Outsourcing Services to Non-Employees

Sections of This Topic Include

• All About Consulting – Types, Skills and Approaches
• Volunteer Programs
• Temporary / Contingent Workers

Also consider
Related Library Topics

Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to This Topic

In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs that have posts related to this topic. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.

• Library’s Human Resources Blog
• Library’s Leadership Blog
• Library’s Supervision Blog

Additional Information

• Employees vs. Contractors — What’s the Difference?
• Business Communication Strategies…ONLINE
• TechSearch
• A Key Strategic Choice: When to Outsource Work
• How To Outsource – Just where to start?
• US Outsourcing Risks — An Indian Perspective
• A Successful Outsourcing Engagement, Step-by-Step
• The tools – Outsourcing

For the Category of Human Resources:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

• Related Library Topics
• Recommended Books

Organizing or Reorganizing an Organization and Its Employees

Sections of This Topic Include

• Reorganizing Will Be Easier If You Have Been Doing…
• Typical Problems that Suggest Need for Reorganizing
• First Guideline for Reorganizing – Review Overall Purpose of Organization
• Organizational Change: General Guidelines for Carrying it Out
• Specific Suggestions for Reorganizing an Organization
• Reorganizing Staff / Employees
• Additional Perspectives on Organizational Design

Also consider

• How to Design Organizational Structures and Design
  
• Organizing (how to arrange resources in organizations)
• Related Library Topics

Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Organizing People and Organizing
Staff

In addition to the articles on this current page, see the following blogs which have posts related to Organizing People and Organizing Staff. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog.

• Library’s Human Resources Blog
• Library’s Leadership Blog
• Library’s Supervision Blog

(Before reading this topic, be sure to read the definitions and various steps in the staffing process to notice where this topic fits in the overall process.)

REORGANIZING AN ORGANIZATION

Reorganizing Will Be Easier if You Have Been Doing …

You will have a pretty good handle on the need for change and what changes must be done if you’ve been
1. Conducting strategic planning to regularly review the purpose of your organization, its overall goals and who should be doing what to meet those goals
2. Using sound principles of employee performance management to regularly review what employees should be doing to produce results, how they’re doing toward their results, and what must be done to help them do a better job of achieving results

Typical Problems That Suggest Need for Reorganizing

There are a wide variety of reasons for reorganizing an organization, particularly in today’s rapidly changing marketplace. However, there are several reasons for reorganization that seem to keep coming up in small businesses, whether for-profit or nonprofit. These reasons include
1. An employee keeps complaining (and you agree) that he or she is overloaded with work.
2. Employees complain that their activities overlap.
3. An employee indicates (and you agree) that he or she does not have enough work to do during a work day.
4. Employees complain that they’re reporting to more than one boss, or supervisor.
5. An employee complains that their work includes very different tasks. For example, they may have a highly complex and demanding project (e.g., leading strategic planning) and a large routine, recurring task (sorting a great deal of the organization’s daily mail).
6. Management notices a large amount of employee turnover, that is, employees don’t stay long enough with the organization.
7. A department, or major function in the organization, has recurring problems.

NOTE: It is not always problems that provoke the need for reorganizing. For example, if the organization has been conducting strategic planning and produced new goals, these goals may require the organization to reorganize. For example, if the business wants to expand marketshare in a certain region, then the organization may need a new office in that region, more sales people, etc.

First Guideline for Reorganizing – Revisit Overall Purpose of Business

Recurring problems often seem to have little to do with the business’s overall purpose and goals. However, any attempts at reorganizing may be just fine tuning, or tweaking, if not done with the long term in mind. In fact, the recurring problems may be a symptom of the organization’s not having clearly thought out what its overall purpose and goals are. Without visiting the overall purpose and goals, redesign is usually a highly reactive and very short-term fix. Carefully consider conducting a strategic planning process to guide you through reviewing your organization’s purpose. See Strategic Planning

How Is Organization-Wide Change Best Carried Out?

Successful change must involve top management, including the board and chief executive. Usually there’s a champion who initially instigates the change by being visionary, persuasive and consistent. A change agent role is usually responsible to translate the vision to a realistic plan and carry out the plan. Change is usually best carried out as a team-wide effort. Communications about the change should be frequent and with all organization members. To sustain change, the structures of the organization itself should be modified, including strategic plans, policies and procedures. This change in the structures of the organization typically involves an unfreezing, change and re-freezing process.

The best approaches to address resistances is through increased and sustained communications and education. For example, the leader should meet with all managers and staff to explain reasons for the change, how it generally will be carried out and where others can go for additional information. A plan should be developed and communicated. Plans do change. That’s fine, but communicate that the plan has changed and why. Forums should be held for organization members to express their ideas for the plan. They should be able to express their concerns and frustrations as well. For additional information, see the topic Guidelines, Methods and Resources for Organizational Change Agents.

