PA R T O N E
The Nature of Staffing
CHAPTER ONE
Staffing Models and Strategy
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Learning Objectives and Introduction
Learning Objectives
Introduction
The Nature of Staffing
The Big Picture
Definition of Staffing
Implications of Definition
Staffing System Examples
Staffing Models
Staffing Quantity: Levels
Staffing Quality: Person/Job Match
Staffing Quality: Person/Organization Match
Staffing System Components
Staffing Organizations
Staffing Strategy
Staffing Levels
Staffing Quality
Staffing Ethics
Plan for the Book
Summary
Discussion Questions
Ethical Issues
Applications
Staffing for Your Own Job
Staffing Strategy for a New Plant
Endnotes
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES AND INTRODUCTION
Learning Objectives
• Define staffing and consider how, in the big picture, staffing decisions matter
• Review the five staffing models presented, and consider the advantages and
disadvantages of each
• Consider the staffing system components and how they fit into the plan for
the book
• Understand the staffing organizations model and how its various components
fit into the plan for the book
• Appreciate the importance of staffing strategy, and review the 13 decisions
that staffing strategy requires
• Realize the importance of ethics in staffing, and learn how ethical staffing
practice is established
Introduction
Staffing is a critical organizational function concerned with the acquisition, deploy
ment, and retention of the organization’s workforce. As we note in this chapter and
throughout the book, staffing is arguably the most critical function underlying orga
nizational effectiveness, because “the people make the place,” labor costs are often
the highest organizational cost, and poor hiring decisions are not easily undone.
This chapter begins with a look at the nature of staffing. This includes a view
of the “big picture” of staffing, followed by a formal definition of staffing and the
implications of that definition. Examples of staffing systems are given.
Five models are then presented to elaborate on and illustrate various facets of
staffing. The first model shows how projected workforce head-count requirements
and availabilities are compared to determine the appropriate staffing level for the
organization. The next two models illustrate staffing quality, which refers to match
ing a person’s qualifications with the requirements of the job or organization. The
person/job match model is the foundation of all staffing activities; the person/
organization match model shows how person/job matching could extend to how
well the person will also fit with the organization. The core staffing components
model identifies recruitment, selection, and employment as the three key staff
ing activities, and it shows that both the organization and the job applicant inter
act in these activities. The final model, staffing organizations, provides the entire
framework for staffing and the structure of this book. It shows that organizations,
human resources (HR), and staffing strategy interact to guide the conduct of staff
ing support activities (legal compliance, planning, and job analysis) and core staff
ing activities (recruitment, selection, and employment); employee retention and
staffing system management are shown to cut across both types of activities.
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Staffing strategy is then explored in detail by identifying and describing a set of
13 strategic staffing decisions that confront any organization. Several of the deci
sions pertain to staffing levels and the remainder to staffing quality.
The ethics of staffing—the moral principles and guidelines for acceptable
practice—is discussed next. Several pointers that help guide ethical staffing con
duct are indicated, as are some of the common pressures to ignore these pointers
and compromise one’s ethical standards. Suggestions for how to handle these pres
sures are also made.
Finally, the plan for the remainder of the book is presented. The overall structure
of the book is shown, along with key features of each chapter.
THE NATURE OF STAFFING
The Big Picture
Organizations are combinations of physical, financial, and human capital. Human
capital refers to the knowledge, skill, and ability of people and their motivation to
use these successfully on the job. The term “workforce quality” refers to an organ
ization’s human capital. The organization’s workforce is thus a stock of human
capital that it acquires, deploys, and retains in pursuit of organizational outcomes
such as profitability, market share, customer satisfaction, and environmental sus
tainability. Staffing is the organizational function used to build this workforce
through such systems as staffing strategy, HR planning, recruitment, selection,
employment, and retention.
At the national level, the collective workforces of US organizations total over
121 million (down from a peak of nearly 140 million in 2005), with employees
spread across nearly 7.5 million work sites. The work sites vary considerably in
size, with 24% of employees in work sites with fewer than 20 employees, 54%
in work sites with 20–500 employees, and 21% in work sites with more than
500 employees.1 Each of these work sites used some form of a staffing process
to acquire its employees. Job creation has continued to expand since job growth
recovery from the Great Recession was achieved in April 2014; since then, nearly
4.6 million jobs have been added as of December 2015. Among the industries
contributing to this job growth, service-providing industries such as hospitality,
leisure, health care, and professional services have been leading the way. Given
the steadily increasing job growth over the last five years, as well as the boon in
professional services such as selection and assessment, staffing is big business for
both organizations and job seekers.2
For most organizations, a workforce is an expensive proposition and cost of
doing business. It is estimated that an average organization’s employee cost (wages
or salaries and benefits) is over 22% of its total revenue (and generally a higher
percentage of total costs).3 The percentage is much greater for organizations in
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labor-intensive industries—the service-providing as opposed to goods-producing
industries—such as retail trade, information, financial services, professional and
business services, education, health care, and leisure and hospitality. Since service-
providing industries now dominate our economy, matters of employee cost and
whether the organization is acquiring a high-quality workforce are of considerable
concern.
A shift is gradually occurring from viewing employees as just a cost of doing
business to valuing employees as human capital that creates a competitive advantage
for the organization. Organizations that deliver superior customer service, much
of which is driven by highly knowledgeable employees with fine-tuned customer
service skills, have a definite and hopefully long-term advantage over their competi
tors. The competitive advantage derived from such human capital has important
financial implications.
In addition to direct bottom-line implications, an organization’s focus on cre
ating an effective selection system also has indirect implications for a competi
tive advantage by enhancing employees’ well-being and retention. One recent
study showed that employees who perceive that their company uses effective
selection practices such as formal selection tests and structured job interviews
(practices that we will discuss in this book) are more committed to their organ
izations. In turn, those higher levels of commitment lead to more helping or citi
zenship behaviors on the part of employees, as well as stronger intentions to remain
employed, both of which ultimately contribute to an organization’s bottom line.4
This renewed focus on establishing a competitive advantage in staffing has also
been revolutionized by advancements in technology that have changed the way
employees are assessed during the staffing process. These include changes in the
delivery of assessments (e.g., computerized adaptive testing [CAT] and mobile
assessment); novel ways of assessing applicant knowledge, skill, and ability (e.g.,
simulation-based training and serious games); and the advanced scoring and report
ing of assessments (e.g., electronic scoring and reporting). Although these changes
are often financially sound and efficient benefits for organizations, this new para
digm in staffing is not without its limitations, including the potential threat of
reduced effectiveness due to decreased face-to-face contact in assessment and
a potential for the cognitively demanding nature of electronic assessments to
adversely affect members of the applicant pool.5 Interestingly, this recent “tech
nology effect” suggests that certain technological advancements may be viewed
with rose-colored glasses, even without proper evaluation of their effectiveness.6
Thus, organizations are increasingly recognizing the value creation that can
occur through staffing. Quotes from several organizational leaders attest to this,
as shown in Exhibit 1.1. Of course, it should also be noted that effective staffing
involves a series of trade-offs in practice, such as between customization and con
sistency or wide reach and coherence.7
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EXHIBIT 1.1
Staffing Models and Strategy 9
The Importance of Staffing to Organizational Leaders
“Staffing is absolutely critical to the success of every company. To be competitive in today’s
economy, companies need the best people to create ideas and execute them for the
organization. Without a competent and talented workforce, organizations will stagnate and
eventually perish. The right employees are the most important resources of companies today.”a
Gail Hyland-Savage, chief operating officer
Michaelson, Connor & Boul—real estate and marketing
“At most companies, people spend 2% of their time recruiting and 75% managing their
recruiting mistakes.” b
Richard Fairbank, CEO
Capital One
“I think about this in hiring, because our business all comes down to people. . . . In fact, when
I’m interviewing a senior job candidate, my biggest worry is how good they are at hiring. I
spend at least half the interview on that.” c
Jeff Bezos, CEO
Amazon.com—Internet merchandising
“We missed a really nice nursing rebound . . . because we just didn’t do a good job hiring
in front of it. Nothing has cost the business as much as failing to intersect the right people
at the right time.” d
David Alexander, president
Soliant Health—health care
“Organization doesn’t really accomplish anything. Plans don’t accomplish anything, either.
Theories of management don’t much matter. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the
people involved. Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds.” e
Gen. Colin Powell (Ret.)
Former US secretary of state
a
G. Hyland-Savage, “General Management Perspective on Staffing; The Staffing Commandments,” in
N. C. Burkholder, P. J. Edwards, Jr., and L. Sartain (eds.), On Staffing (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2004), p. 280.
b
J. Trammell, “CEOs Must Own Recruiting: 10 Rules for Building a Top-Notch Function,” Forbes,
Apr. 17, 2013 (www.forbes.com/sites/joeltrammell/2013/04/17/ceos-must-own-recruiting-10-rules-for
-building-a-top-notch-function).
c
G. Anders, “Taming the Out-of-Control In-Box,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 4, 2000, p. 81.
d
J. McCoy, “Executives’ Worst Mistakes in Staffing,” Staffing Industry Review, Sept. 2010, pp. 1–2.
e
C. Powell, “A Leadership Primer: Lesson 8,” Department of the Army (www.think-energy.net/Colin
-Powell-on-Leadership.pdf ).
