Staffing in Plant Engineering

Peter Drucker assigns three responsibilities to management viz. managing work, managing workers and managing managers. The staffing function of management involves the discharge of the second and third of these responsibilities. Staffing function involves in filling the positions in the organisation structure. This is done by identifying requirements of work force and force to managing this force. The staffing encompasses recruiting, selecting, placing, promoting, appraising, career planning, compensating and training or developing both aspiring candidates and current job holders so that tasks are accomplished effectively and efficiently. This function is very challenging in the maintenance/plant engineering since the staff required for Plant Engineering must have sound knowledge, highly skilled, spontaneous action, accept challenges, willing to risk bearing and should be fully aware of all the facets of the job.

Staffing function is continuous and is performed by the maintenance management even in a going concern too since it covers the processes of developing work skills and executives. The planning of executive or managerial resources, the planning and administration of management development programmes, the appraisal of executive performance and the administration of executive compensation are all parts of the staffing function of management in an established organisation. In a single sentence staffing can be defined as "Assigning right men to the right job". Lawrence Appley writes "managers would be more skilled and competent if they were carefully chosen, specifically trained, constantly kept up to date in their field of activity, guided in their development for the supposition of greater responsibility and adequately rewarded." And it is to be carefully digested & applied by the top management, particularly to Plant Engineering department since every manager or engineer and his staff at their own level wilfully takes high risk and greater responsibility.