Republic of the Philippines

PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY

Goa, Camarines Sur

College of Engineering and Technology

Module 5.0
STAFFING THE ENGINEERING ORGANIZATION
Name of Student: ___________________ Week Number: Week 4
Course Code: E-9
Course Title: Engineering Management

I. Objectives
 Know the definition of staffing
 Describe the steps in staffing procedure for technical organization

II. Lessons

Engineering organizations are very sensitive to whatever staffing errors are made.
Placing the wrong person in a highly specialized position like quality control, for
instance, may bring untold damages to the firm. Yet, this refers to a single error only.

Medina, Roberto, Engineering Management

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 Republic of the Philippines
PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Goa, Camarines Sur

Staffing technical Organization

- The management function of staffing involves finding, attracting and
keeping personnel of the quality and quantity needed to meet the organization’s
goals.1
- Management function that determines human resource needs,
recruits, selects, trains and develops human resources for jobs created by
an organization2
- Undertaken to match people with jobs so that the realization of the organization’s objectives will
be facilitated.

Staffing Procedure
1. Human Resource Planning
2. Recruitment
3. Selection
4. Induction and Orientation
5. Training and Development
6. Performance appraisal
7. Employment decisions (monetary rewards,
transfers, promotions and demotions
8. Separations

1. Human Resource Planning

- The planned output of any organization will require a systematic deployment of human resources at various
levels.
- To be able to do this, engineer manager will have to involve himself with the human resource planning in
conjunction with the human resource officer of the company.
3 activities involve in human resource planning:
1. Forecasting - assessment of the future human resource needs in relation to the current capabilities of an
organization.
2. Programming - means translating the forecasted human resource needs to personnel objectives
and goals.
3. Evaluation and Control - refers to monitoring human resource action plans and evaluating their
success.
Methods of Forecasting
- Can be done using the following quantitative method
1. Time series methods - use historical data to develop forecast of the future.
2. Explanatory, causal models - which are attempts to identify the major variables that
are related to or have caused particular past conditions and then use current measures of
these variables to predict future conditions

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 Republic of the Philippines
PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Goa, Camarines Sur

Types of explanatory models:

a. Regression models
b. Econometric models - a system of regression equations estimated from past time-
series data and used to show the effect of various independent variables on various
dependent variables
c. Leading indicators - time series that anticipate business cycle turns.

3. Monitoring Method - those that provide early warning signals of significant

changes in established patterns and relationships so that the engineer manager can assess
the likely impact and plan responses if requires.
2. Recruitment
- after identifying the different positions, next step is to fill them up, thus the recruitment process
- refers to attracting qualified persons to apply for vacant positions in the company so that those who are best
suited to serve the company may be selected.
Source of Applicants
1. Organization’s current employees.
2. Newspaper advertising
3. Schools
4. Referrals from employees
5. Recruitment firms
6. Competitors

3. Selection
- the act of choosing from those that are available the individuals most likely to succeed on the job.
- requisite for effective selection is the preparation of a list indicating that an adequate pool of candidates is
available.
- purpose of selection is to evaluate each candidate and to pick the most suited for the position available.
- selection procedures may be simple or complex depending on the costs of a wrong decision.
- when position under consideration involves special skills, a more elaborate selection process is undertaken.
Ways of Determining the Qualifications of a Job Candidate
1. Application blanks - provides information about a person’s characteristics such as age, marital status,
address, educational background, experience, and special interests.
2. References - are those written by previous employers, co-workers, teachers, club officers, etc.
Their statement may provide some vital information on the character of the applicant.
3. Interviews - information may be gathered in an interview by asking a series of relevant
questions to the job candidate.
4. Testing - involves evaluation of the future behavior or performance of an individual.
Types of Test
1. Psychological tests - an objective, standard measure of a sample behavior
Classified into:

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 Republic of the Philippines
PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Goa, Camarines Sur

a. Aptitude test - used to measure a person’s capacity or potential ability to learn

b. Performance test - used to measure a person’s current knowledge of a subject
c. Personality test - used to measure personality traits as dominance, sociability and
conformity
d. Interest test - used to measure a person’s interest in various fields of works
2. Physical Test - a type of test given to assess the physical health of an applicant. It is given to
assure that the health of the applicant is adequate to meet the job requirements.

4. Induction and Orientation

- after an applicant is finally selected from among various ones and subsequently hires, the next
steps undertaken are induction and orientation.
- In induction, the new employee is provided with the necessary information about he company.
- His duties, responsibilities and benefits are relayed to him.
- Personnel and health forms are filled up and passes are issued
- The company history, its products and services and the organization structure are explained to
the new employee.
- In orientation, the new employee is introduced to immediate working environment and co-
workers.
- The following are discussed: location, rules, equipment, procedures and training plans.
- The new employee also undergoes the socialization process by pairing him with an experienced
employee and having a one on one discussion with the manager.