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Definition of Staffing
The following definition of staffing is offered and will be used throughout this
book:
Staffing is the process of acquiring, deploying, and retaining a workforce of
sufficient quantity and quality to create positive impacts on the organization’s
effectiveness.
This straightforward definition contains several implications that are identified and
explained next.
Implications of Definition
Acquire, Deploy, Retain
An organization’s staffing system must guide the acquisition, deployment, and
retention of its workforce. Acquisition activities involve external staffing systems
that govern the initial intake of applicants into the organization. These involve
planning for the numbers and types of people needed, establishing job require
ments in the form of the qualifications or knowledge, skills, abilities, and other
characteristics (KSAOs) needed to perform the job effectively, establishing the
types of rewards the job will provide, conducting external recruitment campaigns,
using selection tools to evaluate the KSAOs that applicants possess, deciding
which applicants are the most qualified and will receive job offers, and putting
together job offers that applicants will hopefully accept.
Deployment refers to the placement of new hires in the actual jobs they will
hold, something that may not be entirely clear at the time of hire, such as the
specific work unit or geographic location. Deployment also encompasses guiding
the movement of current employees throughout the organization through internal
staffing systems that handle promotions, transfers, and new project assignments.
Internal staffing systems mimic external staffing systems in many respects, such
as planning for promotion and transfer vacancies, establishing job requirements
and job rewards, recruiting employees for promotion or transfer opportunities,
evaluating employees’ qualifications, and making job offers to employees for new
positions.
Retention systems seek to manage the inevitable flow of employees out of
the organization. Sometimes these outflows are involuntary on the part of the
employee, such as through layoffs or the sale of a business unit to another organ
ization. Other outflows are voluntary in that they are initiated by the employee,
such as leaving the organization to take another job (a potentially avoidable turn
over by the organization) or leaving to follow one’s spouse or partner to a new geo
graphic location (a potentially unavoidable turnover). Of course, no organization
can or should seek to completely eliminate employee outflows, but it should try
to minimize the types of turnover in which valued employees leave for greener
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pastures elsewhere—namely, voluntary-avoidable turnover. Such turnover can be
very costly to the organization, as can turnover due to employee discharges and
downsizing. Through various retention strategies and tactics, the organization can
combat these types of turnover, seeking to retain those employees it thinks it can
not afford to lose.
Staffing as a Process or System
Staffing is not an event, as in, “We hired two people today.” Rather, staffing is a pro
cess that establishes and governs the flow of people into the organization, within
the organization, and out of the organization. Organizations use multiple inter
connected systems to manage the people flows. These include planning, recruit
ment, selection, decision making, job offer, and retention systems. Occurrences or
actions in one system inevitably affect other systems. If planning activities show a
forecasted increase in vacancies relative to historical standards, for example, the
recruitment system will need to gear up for generating more applicants than previ
ously, the selection system will have to handle the increased volume of applicants
needing to be evaluated in terms of their KSAOs, decisions about job offers may
have to be sped up, and the job offer packages may have to be sweetened to entice
the necessary numbers of new hires. Further, steps will have to be taken to retain
the new hires and thus avoid having to repeat the above experiences in the next
staffing cycle.
Quantity and Quality
Staffing the organization requires attention to both the numbers (quantity) and the
types (quality) of people brought into, moved within, and retained by the organ
ization. The quantity element refers to having enough people to conduct business,
and the quality element refers to having people with the requisite KSAOs so that
jobs are performed effectively. It is important to recognize that it is the combina
tion of sufficient quantity and quality of labor that creates a maximally effective
staffing system.
Organizational Effectiveness
Staffing systems exist and should be used to contribute to the attainment of orga
nizational goals such as survival, profitability, and growth. A macro view of staff
ing like this is often lost or ignored because most of the day-to-day operations
of staffing systems involve micro activities that are procedural, transactional, and
routine in nature. While these micro activities are essential for staffing systems,
they must be viewed within the broader macro context of the positive impacts
staffing can have on organizational effectiveness. There are many indications of
this critical role of staffing.
Leadership talent is at a premium, with very large stakes associated with new
leader acquisition. Sometimes leadership talent is bought and brought from the
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outside to hopefully execute a reversal of fortune for the organization or a busi
ness unit within it. For example, in 2012, Yahoo brought in Marissa Mayer, a for
mer executive at Google, to turn around the aging tech giant. Organizations also
acquire leaders to start new business units or ventures that will feed organizational
growth. The flip side of leadership acquisition is leadership retention. A loom
ing fear for organizations is the unexpected loss of a key leader, particularly to a
competitor. The exiting leader carries a wealth of knowledge and skill out of the
organization and leaves a hole that may be hard to fill, especially with someone of
equal or higher leadership stature. The leader may also take other key employees
along, thus increasing the exit impact.
Organizations recognize that talent hunts and loading up on talent are ways
to expand organizational value and provide protection from competitors. Such a
strategy is particularly effective if the talent is unique and rare in the marketplace,
valuable in the anticipated contributions to be made (such as product creations
or design innovations), and difficult for competitors to imitate (such as through
training current employees). Talent of this sort can serve as a source of competitive
advantage for the organization, hopefully for an extended time period.8
Talent acquisition is essential for growth even when it does not have such com
petitive advantage characteristics. As hiring has steadily picked up since the end of
the Great Recession, many companies are scrambling to staff positions in order to
keep up with demand. For example, Amazon, JP Morgan Chase, and PWC are each
attempting to fill over a whopping 2,000 positions that all pay at least $50,000 a
year.9 Shortages in the quantity or quality of labor can mean lost business opportu
nities, scaled-back expansion plans, an inability to provide critical consumer goods
and services, and even threats to the organization’s survival.
Finally, for individual managers, having sufficient numbers and types of employ
ees on board is necessary for the smooth, efficient operation of their work units.
Employee shortages often require disruptive adjustments, such as job reassign
ments or overtime for current employees. Underqualified employees present spe
cial challenges to the manager, as they need to be trained and closely supervised.
Failure of the underqualified to achieve acceptable performance may require ter
mination, a difficult decision to make and implement.
In short, organizations experience and respond to staffing forces and recog
nize how critical these forces can be to organizational effectiveness. The forces
manifest themselves in numerous ways: acquisition of new leaders to change the
organization’s direction and effectiveness, prevention of key leader losses, use of
talent as a source of growth and competitive advantage, shortages of labor—both
quantity and quality—that threaten growth and even survival, and the ability of
individual managers to effectively run their work units.
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Staffing System Examples
Staffing Jobs Without Titles
W. L. Gore & Associates is a Delaware-based organization that specializes in mak
ing products derived from fluoropolymers. Gore produces fibers (including dental
floss and sewing threads), tubes (used, for example, in heart stents and oil explora
tion), tapes (including those used in space exploration), and membranes (used in
Gore-Tex waterproof clothing).
In its more than a half-century history, Gore has never lost money. Gore employs
over 9,000 workers and appears on nearly every “best place to work” list, including
Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work for” list every year since 1998.
In addition, it boasts a miniscule 3% full-time voluntary turnover rate. What makes
Gore so special? Gore associates say that it’s the culture, and the culture starts with
the hiring.
Gore has a strong culture, as seen in its structure: a team-based, flat lattice
structure that fosters personal initiative. At Gore, no employee can ever command
another employee—all commitments are voluntary, and any employee can say no
to any request. Employees are called “associates” and managers are called “spon
sors.” How do people become leaders at Gore? “You get to be a leader if your team
asks you to lead them.”10
Gore extends this egalitarian, entrepreneurial approach to its staffing process.
The focal point of Gore’s recruitment process is the careers section of its website,
which describes its core values and its unique culture. The website also provides
position descriptions and employee perspectives on working at Gore, complete
with pictures of the associates and videos. Three Gore associates—Janice, Katrin,
and Mike—work on Gore’s footwear products, striving to uphold the company’s
“keep you dry” guarantee. As Mike notes, “The reasons that I chose Gore from the
start are the same reasons why I stay at Gore today, and continue to have fun every
day: It’s the people. Our team is a great team, and I think that is reflected or echoed
across the entire enterprise.” Hajo, Alicia, and Austin make up a team working on
the clinical product Thoracic Endoprosthesis. As Hajo notes, “When you come to
work each day, you don’t have a boss to give you explicit instructions on what you
need to accomplish.”
