Staffing and recruitment are the terms used interchangeably by many people when hiring candidates for certain job profiles. However, there are some key differences between them.
Picture this: Your company is looking for someone to fill an open position because the person who held the said position decided to quit. Now, there are two options you could choose from to find the right person for the job, and they are recruiting or staffing.
Let’s enlighten ourselves by understanding the difference between Recruitment and Staffing.
What Is Staffing?
Staffing is when hiring managers hire the most fitting candidates for an open position in their company. Usually, these candidates apply for the job on their own. Staffing starts from when the employee is hired until he leaves the company.
The HR team of a company evaluates the workforce requirement and encourages job seekers to apply for vacant positions. And when the people send in their applications for the vacant posts, the person in charge of hiring would have to screen and interview them to see if they would be suitable for the position. When they select the best candidates who they deem fit for the open position, they ensure that they go welcome, train and retain them.
The staffing process involves the following steps:
- Determining Workforce Requirement: The concerned person will factor in the workforce required per the company’s vacant posts.
- Recruiting: Once the workforce requirement has been determined, they will then proceed to recruit the ideal candidate(s) for the vacant post(s) by encouraging them to submit their job applications.
- Selecting The Best: From the many candidates who have submitted their job applications, the hiring managers will then shortlist the best ones with the right skill sets, experience and qualifications and eventually offer the job to the candidates who meet all the criteria for specific roles.
- Onboarding: The new hires are then introduced to the company through orientation.
- Training The New Recruit: Different companies have different systems in place for training new recruits. While some opt for the “buddy system”, some companies prefer to train their employees by placing them directly under their supervisor or a trainer.
- Upskilling: The new recruits have ample amount of time to develop their skills or pick up new ones as demanded by their roles and responsibilities. This also allows employers to evaluate the capabilities of the new hires.
- Promoting The Employee: After training and being comfortable in their job roles, employees, who have done their jobs exceptionally well, are often awarded in ways of promotions or remunerations.
- Transferring The Employee: In some cases, employees are transferred to a different department within the organisation if they possess the required skills for the vacant posts.
- Performance Appraisal: Employees’ performances are evaluated and reviewed regularly by the employer, and they are given rewards or constructive criticisms based on their performance.
- Compensating The Employee: Based on the duration of time the employees have been with the company and their work performance, their wage structures are assessed and compensated accordingly.
The human resources team must ensure that they follow a systematic hiring and development process to acquire the best talent for the open positions. This way, they will be able to get an employee with the right skill sets, experience and qualifications.
What Is Recruitment?
Recruitment occurs when recruiters search and find potential candidates for a job. The selection process, which is also done in staffing, enables recruiters to select the best person to fill a vacant post from a pool of skilled candidates.
The recruitment process involves the following steps:
- Assessing The Workforce Requirement: The people in charge of hiring new employees to coordinate with different departments within the company to ensure that vacant positions are filled as soon as possible. They then determine what to look for in candidates, such as skills, experience and qualifications.
- Creating The Job Description: After a clear idea of what kind of candidates to look for, the hiring managers create a JD (job description) that meets the demands of the roles.
- Searching For The Right Candidates: After a comprehensive JD is created, the hiring managers then publicise the job vacancy via various communication channels, such as social media platforms, media ads, job portals, employee referrals, etc., to reach out to job seekers.
- Screening, Shortlisting And Interviewing Candidates: From the many resumes the hiring managers receive, they screen and shortlist the ones they deem fit for the job profiles. They then contact the shortlisted candidates and conduct job interviews via telephone, video or face-to-face.
- Offering Employment: Candidates who clear all the interview rounds are then offered the job.
Companies can use their internal recruiting personnel or hire external help from offline or online agencies or job portals such as contract-jobs.com to attract applicants to apply for open positions. In this process, the recruiters screen the candidates’ resumes and call the suitable ones for interviews. Unlike staffing, recruitment only lasts till the right person is hired for the job.
In internal recruitment, hiring managers consider existing employees within their company for the vacant position. Such employees are offered promotions or temporary roles. Referrals from employees, job postings and recruitment programs, among others, are some of the few examples of external recruitment.
Staffing Vs Recruiting
The table below depicts the difference between staffing and recruitment based on different factors.
| Basis Of Comparison | Staffing | Recruiting |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Staffing is the process of encouraging, hiring, training, and maintaining employees for the company. | Recruitment is the process of searching for candidates with the right skills and experience for the job and encouraging them to apply for the vacant position available |
| Scope | Wide as it involves various steps, and recruitment is a part of it. | Limited as it involves just one step. |
| Duration | Staffing is a lengthy and continuous process. | Recruitment is short-term. |
| Type Of Function | It is a management function. | It is a constituent of staffing. |
| Occurrence | It occurs at all levels of employment. | It occurs in the initial stage of employment. |
Conclusion: Finding the right person for the job is crucial for the company’s success. So, the people in charge of hiring should make sure that they follow a systematic hiring process to find the right candidates.
We hope this article helps you understand the difference between staffing and recruitment.
We will leave you here with our best wishes.
Good luck!
