Preliminary Staffing Functions: Employee Recruitment, Selection, Placement.
Dr.Amean A. Yasir,PhD
After planning and organizing, staffing is the third phase of the management
process. In staffing, the leader–manager recruits, selects, places, indoctrinates, and
promotes personnel development to accomplish the goals of the organization.
Healthcare managers have long been sensitive to the importance of physical
resources (technology, space) and financial resources to the success of service delivery.
During the last several decades, the value and potential for development of a third
element, the human resource, has gained new recognition. The importance of
viewing personnel as a critical resource is crucial to meet challenges faced in a rapidly
changing healthcare environment with limited resources.
Staffing is an especially important phase of the management process in healthcare
organizations because such organizations are usually labor intensive (i.e., many
employees are required for an organization to accomplish its goals). Additionally,
this large workforce must be composed of highly skilled, competent professionals.
Ensuring the adequacy of skilled staff to accomplish organizational goals is an important
management function. Unit 5 reviews the manager’s responsibilities in executing
the staffing functions of the management process.
The following are the sequential steps of staffing responsibilities, although each
step has some interdependence with all staffing activities:
1. Determine the number and types of personnel needed to fulfill the
philosophy, meet fiscal planning responsibilities, and carry out the chosen
patient care delivery system selected by the organization.
2. Recruit, interview, select, and assign personnel based on established job
description performance standards.
3. Use organizational resources for induction and orientation.
4. Ascertain that each employee is adequately socialized to organization values
and unit norms.
5. Develop a program of staff education that will assist employees with
meeting the goals of the organization.
6. Use creative and flexible scheduling based on patient care needs to increase
productivity and retention.
This chapter examines national and regional trends for professional nurse
staffing. It also addresses the preliminary staffing functions, namely determining
present and future staffing needs and recruiting, interviewing, selecting, and placing
personnel. It also includes two employee indoctrination functions: induction
and orientation.
Reference Nevidjon, B., & Erickson, J. I. (2001). The nursing shortage: Solutions for the short and
long term.