Gore finds that its employee-focused recruitment efforts do not work for every
one, which is exactly what it intends. “Some of these candidates, or prospects in
the fields we were recruiting for, told us ‘this company probably isn’t for me,’ ”
says Steve Shuster, who helped develop the recruitment strategy. Shuster says that
this self-selection is another benefit of its recruitment message. Potential recruits
who prefer a more traditional culture quickly see that Gore isn’t for them. Shuster
says, “Rather than have them go through the interview process and invest their
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time and our time, we wanted to weed that out.” Of course, Gore has a culture that
fits many. Says Gore associate Hannah, who works on the company’s heart device
team, “I feel like Gore is not just a job, that it’s more of a lifestyle and a huge part
of my life.”11
Pharmaceutical Industry Managers
Though Pfizer has been recognized by other pharmaceutical companies as a leader
in selecting and developing its employees, it recently realized a need to dra
matically overhaul its approach to staffing. Despite the previous success of its
selection efforts, “Pfizer was not focused on managing the external environment,”
said Pfizer executive Chris Altizer. In the past, according to Altizer, Pfizer would
project what kind of talent it would need in the next 10 years and then select
employees whose skills matched the talent needs. Pfizer now believes the plan
no longer works because there is increased global competition, especially from
smaller start-up pharmaceutical firms that can rush products to market. That puts
a premium on adaptability.
To address changing market conditions, Pfizer now looks at hiring employees
who can jump from one position to another. This means that Pfizer focuses less on
job descriptions (i.e., hiring for skills that fit a specific job) and more on general
competencies that will translate from job to job. According to Altizer, Pfizer needs
“a person who can switch from working on a heart disease product to one that
helps people stop smoking”—in other words, rather than relying on past experi
ence with one product (say, heart disease medications), Pfizer is looking for com
petencies that will allow the employee to quickly and proficiently move from one
venture to the next.12
Management Trainees
Enterprise Rent-A-Car is a private company founded in 1957 with locations in the
United States, Canada, the UK, Ireland, and Germany. Enterprise boasts that its
5,500 offices in the United States are located within 15 miles of 90% of the pop
ulation. Among its competitors, Enterprise frequently wins awards for customer
satisfaction.
To staff its locations, Enterprise relies heavily on recruiting recent college gradu
ates. In fact, Enterprise hires more college graduates—often between 8,000 and
9,000 a year—than any other company. New hires enter Enterprise’s management
training program, where they learn all aspects of r unning a branch, including tak
ing reservations, picking up customers, developing relationships with car dealer
ships and body shops for future rentals, managing the fleet, handling customer
issues, and even washing cars. Nearly all promotions at Enterprise occur from
within and are strictly performance based, allowing management trainees to see a
clear path from their current position to higher positions such as assistant manager,
branch manager, and area manager. Typically, the first promotion occurs within
9–12 months of being hired, which speeds the climb up the corporate ladder.
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To fill so many positions with college graduates, Enterprise relies on several
strategies, including recruiting from an internship program of approximately
1,000 students a year, attending college recruitment fairs, using its website to high
light its performance-driven culture as well as employee testimonials, and devoting
a large percentage of its television advertising to the NCAA basketball tournament,
which occurs each March and has a high college viewership. Although graduates’
grades are important to Enterprise, communication skills are even more essential,
says Dylan Schweitzer, northeast manager of talent acquisition.
Although the management trainee program at Enterprise has been described as
a grueling process, with many trainees leaving prior to being promoted, its execu
tives often describe it as an “MBA without the IOU” because trainees gain first
hand experience in sales, marketing, finance, and operations.13
STAFFING MODELS
Various elements of staffing are depicted in the staffing models presented here.
Each of these is described in detail to more fully convey the nature and richness of
staffing the organization.
Staffing Quantity: Levels
The quantity or head-count portion of the staffing definition means organizations
must be concerned about staffing levels and their adequacy. Exhibit 1.2 shows
the basic model. The organization as a whole, as well as each of its units, forecasts
workforce quantity requirements (the needed head count) and then compares
these with forecasted workforce availabilities (the likely employee head count) to
determine its likely staffing level position. If head-count requirements match avail
abilities, the organization will be fully staffed. If requirements exceed availabilities,
the organization will be understaffed, and if availabilities exceed requirements, the
organization will be overstaffed.
EXHIBIT 1.2
Staffing Quantity
Projected Staffing Requirements
Compare
Overstaffed
Fully Staffed
Understaffed
Projected Staffing Availabilities
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Making forecasts to determine appropriate staffing levels and then developing
specific plans are the essence of planning. Being understaffed means the organ
ization will have to gear up its staffing efforts, starting with accelerated recruitment
and carrying on through the rest of the staffing system. It may also require develop
ing retention programs that will slow the outflow of people, thus avoiding costly
“turnstile” or “revolving door” staffing. Overstaffing projections signal the need to
slow down or even halt recruitment, as well as to take steps to reduce head count,
perhaps through early retirement plans or layoffs.
Staffing Quality: Person/Job Match
The person/job match seeks to align characteristics of individuals with jobs in ways
that will result in desired HR outcomes. Casual comments made about applicants
often reflect awareness of the importance of the person/job match: “Clark just
doesn’t have the interpersonal skills that it takes to be a good customer service rep
resentative.” “Mary has exactly the kind of budgeting experience this job calls for;
if we hire her, there won’t be any downtime while she learns our systems.” “Gary
says he was attracted to apply for this job because of its sales commission plan; he
says he likes jobs where his pay depends on how well he performs.” “Diane was
impressed by the amount of challenge and autonomy she will have.” “Jack turned
down our offer; we gave him our best shot, but he just didn’t feel he could handle
the long hours and amount of travel the job calls for.”
Comments like these raise four important points about the person/job match.
First, jobs are characterized by their requirements (e.g., interpersonal skills, previ
ous budgeting experience) and embedded rewards (e.g., commission sales plan,
challenge and autonomy). Second, individuals are characterized by their level of
qualification (e.g., few interpersonal skills, extensive budgeting experience) and
motivation (e.g., need for pay to depend on performance, need for challenge and
autonomy). Third, in each of the previous examples, the issue was the likely degree
of fit or match between the characteristics of the job and the person. Fourth, there
are implied consequences for every match. For example, Clark may not perform
very well in his interactions with customers; retention might quickly become an
issue with Jack.
These points and concepts are shown more formally through the person/job
match model in Exhibit 1.3. In this model, the job has certain requirements and
rewards associated with it. The person has certain qualifications, referred to as
KSAOs, and motivations. There is a need for a match between the person and the
job. To the extent that the match is good, it will likely have a positive impact on HR
outcomes, particularly with attraction of job applicants, job performance, reten
tion, attendance, and satisfaction.
There is a need for a dual match to occur: job requirements to KSAOs, and
job rewards to individual motivation. In and through staffing activities, there are
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EXHIBIT 1.3
Staffing Models and Strategy 17
Person/Job Match
Job
Requirements
Rewards
Match
HR Outcomes
Impact
Person
Attraction
Performance
Retention
Attendance
Satisfaction
Other
KSAOs
Motivation
attempts to ensure both of these. Such attempts collectively involve what will be
referred to throughout this book as the matching process.
Several points pertaining to staffing need to be made about the person/job match
model. First, the concepts shown in the model are not new.14 They have been used
for decades as the dominant way of thinking about how individuals successfully
adapt to their work environments. The view is that the positive interaction of indi
vidual and job characteristics creates the most successful match. Thus, a person
with a given package of KSAOs is not equally suited to all jobs, because jobs vary
in the KSAOs required. Likewise, an individual with a given set of needs or moti
vations will not be satisfied with all jobs, because jobs differ in the rewards they
offer. Thus, in staffing, each individual must be assessed relative to the require
ments and rewards of the job being filled.
Second, the model emphasizes a dual match of KSAOs to requirements and
motivation to rewards. Both matches require attention in staffing. For example, a
staffing system may be designed to focus on the KSAOs/requirements match by
carefully identifying job requirements and then thoroughly assessing applicants
relative to those requirements. While such a staffing system may accurately iden
tify the probable high performers, problems could arise. By ignoring or down
playing the motivation/rewards portion of the match, the organization may have
difficulty getting people to accept job offers (an attraction outcome) or having new
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hires remain with the organization for any length of time (a retention outcome).
It does little good to identify the likely high performers if they cannot be induced
to accept job offers or to remain with the organization. Paradoxically, a recent
research study has demonstrated that although matching the KSAOs to require
ments is important for organizations, job advertisements that emphasize the fit
between employee needs and employer fulfillment of those needs (e.g., motivation
to rewards) actually led to more applications and a higher-quality applicant pool.15
Third, job requirements should be expressed in terms of both the tasks involved
and the KSAOs needed to perform those tasks. Most of the time, it is difficult
to establish meaningful KSAOs for a job without having first identified the job’s
tasks. KSAOs usually must be derived or inferred from knowledge of the tasks. An
exception to this involves very basic or generic KSAOs that are reasonably deemed
necessary for most jobs, such as literacy and oral communication skills.
Fourth, job requirements often extend beyond task and KSAO requirements.
For example, the job may require punctuality, good attendance, safety toward fel
low employees and customers, and travel. Matching an individual to these require
ments must also be considered when staffing the organization. Travel requirements
of the job, for example, may involve assessing applicants’ availability for, and will
ingness to accept, travel assignments. Integrating this with the second point above,
travel issues, which frequently arise in the consulting industry, play a role in both
the attraction process (getting people to accept) and the retention process (getting
people to stay). “Road warriors,” as they are sometimes termed, may first think
that frequent travel will be exciting, only to discover later that they find it taxing.