Specific Suggestions

In addition to the above general guidelines, there are a few basic guidelines to keep in mind.
1. Consider using a consultant. Ensure the consultant is highly experienced in organization-wide change. Ask to see references and check the references.
2. Widely communicate the potential need for change. Communicate what you’re doing about it. Communicate what was done and how it worked out.
3. Get as much feedback as practical from employees, including what they think are the problems and what should be done to resolve them. If possible, work with a team of employees to manage the change.
4. Don’t get wrapped up in doing change for the sake of change. Know why you’re making the change. What goal(s) do you hope to accomplish?
6. Plan the change. How do you plan to reach the goals, what will you need to reach the goals, how long might it take and how will you know when you’ve reached your goals or not? Focus on the coordination of the departments/programs in your organization, not on each part by itself. Have someone in charge of the plan.
7. End up having every employee ultimately reporting to one person, if possible, and they should know who that person is. Job descriptions are often complained about, but they are useful in specifying who reports to whom.
8. Delegate decisions to employees as much as possible. This includes granting them the authority and responsibility to get the job done. As much as possible, let them decide how to do the project.
9. The process won’t be an “aha!” It will take longer than you think.
10. Keep perspective. Keep focused on meeting the needs of your customer or clients.
11. Take care of yourself first. Organization-wide change can be highly stressful.
12. Don’t seek to control change, but rather to expect it, understand it and manage it.
13. Include closure in the plan. Acknowledge and celebrate your accomplishments.
14. Read some resources about organizational change, including new forms and structures.

Reorganizing Staff / Employees

(If you have already done some basic business planning and drafted a basic business plan, then you probably already have the answers to all or many of the following questions.)

Lewis, Lewis and Souflee, in Management of Human Service Organizations (Books/Cole, 1991, p. 80) list several key questions developing an organizational design. These questions apply, whether for-profit or nonprofit organization. (Items in brackets “[!]” were added by Carter McNamara.)

1. What are the primary goals and objectives that the organization should be designed to meet? (The topic strategic planning can help you determine what these goals are.)

2. What continuing activities need to be performed in order to implement the strategies that have been selected as part of the planning process? (The topic strategic planning can help you determine the answer to this question, too.)

3. How can the necessary activities to be divided so that individuals or groups can be assigned responsibility for performing them [that is, organized into separate roles and jobs!]? [Activities should be grouped into related and similar activities as much as possible so that individuals are working on tasks that are related and similar.!]?

• How to Know What Positions and Jobs Are Needed (Workforce Planning)
• How to Design a New Job — a New Position or Role

4. Once activities have been grouped into specific jobs, what kind of authority and responsibility should be assigned? (You might take a look at Basic Terms in Management.)

5. How and by whom should decisions be made? [Attempt to always and ultimately have one person who is singularly responsible for decisions!]. (You might take a look at the topic Making Decisions.)

6. How specialized should roles be? (The following links can help you answer this question.)

• How to Know What Positions and Jobs Are Needed (Workforce Planning)
• How to Design a New Job — a New Position or Role

7. Who should control the work being performed? (See the topic Management Control. )

8. How can communication and coordination among members of the organization be facilitated? (See the topic Management Control.)

9. How can job and role descriptions be developed to take into account both functions and accountabilities?

• How to Know What Positions and Jobs Are Needed (Workforce Planning)
• How to Design a New Job — a New Position or Role

10. How can coordination and communication with the external social environment be facilitated? (See the topic Management Control. )

Also:

11. Strive to have every employee ultimately reporting to one person, if possible, and they should know who that person is. Job descriptions are often complained about, but they are useful in specifying who reports to whom.

12. Carefully consider the span of control, that is, how many people are reporting to whom. Can each manager really supervise that many people in an effective fashion?

13. When done designing the group, always build structure into the new design through the use of organizational charts, job descriptions, policies and procedures that document the design and who is doing what in it.

Additional Perspectives on Organizational Design

Organizational Design — Guidelines

Return to Staffing for the next step in the staffing process.

For the Category of Management:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

• Related Library Topics
• Recommended Books

Organizing or Reorganizing an Organization and Its Employees

Sections of This Topic Include

Reorganizing Will Be Easier If You Have Been Doing
…
Typical Problems that Suggest Need for Reorganizing
First Guideline for Reorganizing – Review Overall Purpose
of Organization
Organizational Change: General Guidelines for Carrying
it Out
Specific Suggestions for Reorganizing an Organization
Reorganizing Staff / Employees
Additional Perspectives on Organizational Design

Also consider
Related Library Topics

Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Organizing People and Organizing
Staff

In addition to the articles on this current page, see the following blogs which
have posts related to Organizing People and Organizing Staff. Scan down the
blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in
the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the
blog.

