Human Resource Planning

Human Resource Planning

INTRODUCTION

Planning the right man for right job and developing him into effective team member is an important function of every manager. It is because HR is an important corporate asset and performance of organizations depends upon the way it is put in use.

HRP is a deliberate strategy for acquisition, improvement and preservation of enterprise’s human resources. It is a managerial function aimed at coordinating the requirements, for and availability of different types of employees. This involves ensuring that the organization has enough of right kind of people at right time and also adjusting the requirements to the available supply.

MEANING OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNINGHuman resource planning is very essential for survival of the business. It is a process in which the HR department takes stock of its current scenario and prepares for the future. This is all with respect to the most vital resource of an organization--its employee. The HR department sees whether all departments in the organization are an appropriate size or not and also prepares for future job openings and vacancies.

DEFINITIONS OF HUMAN RESOURCE PALNNING

– “A strategy for the acquisition, utilization, improvement & retention of an organization’s human resources”

– HRP establish control: planner work as a “policeman” who checks whether staffing levels are optimum

– HRP is as a continuous process of analyzing an organization’s HR needs under the changing conditions & developing the activities necessary to satisfy these needs like staffing, recruitment, selection, training, etc.

FEATURES OF HUMAN REOURCE PLANNING• The HR planning process is a very methodical one. By adhering to this, the organization ensures that at all points in time; it has only those employees that it requires. Also, this is an on-going continuous process. Through out the organization's existence HR plans have to be drawn.

• This is the forecast of size and nature of human resource required for the organization in thefuture to achieve its strategic goals, or it is 'the process of ensuring that the human resourcerequirements of an organization are identified and plans are made for satisfying thoserequirements'.

• It is based on the belief that people are the most important strategic resource in any organization. It addresses human resource needs both in quantitative and qualitative terms, and hence answers two basic questions: first, how many people are needed? And second, what sort of people are needed? Human resource planning also looks at broader issues relating to the ways in which people are employed and developed in order to improve organizational performance. It can therefore play an important part in strategic human resource management.

OBJECTIVES OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING

• Hiring Employees : When a company hires new employees, it is often human resources managers that are responsible for interviewing new applicants to ensure the company’s needs are met. One major objective for human resources managers is to find the appropriate number of people with the best-fitted skills and experiences for the company’s needs. Experienced workers will get the work done for the lowest amount of funding with the goal of bringing in the maximum profits.

• Union Workers : Some workers are controlled by unionized laws and regulations. Companies operating under unionized regulations also have a human resources department. One major objective for unionized companies is to follow the union’s regulations and plans in regards to wages and salaries. This means respecting the requirements set out by the union, despite the performances and seniority of the company’s workers.

• Equality and Legality: Human resources workers are responsible for developing manuals and guides for employees and managers to follow, whether they are training manuals or safety guides. One major objective for the human resources department is to create guides and manuals that not only holds true for years to come, but also provide a planned method of completing tasks in the given company. These administrative guides give the company control over how employees perform tasks

• Administrative Manuals : Another major objective for a human resources department in terms of planning is to create plans, rules and regulations that meet the local and statewide laws in the given industry.

HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING PROCESSSTEP 1 Business Strategic Plan : Defining future activity levels and initiatives demanding new skills.

STEP 2Resourcing Strategy : Planning to achieve competitive advantage by developing intellectual capital - employing more capable people than rivals, ensuring that they develop organization specific knowledge and skills, and taking steps to become An' employer of choice'

STEP 3Scenario Planning : Assessing in broad terms where the organization is going in its environment and the implications for human resource requirements.

STEP 4Demand Supply Forecasting : Estimating the future demand of for people (numbers and skills), and assessing the number of people likely to be available from within and outside the organization.

STEP 5Labor Turnover Analysis : Analyzing actual labor turnover figures and trends as an input to supply forecasts.

STEP 6Work Environment Analysis : Analyzing the environment in which people work, in terms of the scope it provides for them to use and develop their skills and achieve job satisfaction.

STEP 7Operational Effectiveness Analysis : Analyzing productivity, the utilization of  people and the scope for increasing flexibility to respond to new and changing demands

ROLE OF HUMAN RESOURCE P LANNING PROFESSIONALS

HRP professionals have to perform the following roles that may be divided into three categories:

1) Administrative role– Managing the organizational resources– Employees welfare activities.

2) Strategic role– Formulating HR strategies– Managing relationships with managers.

3) Specialized role– Collecting and analyzing data– Designing and applying forecasting systems– Managing career development.

THE HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING PROCESSThe four phases or stages of HR planning:

Situation analysis or environmental scanning

Forecasting demand Analysis of the supply Development of action plans

BARRIERS TO HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING

1)HR practitioners are perceived as experts in handling personnel matters, but are not experts in managing business.

2) People question the importance or making HR practices future oriented and the role assigned to HR practitioners in formulation of organizational strategies. There are people when needed offer handsome packages of benefits to them to quit when you find them in surplus. When the task is so simple, where is the need for elaborate and time consuming planning for human resources.

3) Human resource planning is more likely concentrate on what skills will be needed in the future rather than concentrating on providing solutions for present problems

4) There is conflict between quantitative and qualitative approaches to HRP. Some people view HRP as a number game designed to track the flow of people across the department.

5) Non-involvement of operating managers renders HRP ineffective. HRP is not strictly an HR department function. Successful planning needs a co-coordinated effort on the part of operating managers and HR personnel

6) HR information often is incompatible with other information used in strategy formulation. Strategic planning efforts have long been oriented towards financial forecasting, often to the exclusion of other types of information. Financial forecasting takes precedence over HRP.

CONCLUSION Today, human resource planning is viewed as the way management comes to grasp the ill-defined and tough-to-solve human resource problems facing an organization. Human resource planning as a process of determining the human resources required by the organization to achieve its goals. Human resource planning also looks at broader issues relating to the ways in which people are employed and developed in order to improve organizational effectiveness. HRP is a decision making process that combines activities such as identifying and acquiring the right number of people with the proper skills, motivating them to achieve high performance and creating interactive links between business objectives are resource planning activities. Human Resource planning may be defined as a strategy for the acquisition, utilization, improvement and preservation of the human resources of. an enterprise. It is the activity of the management which is aimed at co-coordinating the requirements for and the availability of different types of employees.