Smart Hiring: Strategic Staffing Plans

This article, by Carol Patton in University Business, looks at ways a number of institutions are looking strategically at hiring and retention practices.

[A]s schools look toward the future, staffing becomes a big question mark. More and more baby boomers are exiting the workforce, which is fueling the skilled labor shortage. Some institutional leaders are concerned that they won't be ready, that they will be unable to recruit the talent they desperately need. So they're focusing their energies on designing strategic staffing plans that enable them to explore their school's risks and vulnerabilities as well as marketplace opportunities in order to build a competent labor force.

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HR leaders need to ask themselves two questions: Does HR hire people to fill jobs? Or does it recruit candidates who can grow into positions that reflect the changing marketplace? If your practices are more in line with the first option, watch out. Your staff could be stuck in neutral, unable to develop new skills demanded by their new environment. High turnover is usually one of the symptoms.