Library’s Human
Resources Blog
Library’s Leadership Blog
Library’s Supervision
Blog

(Before reading this topic, be sure to read the definitions and various steps
in the staffing process
to notice where this topic fits in the overall process.)

REORGANIZING AN ORGANIZATION

Reorganizing Will Be Easier if You Have Been Doing …

You will have a pretty good handle on the need for
change and what changes must be done if you’ve been
1. Conducting strategic planning to regularly review the purpose
of your organization, its overall goals and who should be doing
what to meet those goals
2. Using sound principles of employee performance management to
regularly review what employees should be doing to produce results,
how they’re doing toward their results, and what must be done
to help them do a better job of achieving results

Typical Problems
That Suggest Need for Reorganizing

There are a wide variety of reasons for reorganizing
an organization, particularly in today’s rapidly changing marketplace.
However, there are several reasons for reorganization that seem
to keep coming up in small businesses, whether for-profit or nonprofit.
These reasons include
1. An employee keeps complaining (and you agree) that he or she
is overloaded with work.
2. Employees complain that their activities overlap.
3. An employee indicates (and you agree) that he or she does not
have enough work to do during a work day.
4. Employees complain that they’re reporting to more than one
boss, or supervisor.
5. An employee complains that their work includes very different
tasks. For example, they may have a highly complex and demanding
project (e.g., leading strategic planning) and a large routine,
recurring task (sorting a great deal of the organization’s daily
mail).
6. Management notices a large amount of employee turnover, that
is, employees don’t stay long enough with the organization.
7. A department, or major function in the organization, has recurring
problems.

NOTE: It is not always problems that provoke the need for reorganizing.
For example, if the organization has been conducting strategic
planning and produced new goals, these goals may require the organization
to reorganize. For example, if the business wants to expand marketshare
in a certain region, then the organization may need a new office
in that region, more sales people, etc.

First Guideline
for Reorganizing – Revisit Overall Purpose of Business

Recurring problems often seem to have little to do
with the business’s overall purpose and goals. However, any attempts
at reorganizing may be just fine tuning, or tweaking, if not done
with the long term in mind. In fact, the recurring problems may
be a symptom of the organization’s not having clearly thought
out what its overall purpose and goals are. Without visiting the
overall purpose and goals, redesign is usually a highly reactive
and very short-term fix. Carefully consider conducting a strategic
planning process to guide you through reviewing your organization’s
purpose. See
Strategic Planning

How Is Organization-Wide
Change Best Carried Out?

Successful change must involve top management, including
the board and chief executive. Usually there’s a champion who
initially instigates the change by being visionary, persuasive
and consistent. A change agent role is usually responsible to
translate the vision to a realistic plan and carry out the plan.
Change is usually best carried out as a team-wide effort. Communications
about the change should be frequent and with all organization
members. To sustain change, the structures of the organization
itself should be modified, including strategic plans, policies
and procedures. This change in the structures of the organization
typically involves an unfreezing, change and re-freezing process.

The best approaches to address resistances is through increased
and sustained communications and education. For example, the leader
should meet with all managers and staff to explain reasons for
the change, how it generally will be carried out and where others
can go for additional information. A plan should be developed
and communicated. Plans do change. That’s fine, but communicate
that the plan has changed and why. Forums should be held for organization
members to express their ideas for the plan. They should be able
to express their concerns and frustrations as well. For additional
information, see the topic Guidelines, Methods and Resources for Organizational
Change Agents.

Specific Suggestions

In addition to the above general guidelines, there
are a few basic guidelines to keep in mind.
1. Consider using a consultant. Ensure the consultant is highly
experienced in organization-wide change. Ask to see references
and check the references.
2. Widely communicate the potential need for change. Communicate
what you’re doing about it. Communicate what was done and how
it worked out.
3. Get as much feedback as practical from employees, including
what they think are the problems and what should be done to resolve
them. If possible, work with a team of employees to manage the
change.
4. Don’t get wrapped up in doing change for the sake of change.
Know why you’re making the change. What goal(s) do you hope to
accomplish?
6. Plan the change. How do you plan to reach the goals, what will
you need to reach the goals, how long might it take and how will
you know when you’ve reached your goals or not? Focus on the coordination
of the departments/programs in your organization, not on each
part by itself. Have someone in charge of the plan.
7. End up having every employee ultimately reporting to one person,
if possible, and they should know who that person is. Job descriptions
are often complained about, but they are useful in specifying
who reports to whom.
8. Delegate decisions to employees as much as possible. This includes
granting them the authority and responsibility to get the job
done. As much as possible, let them decide how to do the project.
9. The process won’t be an “aha!” It will take longer
than you think.
10. Keep perspective. Keep focused on meeting the needs of your
customer or clients.
11. Take care of yourself first. Organization-wide change can
be highly stressful.
12. Don’t seek to control change, but rather to expect it, understand
it and manage it.
13. Include closure in the plan. Acknowledge and celebrate your
accomplishments.
14. Read some resources about organizational change, including new forms and structures.