Finally, the matching process can yield only so much by way of impacts on the
HR outcomes. The reason for this is that these outcomes are influenced by factors
outside the realm of the person/job match. Retention, for example, depends not
only on how close the match is between job rewards and individual motivation but
also on the availability of suitable job opportunities in other organizations and
labor markets. As hiring begins to improve and unemployment continues to drop,
organizations are likely to face increased retention pressures as other opportunities
present themselves to employees due to more favorable economic conditions.
Staffing Quality: Person/Organization Match
Often the organization seeks to determine how well the person matches not only
the job but also the organization. Likewise, applicants often assess how well they
think they will fit into the organization, in addition to how well they match the spe
cific job’s requirements and rewards. For both the organization and the applicant,
then, there may be a concern with a person/organization match.16
Exhibit 1.4 shows this expanded view of the match. The focal point of staffing
is the person/job match, and the job is the bull’s eye of the matching target. Four
other matching concerns involving the broader organization also arise in staffing:
organizational values, new job duties, multiple jobs, and future jobs.
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EXHIBIT 1.4
Staffing Models and Strategy 19
Person/Organization Match
Organizational
Values
New Job
Duties
Job
Requirements
Rewards
Future
Jobs
Multiple
Jobs
Match
Person
HR Outcomes
Impact
Attraction
Performance
Retention
Attendance
Satisfaction
Other
KSAOs
Motivation
Organizational values are norms of desirable attitudes and behaviors for the
organization’s employees. Examples include honesty and integrity, achievement
and hard work, and concern for fellow employees and customers. Though such
values may never appear in writing, such as in a job description, the likely match of
the applicant to them is judged during staffing. The effects of a mismatch between
an employee and the organization on values can be quite strong, given that the
mismatch tends to deplete an individual’s regulatory resources, leading to low per
formance and a decreased ability to adapt.17
New job duties are tasks that may be added to the target job over time. Organ
izations desire new hires who will be able to successfully perform these new duties
as they are added. In recognition of this, job descriptions often contain the catchall
phrase “and other duties as assigned.” These other duties are usually vague at the
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time of hire, and they may never materialize. Nonetheless, the organization would
like to hire people it thinks could perform these new duties. Having such people
will provide the organization the flexibility to complete new tasks without having
to hire additional employees. As we will discuss later in this book, certain types
of individuals are better than others at adapting to changing circumstances, and
organizations with evolving job duties are well advised to select them.
Flexibility concerns also enter the staffing picture in terms of hiring people
who can perform multiple jobs. Small businesses, for example, often desire new
hires who can wear multiple hats, functioning as jacks-of-all-trades. Organizations
experiencing rapid growth may require new employees who can h
andle several job
assignments, splitting their time among them on an as-needed basis. Such expecta
tions obviously require assessments of person/organization fit.
Future jobs represent forward thinking by the organization and the person as to
which job assignments the person might assume beyond the initial job. Here the
applicant and the organization are thinking of long-term matches over the course
of transfers and promotions as the employee becomes increasingly seasoned for
the long run. As technology and globalization cause jobs to change at a rapid pace,
more organizations are engaging in “opportunistic hiring,” where an individual is
hired into a newly created job or a job that is an amalgamation of previously dis
tributed tasks. In such cases, person/organization match is more important than
person/job match.18
In each of the four concerns, the matching process is expanded to consider
requirements and rewards beyond those of the target job as it currently exists.
Though the dividing line between person/job and person/organization matching
is fuzzy, both types of matches are frequently of concern in staffing. Ideally, the
organization’s staffing systems focus first and foremost on the person/job match.
This will allow the nature of the employment relationship to be specified and
agreed to in concrete terms. Once these terms have been established, person/
organization match possibilities can be explored during the staffing process. In
this book, for simplicity’s sake, we will use the term “person/job match” broadly to
encompass both types of matches, though most of the time we will be referring to
the match with the actual job itself.
Staffing System Components
As noted, staffing encompasses managing the flows of people into and within the
organization, as well as retaining them. The core staffing process has several com
ponents that represent steps and activities that occur over the course of these flows.
Exhibit 1.5 shows these components and the general sequence in which they occur.
As shown in the exhibit, staffing begins with a joint interaction between the
applicant and the organization. The applicant seeks the organization and job oppor
tunities within it, and the organization seeks applicants for job vacancies it has or
anticipates having. Both the applicant and the organization are thus “players” in
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EXHIBIT 1.5
Staffing Models and Strategy 21
Staffing System Components
Applicant
(person)
Organization
(job)
Recruitment
(identification and attraction)
Selection
(assessment and evaluation)
Employment
(decision making and final match)
the staffing process from the very beginning, and they remain joint participants
throughout the process.
At times, the organization may be the dominant player, such as in aggressive
and targeted recruiting for certain types of applicants. At other times, the applicant
may be the aggressor, such as when he or she desperately seeks employment with a
particular organization and will go to almost any length to land a job with it. Most
of the time, the staffing process involves a more balanced and natural interplay
between the applicant and the organization.
The initial stage in staffing is recruitment, which involves identification and
attraction activities by both the organization and the applicant. The organization
seeks to identify and attract individuals so that they become job applicants. Activi
ties such as advertising, job fairs, use of recruiters, preparation and distribution of
informational brochures, and “putting out the word” about vacancies among its
own employees are undertaken by the organization. The applicant identifies organ
izations with job opportunities by reading advertisements, contacting an employ
ment agency, mass mailing résumés to employers, and so forth. These activities are
accompanied by attempts to make one’s qualifications (KSAOs and motivation)
attractive to organizations, such as by applying in person for a job or preparing
a carefully constructed résumé that highlights significant skills and experiences.
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Gradually, recruitment activities phase into the selection stage and its accom
panying activities. Now, the emphasis is on assessment and evaluation. For the
organization, this means the use of various selection techniques (interviews, appli
cation blanks, and so on) to assess applicant KSAOs and motivation. Data from
these assessments are then evaluated against job requirements to determine the
likely degree of person/job match. At the same time, the applicant is assessing and
evaluating the job and organization on the basis of the information gathered from
organizational representatives (e.g., recruiter, manager with the vacancy, and other
employees), written information (e.g., brochures, employee handbook), informal
sources (e.g., friends and relatives who are current employees), and visual inspec
tion (e.g., a video presentation, a work site tour). This information, along with
a self-assessment of KSAOs and motivation, is evaluated against the applicant’s
understanding of job requirements and rewards to determine whether a good person/
job match is likely.
The last core component of staffing is employment, which involves decision
making and final match activities by the organization and the applicant. The organ
ization must decide which applicants to allow to continue in the process and which
to reject. This may involve multiple decisions over successive selection steps or
hurdles. Some applicants ultimately become finalists for the job. At that point,
the organization must decide to whom it will make the job offer, what the content
of the offer will be, and how it will be drawn up and presented to the applicant.
Upon the applicant’s acceptance of the offer, the final match is complete, and the
employment relationship is formally established.
For the applicant, the employment stage involves self-selection, a term that
refers to deciding whether to continue in the staffing process or drop out. This
decision may occur anywhere along the selection process, up to and including the
moment of the job offer. If the applicant continues as part of the process through
the final match, the applicant has decided to be a finalist. His or her attention now
turns to a possible job offer, possible input and negotiation on its content, and mak
ing a final decision about the offer. The applicant’s final decision is based on his or
her overall judgment about the likely suitability of the person/job match.
Note that the above staffing components apply to both external and internal
staffing. Though this may seem obvious in the case of external staffing, a brief
elaboration may be necessary for internal staffing, where the applicant is a current
employee and the organization is the current employer. As we discussed above,
Enterprise Rent-A-Car staffs the overwhelming majority of its managerial posi
tions internally. Job opportunities (vacancies) exist within the organization and are
filled through the activities of the internal labor market. Those activities involve
recruitment, selection, and employment, with the employer and the employee as
joint participants. As another example, at the investment banking firm Goldman
Sachs, candidates for promotion to partner are identified through a multistep pro
cess.19 They are “recruited” by division heads identifying prospective candidates
for promotion (as in many internal staffing decisions, it is assumed that all employees
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Staffing Models and Strategy 23
are interested in promotion). Candidates are then vetted on the basis of input from
senior managers in the firm and are evaluated from a dossier that contains the
candidate’s photograph, credentials, and accomplishments. After this six-month
process, candidates are recommended for partner to the CEO, who then makes the
final decision and offers partnership to those lucky enough to be selected (partners
average $7 million a year, plus perks). When candidates accept the offer of partner
ship, the final match has occurred, and a new employment relationship has been
established.