5. Training and development

- Refers to the learning that is provided in order to improve performance on the present job. 3
- 2 general types of Training program
1. Training programs for non-managers
2. Training and educational programs for executives
Training for Non-Managers
- Directed to no managers for specific increases in skill and knowledge to perform a particular job
- 4 methods under this type are:
1. On-the Job-training - trainer is placed in an actual work situation under the direction
of his immediate supervisor, who acts as trainer. This situation motivates strongly the trainee
to learn.
2. Vestibule school - trainee is placed in a situation almost exactly the same as the workplace
where machines, materials and time constraints are present. As the trainer works full time,
the trainee is assured of sufficient attention from him.
3. Apprenticeship program - where a combination of on-the job training and
experiences with classroom instruction in particular subjects are provided to trainees.
4. Special courses - provide emphasis on education rather than training.
Training Programs for Managers

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 Republic of the Philippines
PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Goa, Camarines Sur

Training needs of managers may be classified into 4 areas:

1. Decision-making skills
2. Interpersonal skills
3. Job knowledge
4. Organizational knowledge
Decision-Making Skills
- Maybe enhanced through any of the following methods of training:
1. In-basket - trainee is provided with set of notes, messages, telephone calls, letters and
reports, all pertaining to a certain company situation.
- He is expected to handle the situation within a given period of 1 to 2 hrs.
2. Management Games - training method where “trainees are faced with a simulated situation and
are required to make an ongoing series of decisions about that situation.
3. Case Studies - this method presents actual situations in an organization and enable one to
examine successful and unsuccessful operations.
Interpersonal competence
1. Role-playing - is a method by which the trainees are assigned roles to play in a given case
incident.
2. Behavior modeling - this method attempts to influence the trainee by “showing model persons
behaving the effectively in a problem situation
3. Sensitivity training - under this method, awareness and sensitivity to behavioral patterns of
oneself and others are developed.
4. Transactional analysis - training method intended to help individuals not only to understand
themselves and others but also improve their interpersonal skills
Job Knowledge (actual job of the manager)
1. On the job experience - this method provides valuable opportunities for the trainee to learn
various skills while actually engaged in the performance of a job
2. Coaching - this method requires a senior manager to assist a lower level manager by teaching
him the needed skills and generally providing directions, advice, and helpful criticism. The senior
manager must be skilled and have the ability to educate
3. Understudy - manager works as assistant to a higher-level manager

Organizational knowledge
To increase the trainee’s knowledge of the total organization, exposure to information and events
outside of his immediate job is made.
1. Position rotation - the manager is given assignments in a variety of departments
2. Multiple management - a junior board of directors is created consisting of a junior executive as
members. The board is given the authority to discuss problems that the senior board could
discuss. The members are encouraged to take a broad business outlook rather than
concentrating on their specialized line of works.

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 Republic of the Philippines
PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Goa, Camarines Sur

6. Performance Appraisal
- purpose for which are as follows:
1. To influence, in a positive manner, employee performance and development
2. To determine merit pay increase
3. To plan for future performance goals
4. To determine training and development needs
5. To assess the promotional potential employees
Way of Appraising Performance
1. Rating scale method - each traits or characteristics to be rated is represented by a line or scale
on which the rater indicates the degree to which the individual possess the trait or characteristics
2. Essay method - evaluator composes statements that best describe the person evaluated.
3. Management by the objective method - where specific goals are set collaboratively for the
organization as a whole, for various subunits and for each individual
4. Assessment center method - where one is evaluated by other persons other than immediate
superior
5. Checklist method - the evaluator checks statements on the list and are deemed to
characterize an employee’s behavior
6. Work standard method- standards set for the realistic worker output and later on used in
evaluating the performance of non-managerial employees.
7. Ranking methods - where each evaluator arranges employees in rank order from the best to
poorest
8. Critical incident method - evaluator recalls and writes down specific incidents that indicate
the employee’s performance

7. Employment Decisions
- After evaluating Performance of employee, the management will now be ready to make employment
decision.
1. Monetary rewards
2. Promotion
3. Transfer
4. Demotion
8. Separation
- Either voluntarily or involuntarily
- Involuntary separation or termination is the last resort for employee’s poor performance or due to violations
to rules and regulations of the company.

III. ASSESSMENT
1. Why is staffing an important function of an engineer manager
2. Give 3 ways companies do to attract possible applicants for vacant positions.
3. Why is performance appraisal an important part of the staffing procedure?

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 Republic of the Philippines
PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Goa, Camarines Sur

4. What is the implication of the cost of the “wrong decision” in the selection process?

5. As engineering technologists, what position (exact company position) in a company would you like
to apply for and why?

IV. REFERENCES
1Morse Lucy C., Babcock, Daniel L., Managing Engineering and Technology, 6th Edition, Pearson Education Limited
2014
2Rue, Leslie W.m Byers, Lloyd L., Management Theory and Application, 4th Ed., Homewood, Illinois; Irwin, N.D.
Medina, R.G., 1999, Engineering Management, 1st edition
Higgins, James M., The Management Challenge, New York: MacMillan Publishing Co.,1991, p. G-10
Parker, Sybil P., Encyclopedia of Engineering 2nd Edition, New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc. 1993, p. 164
Parker, Sybil P., Encyclopedia of Engineering 2nd Edition, New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc. 1993, p. 164
Weston, Fred J and Brigham, Eugene F., Essentials of managerial Finance, 9th Edition, Chicago: The Dryden Press,
1990, p. 362
Aldag and Stearns, p. G-17
Dilworth, James, B., Production and Operations management, Third Edition, New York: random House, 1986, p. 142
Brigham, Eugen F, Gapenski, Louis, C., Financial management, Theory and Practice, 6th Edition, New York: The Dryden
Press, 1991, p. 921

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