Reorganizing Staff / Employees

(If you have already done some basic business planning and drafted a basic business
plan, then you probably already have the answers to all or many of the following
questions.)

Lewis, Lewis and Souflee, in Management of Human Service Organizations
(Books/Cole, 1991, p. 80) list several key questions developing an organizational
design. These questions apply, whether for-profit or nonprofit organization.
(Items in brackets “[!]” were added by Carter McNamara.)

1. What are the primary goals and objectives that the organization should be
designed to meet? (The topic strategic
planning can help you determine what these goals are.)

2. What continuing activities need to be performed in order to implement the
strategies that have been selected as part of the planning process? (The topic
strategic
planning can help you determine the answer to this question, too.)

3. How can the necessary activities to be divided so that individuals or groups
can be assigned responsibility for performing them [that is, organized into
separate roles and jobs!]? [Activities should be grouped into related and similar
activities as much as possible so that individuals are working on tasks that
are related and similar.!]?
How to Know
What Positions and Jobs Are Needed (Workforce Planning)
How to
Design a New Job — a New Position or Role

4. Once activities have been grouped into specific jobs, what kind of authority
and responsibility should be assigned? (You might take a look at Basic
Terms in Management.)

5. How and by whom should decisions be made? [Attempt to always and ultimately
have one person who is singularly responsible for decisions!]. (You might take
a look at the topic Making
Decisions.)

6. How specialized should roles be? (The following links can help you answer
this question.)
How to Know
What Positions and Jobs Are Needed (Workforce Planning)
How to
Design a New Job — a New Position or Role

7. Who should control the work being performed? (See the topic Management
Control. )

8. How can communication and coordination among members of the organization
be facilitated? (Se the topic Management
Control.)

9. How can job and role descriptions be developed to take into account both
functions and accountabilities?
How to Know
What Positions and Jobs Are Needed (Workforce Planning)
How to
Design a New Job — a New Position or Role

10. How can coordination and communication with the external social environment
be facilitated? (See the topic Management
Control. )

Also:

11. Strive to have every employee ultimately reporting to one person, if possible,
and they should know who that person is. Job descriptions are often complained
about, but they are useful in specifying who reports to whom.

12. Carefully consider the span of control, that is, how many people are reporting
to whom. Can each manager really supervise that many people in an effective
fashion?

13. When done designing the group, always build structure into the new design
through the use of organizational charts, job descriptions, policies and procedures
that document the design and who is doing what in it.

Additional Perspectives on Organizational Design

Organizational Design
— Guidelines

Also consider

Basics, Terms and
Definitions (and Misconceptions) About Management
Basic
Terms in Training and Development
Glossary
of HR Terms
Job,
Role, Competency and Skills Analysis

Return to Staffing
for the next step in the staffing process.

For the Category of Management:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

Related Library Topics

Recommended Books

How to Design a New Job — a New Position or Role (Job Descriptions)

Sections of This Topic Include

• How to Clearly Define a New Job
• How to Develop Useful Job Descriptions
• Additional Perspectives on Defining New Jobs and Roles and Job Descriptions

Also consider
Related Library Topics

(Before reading this topic, be sure to read the definitions and various steps in the staffing process to notice where this topic fits in the overall process.)

How to Clearly Define a New Job

© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD

Ultimately, you’re aiming to develop a job description for the new role. However, rather than looking at a variety of sample job descriptions now, it’s much more useful to carefully think about what you want in the role, rather than what others suggest in their job descriptions.

1. First, try think of the knowledge, skills and/or abilities (competencies) that might be useful for someone to have in the job. Think about the results of your previous staffing planning.

2. Consider interviewing someone — in or outside of your company — who already has some of those competencies. Share your staffing plan. Ask them to suggest competencies.

3. Observe an employee or employees in similar jobs as they as the perform a task or conduct the role. What areas of knowledge do you see the employees using? What skills do you see the employees performing?

4. Consider administering a questionnaire to the employee or employees. On the questionnaire, ask them to describe certain practices and procedures to carry out the task or perform the role in the best way possible. Explain that the questionnaire is to help the trainer help the employees to perform a task or conduct a role better.

5. Ideally, get advice from customers about what knowledge and skills are useful in delivering the best quality products or services to them.

6. A generic list of competencies may already exist for a role. For example, professional associations sometimes provide generic lists.

(As with job descriptions, there are those who have strong cautions about the use of competencies. Some experts assert that competencies should define the abilities for someone to excel in a certain role, that is, meet high performance standards, whereas other experts assert that competencies should define the abilities to adequately perform in the role.)

