Year after year, English-as-a-foreign-language (ESL) programs at Saudi universities are experiencing significant increases in student enrollment. The current staffing conditions do not accommodate the enrollment demands. ESL programs are having difficulties in retaining experienced native-speaking teachers and in hiring qualified substitute instructors. This study explores the current staffing status and language and translation departments at 7 Saudi universities, describes the staffing status in men and women's departments in terms of faculty numbers, faculty qualifications, faculty nationality, faculty teaching load, male and female student enrollments, total number of hours offered, numbers of sections offered, and section size; cause of faculty shortage; and how the faculty shortage is covered. Demographic data about faculty, courses offered, and student enrollment were collected. In addition, department heads and ESL coordinators were interviewed concerning the staffing needs, causes of faculty shortage, how the shortage is covered and hiring practices. It was found that women's departments are more under-staffed than men's departments. Understaffing is caused by the Ministry of Higher Education's open admission policy, lack of communication and coordination between department heads and decision makers, and insufficient communication channels between English departments and job applicants. Technology is not used by most universities in the job advertising and hiring processes. Job vacancies are not advertised on the internet, information about vacancies is not available online, e-mail is not used in correspondence, and no online interviews (teleconferencing) are conducted. Other factors include insufficient funding, university and government employment policies and regulations, inefficient manpower planning, lack of prediction studies, high competition in neighboring countries, limited sources, and others. The study recommends that the King Fahad University staffing model is followed by other universities, in addition to an outline of a recruitment plan to meet faculty supply needs for ESL programs and to increase the collaboration between departments and decision makers will be provided.