Class XII – Staffing – PYQs

Ans. Staffing is an important function of management. Following points highlight the same (any four)

(i) Obtaining Competent Personnel: It ensures the availability of the most suitable and capable person for various jobs.

(ii) Higher Performance: By placing the right person at the right job, it ensures better performance.

(iii) Continuous Survival and Growth: It ensures the continuous survival and growth of the enterprise, through the successive planning for building managers.

(iv) Optimum Utilisation of Human Resource: It helps in avoiding overmanning, underutilisation of manpower and high labour cost. It also helps in preventing the disruption of work by indicating in advance about the likely shortage of employees.

(v) Helps in achieving Organisational Goals: It improves job satisfaction by providing fair remuneration and regular assessment which helps in achieving organisational goals.

Ans. Specialised activities that Mr. Naresh is supposed to perform are

(i) Identifying job requirements

(ii) Recruitment of employees

(iii) Selection of employees

(iv) Placement and orientation

(v) Training and development of employees

(vi) Performance appraisal

(vii) Developing compensation and incentive plans

(viii) Handling grievances and complaints.

Ans. Staffing refers to putting right people on the right job. It begins with workforce planning and includes other functions like recruitment, selection, training, development, promotion, compensation and performance appraisal of workforce.

Staffing is an important function of management. Following points highlight the same

(i) Staffing ensures the availability of the most suitable and capable persons for various jobs.

(ii) By placing the right person at the right job, it ensures better performance.

(iii) Staffing ensures the continuous survival and growth of the enterprise, through the succession planning for managers.

(iv) It helps in avoiding over manning, underutilisation of manpower and high labour cost. It also helps in preventing the disruption of work by indicating in advance about the likely shortage of employees.

(v) It improves job satisfaction by providing fair remuneration and regular assessment.

Ans. (i) The internal/external sources of recruitment used by ‘Montac Enterprises Ltd.’ to fill up the above stated vacancies are

(a) Promotion: It is an internal source of recruitment in which an employee is shifted to a higher post. Leena’s vacancy was filled by using this source.

(b) Placement Agencies and Management Consultants: It is an external source of recruitment. These agencies provide a nationwide service in matching personnel demand and supply. Vikas’s vacancy was filled by using this source.

(c) Casual Callers It is again an external source of recruitment through which the organisations keep a database of unsolicited applicants in their files. Atul’s vacancy was filled by using this source.

(ii) One merit each of

Promotion: It helps to increase the motivation and satisfaction of employees.

Placement Agencies and Management Consultants: They help organisations to recruit technical, professional and managerial personnel easily.

Casual Callers: It is an inexpensive method of recruitment.

Ans. Merits of external sources of recruitment are

(i) Qualified Personnel: By using external sources of recruitment, the management can attract qualified and trained people to apply for the vacant jobs in the organisation.

(ii) Wider Choice: The management has a wider choice in selecting the people for employment.

(iii) Fresh Talent: It provides wider choice and brings new blood, new ideas and fresh talent into the organisation.

Ans. Limitations of external sources of recruitment are

(i) Dissatisfaction among Existing Employees: Recruitment from outside may cause dissatisfaction among the employees. They may feel that their chances of promotion are reduced.

(ii) Costly Process: A lot of money has to be spent on advertisement, therefore this is costly process.

(iii) Lengthy Process: It takes more time than internal sources of recruitment.

7. A company is manufacturing greeting cards. It prints 1,00,000 cards each day. But due to the arrival of Christmas and New Year, it has got an urgent order of extra 50,000 cards. Which method of recruitment do you suggest?

Ans. In order to complete the order in time, more people are required at short notice. Thus, labour contractor should be approached.

Labour contractors maintain close contacts with labourers and they can provide large number of workers at short notice. A drawback of this method is that if a conflict occurs with the contractor, the entire workforce quits from work.

Ans. Yes, internal sources of recruitment are considered to be more economical than external sources because

(i) the process of selection and placement is easier.

(ii) it fulfils the deficiency of one department with the surplus of another.

(iii) it does not involve much time, effort and money.