How to Develop Useful Job Descriptions

© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD

(Be sure to see all the steps in the Staffing process and where this step fits in the process)

1. Draft a preliminary job description.

Draft a job description which specifies the general responsibilities of the new position along with some of the specific duties to be conducted by the role, the title for the position, and any special skills, training or credentials required.

Do not merely seek job descriptions from other organizations and adopt those as is. Your open position is unique and job descriptions are very important so you should develop your own – the process of completing the job description is usually quite enlightening.

1. Note which job activities are essential and which are non-essential.
2. Add whom the position reports to and whether the position is full-time or part-time.
3. Consider if the position requires any special physical skills. This may be important when considering accommodations to candidates with physical disabilities and effects. Various government agencies have employment laws in this regard, for example, in the USA, the Americans with Disabilities Act.
4. If the position must be filled by a paid employee (see the next paragraph to consider if a consultant is more appropriate), consider if the position is salaried or hourly. Usually, highly skilled and/or professional roles are salaried, while entry-level positions are hourly.
5. Invite employees to review and edit the drafted job description.
6. Consider including a six-month probationary period for the new position and if you do so, be sure to update your personnel policies to describe your organization’s use of the probationary conditions. A probationary period allows you to fire an employee during the six months if you have concerns and greatly decreases the chances you will be sued for wrongful termination.

2. For nonprofits: Would a volunteer be most appropriate to fill the role?

Consider filling the position with a volunteer if the job involves activities that are:

• Fairly routine
• Unskilled
• Not necessarily time-critical (that is, must be done by a certain deadline)
• Volunteers are also useful when there simply is no money to pay someone to do the job.

3. Would a consultant (independent contractor) be most appropriate?

At this point, consider if a consultant might fill the new position. For example, it is common for small- to medium-sized organizations to hire accountants as consultants. Generally, if the activities associated with your new role require any of the following, then consider hiring a consultant:

• Highly skilled personnel for a fixed and limited duration
• Unskilled personnel for a fixed and limited duration, but it is not likely that you can find a volunteer to fill the role
• A unique set of resources or tools that are not commonly available and would come with a professional (for example, a graphics designer)
• Note that the consideration whether to hire an employee or an independent contractor is a very serious one. If the wrong choice is made, then you may be assessed strong fees and penalties by the Internal Revenue Service in the USA.

4. Determine the approximate cost of the new role.

• Estimate the salary range for the new position. Set this range by talking to other organizations with similar product or services, or by scanning classified sections of newspapers with ads for similar roles. You can also reference various salary surveys.
• Finalize how much the position will cost the organization by adding “fringe” to the salary. Fringe includes costs of benefits planned for the new role, including health and dental and life insurance, and retirement benefits, along with Workers Compensation and any pension plans. Note that, depending on the state in which you live, you may be required to pay certain employment taxes for part-time people, often if they are at or over half-time. For planning purposes, fringe might be estimated at 40% of the salary.
• Additional costs of the position result from training, equipment, rental of space, postage, copying, etc. You should develop a compensation program, with policies that outline the procedure for determination of salary and benefits.

5. Get feedback and authorization from the Board, in the case of corporations.

The Chief Executive Officer may want to work with the Board Chair to prepare for communication of the new job to the Board. Propose the new position to the Board by attaching a proposal letter to the drafted job description along with description of how the position will be funded and sending it to all Board members for their review before the next Board meeting. At the next Board meeting, invite open discussion and questions about the new role. Seek their authorization for the new position.

6. Finalize the job description.

Update the job description with relevant feedback from others. It is important that the job description be as accurate as possible because it is the basis for determining compensation, conveying the role to the new employee and conducting regular performance appraisals. Be sure to note the version of the job description by including the date on the bottom. The job description should be reviewed and updated annually, usually by the employee and supervisor during the performance review cycle.

Reference some of the Additional Perspectives on Defining New Jobs and Roles and Job Descriptions.

Then return to Staffing for the next step in the staffing process.

Additional Perspectives on Defining New Jobs and Roles and Job Descriptions

• Basics, Terms and Definitions (and Misconceptions) About Management
  
• Basic Terms in Training and Development
  
• Glossary of HR Terms
  
• Job, Role, Competency and Skills Analysis
• Resources for Work Design (Job Design, Task Design)
  
• Job Analysis: An Overview
• Job Analysis and links
• Wageweb Job Descriptions
• Standard Industrial Classifications (SIC) Index
• U.S. Office of Personnel Management General Schedule Position Classification Standards
• Job description samples, templates, profiles, duties, responsibilities and job specifications
• Sample Job Descriptions
• Job Analysis & Design, Recruitment, Selection, Outsourcing
• Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill
• Standard Industrial Classifications (SIC) Index

Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Defining a Job and Job Descriptions

In addition to the articles on this current page, see the following blogs which have posts related to Designing a Job and Job Descriptions. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the  blog.

