Drill into the core differences between staffing and resource management to see what sets them apart - and how they work together.
Grasping the difference between staffing and resource management — and the powerful ways they work in tandem — is paramount for building a high-performing organization.
Many people believe that staffing is what you do before new staff members join the company, while resource management is how you approach them after that happens. But it's not quite as simple as that.
There are, in fact, a ton of areas where these functions overlap. And there are even more scenarios where they can collaborate and support each other to achieve greater impact.
So, let's put our cross-functional thinking hats on and look at the difference between staffing and resource management - and how the two can work together.
Staffing focuses on recruiting, hiring, and assigning people to specific roles within the company. It can be done with long-term perspective in mind, or on short notice to alleviate resource constraints that might be blocking key work from progressing.
With staffing, you need to match the right person to the right job to close talent gaps. As a rule, you'll be working with a staffing plan that defines the number and type of employees you need to hire to achieve organizational objectives.
But where do these strategic staffing plans come from in the first place? That's where resource management comes into play.
In its simplest definition, resource management is about matching people to projects, scheduling their time, and making sure that there's adequate capacity to get all the work done on time.
But if you dig deeper, turns out there's much more to learn about the concept and its value to business success.
Resource management involves planning, allocating, and managing human resources to ensure maximum productivity. A resource manager needs to be able to accurately evaluate people's skills, see where they could bring most benefits, and look for ways to further improve and extend their knowledge with workforce development plans.
And in that sense, resource management is a strategic asset that can help companies do more with less.
As Nicole Tiefensee, COO of Runn, explains it, resource management is a lot more strategic than people tend to assume it is; and that the concept itself is evolving as best practice develops within the sector:
If I had to define resource management today, it is really about orchestrating your team in a way that boosts both your business and your workforce. It's about achieving nimbleness, aligning with business values and goals, and fostering growth – both for the company and the individuals within it."
The main difference between staffing and resource management is about the focus, scope, success metrics, and key responsibilities that define the two.
While they do cross paths in many of their aims and activities, there are some clear differences between what the HR department does and what the resource management office (RMO) does.
Essentially, staffing is concerned with the "who" of workforce needs (as well as the "where" they are going to come from).
Resource management, on the other hand, is more concerned with "how" individuals are deployed and utilized within the organization. However, it is important to resource management that "who" is brought into the organization is a good fit for the work that needs doing.
To get clear on these differences, let's look at the metrics that measure relative success of staffing and resource management activities:
Think of it as a relay race, where teams work together, passing down the baton to achieve a strategic goal. Where resource management leaves off, staffing picks up the race, and vice versa.
Resource management starts the race by identifying resource needs, skills gaps, and talent gaps, offering resource forecasts based on upcoming projects and workload requirements.
Staffing managers then use this data to anticipate recruitment needs and develop talent acquisition strategies.
For instance, if a skills gap is identified that will impact an upcoming project, resource management can trigger a hiring request - which is where staffing steps in to go hunting for the ideal candidates to fill these gaps.
Learn more: What is a resource request workflow? ➡️
Once the staffing team delivers that successful hire and supports them through their onboarding, strategic resource management takes over once again to ensure people's time is used with maximum efficiency.
But this is just one example of how these two functions work in tandem. Wherever there's the need for insight into how the workforce is performing, staffing and resource management have scope to collaborate.
Whether the goal is enhancing employee retention, strategically developing workforce capabilities for a pivot in business priorities, or working on cost control for project budgets, both functions have data and perspectives that can support each other.
As ongoing, intentional collaboration between resource management and staffing can yield such impactful results, it's important to ensure that both functions stay aligned in their goals.
Here's some pointers on how to achieve this:
As a part of effective resource management process, you need to regularly evaluate what skills your people have, where they could use some training, or whether they have upskilled since you hired them.
A skills inventory is the best place to keep track of people's skills and experience levels. This inventory makes it easy to uncover gaps and set out to get strategic hires that are more likely to become a valuable asset to the company.
At the same time, it will help you see where people have growth potential and how you can help them achieve it.
Getting oversight into current and developing skills gaps within your workforce will help both staffing and resource management align on their goals, so ensure that you stay curious about the state of skills in your organization - and investigate regularly.
Further reading: How to Perform a Skills Gap Analysis in Your Organization ➡️
It's in the best interests of both staffing and resource management to have input into how roles are scoped out and how L&D programs are planned and delivered.
Bear in mind that most people want to engage with meaningful challenges and growth opportunities: indeed, 86% of people are likely to leave their job if a new company offers them more opportunities for professional development.
In other words, if roles in your company offer little or no scope for growth and challenge, this can result in increased employee turnover - and thus unnecessary strain on the staffing team as they scramble to hire new employees, and pressure on the resource management team as they struggle with constrained resources.
Both staffing and resource management have strategic goals that can be helped along by growing the right skillsets and capabilities in the workforce. After all, it's often more cost effective to "build" in-house capability rather than to "buy" it from the labor marketplace - especially with in-demand technical skills.
So, once you have a skills inventory in place, see how it can be used to improve the employee experience and help people grow within their roles.
Further reading: Understanding Role Design: A Step-By-Step Guide ➡️
Staffing strategically - rather than haphazardly - relies on accurate resource forecasting.
Without insight into current capacity and constraints, and upcoming demand, staffing managers can only guess where the need for new resources will be felt most urgently.
But armed with reliable resource forecasts, they can act decisively to ensure that staffing shortages are avoided.
The resource management office (RMO) is responsible for resource forecasting - so, again, this is a key area for alignment. And the more granular you can get in your forecasting, the better.
This could mean you need to look into how you utilize past project data, how to do scenario planning, and whether you are equipped to engage in strategic capacity planning.
Learn more: Watch our on-demand webinar exploring Forecasting Best Practices for Resource Management ➡️
When it comes to resource management, it's vital to get transparency and visibility into resource data.
This is why it is so important to equip yourself with resource management software that can centralize all the information you might need about your resources.
Resource management software gives you the ability to track:
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While it will mostly be in use by resource managers, staffing managers can also leverage the information inside a resource management platform to understand where their staffing plans come from and how they can best meet the demands put forward.
With resource management in the lead, create a comprehensive approach to workforce planning. Here you need to go far beyond current staffing levels and venture into yearly planning territory.
You need to zoom out and see where you as a company want to be in a few years from now, and what that means in terms of workforce potential.
It's one of those unique cases where you need to look from both top-down and bottom-up perspectives, to understand how resource management and staffing can align in their initiatives.
In essence, to build a unified talent strategy you need to align the recruitment, development, and allocation of talent with organizational goals. This strategy will help you ensure that the organization has not only the right people but also the flexibility and resources needed to achieve strategic objectives.
With resource management and staffing seeing eye to eye on how they are going to approach human resource management, the main question to settle next is what tools they are going to use to guarantee success.
There are a lot of different options on the market - which is both good news and bad news. The good news is that amongst this wide range you are bound to find a tool that suits your organization perfectly.
The bad news is that you may have to kiss a few frogs before you find a prince.
But you don't have to start your search unprepared. Arm yourself with the knowledge you need to make an informed decision, and find a tool that supports a long-term strategic partnership between staffing and resource management.
The Buyer's Guide to Resource Management Software ➡️
The 11 Best Resource Management Tools (Honestly Reviewed) ➡️
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