(iv) it facilitates training of employees.

Ans. Internal sources of recruitment have the following advantages/benefits

(i) Employee Motivation: Promotion to a higher level motivates the employee for better performance and leads to satisfaction of employees.

(ii) Simple Process: The process of selection and placement becomes simpler, as the background of the candidate is already known.

(iii) Facilitate Training: Transfer from one job to another facilitates training of employees.

Ans. Internal sources of recruitment suffer from the following limitations

(i) No Fresh Talent: Recruitment from internal sources does not bring fresh talent into the organisation.

(ii) Lethargic Employees: When employees are sure of time-bound promotions, they become lethargic.

(iii) No Competitive Spirit: Competitive spirit among the employees may get hampered.

(iv) Reduce Productivity: When employees are transferred frequently to different jobs, it results in reduced productivity

Ans. (i) Following are the steps that have been performed by Vandana Public School in the process of identifying and choosing the best candidate

(a) Preliminary Screening: It helps the manager to eliminate unqualified or unfit job seekers, based on the information supplied in the application forms.

(b) Selection Tests: A selection is a mechanism that attempts to measure certain characteristics of individuals. These characteristics range from aptitudes, such as manual dexterity, to intelligence to personality, etc. Selection test include different types of tests such as intelligence test, aptitude test, personality test, trade test, interest test, etc.

(c) Employment Interview” Interview is a formal, in[1]depth conversation, conducted to evaluate the applicant’s suitability for the job. Through an interview, an interviewer seeks to obtain maximum information about the interviewee and the interviewee seeks information about the job and the company. In the given case, Vandana Public School conduct a formal in-depth conversation with the principal and a panel of Maths experts.

(ii) The test which was conducted by the school is called ‘trade test’. It is a test used to measure the existing skills of an individual to perform a job

Ans. (i) Apprenticeship Training: Under this method, the trainee is placed under supervision of an experienced person (master worker) who imparts him necessary skills his performance. The trainee is given stipend while learning so that he/she can enjoy ‘earn while you learn’ scheme.

(ii) Internship Training: Under this method, an educational institute enters into an agreement with industrial enterprises for providing practical knowledge to its students by sending them to business organisations for gaining practical experience.

Ans. (i) Apprenticeship training

(ii) Following are the benefits that David could get on being trained

(a) He will have improved skills and knowledge due to training because it leads to better career for the individuals.

(b) He will have increased performance which helps him to earn more.

(c) Training makes him more efficient to handle machines and electric equipment’s, thus less prone to accidents.

Ans. The company has invested in training of employees. Training is a process of increasing the knowledge, skills and abilities of employees for doing a particular job.

Benefits of training in organisation are (any three)

(i) It enhances employee productivity both in terms of quantity and quality, leading to higher profits.

(ii) Training equips the future manager, who can takeover in case of emergency.

(iii) It increases employee morale, reduces absenteeism and employee turnover.

(iv) The systematic learning process teaches workers to make the most efficient use of resources.

(v) It help to keep pace with the rapid changes taking place in the technological and economic environment.

Ans. (i) The step in the staffing process discussed here is training and development.

(ii) The benefits of training and development to an organisation are as follows

(a) Training is a systematic learning, always better than hit and trial methods and results in minimum wastage of efforts and money.

(b) It enhances employee productivity both in terms of quantity and quality and leading to higher profits.

(c) Training equips the future manager, who can takeover in case of emergency.

(d) It increases employee morale, reduces absenteeism and employee turnover.

(e) It helps in obtaining effective response to fast changing environment.

Ans. The reasons are the disadvantages of external source of recruitment. These are

(i) Dissatisfaction among Existing Staff: The morale of the existing employees gets reduced due to which overall working of organisation is affected. It may lead to frustration among existing employees. They may feel that their chances of promotion are reduced.

(ii) Lengthy Process: Right from inviting application to induction training, it is a very lengthy process. Sometimes, it does not reap the matching benefits.

(iii) Costly Process: This type of recruitment is a costly process. It is a setback for organisation, if the productivity of new employees does not match the costs.