• Library’s Human Resources Blog
• Library’s Leadership Blog
• Library’s Supervision Blog

For the Category of Human Resources:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

• Related Library Topics
• Recommended Books

All About Employee Staffing — Hiring and Keeping the Best Employees

• Much of the information in this topic is adapted from the books Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision in Business and Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision for Nonprofit Staff.

First, a Description and Some Definitions About Staffing

Before reviewing the many guidelines throughout this Library topic and its various subtopics, it might be useful to understand the most common terms used in staffing and, thus, included in many of the subtopics. The terms might become more clear as you progress through the guidelines in this overall topic of staffing in the Library. For now, try get a basic sense of what each means.

• Staffing includes a broad scope of activities — the activities are best depicted by glancing at the links listed below.
• The word hiring is sometimes used interchangeably with staffing, which does an injustice to the broad scope of activities involved in staffing. Hiring might be thought more specifically as screening the best job candidates, but especially making a formal job offer to the best candidate.
• Even before a new employee is hired to do a job, the job should be clearly designed or defined. A job is a collection of tasks and responsibilities that an employee is responsible to conduct. Jobs have titles.
• Job are usually designed by conducting a job analysis, which includes examining the tasks and sequences of tasks necessary to perform the job.
• A task is a typically defined as a unit of work, that is, a set of activities needed to produce some result, e.g., vacuuming a carpet, writing a memo, sorting the mail, etc. Complex positions in the organization may include a large number of tasks, which are sometimes referred to as functions.
• Note that a role is the set of responsibilities or expected results associated with a job. A job usually includes several roles.
• The job analysis also looks at the areas of knowledge, skills and abilities (the competencies) needed by the job. Typically, competencies are general descriptions of the abilities needed to perform a role in the organization. Ideally, competencies are even described in terms such that they can be measured.
• Job descriptions are often used to describe a job and include lists of the general tasks, functions and/or responsibilities of a position, whereas competencies list the abilities needed to conduct those tasks, functions and/or responsibilities. Typically, the descriptions also specify to whom the position reports, qualifications needed by the person in the job and salary range for the position.
• Staffing is sometimes considered to be a subset of the activities in Human Resource Management. To further confuse things, many people refer to Talent Management as the activities of Human Resource Management. Each of these phrases has its own topic in the Library and the introductory sections of each topic explain the use of that particular term.

Sections of This Topic Include

Staffing Process

• How to Know What Positions and Jobs Are Needed (Workforce Planning, Human Resource Planning)
• How to Design a New Job — a New Position or Role
• How to Best Organize New Staff Jobs and Roles
• How to Recruit the Best Job Candidates
• How to Screen Job Candidates
• How to Select and Hire the Best Job Candidate
• How to Orient the New Employee
• How to Train the New Employee
• How to Retain Your Best Employees
• Exit Interviews — When Employees Leave, What to Learn from Them

Special Topics

• Outsourcing — Using Contractors, Temporary Workers and/or Volunteers
• Outplacing and Downsizing
• How to Do Succession Planning of Key Roles in the Organization

Also consider

• Related Library Topics
• Basic Guide to Staffing and Supervision
• Basic Guide to Management and Supervision

Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Staffing

In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs that have posts related to Staffing. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.

• Library’s Human Resources Blog
• Library’s Leadership Blog
• Library’s Supervision Blog

For the Category of Human Resources:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

• Related Library Topics
• Recommended Books

How to Select and Hire the Best Job Candidate

Sections of This Topic Include

• How to Choose the Best Candidate 
• How to Hire the New Employee
• Additional Perspectives About Hiring

Also consider
Related Library Topics

Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Hiring the Best Job Candidate

In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs that have posts related to Hiring the Best Job Candidate. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.

• Library’s Human Resources Blog
• Library’s Leadership Blog
• Library’s Supervision Blog

(Before reading this topic, be sure to read the definitions and various steps in the staffing process to notice where this topic fits in the overall process.)

How to Choose the Best Candidate

© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD

At this point, there usually is one or two candidates who clearly stand out as the most qualified for the job. However, it is surprising how much interviewers’ impressions can change once they all have an opportunity to carefully discuss and consider all of the candidates. Be sure your approach to selecting the best candidate is a comprehensive and consistent approach.

Soon after interviews are completed, interviewers together select the best candidate.

Within one or at most two weeks after all interviews have been completed, convene the interviewers. Consider a consistent method to select the best candidate from among the interviewers. For example, mention the name of a candidate, and allow 15 minutes total for all interviewers to share their impressions of that candidate. Also share results of any comments from references and/or background checks. Repeat the process for each candidate. After all candidates have been discussed, then list the candidates again, this time having interviewers vote for the best candidate from the list.

If there does not seem to be suitable candidate, then consider the following:

Are the job requirements too stringent or an odd mix? For example, the job might require someone with strong technical skills and also someone with strong clerical skills. Those two types of skills are sometimes unusual to expect to mix together.