Staffing Organizations
The overall staffing organizations model, which forms the framework for this
book, is shown in Exhibit 1.6. It depicts that the organization’s mission, along
with its goals and objectives, drives both organization strategy and HR and staffing
strategy, which interact with each other when they are being formulated. Staff
ing policies and programs result from such interaction and serve as an overlay to
both support activities and core staffing activities. Employee retention and staffing
EXHIBIT 1.6
Staffing Organizations Model
Organization
Mission
Goals and Objectives
Organization Strategy
HR and Staffing Strategy
Staffing Policies and Programs
Support Acti vi ties
Legal compliance
Planning
Job analysis and rewards
Core Staffing Acti vities
Recruitment: external, internal
Selection: measurement, external, internal
Employment: decision making, final match
Staffing System and Retention Management
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24 Part One
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system management concerns cut across these support and core staffing activities.
Finally, though not shown in the model, it should be remembered that staffing
levels and staffing quality are the key focal points of staffing strategy, policy, and
programs. A more thorough examination of the model follows next.
Organization, HR, and Staffing Strategy
An organization formulates strategy to express an overall purpose or mission and
to establish broad goals and objectives that will help fulfill its mission. For exam
ple, a newly formed software development company may have a mission to “help
individuals and families manage all of their personal finances and records through
electronic means.” With this mission statement, the organization might develop
goals and objectives pertaining to product development, sales growth, and com
petitive differentiation through superior product quality and customer service.
Underlying these objectives are certain assumptions about the size and types
of workforces that will need to be acquired, trained, managed, rewarded, and
retained. HR strategy represents the key decisions about how these workforce
assumptions will be handled. Such HR strategy may not only flow from the organ
ization strategy but also may actually contribute directly to the formulation of the
organization’s strategy.
Consider again the example of the software development company and its objec
tive pertaining to new product development. Being able to develop new products
assumes that sufficiently qualified product-development team members are avail
able internally and externally, and that assurances from the HR department about
availability may have been critical in helping the organization decide on its prod
uct development goals. From this general assumption, HR strategy may suggest
(1) obtaining new, experienced employees from other software companies rather
than going after newly minted college and graduate school graduates; (2) building
a new facility for software development employees in a geographic area that is an
attractive place to work, raise families, and pursue leisure activities; (3) develop
ing relocation assistance packages and family-friendly benefits; (4) offering wages
and salaries above the market average, plus using hiring bonuses to help lure new
employees away from their current employers; (5) creating a special training bud
get for each employee to use at his or her own discretion for skills enhancement;
and (6) putting in place a fast-track promotion system that allows employees to rise
upward in either their professional specialty or the managerial ranks. In all these
ways, HR strategy seeks to align acquisition and management of the workforce
with organization strategy.
Staffing strategy is an outgrowth of the interplay between organization strategy
and HR strategy, described above. It deals directly with key decisions regarding
the acquisition, deployment, and retention of the organization’s workforces. Such
decisions guide the development of recruitment, selection, and employment pro
grams. In the software development company example, the strategic decision to
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Staffing Models and Strategy 25
acquire new employees from the ranks of other organizations may lead the organ
ization to develop very active, personalized, and secret recruiting activities for lur
ing these experienced people away. It may also lead to the development of special
selection techniques for assessing job experience and accomplishments. In such
ways, strategic staffing decisions shape the staffing process.
Support Activities
Support activities serve as the foundation and necessary ingredients for the conduct
of core staffing activities. Legal compliance represents knowledge of the myriad
laws and regulations, especially equal employment opportunity and affirmative
action (EEO/AA), and incorporation of their requirements into all phases of the
core staffing activities. Planning serves as a tool for first becoming aware of key
external influences on staffing, particularly economic conditions, labor markets,
and labor unions. Such awareness shapes the formulation of staffing levels—both
requirements and availabilities—the results of which drive planning for the core
staffing activities. Job analysis represents the key mechanism by which the organ
ization identifies and establishes the KSAO requirements for jobs, as well as the
rewards that the jobs will provide, both first steps toward filling projected vacan
cies through core staffing activities.
Returning to our example of the software development company, if it meets vari
ous size thresholds for coverage (usually 15 or more employees), it must ensure
that the staffing systems to be developed comply with all applicable federal, state,
and local laws and regulations. Planning activities will revolve around first deter
mining the major types of jobs that will be necessary for the product development
venture, such as computer programmers, Internet specialists, and project manag
ers. For each job, a forecast must be made about the number of employees needed
and the likely availability of individuals both externally and internally for the job.
Results of such forecasts serve as the key input for developing detailed staffing
plans for the core staffing activities. Finally, job analysis will be needed to specify
for each job exactly which KSAOs and rewards will be necessary for these sought-
after new employees. Once all these support activities are in place, the core staffing
activities can begin.
Core Staffing Activities
Core staffing activities focus on recruitment, selection, and employment of the
workforce. Since staffing levels have already been established as part of staffing
planning, the emphasis shifts to staffing quality to ensure that successful person/
job and person/organization matches will be made. Accomplishment of this end
result will require multiple plans, decisions, and activities, including recruitment
methods, communication with potential applicants with a special recruitment mes
sage, recruitment media, types of selection tools, deciding which applicants will
receive job offers, and job offer packages. Staffing experts and the hiring manager
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ill be involved in these core staffing activities. Moreover, it is likely that the
w
activities will have to be developed and tailor-made for each type of job.
Consider the job of computer programmer in our software development com
pany example. It will be necessary to develop specific plans for issues such as the
following: Will we recruit only online, or will we use other methods such as news
paper ads or job fairs (recruitment methods)? What exactly will we tell applicants
about the job and our organization (recruitment message), and how will we deliver
the message, such as on our website or in a brochure (recruitment media)? What
specific selection tools—such as interviews, assessments of experience, work sam
ples, and background checks—will we use to assess and evaluate the applicants’
KSAOs (selection techniques)? How will we combine and evaluate all the infor
mation we gather on applicants with these selection tools and then decide which
applicants will receive job offers (decision making)? What exactly will we put in
the job offer, and what will we be willing to negotiate (employment)?
Staffing and Retention System Management
The various support and core staffing activities are quite complex, and they must
be guided, coordinated, controlled, and evaluated. Such is the role of staffing sys
tem management. In our software development company example, what will be the
role of the HR department, and what types of people will be needed to develop and
manage the new staffing systems (administration of staffing systems)? How will
we evaluate the results of these systems—will we collect and look at cost-per-hire
and time-to-hire data (evaluation of staffing systems)? Data such as these are key
effective indicators that both general and staffing managers are attuned to.
Finally, voluntary employee departure from the organization is usually costly
and disruptive, and it can involve the loss of critical talent that is difficult to
replace. Discharges can also be disruptive. Unless the organization is downsiz
ing, replacements must be found in order to maintain desired staffing levels. The
burden for such replacement staffing can be substantial, particularly if the turn
over is unanticipated and unplanned. Other things being equal, greater employee
retention means less staffing, and thus effective retention programs complement
staffing programs.
In our software development company example, the primary focus will likely
be on “staffing up” in order to keep producing existing products and develop new
ones. Unless attention is also paid to employee retention, maintaining adequate
staffing levels and quality may become problematic. Hence, the organization will
need to monitor the amount and quality of employees who are leaving, along with
the reasons they are leaving, in order to learn how much of the turnover is volun
tary and avoidable; monitoring discharges will also be necessary. With these data,
tailor-made retention strategies and programs to better meet employees’ needs can
be developed. If these are effective, strains on the staffing system w
ill be lessened.
The remainder of the book is structured around and built on the staffing organ
izations model shown in Exhibit 1.6.
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Chapter One
Staffing Models and Strategy 27
STAFFING STRATEGY
As noted, staffing strategy requires making key decisions about the acquisition,
deployment, and retention of the organization’s workforce. Thirteen such decisions
are identified and discussed below. Some decisions pertain primarily to staffing
levels, and others pertain primarily to staffing quality. A summary of the decisions
is shown in Exhibit 1.7. While each decision is shown as an either-or, each is more
appropriately thought of as lying on a continuum anchored at the ends by these
either-or extremes. When discussing the decisions, continued reference is made to
the software development company example.
Staffing Levels
Acquire or Develop Talent
A pure acquisition staffing strategy would have an organization concentrate on
acquiring new employees who can “hit the ground running” and be at peak per
formance the moment they arrive. These employees would bring their talents with
them to the job, with little or no need for training or development. A pure develop
ment strategy would lead to acquisition of just about anyone who is willing and
able to learn the KSAOs required by the job. Staffing strategy must position the
organization appropriately along this “buy or make your talent” continuum. For
critical and newly created positions, such as might occur in the software develop
ment company example, the emphasis would likely be on acquiring talent because
EXHIBIT 1.7
Strategic Staffing Decisions
Staffing Levels
• Acquire or Develop Talent
• Hire Yourself or Outsource
• External or Internal Hiring
• Core or Flexible Workforce
• Hire or Retain
• National or Global
• Attract or Relocate
• Overstaff or Understaff
• Short- or L ong-Term Focus
Staffing Quality
• Person/Job or Person/Organization Match
• Specific or General KSAOs
• Exceptional or Acceptable Workforce Quality
• Active or Passive Diversity
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of the urgency of developing new products. There may not be time to train, and
qualified internal candidates may not be available.
