Staffing vs. Recruitment

Staffing, one of the most crucial functionality of Human Resource Management Domain is often used interchangeably with the term recruitment. But do these terms connote the same set of steps and processes? Is it correct to use these two terms interchangeably? The answer is a No. Recruitment forms only a part of the process of staffing.

Need for staffing arises when some vacancies are created in the organization, or requirements for more human resources are generated owing to some new project or expansion of business. Recruitment refers to all the set of activities or processes that generate a large applicant pool that will come to the ‘gate’ of the company for evaluation by way of sending resumes or applying through web portals.  This set of activities include identifying the most time and cost efficient processes of generating application pool, and then executing the necessary steps to attract applicants. Application pool is mostly generated through employee referrals, headhunting, placement agencies etc.

Now, once a sufficiently large applicant pool is generated, next step is to filter those applicants by carrying out the first level of screening process. This screening process mainly focuses on filtering out those applicants who fail to meet the threshold criteria for the specified job or position. Rest of the applicants are allowed to enter the ‘gate’ of the organization and are now referred to as candidates.

Candidates now have to face the multi-level interview process. There may be filtering of candidates at the end of each round of interview or filtering may take place at the end of the entire interview process based on the aggregate scores obtained by the candidates. Interview process ends with the selection of few finalists who are given provisional offer letters. This entire process commencing from the moment candidates were allowed to enter the ‘gate’ of the organization till the offering of provisional letters to a few finalists is known as selection process.

Finalists are given a time-window to communicate their decision about offering or rejecting the offer made the organization. The finalists accepting the offer are asked to report on a particular date. Once they join the organization, they are put on a probation period for a fixed duration of time and known as probationers from the very day of joining the organization. After the probation period is over, probationers are confirmed after being evaluated in terms of their performance during the probation period. Only then, they can be technically termed as ‘hired’.  In some organizations, the probation period may not exist, and finalists can be said to be ‘hired’ since the day they join the organization.

This entire process is known as staffing. So, staffing encompasses the various processes an organization sequentially goes through in order to successfully fill a vacant position or a new requirement. Recruitment forms only the initial step of staffing.