1. Reconfigure the job so that the nature of the required skills and training are somewhat similar and so that the overall nature of the job becomes more common.
2. Hire the candidate who most closely matched the requirements of the job and then plan for dedicated training to bring that person’s skills up to needed levels.
3. Re-advertise the position.
4. Get advice from a human resources professional. At this point, your need for their advice is probably quite specific, so they might provide services on a pro bono basis.
5. Hire a consultant for the position on a short-term basis, but only as a last resort as this may be quite expensive.

How to Hire the New Employee

© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD

You send a strong message to the candidate in the way that you provide the job offer to them. It is best to be both business-like and personal in your approach.

1. Provide a written job offer to the most qualified candidate.

The letter should come from the person who will be supervising the new employee. In the letter:

1. Convey that you are pleased to offer the job to the candidate.
2. Specify the exact amount of compensation offered to him/her.
3. Specify the benefits offered to him/her.
4. Specify the date on which to start the job.
5. Include a signature line that the candidate can sign.
6. Ask him/her to sign a copy of the offer letter and return it to you by a certain date. Give them at least one week to consider the job offer.
7. Mention if there is a probationary period and the length of the period.
8. Mention who he/she can contact if there are any questions.
9. Attach a copy of the job description to be sure that the offer is associated with the correct job.

2. If everyone declines the job offer, then consider the following:

1. Ask the best candidates why they declined the offer. Usually, you will hear the same concerns, for example, the pay is too low, the benefits incomplete, the organization seems confused about what it wants from the role, or the interview process seemed hostile or contentious.
2. Reconvene the interviewers and consider what you heard from the candidates. Recognize what went wrong and correct the problem. Contact your favorite candidate, admit the mistake and what you did to correct it, and why you would like to make an offer to him/her again.
3. Go to the second choice. Sometimes the process of re-examining the candidates can bring a second-choice candidate to the front.
4. Re-advertise the position.

3. Otherwise, start a personnel file for the new employee.

The personnel file with contain all of the job-related information and material, for example, the employee’s resume, job description, job offer, signed offer letter, completed tax withholding forms, signed forms for benefits, etc.

4. Do not forget to send letters to the candidates who did not get the job.

They deserve a sincere letter from you that thanks them for their consideration and for interviewing for the job. Clearly explain that another candidate most closely matched the qualifications specified in the job description. If you plan to retain their job applications, then mention that to them so they are aware that they still might be considered for other jobs that arise in the organization.

Return to Staffing for the next step in the staffing process.

Additional Perspectives About Hiring

Recommended Articles

• How to Prevent Hiring Disasters
• Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill
• Make Better Hiring Decisions

Additional Articles

• How to Prevent Hiring Disasters
• Personnel Selection: Overview
• The New Science of Selecting Employees (part one) – classic article from The Chally Group
• Is a Test
• Complete Guide to Human Resources for Small Business
• Should You Hire an Overqualified Candidate?
• Giving Job Offers
• Hiring Employees
• How to Prevent Hiring Disasters
• Recruiting Planning That Ensures a Superior Hire
• Job Analysis & Design, Recruitment, Selection, Outsourcing
• The Importance of Hiring Right
• The New Rules of Hiring
• How to Poach an Employee from a Competitor
• Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill
• How to Hire Family Members
• 7 Tips for Using Personality Tests to Hire
• Behavioral Interviewing: Hire The Right Person for the Job
• The Top 5 Hiring Mistakes
• Finding Employee’s Other Qualifying Factors, Part I
• Finding Employee’s Other Qualifying Factors, Part II
• Smart Hiring: 7 Best Practices for Selecting Top Talent
• 3 Criteria to Correctly Classify Employees by Dominique Molina
• Smart Hiring: Are You Doing It Right?

Testing Job Candidates

• Extensive range of online articles from HR-guide
• Putting Job Candidates to the Test
• Does “Behavioral Interviewing” of Job Candidates Really Work?

For the Category of Human Resources:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

• Related Library Topics
• Recommended Books

How to Do Exit Interviews

Various Perspectives on Exit Interviews

Perform Exit Interviews: Exit Interview Questions
How to avoid employee lawsuits: The exit interview
The Real Reason for Exit Interviews – hr
bartender
What to Do When Employees Resign

Also consider
Related Library Topics

Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related Exit Interviews

In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs
that have posts related to Exit Interviews. Scan down the blog’s page to see
various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar
of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog.
The blog also links to numerous free related resources.

