to distribute the workload among more people, the simplest solution is to hire short-term staff. There are multiple benefits for organizations hiring staff for the short term and thus, they prefer temporary or short-term staff in these scenarios. The purpose of using this staffing model is to meet the immediate needs of the company. One prominent one is that they provide all necessary support to the company in equipping them with everything they need to give optimum results to their clients. All these commitments are met in time and at the best quality while being easy on the pockets of the company. The mandatory and burdening facilities of these employees are transferred to the contract staffing services. The biggest advantage for the company choosing this model is the enhanced productivity. Providing clients with the best pool of talent at the right time with a fixed expenditure for a short time is the core feature of short-term staffing.
We can understand with an example.
Suppose, you own a gift shop in New York City. Since the holiday season is approaching, an increased footfall is expected and your current staff might not suffice. The best option here for you is to hire a temporary workforce. So, you turn to a short-term staffing company. In this scenario, your short-term staffing plan is to employ individuals for the season. Coming to the aspect of basic principles for staffing firms recruiting for this model, they remain the same no matter if it is an IT staffing firm or general staffing. A wide database of eligible candidates is screened and an instant solution is presented to the clients according to their needs. With everything covered about the short-term staffing model, let us now shift our focus towards the next one, i.e., Long term Staffing.
Long Term Staffing
Exactly in the opposite direction of short-term staffing is long-term staffing. It requires taking a proactive approach to the client’s needs. Generally, a long-term staffing plan includes at least one year of work time. When an individual determines these staffing needs, they take into account the past turnover, employees who may be availing maternity leave, retiring, or any form of leave, poorly performing staff members, and expected growth.Once all these factors are considered and you have a clear picture of the staffing needs expectations in front of you, you can develop the best plan to help the organization in recruiting the perfect pool of talent. The inventory is referred to find out the best candidate. They are screened to make sure that they have the desired skill set. Another advantage that the company has is that they can be removed, replaced, or added on short notice.This staffing model is also popularly known as Temporary Hiring. These temporary workers are majorly used for administrative positions but are also available for very specific specialized skill sets. The process of hiring is executed by an agency and is placed with the company for as long as required by the organization. These recruits are not paid directly by the organization but through the agency that hired them. In turn, the agency gets paid from the commission on this arrangement. Since they are temporarily employed, they incur lower costs to the company as compared to the full-time employees. Further, they do not require any vacation, leave, or anything of a similar sort and are available all around the clock. That said it is important that you understand how to look for the perfect match. Thus, here are some long-term staffing tips that might help you moving forward:
- Identify the ideal candidate
- Conduct supply demand research
- Assess every position according to its tactical and strategic value.
Now, let’s move ahead to the third staffing model – Succession Planning.
Succession Planning
This staffing model is a strategy formulated to pass on the leadership roles of an organization. The transfer can be to an employee or a group of employees. Succession Planning is also called “Replacement Planning”.Basically, it solves the problem as explained below. Many business owners walk into their comfort zone after they have a talented pool of reliable managers. This generates a false sense of security that might hurt the business in the long run along with a significant gap if they lose a member of this strong management team. If you have a succession plan in place, you understand the duties and responsibilities of the management staff in order to train the internal candidates to step in for a promotion if and when it is required. It helps in ensuring that the firm runs smoothly even after the company’s most important individuals retire, pass away, or move on to new opportunities. Succession planning also provides you with a liquidity event that enables the transfer of ownership. The process of this staffing model starts with a hiring practice with the goal of selecting applicants that are qualified to rise through the ranks of the company with passing time. For instance, a person with experience could be groomed for an executive-level position.
Moreover, this model has multiple benefits. Some of them are:
- Employees feel empowered and have higher job satisfaction when they know of a chance for advancement and ownership, possibly.
- With a succession plan in place, the leadership and employees get better at sharing the company’s vision and values.
- The company’s plans for future opportunities reinforce career development among the employees.
- When the management is committed to succession planning, it means that supervisors will mentor the employees to pass on their expertise and knowledge.
- The management maintains track of the values of their employees to fill the positions internally when the need arises.
We have discussed three of the staffing models and the last one is Strategic Staffing. It is discussed in the net section.
Strategic Staffing
This staffing model is a combination of all the staffing models – short-term, long-term, and succession planning. It considers the business plan of the company and ensures that the talent acquisition goals are met. The organization analyzes its staffing levels to know if they are overstaffed or understaffed. Further, they also assess skills to know if the existing team is missing any skill, ability, or experience in building the company. Generally, a strategic staffing model includes training sessions to fill in the gaps in the skills. The aim here is to meet the workforce requirements for the current and future business objectives. It builds a team of permanent and temporary employees in the right proportion to help the business in running efficiently. So, the process begins with the company’s management mapping out a plan of growth for the next few months or years. After this, they can decide the skills and number of employees required to meet those objectives. The team of employees includes a mix of permanent employees, a contractual workforce, freelance workers, and temporary staff. This is where the staffing company comes in. They map the current staff profiles, identify the gaps, and recruit appropriately skilled staff to meet the demands. This exercise does not mean replacing the current employees entirely. In fact, they are retrained and up-skilled for the upcoming challenges. New recruitments are made only after the current employees have been set for the new joiners.
Conclusion
The four staffing models have been discussed in detail. Understanding each one of them is important to make the right choice. The best decision in this regard can only be made after your requirements overlap with a staffing model. In the growth of the company, it is extremely important to maintain a workflow for the employees and this can be achieved only when the company’s management has a clear vision of the current, near future, and farfetched goals of the organization.
