HRM

1. MHRDIR 504: Staffing Organization
Course Teacher
Hare Krisna Kundo
Assistant Professor
Department of Public Administration

2. Chapter-2
Business and Staffing Strategies
• Learning Objectives:
1. How different staffing strategies support
different business strategies?
2. Resource based view of the firm and how
staffing can contribute to a company’s
sustainable competitive advantage?
3. When an organization would use talent
oriented rather than job oriented staffing?
4. Human capital advantage vs Human process
advantage

4. Starbucks’s staffing strategy:
- Hiring right employees
- Employees are
partners
- It sells also experience
- According to Jim
Donald (President):
“My biggest fear isn’t
the competition, although I respect it. It is
having a robust pipeline of people to open
and manage the stores who will also be able
to take their next steps with the company”.

5. Now the questions are:
How can Starbucks use staffing to
pursue its growth strategy and
maintain its competitive advantage?
What kind of staffing strategy would
you recommend to hire the right
people?

6. Why does one company
succeed and another
company fail?

7. Strategic Staffing
- It is simultaneously important to have organizational
capabilities generated by talented people along with
financial and technological capabilities.
- According to Steve Ballmer (CEO of Microsoft):
“You may have a technology or product that gives you
an edge, but your people determine whether you
develop the next winning technology or product”.
Different organizations follow different business
strategies, therefore, different staffing strategies are
required. Ex: Procter and Gamble

8. Resource-Based View of the Firm
Proposes that a company’s resources and
competencies can produce a sustained
competitive advantage by creating value for
customers by lowering costs, providing
something unique value, or some combinations
of two.
In short: P= KSA X M X E
1. Quality of the skills of workforce
2. Quality of motivational climate

9. Resource-Based view …
• Do all resources provide competitive advantage?
• Resources should be:
1. Valuable- to the firm
2. Rare – not be easily imitated by rivals
3. Not easily imitated
4. Not be easily substituted/replicated
However, the company must be organized to be
able to exploit the resources.

10. Firms’ Business Strategy
• Business Strategy: How a company will compete in its
marketplace?
• Sources of Competitive Advantage:
1. Innovation-develop new products/services
2. Cost- low cost provider
3. Service- Best customer support
4. Quality- highest quality
5. Branding- positive image
6. Distribution- dominate distribution channel
7. Speed- quick to reach to customers
8. Convenience- easy to use
9. First mover-

11. Types of Business Strategies
• Cost-Leadership Strategy:
The lowest cost producer for a particular level of
product quality.
- Ex: Wal-Mart, Dell Computer
It has achieved cost-leadership on the basis of
Operational Excellence.
Staffing Implications:
1. Trainable and flexible employees – avoid waste
2. Employees who have high salary expectations
are not desirable.

12. Types of Business stra …
3. Therefore, top talents are not required for
such organizations
4. Team work is important
5. Willing to follow standardized procedures

13. Types of Business stra …
• The Differentiation Strategy:
Developing a product or service that has unique
characteristics valued by customers.
Product innovation is the key
It enables a firm to charge premium price.
Example:
1. Image- Rolex watch, i-phone, Nike
2. Durability- ?
3. Quality- Lexus automobiles
4. Safety- Volvo
5. Usability- Apple Computer

14. Types of Business stra …
• Staffing Implications:
• Focus on not only related job experience but
also:
• Team Work, open minded, creative, interest in
learning, long-term focus, high tolerance for
ambiguity.
• Employees who want a stable job are not
suitable for this organization
• Top talent are required

15. Types of Business stra …
• Best Cost Provider Strategy:
Provide products/services at the lowest cost as
well the highest quality product.

16. Types of Business stra …
• Specialization Strategy (Focused):
Focusing on a narrow market segment or niche
and pursuing either a cost leadership or
differentiation strategy.
Customer intimacy, customer loyalty are the
key.
Example: Starbucks

17. Types of Business stra …
• Staffing Implications:
• Adaptable
• Learning oriented
• Networking skills
• Customer relations skill
• Emotional Resilience

18. Types of Business stra …
• Growth Strategy:
The growth can be organic- expanding business
operations by opening new factories or stores.
The growth can happen via merger or acquisition-
Staffing Implications:
1. Fit with culture
2. Future oriented
3. Flexible
4. Willing to take risks

19. Types of Business stra …
• Outsourcing Strategy:
Example: Intel
Staffing Implications:
-Identifying and attracting the best research and
development talent

20. How the organizational life cycle
affects staffing?
• Introduction Stage: attracting top talents is a
priority. Often offers higher compensation
than the market rate. Even often offer stock
options for companies with limited resources.
• Growth stage: high talents are important for
achieving and sustaining growth. Rapid career
progression in terms of promotion are offered
to retain the top talents.