(iv) Adjustment Problem: New recruits take time to adjust in the organisation. This might turn to be a huge problem in a complex organisational structure.

Ans. Internal source of recruitment being used by ‘New range’ is transfer.

Transfer refers to shifting an employee from one job to another or one department to another without a substantive change in the responsibilities and status of the employee.

It may lead to changes in duties and working conditions, but no change in salary.

External sources of recruitment used by newrange are as follows:

(i) Direct Recruitment: Under this, a notice is placed on the notice board of the enterprise specifying the details of the jobs available. Job seekers assemble outside the premises of the organisation on a specific date and selection is done on the spot. It is usually used to employ ‘casual’ or ‘badli’ workers, who are paid remuneration on daily wage basis.

(ii) Placement Agencies and Management Consultants: These provide a nationwide service in matching personnel demand and supply. They compile the bio-data of large number of candidates and provide them to organisation on demand. Such agencies charge a fee for the service they provide to organisation. These professional recruiters act as a good source for recruitment of top executives resourced by company.

(iii) Campus Recruitment: Many organisations maintain a close link with universities, vocational and management institutes, in order to recruit fresh talent and qualified personnel. On one hand, it gives good opportunities to fresher’s to be employed in reputed firms and on the other hand, provide qualified manpower in a cost effective way.

(iv) Recommendations of Employees: Employees of an organisation recommend the names of their friends, relatives and neighbours, which prove to be a good external source of recruitment. It is a reliable source as the background of the suggested candidate is well known.

Ans. (i) Two sources of recruitment being used by Ganesh for filling up the various job positions are

(a) Line ‘‘His father requested ……… proposal.’’

Recommendations of Employees: In this source, applicants are introduced by present employees or their friends and relatives. Such employees are likely to be good employees as their background is sufficiently known.

(b) Line ‘‘For the appointment …… by the institute.’’

Campus Recruitment: It is a source in which organisations maintain a close liaison with educational institutions like universities, vocational schools and management institutes to recruit qualified personnel for technical, professional and managerial jobs.

(ii) Staffing is described as the management function of filling and keeping the positions filled in the organisational structure.

According to Koontz O’Donnell, ‘‘The managerial function of staffing involves the organisational structure through proper and effective selection, appraisal and development of personnel to fill the roles designed into the structure.’’

Ans. The important steps in the selection process are as follows

(i) Preliminary Screening: It helps the manager to eliminate unqualified or unfit job seekers, based on the information supplied in the application forms.

(ii) Selection Tests: An employment test is a mechanism that attempts to measure certain characteristics of individuals.

These characteristics range from aptitudes, such as manual dexterity, to intelligence, to personality, etc. Various types of selection tests are held like intelligence test, aptitude test, personality test, trade test, interest test etc.

(iii) Employment Interview: Interview is a formal, in-depth conversation, conducted to evaluate the applicant’s suitability for the job.

Through an interview, an interviewer seeks to obtain maximum information about the interviewee and the interviewee seeks information about the job and the company.

(iv) Reference and Background: Checks Many employers request names, addresses and telephone numbers of references for the purpose of verifying information and gaining additional information of an applicant. These references can be teachers, lecturers, previous employers and professors, who can give additional information about the candidate.

(v) Selection Decision: The final decision has to be made from among the candidates, who pass the tests, interviews and reference checks.

(vi) Medical Examination: After the selection decision and before the job offer, the candidate is required to undergo a medical fitness test. The job offer is given to the candidate, only if the candidate is physically and mentally fit for the job.

(vii) Job Offer: The next step in the selection process is job offer to those applicants, who have passed all the previous hurdles. It is made through a letter of appointment to confirm his acceptance, and communicating to him the reporting date and time.

(viii) Contract of Employment: When a candidate accepts the job offer, the contract of employment is made. It is in a written form and includes job title, duties, responsibilities, date when continuous employment starts and the basis for calculating service, rates of pay, allowances, hours of work, leave rules, sickness, grievance procedure, etc. The candidate also fills up the attestation form, giving the necessary details.