Hire Yourself or Outsource
Increasingly, organizations are outsourcing their hiring activities, meaning they
use outside organizations to recruit and select employees. Although there are varia
tions of staffing outsourcing (we will have more to say about it in Chapter 3), in
some cases, an organization wholly cedes decision-making authority to the vendor.
Why might an organization do this? First, it may believe that the vendor can do
a better job of identifying candidates than the organization itself can do. This is
particularly true for small and midsize companies that lack a professional HR func
tion. Second, in labor shortages, an organization may not be able to recruit enough
employees on its own, so it may supplement its recruiting or selection efforts with
those of a vendor that specializes in staffing. Finally, outsourcing may also have
advantages for legal compliance, as many vendors maintain their own procedures
for tracking compliance with equal-opportunity laws.
External or Internal Hiring
When job vacancies occur or new jobs are created, should the organization seek to
fill them from the external or internal labor market? While some mixture of exter
nal and internal hiring will be necessary in most situations, the relative blend could
vary substantially. To the extent that the organization wants to cultivate a stable,
committed workforce, it will probably need to emphasize internal hiring. This will
allow employees to use the internal labor market as a springboard for launching
long-term careers within the organization. External hiring might then be restricted
to specific entry-level jobs, as well as newly created ones for which there are no
acceptable internal applicants. External hiring might also be necessary when there
is rapid organizational growth, such that the number of new jobs created outstrips
internal supply.
Core or Flexible Workforce
The organization’s core workforce is made up of individuals who are viewed (and
view themselves) as regular full-time or part-time employees of the organization.
They are central to the core goods and services delivered by the organization.
The flexible workforce is composed of more peripheral workers who are used
on an as-needed, just-in-time basis. They are not viewed (nor do they view them
selves) as regular employees, and legally, most of them are not even employees of
the organization. Rather, they are employees of an alternative organization such as
a staffing firm (temporary help agency) or an independent contractor. The organ
ization must decide whether to use both core and flexible workforces, what the
mixture of core versus flexible workers will be, and in what jobs and units of the
organization these mixtures will be deployed. Within the software development
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Staffing Models and Strategy 29
company, programmers may be considered part of the core workforce, but ancillary
workers (e.g., clerical) may be part of the flexible workforce, particularly since the
need for them will depend on the speed and success of new product development.
Hire or Retain
There are trade-offs between hiring strategies and retention strategies for staffing.
At one extreme, the organization can accept whatever level of turnover occurs and
simply hire replacements to fill the vacancies. Alternatively, the organization can
seek to minimize turnover so that the need for replacement staffing is held to a
minimum. For example, SAS Institute, a company that frequently finds itself on
Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work for” list, has an annual turn
over rate of less than 3%, meaning that fewer than 3 out of 100 of its employees
leave voluntarily within a 12-month period. The company’s ability to retain its
employees at such a high level is likely due in part to the generous perks it offers,
including subsidized Montessori child care, unlimited sick time, a free health care
center, and four cafeterias serviced by a local organic farm.20 An organization
could conduct an analysis to determine the costs and benefits of these types of
strategies and then strive for an optimal mix to control its inflow needs (replace
ment staffing) by controlling its outflow (retention staffing).
National or Global
As we noted earlier, one form of outsourcing is when organizations outsource
staffing activities. Of course, many organizations outsource more than staffing
activities—technical support, database management, customer service, and man
ufacturing are common examples. A growing number of computer-chip makers,
such as IBM, Intel, and Motorola, contract with outside vendors to manufacture
their chips; often these companies are overseas. Offshoring is related to, but dis
tinct from, outsourcing. Whereas outsourcing is moving a business process (ser
vice or manufacturing) to another vendor (whether that vendor is inside or outside
the organization’s home country), offshoring is the organization setting up its
own operations in another country (the organization is not contracting with an
outside vendor; rather, it is establishing its own operations in another country). In
the computer-chip example, outsourcing would be if the organization, say, IBM,
contracted with an outside vendor to manufacture the chips. Offshoring would be
if IBM set up its own plant in another country to manufacture the chips.
Increasingly, US organizations are engaged in both overseas outsourcing and
offshoring, a trend spurred by three forces. First, most nations have lowered
trading and immigration barriers, which has facilitated offshoring and overseas
outsourcing. Second, particularly in the United States and western Europe, organ
izations find that by outsourcing or offshoring, they can manufacture goods or
provide services more cheaply than they can in their own country. Third, some
organizations cannot find sufficient talent in their home countries, so they have
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to look elsewhere. A recent report by ManpowerGroup suggests that the world is
currently experiencing the highest talent shortage since 2007, particularly in the
IT, skilled trades, and sales industries. Although the cost of talent is often cited
as a reason for this shortage (e.g., applicants often look for more pay than what is
offered), the most frequently cited reasons why employers can’t fill the positions
are a lack of applicants, a lack of technical competencies, and a lack of experience.
Notably, nearly one-f ifth of those surveyed by ManpowerGroup have resorted to
outsourcing.21
Attract or Relocate
Typical staffing strategy is based on the premise that the organization can induce
sufficient numbers of qualified people to come to it for employment. Another
version of this premise is that it is better (and cheaper) to bring the labor to the
organization than to bring the organization to the labor. Some organizations,
both established and new ones, challenge this premise and choose locations with
ample supplies of labor. The shift of lumber mills and automobile manufacturing
plants to the southern United States reflects such a strategy. Likewise, the growth
of high technology pockets such as Silicon Valley reflects the establishment or
movement of organizations to geographic areas where there is ready access to
highly skilled labor and where employees would like to live, usually locations
with research universities nearby to provide the needed graduates for jobs. The
software development company, for example, might find locating in such an area
very desirable.
Overstaff or Understaff
While most organizations seek to be reasonably fully staffed, some opt for being
over- or understaffed. Overstaffing may occur when there are dips in demand for
the organization’s products or services that the organization chooses to ride out.
Organizations may also overstaff in order to stockpile talent, recognizing that the
staffing spigot cannot be easily turned on or off. Alternatively, understaffing may
occur when the organization is confronted with chronic labor shortages, such
as is the case for nurses in health care facilities. Also, prediction of an economic
downturn may lead the organization to understaff in order to avoid future layoffs.
Finally, the organization may decide to understaff and adjust staffing level demand
spikes by increasing employee overtime or using flexible staffing arrangements
such as temporary employees. Many have blamed the slow job recovery following
the Great Recession on the reluctance of companies to put themselves in an over
staffing situation, instead asking current employees to work longer hours in order
to handle increased demand in the company’s products or services. The software
development company might choose to overstaff in order to retain key employees
and to be poised to meet the hopeful surges in demand as its new products are
released.
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Staffing Models and Strategy 31
Short-or Long-Term Focus
Although any organization would want to have its staffing needs fully anticipated
for both the short term and the long term, optimizing both goals is difficult, so
trade-offs are often required. In this case, it often means addressing short-term
labor shortages by identifying and developing talent for the long term. When forced
to choose, organizations focus on their short-term needs. This is understandable
because labor shortages can be debilitating. Even when the overall economy is
sluggish, the pool of qualified applicants may be thin. One recruiting expert noted,
“The weak labor market has really increased the noise level as more unqualified
candidates apply for a decreasing number of job openings.”22 So, even in periods of
economic duress, a labor shortage can happen in any industry. When business lead
ers in the trucking industry were asked to identify their top business concerns, 86%
of executives listed the unavailability of drivers as one of their top three concerns.23
Balanced against this short-term “crisis management” focus are long-term con
cerns. Organizations with a long-term view of their staffing needs have put in place
talent management programs. In some cases, this means thinking about the strate
gic talent, or future skill, needs for the entire organization. Bringing to mind John
Maynard Keynes’s comment, “In the long run we are all dead,” the problem with
a long-term focus is that long-term needs (demand) and availability (supply) are
often unclear. Often, it seems as if calls for an upcoming labor shortage due to baby
boomer retirements never end. As Peter Cappelli concluded, “They’ve been pre
dicting a labor shortage since the mid-1990’s and guess what, it’s not happening.”
In fact, recent projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predict that
by 2024 the labor force will have grown by 7.9 million, an average of 0.5% per year
(which is much smaller than the growth rates of previous decades). However, BLS
economist Ian Wyatt admits that whereas population and labor force growth can be
forecasted fairly accurately, labor demand estimates are far less reliable. The future
demand for workers “is a very tough question to answer,” Wyatt said. “Perhaps
because of this, while most organizations are aware of projected labor shortages,
many fewer have any concrete plans to do anything about it.” Furthermore, even
though the labor force is expected to slowly grow over the next decade, the labor
force participation rate, or the number of those from the labor force expected to
become employed and work, is slated to decrease steadily by 2024.24
These long-term forecasting difficulties notwithstanding, growth will occur in
some skill areas, while others will decrease in demand. Employers that make no
efforts to project future supply and demand risk having their strategies derailed
by lack of available labor. As a result of a lack of planning, some companies are
facing unanticipated skilled labor shortages. For example, Linda Fillingham can
not find skilled laborers to work in her family’s Bloomington, Illinois, steel plant.