21. How the organizational life cycle
affects staffing?
• Maturity Stage: Differentiation, low-cost
become the key strategies for maintaining the
market share. More talented, adaptive, and
innovative employees are required at this
stage.
• Declining Stage: At this stage low cost strategy
may work.

22. A Firm’s Talent Philosophy
• A system of beliefs about how a firm’s
employees should be treated.
• Different views:
-- Employees as partners
-- Employees as a source of expenditure
-- Employees as easily replaceable

23. The Firm’s Strategic Staffing Decisions
• Nine Elements of the Staffing Strategy:
1. Do we want a core or Flexible Workforce?
Core Workforce: regular employees, longer-term
Flexible workforce: Temporary, part-time, contract
workers. Less job security.
Example: UPS, FedEx use temporary workers for
holiday mail deliveries.
Organizations need to determine which jobs are
best for core and flexible workers and the
appropriate mix of each.

24. The Firm’s Strategic Staffing
Decisions…
2. Do we prefer to hire internally or externally?
Internal: Developing employees and promoting
from within to fill the vacancies.
External: Filling jobs with new employees hired
from outside.
Which one is the better choice?

25. The Firm’s Strategic Staffing
Decisions…
3. Do we want to hire for or train and develop
needed skills?
Choice between hiring readymade employees from
outside or to Train own people.
Example: McDonalds’s – Hamburger University
4. Do We want to replace or retain our talent?
Replacement: is beneficial for infusion of new
talents from outside in the fast changing industry,
when there is abundant supply of skilled
workforce in the market.

26. The Firm’s Strategic Staffing
Decisions…
• Retaining: important for more loyal and
committed employees, when required workforce
are not available in the market.
5. Which Skills and what level of them we seek?
Objectively analyzing the job to determine the skill
is important.
A firm operating in rapidly changing business
environment requires more adaptable, willing to
learn employees.

27. The Firm’s Strategic Staffing
Decisions…
6. Should we pursue proactive or reactive
strategy?
Proactive: Staffing done before situations arise.
Reactive: Staffing done in response to situations.
Job oriented Staffing: Hiring to fill a specific job
opening.
Talent oriented Staffing: Recruiting and even hiring
without a specific job opening.

28. The Firm’s Strategic Staffing
Decisions…
7. Which jobs should we focus on?
-Identify key jobs, not all jobs are of similar
importance.
8. Is Staffing an investment or a cost?
- The average organization spend 48 days and
$3270 to fill an open position.
- It should be viewed as an investment not a cost,.
- Ex: a top performer is 127% more productive
than an average performer.

29. The Firm’s Strategic Staffing
Decisions…
9. Should our staffing function be centralized or
decentralized?
Centralized: all staffing activities are channeled
through one unit.
Decentralized: different business units of a
company house their own staffing functions.
Combined Approach: ????????

30. Human Capital vs Human Process
Resource stock and process capabilities reflect
the difference between human capital and
human process advantage.
Human Capital Advantage: Acquiring a stock of
quality talent that creates a competitive
advantage
Human Process Advantage: by getting works
done in a superior way. Learning, cooperation,
innovation are the key.

31. Starbucks’s Staffing Strategy
Starbucks needs to offer premium service to command
premium price.
Starbucks tries to hire adaptable, self-motivated, passionate,
and creative team players.
Starbucks treats its partners as investors by also investing in
them.
Starbucks offers competitive wages and benefits (health,
tuition reimbursement, vacation, stock options).

32. Challenges of becoming a Strategic
Partner
1. Avoid strategic plans on top shelf
2. Create a balance scorecard
3. Align HR plans to business plans
4. Watch out for quick fixes
5. Create a capability focus within the firm

33. Overcoming the challenges
• Participation in the business planning process
• Understanding the business issues
• Participation in business task forces
• Fostering systems thinking
• Ensuring program management of workforce
planning; succession planning; retaining
• Providing support to group-wide or sector
initiatives
• Championing the company way and management
practices