Library’s
Human Resources Blog
Library’s
Leadership Blog
Library’s Supervision Blog

For the Category of Human Resources:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may
want to review some related topics, available from the link below.
Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been
selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

Related Library Topics

Recommended Books

Downsizing, Layoffs and Outplacing

Assembled by Carter
McNamara, MBA, PhD

Suggested Previous Reading

Guidelines, Methods and Resources for Organizational Change Agents

Various Perspectives

Managing after Downsizing
Serving the American Public:Best Practices in Downsizing
Leaving the
Nest – Surviving Layoffs
Layoffs
— The Reputable Way
Downsizing
With Dignity
Organizational
Downsizing: Definition, Strategies & Business Impacts
The
Worst Thing I’ve Ever Done in HR
The
tools – Downsizing

Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Downsizing

In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs
that have posts related to Downsizing. Scan down the blog’s page to see various
posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of
the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog.
The blog also links to numerous free related resources.

Library’s Consulting
and Organizational Development Blog
Library’s Leadership Blog
Library’s Supervision
Blog

For the Category of Organizational Development:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

Related Library Topics

Recommended Books

Basic Terms in Staffing of Employees

Sections of This Topic Include

Task
Job
Role
Work Measurement
Job Analysis
Job Description
Job Evaluation
Work Design and Job Design
Staffing Planning
General Resources

Also consider
Related Library Topics

Basic Terms in Staffing of Human Resources

Basic Terms in Staffing of Human Resources

Task

A task is a recurring activity, usually small in scope, that is required in
a job role, for example, completing a daily time card or operating an automobile.

Job

A job is a recurring set of similar tasks and responsibilities in order to
accomplish certain results in an organization.

Role

A role is a recurring activity, larger in scope than a task, that describes
the overall, recurring activities that a person does in an organization. Think
of a part that people play in the organization.

Work Measurement

From the Institute
for Management Services

Work measurement is the process of establishing the time that a given task
would take when performed by a qualified worker working at a defined level of
performance.

Job Analysis

From SHRM

Job analysis is the systematic study of a job to determine which
activities and responsibilities it includes, its relative importance to other
jobs, the personal qualifications necessary for the performance of the job and the
conditions under which the work is performed. An important concept in job analysis
is that the job, not the person doing the job, is assessed, even though HR may
collect some job analysis data from incumbents.

From HR Guide to the
Internet

Job Analysis is a process to identify and determine in detail
the particular job duties and requirements and the relative importance of these
duties for a given job. Job Analysis is a process where judgments are made about
data collected on a job.
What is the difference between
job design and job analysis?
Job Analysis:
An Overview
Job Analysis and links

The activities of a job analysis can suggest the activities needed
in a certain job. It can also suggest the roles and responsibilities in that
job. That, in turn, can generate a job description for that job.

Job Description

A job description is a written document that describes the roles
and responsibilities in a job. Job descriptions are often referenced to know
what to evaluate about an employee when completing employee appraisals (evaluations).

There are various different formats of job description including
title of the job position, brief summary description, minimum requirements to
qualify for performing the job (minimum certifications and years of experience),
job duties and any restrictions on performance (must be able to lift over 40
pounds).

Job Description
(Wikipedia overview)
How to
Design a New Job (how to create one)
Samples
of Job Descriptions (numerous samples)

Job Evaluation

A job evaluation is clarifying the focus, scope, and depth of different jobs,
usually, be comparing different, but similar, jobs to each other.

Work Design and Job Design

The Business Dictionary defines work design as:

An arrangement in the workplace that has the objective of overcoming
employee alienation and job dissatisfaction that comes about from mechanical
and repetitive tasks in the workplace. Work design is used by organizations
to boost productivity by offering employees non-monetary rewards such as satisfaction
from a greater sense of personal achievement. Also called job design.

From Wikipedia

Job design (also referred to as work design or task design) is
a core function of human resource management and it is related to the specification
of contents, methods, and relationship of jobs in order to satisfy technological
and organizational requirements as well as the social and personal requirements
of the job holder or the employee.

Work Design (Wikipedia)
Work Design
in an Organizational Context
Principles
of Good Work Design

Staffing Planning

The staffing plan specifies what positions, jobs, and/or roles
will be needed by the organization, usually over the next year, along with how
they will be organized into the organization, including who they will report
to and how they will work together.
How to Know What
Positions and Jobs Are Needed

General Resources

Basics, Terms and
Definitions (and Misconceptions) About Management
Basic
Terms in Training and Development
Glossary
of HR Terms
Job,
Role, Competency and Skills Analysis

Also consider
Organizing
or Reorganizing an Organization and Its Employees
Organizational Structures and Design

Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Human Resource Planning

In addition to the articles on this current page, see the following blogs which
have posts related to Human Resource Planning. Scan down the blog’s page to
see various posts. Also, see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of
the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog.

Library’s
Human Resources Blog
Library’s
Leadership Blog
Library’s
Supervision Blog

For the Category of Human Resources:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may
want to review some related topics, available from the link below.
Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been
selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

Related Library Topics

Recommended Books