Backfill - What Is Backfilling And It''s Significance | HRM Hr Software

Rishikesh Kumar 5-6 minutes 20/12/2023

To fill in the backfill, replace an employee who has left their current job for an alternate role within the same company, or promotion, or to take a sabbatical for justified reasons or for quitting the job.

Here, we will learn:

• Definition of Backfill: What is Backfill
• Reasons for Backfilling
• Why Backfill
• Backfill Definition in Terms of Business
• Backfill – Why Do Organizations do it
• When is Backfilling Generally Required or Necessary
• What are the Issues or Liabilities Regarding the Backfilling
• Differences in the Backfilling between a Temporary and the Permanent Position
• Succession Planning: How does Succession Plan Impact Backfill Strategy

Reasons for Backfilling a Job Position

There can be multiple reasons why you want backfilling of some job position.

• The most basic of all these reasons is that the position holder of that job role is on a long leave—for instance, jury leaves, military leaves, or for any other reason. So, by backfilling a job position, you can replace that person; you have an estimation of how many days that person will be on leave.
• When one of your employees is sick, meets an unfortunate accident, or has gone on a long vacation, then you will certainly need to backfill that position.
• When an employee gets promoted, then you certainly need to backfill that position.
• If an employee gets terminated, resigns, or gets retired, then you have to fill that position.

Why Backfilling is Good

Backfilling proves advantageous for the following reasons:

• Keeps the cost in check. For example, when an employee leaves, work has to be managed by other employees for the position vacated. You either hire a temporary worker for it, or your other staff works overtime; both result in an increase in cost. The answer to that is somebody gets appointed when need be to save from the extra cost.
• It can lead to decreased productivity of the employees. For instance, if the rest of the employees are to undertake the said employee''s work who has been promoted, it may do nothing else but overburden them, with the possibility of getting bigoted and eventually becoming unproductive.
• It will still be impossible to get everything done and some of the tasks may get neglected in the process. For instance, the tasks which are needed in the current time may get done, but the ones that will have an effect on certain growth of the company in the long run may get ignored.

What is Backfilling in the Context of Employment

Bejeweled is the application of backfilling a position that has been abandoned by another employee previously. It may be because of job transfer to other posts, promotion, leave, resignation, termination of services, and the like. Backfilling, in a general sense, is filling up the vacancies that occurred but have not yet been accommodated or replaced. This can be caused by several reasons, but the usual cases are resignations, terminations, or the opening of newly created positions.

Most organizations resort to backfilling to reduce the overall cost to the company for that position, prevent their other employees from burnout due to extra workload of the employee who has left, and keep the company''s growth unaffected.

Although backfilling has no specific time in an organization''s calendar, the following factors outline when it becomes necessary or expected:

Usually backfilling is the situation where a certain existing post has become vacant, and this indeed does have many responsibilities which involve a lot of direct or indirect implications for the growth of the company.

What Challenges or Considerations are Associated with the Backfilling Process

There are some challenges experienced during the backfilling process as follow :

• On the other hand, though we talked recently about how, when done right, backfilling shrinks your total cost for a position, it also can be very, very expensive in some situations. For example, if your employee is on temporary paid leave, backfilling means paying two people for the same job. Viewed that way, it could get expensive.
• It can sometimes get a bit messy, though. For instance, replacing an employee who left for maternity break to maintain the headcount, during return, can get a wee bit complex and, at times, arguments bloom. Remember Rachel Green and Gavin from Friends when she went on leave for a maternity break? Oh, just how messy it got when she returned to work.

What Is Done Differently in the Backfilling Process of Temporary and Permanent Jobs

It''s filling the vacancy of a position that has been left vacant due to several reasons. At times the reasons can be temporary, such as someone is on leave, or a vacation or other times they can be permanent reasons like replacing the individual who has been promoted that has left the current role for the other position in the other department, or someone resigned or was terminated.

What role does succession planning play within that backfilling strategy?

With this backfilling strategy, having a succession planning will enable you, in advance, to be equipped by finding and training people to get into the key roles placed as soon as required for the organization.

Video Background Check - Meaning And Importance | HRMantra Hr Software

Sukriti Saini 01/07/2019 1 minute

Background Check or Background Screening is when an employer makes sure that everything on a job applicant''s resume is legit, such as the educational qualification, work experience, and the other credentials mentioned, using means like taking feedback from managers in their previous company, or cross-questioning the applicant.

A pre-employment practice that helps in recruiting an eligible, trustworthy, and capable workforce and helps in avoiding unwarranted chaos like inefficiency, poor quality of work, and wasted man-hours over a non-competent employee.

Under any mishap, to avoid that, this can be put up in the agreement as a signed proof, and if found guilty, the person can be sacked with a penalty amount. A rare practice.

Also Read: Background Verification

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