Fillingham expresses puzzlement as to her labor shortage, given the alleged lack
of job growth in manufacturing: “It’s there if you want to do it,” she said. Perhaps
long-term planning would have avoided or ameliorated Fillingham’s dilemma.25
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Staffing Quality
Person/Job or Person/Organization Match
When acquiring and deploying people, should the organization opt for a person/
job or person/organization match? This is a complex decision. In part, a person/job
match will have to be assessed anytime a person is hired to perform a finite set of
tasks. In our software company example, programmers might be hired to do pro
gramming in a specific language such as Java, and most certainly the organization
would want to assess whether applicants meet this specific job requirement. On
the other hand, jobs may be poorly defined and fluid, making a person/job match
infeasible and requiring a person/organization match instead. Such jobs are often
found in technology and software development organizations.
Specific or General KSAOs
Should the organization acquire people with specific KSAOs or more general
ones? The former means focusing on job-specific competencies, often of the job
knowledge and technical skill variety. The latter requires a focus on KSAOs that
will be applicable across a variety of jobs, both current and future. Examples of
such KSAOs include flexibility and adaptability, ability to learn, written and oral
communication skills, and algebra/statistics skills. An organization expecting
rapid changes in job content and new job creation, such as in the software com
pany example, might position itself closer to the general competencies end of the
continuum.
Exceptional or Acceptable Workforce Quality
Strategically, the organization could seek to acquire a workforce that is preeminent
KSAO-wise (exceptional quality) or that is more “ballpark” variety KSAO-wise
(acceptable quality). Pursuit of the exceptional quality strategy would allow the
organization to stock up on the “best and the brightest” with the hope that this
exceptional talent pool would deliver truly superior performance. The acceptable
quality strategy means pursuit of a less high-powered workforce and probably a
less expensive one as well. If the software development company is trying to cre
ate clearly innovative and superior products, it will likely opt for the exceptional
workforce quality end of the continuum.
Active or Passive Diversity
The labor force is becoming increasingly diverse in terms of demographics, val
ues, and languages. Does the organization want to actively pursue this diversity
in the labor market so that its own workforce mirrors it, or does the organization
want to more passively let diversity of its workforce happen? Advocates of an
active diversity strategy argue that it is legally and morally appropriate and that a
diverse workforce allows the organization to be more attuned to the diverse needs
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of the customers it serves. Those favoring a more passive strategy suggest that
diversification of the workforce takes time because it requires substantial planning
and assimilation activity. In the software company illustration, an active diversity
strategy might be pursued as a way of acquiring workers who can help identify a
diverse array of software products that might be received favorably by various seg
ments of the marketplace.
STAFFING ETHICS
Staffing the organization involves a multitude of individuals—hiring managers,
staffing professionals, potential coworkers, legal advisors, and job applicants.
During the staffing process, all of these individuals may be involved in recruit
ment, selection, and employment activities, as well as decision making. Are there,
or should there be, boundaries on these individuals’ actions and decisions? The
answer is yes, for without boundaries, potentially negative outcomes and harm
ful effects may occur. For example, staffing is often a hurried process, driven by
tight deadlines and calls for expediency (e.g., the hiring manager who says to the
staffing professional, “Just get me someone now—I’ll worry about how good
they are later on”). Such calls may lead to negative consequences, including hiring
someone without proper assessment and subsequently having him or her perform
poorly, ignoring the many applicants who would have been successful perform
ers, failing to advance the organization’s workforce diversity initiatives and possi
ble legal obligations, and making an exceedingly generous job offer that provides
the highest salary in the work unit, causing dissatisfaction and possible turnover
among other work unit members. Such actions and outcomes raise issues of staff
ing ethics.
Ethics involves determining moral principles and guidelines for the acceptable
practice of staffing. Within the realm of the workplace, ethics emphasizes “aware
ness of organizational values, guidelines and codes, and behaving within those
boundaries when faced with dilemmas in business or professional work.”26 More
specifically, organizational ethics seeks to do the following:
• Raise ethical expectations
• Legitimize dialogue about ethical issues
• Encourage ethical decision making
• Prevent misconduct and provide a basis for enforcement
While organizations are increasingly developing general codes of conduct, it is
unknown whether these codes contain specific staffing provisions. Even the gen
eral code will likely have some pertinence to staffing through provisions on such
issues as legal compliance, confidentiality and disclosure of information, and use
of organizational property and assets. Individuals involved in staffing should know
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Part One
EXHIBIT 1.8
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
The Nature of Staffing
Suggestions for Ethical Staffing Practice
Represent the organization’s interests.
Beware of conflicts of interest.
Remember the job applicant.
Follow staffing policies and procedures.
Know and follow the law.
Consult professional codes of conduct.
Shape effective practice with research results.
Seek ethics advice.
Be aware of an organization’s ethical climate/culture.
and follow their organization’s code of ethics. Several points that pertain to staff
ing specifically can guide a person’s ethical conduct. These points are shown in
Exhibit 1.8 and elaborated on below.
The first point is that the person is serving as an agent of the organization and is
duty bound to represent the organization first and foremost. That duty is to bring
into being effective person/job and person/organization matches. The second point
indicates that the agent must avoid placing his or her own interest, or that of a third
party (such as an applicant or friend), above that of the organization. Point three
suggests that even though the HR professional represents the organization, he or
she should remember that the applicant is a participant in the staffing process.
How the HR professional treats applicants may well lead to reactions by them that
are favorable to the organization and further its interests, let alone those of appli
cants. Point four reminds the HR professional to know the organization’s staffing
policies and procedures and adhere to them. The fifth point indicates a need to be
knowledgeable of the myriad laws and regulations governing staffing, to follow
them, and to seek needed assistance in their interpretation and application. Point
six guides the HR professional toward professional codes of conduct pertaining
to staffing and HR. For example, the Society for Human Resource Management
(SHRM) has a formal code of ethics. The Society for Industrial and Organizational
Psychology (SIOP) follows the ethics code of the American Psychological Asso
ciation (APA) and has issued a set of professional principles to guide appropriate
use of employee selection procedures. The seventh point states that there is con
siderable useful research-based knowledge about the design and effectiveness of
staffing systems and techniques that should guide staffing practice. Much of that
research is summarized in usable formats in this book. The eighth point suggests
that when confronted with ethical issues, it is appropriate to seek ethical advice
from others. H
andling troubling ethical issues alone is unwise.
The final point is that one must be aware of an organization’s climate and cul
ture for ethical behavior. Organizations differ in their ethical climate/culture, and
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this has two implications for staffing.27 First, an organization may have expecta
tions for how staffing decisions are made. How an organization communicates with
recruits (including those who are rejected) and whether selection decisions are
made hierarchically or collaboratively are two examples of ethical staffing issues
that may well vary from organization to organization. Second, an organization’s
ethics climate may well affect which staffing decisions are made. An organization
that has high expectations for ethics may weight selection information differently
(placing more weight on, say, background checks) than an organization with more
typical expectations.
In both of these ways, one needs to realize that while some ethics considerations
are universal, in other cases, what is considered ethical in one climate may be seen
as a breach of ethics in another.
It should be recognized that many pressure points on HR professionals may
cause them to compromise the ethical standards discussed above. Research
suggests that the principal causes of this pressure are the felt needs to follow
top management’s or a supervisor’s directive, be a team player, protect the interests
of the organization, save others’ jobs, meet performance goals, deal with internal
competition, and cope with having limited resources.28
The suggestions for ethical staffing practice in Exhibit 1.8 are a guide to one’s
own behavior. Being aware of and consciously attempting to follow these consti
tute a professional and ethical responsibility. But what about situations in which
ethical lapses are suspected or observed in others?
One response to the situation is to do nothing—neither report nor attempt to
change the misconduct. Research suggests a small proportion (about 20%) chooses
to ignore and not report misconduct.29 Major reasons for this response include the
need to report the incident to the person involved, the belief that no action would
be taken, a lack of anonymity in the reporting process, and the fear of retaliation
from one’s boss or senior management. Against such reasons for inaction must be
weighed the harm that has, or could, come to the employer, the employee, or the
job applicant. Moreover, failure to report the misconduct may well increase the
chances that it will be repeated, with continuing harmful consequences. Not report
ing misconduct may also conflict with one’s personal values and create remorse for
not having done the right thing. Finally, a failure to report misconduct may bring
penalties to oneself if that failure subsequently becomes known to one’s boss or
senior management. In short, “looking the other way” should not be viewed as a
safe, wise, or ethical choice.
A different way to handle unethical staffing practices by others is to seek advice
from one’s boss, senior management, coworkers, legal counsel, an ethics offi
cer or ombudsperson, or an outside friend or family member. The guidelines in
Exhibit 1.8 can serve as a helpful starting point to frame the discussion and make
a decision about what to do.
At times, the appropriate response to others’ misconduct is to step in directly to
try to prevent or rectify the misconduct. This would be especially appropriate with
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The Nature of Staffing
employees whom one supervises or with coworkers. Before taking such an action,
it would be wise to consider whether one has the authority and resources to do so,
along with the likely support of those other employees or coworkers.
