Lessons of Strategic Staffing from Indian Premier League (IPL)
The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 is a professional Twenty 20 cricket league established by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007.This year players' auction brought many surprises in the Pink city of Jaipur. There were 70 slots available for the IPL 2019 for all the eight franchise for the upcoming edition. 226 Indian players had signed up for the auctions whereas 125 overseas players had made the cut.
There were fixed ground rules for the IPL auctions & I related it with the strategic staffing in the following ways :
- Is staffing an investment or a cost ? : If we look into the most expensive players this year , Jaydev Unadkat (Rs 8.4 crore - Rajasthan Royals) , The mystery spinner, Varun Chakravarty grabbed eyeballs in the IPL auction when he was picked by Kings XI Punjab for a whopping price of INR 8.40 crores.
The investments made in staffing can lead to financial returns in terms of higher performance & productivity Just as effective investments in marketing and advertising can lead to a larger & more profitable customer base , investments in staffing can generate a greater no. of high quality professionals who will contribute to the success of the organisation .But the overall budget for staffing remains fixed . As for this year Salary cap of the entire squad must not exceed 80 crores .
2. The commitment to Diversity : In IPL A Team can play a maximum of 4 overseas players in their playing eleven .And there must be minimum of 14 Indian players, out of which minimum 6 players from the BCCI (Board of Cricket Control in India) under-22 pool must be included in each squad.
The lesson from the above is Diversity is important . According to Hubburd , EE , Diversity Leadership , 2006) a well managed heterogeneous group will generally outperform homo genius groups in problem solving,innovation & creative solution building which is critical to business success. Here a heterogeneous group of 6 players of under-22,14 Indian players & 4 overseas players make the diversified team .
3. Effective Sourcing Strategy :
In IPL 2019 : A team can acquire players through any of the three ways .
1. The annual player auction
2. Trading players with other Teams during the trading windows
3. Signing replacements for unavailable players
Similarly a Recruiting source is effective if it helps a company meet its staffing goals for the position being filled. The firm's staffing goals might include Speed , Cost & Candidate & new hire quality. because recruiting sources differ in their strengths & weaknesses , it is best to be familiar with a variety of sources.
This type of strategic staffing efforts is likely to produce a greater proportion of successful hires and a greater proportion of higher performing employees ( players in case of IPL) as well.