Proper Company Staffing: Things Every Department Supervisor Should Know

Everyone who has ever managed a department knows that staffing is an integral part of it. On top of that, in today's business world most businesses want a lot done with the bare-minimum resources. Some people call it being efficient. Others call it trying to get blood from a rock. There are, however, some helpful tips that will hopefully make the staffing process a little less hectic and a little bit more of a pleasant experience for all involved.

One way to cut down on budget concerns is to hire temporary or seasonal workers. Hiring temporary or seasonal workers allows for you to match the workload with the proper number of employees to complete it. So theoretically when you have the most work to get accomplished you'll have the most employees working on it while when you have the least work to get accomplished you won't have a lot of people standing around. Temporary and seasonal workers are also excellent candidates for filling voids when regular employees quit or are on vacation. Why interview someone you don't know when you can interview someone who has worked for you before?

The interview process is also critical to staffing. Open ended questions are usually your best bet for trying to learn about a person. These are questions that avoid a yes or no response from the applicant. A common example of this would be asking them why they want to work for the company. You want to know about them and they probably want to know about you. Try to make them feel comfortable. Offering refreshments is often a good comfort builder. Remember they are applying for a job not at trial at the Spanish Inquisition. This is also where if you are really interested in hiring them you should try to get a feel for whether or not they are going to be a solid employee (i.e. not "sick" all the time and doing their work effectively and efficiently). Avoid asking any questions that could be discriminatory as well (i.e. race, ethnicity, natural origin, etc.).

A Supervisor should also definitely give the applicant a realistic job preview. Sugarcoating the the job too much could easily result in an upset employee who leaves in a few weeks and who may take employee morale down with their departure. One way to make a very realistic job preview would be to allow the applicant to take a guided tour of the business explaining how their job would relate to the functions at hand.