PLAN FOR THE BOOK
The book is divided into six parts:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
The Nature of Staffing
Support Activities
Staffing Activities: Recruitment
Staffing Activities: Selection
Staffing Activities: Employment
Staffing System and Retention Management
Each chapter in these six parts begins with a brief topical outline to help the reader
quickly discern its general contents. The “meat” of the chapter comes next. A
chapter summary then reviews and highlights points from the chapter. A set of
discussion questions, ethical issues to discuss, applications (cases and exercises),
and detailed endnotes complete the chapter.
The importance of laws and regulations is such that they are considered first
in Chapter 2 (Legal Compliance). The laws and regulations, in particular, have
become so pervasive that they require special treatment. Therefore, Chapter 2
reviews the basic laws affecting staffing, with an emphasis on the major federal
laws and regulations pertaining to EEO/AA matters generally. Specific provisions
relevant to staffing are covered in depth. Each subsequent chapter has a separate
section labeled “Legal Issues,” in which specific legal topics relevant to the chap
ter’s content are discussed. This allows for a more focused discussion of legal
issues while not diverting attention from the major thrust of the book.
The endnotes at the end of each chapter are quite extensive. They are drawn
from academic, practitioner, and legal sources with the goal of providing a bal
anced selection from each of these sources. Emphasis is on the inclusion of recent
references of high quality and easy accessibility. An overly lengthy list of refer
ences to each specific topic is avoided; instead, a sampling of only the best avail
able is included.
The applications at the end of each chapter are of two varieties. First are cases
that describe a particular situation and require analysis and response. The response
may be written or oral (such as in class discussion or a group presentation). Second
are exercises that entail small projects and require active practice of a particular
task. Through these cases and exercises the reader becomes an active participant
in the learning process and is able to apply the concepts provided in each chapter.
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SUMMARY
At the national level, staffing involves a huge number of hiring transactions each
year, is a major cost of doing business (especially for service-providing industries),
and can lead to substantial revenue and market value growth for the organization.
Staffing is defined as “the process of acquiring, deploying, and retaining a work
force of sufficient quantity and quality to create positive impacts on the organ
ization’s effectiveness.” The definition emphasizes that both staffing levels and
labor quality contribute to an organization’s effectiveness, and that a concerted set
of labor acquisition, deployment, and retention actions guides the flow of people
into, within, and out of the organization. Descriptions of three staffing systems
help highlight the definition of staffing.
Several models illustrate various elements of staffing. The staffing level model
shows how projected labor requirements and availabilities are compared to derive
staffing levels that represent being overstaffed, fully staffed, or understaffed. The
next two models illustrate staffing quality via the person/job match and the person/
organization match. The former indicates there is a need to match (1) the person’s
KSAOs to job requirements and (2) the person’s motivation to the job’s rewards.
In the person/organization match, the person’s characteristics are matched to
additional factors beyond the target job, namely, organizational values, new job
duties for the target job, multiple jobs, and future jobs. Effectively managing the
matching process results in positive impacts on HR outcomes such as attraction,
performance, and retention. The core staffing components model shows that there
are three basic activities in staffing: recruitment (identification and attraction of
applicants), selection (assessment and evaluation of applicants), and employment
(decision making and final match). The staffing organizations model shows that
organization, HR, and staffing strategies are formulated and shape staffing policies
and programs. In turn, these meld into a set of staffing support activities (legal
compliance, planning, and job analysis), as well as the core activities (recruitment,
selection, and employment). Retention and staffing system management activities
cut across both support and core activities.
Staffing strategy is both an outgrowth of and a contributor to HR and organi
zation strategy. Thirteen important strategic staffing decisions loom for any organ
ization. Some pertain to staffing level choices, and others deal with staffing quality
choices.
Staffing ethics involves determining moral principles and guidelines for prac
tice. Numerous suggestions were made for ethical conduct in staffing, and many
pressure points for sidestepping such conduct are in operation. Appropriate ways
of handling such pressures will be discussed in the remainder of the book.
The staffing organizations model serves as the structural framework for the
book. The first part treats staffing models and strategy. The second part treats
the support activities of legal compliance, planning, and job analysis. The next
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three parts treat the core staffing activities of recruitment, selection, and employ
ment. The last section addresses staffing systems and employee retention man
agement. Each chapter has a section labeled “Legal Issues,” as well as discussion
questions, ethical issues questions, applications, and endnotes.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What are potential problems with having a staffing process in which vacan
cies are filled (1) on a lottery basis from among job applicants, or (2) on a
first come–f irst hired basis among job applicants?
2. Why is it important for the organization to view all components of staffing
(recruitment, selection, and employment) from the perspective of the job
applicant?
3. Would it be desirable to hire people only according to the person/organiza
tion match, ignoring the person/job match?
4. What are examples of how staffing activities are influenced by training activi
ties? Compensation activities?
5. Are some of the 13 strategic staffing decisions more important than others?
If so, which ones? Why?
ETHICAL ISSUES
1. Assume that you are either the staffing professional in the department or the
hiring manager of a work unit. Explain why it is so important to represent
the organization’s interests (see Exhibit 1.8). What are some possible conse
quences of not doing so?
2. One of the strategic staffing choices is whether to pursue workforce diversity
actively or passively. First suggest some ethical reasons for active pursuit of
diversity, and then suggest some ethical reasons for a more passive approach.
Assume that the type of diversity in question is increasing workforce repre
sentation of women and ethnic minorities.
APPLICATIONS
Staffing for Your Own Job
Instructions
Consider a job you previously held or your current job. Use the staffing compo
nents model to help you think through and describe the staffing process that led to
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Staffing Models and Strategy 39
your getting hired for the job. Trace and describe the process (1) from your own
perspective as a job applicant and (2) from the organization’s perspective. Listed
below are some questions to jog your memory. Write your responses to these ques
tions and be prepared to discuss them.
Applicant Perspective
Recruitment:
1. Why did you identify and seek out the job with this organization?
2. How did you try to make yourself attractive to the organization?
Selection:
1. How did you gather information about the job’s requirements and rewards?
2. How did you judge your own KSAOs and needs relative to the requirements
and rewards?
Employment:
1. Why did you decide to continue on in the staffing process, rather than drop
out of it?
2. Why did you decide to accept the job offer? What were the pluses and
minuses of the job?
Organization Perspective
Even if you are unsure of the answers to the following questions, try to answer
them or guess at them.
Recruitment:
1. How did the organization identify you as a job applicant?
2. How did the organization make the job attractive to you?
Selection:
1. What techniques (application blank, interview, etc.) did the organization use
to gather KSAO information about you?
2. How did the organization evaluate this information? What did it see as your
strong and weak points, KSAO-wise?
Employment:
1. Why did the organization continue to pursue you as an applicant, rather than
reject you from further consideration?
2. What was the job offer process like? Did you receive a verbal or written offer
(or both)? Who made the offer? What was the content of the offer?
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Reactions to the Staffing Process
Now that you have described the staffing process, what are your reactions to it?
1. What were the strong points or positive features of the process?
2. What were the weak points or negative features of the process?
3. What changes would you like to see made in the process, and why?
Staffing Strategy for a New Plant
Household Consumer Enterprises, Inc. (HCE) specializes in the design and pro
duction of household products such as brooms, brushes, rakes, kitchen utensils, and
garden tools. It has its corporate headquarters in downtown Chicago, with manu
facturing and warehouse/distribution facilities throughout the north-central region
of the United States. The organization recently changed its mission from “provid
ing households with safe and sturdy utensils” to “providing households with visu
ally appealing utensils that are safe and sturdy.” The new emphasis on “visually
appealing” will necessitate new strategies for designing and producing products
that have design flair and imagination built into them. One strategy under consid
eration is to target various demographic groups with different utensil designs. One
group is 25- to 40-year-old professional and managerial people, who are believed
to want such utensils for both their visual and conversation-piece appeal.
A tentative strategy is to build and staff a new plant that will have free rein in
the design and production of utensils for the 25–40 age group. To start, the plant
will focus on producing a set of closely related (design-wise) plastic products: dish
washing pans, outdoor wastebaskets, outdoor plant holders, and watering cans.
These items can be produced without too large a capital and facilities investment,
can be marketed as a group, and can be on stores’ shelves and on HCE’s store
website in time for Christmas sales.
The facilit y’s design and engineering team has decided that each of the four
products will be produced on a separate assembly line, though the lines will
share common technology and require roughly similar assembly jobs. Following
the advice from the HR vice president, Jarimir Zwitski, the key jobs in the plant
for staffing purposes will be plant manager, product designer (computer-assisted
design), assemblers, and packers/warehouse workers. The initial staffing level for
the plant will be 150 employees. Because of the riskiness of the venture and the
low initial margins that are planned on the four products due to high start-up costs,
the plant will run continuously six days per week (i.e., a 24/6 schedule), with the
remaining day reserved for cleaning and maintenance. Pay levels will be at the
low end of the m...
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