Human Resource Planning

INTRODUCTION

Human resource is the most important asset of an organization. The planning of human resources an important function. It ensures adequate supply, proper quantity & quality as well as effective utilization of human resources. Human resource planning is the process by which a management determine show an organization should move from its current manpower position to its desire manpower position. Through planning a management strives to have right number &the right kind of people at the right place ,at the right time to do things which results in both the organization & the individual getting long time benefits.

The basic purpose of having a human resource plan is to have an accurate estimate of the number of employees required, with matching skill requirements to meet organizational objectives. Organisation needs to do human resourse planning so that they can meet business objectives and gain competitive advantage over competitors.Human resourse planning compares the present state of the organization with its goal for the future, then identifies what changes it must make in its human resourse to meet those goals.

It provides information about the manner in which existing personnel are employed, the kind of skills required for different categories of jobs and human resource requirements over a period of time in relation to organizational objectives.

It would also give an indication of the lead time is available to select and train the required number of additional manpower

Manpower planning or HR planning are synonymous. HR planning is more broad-based. Hereinafter, we will call it Human Resource Planning or HRP in short.Human resource planning is the process of anticipating and carryingout the movement of people into, within, and out of the organization. Human resources planning is done to achieve the optimum use of human resources and to have the correct number and types of employees needed to meet organizational goals. We also can say that, Human resource planning is the process of systematically reviewing human resource requirements to ensure that the required numbers of employees with the required skills are available when and where they are needed.

Definition of Human Resources Planning (HRP)

HRP can be defined as the task of assessing and anticipating the skill, knowledge and labor time requirements of the organization, and initiating action to fulfill or

‘source” those requirements. Thus, if the organization as a whole or one of its subsystem is not performing to the benchmark, in other words, it is declining, it may need to plan a reduction or redeploys its existing labor force. On the other hand, if it is growing or diversifying, it might need to find and tap into a source of suitably skilled labor.

Definitions by expert  

Coleman has defined HR/MP planning as “The Process of determining manpower requirements and the means for meeting those requirements in order to carry out the integrated plan of the organization.”

Stainer defines manpower planning as “Strategy for acquisition, utilization, improvement and preservation of an enterprise’s human resources.”

FEATURES OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING :

1) Strategic Planning

The human resources leader is generally the person with whom executive leadership has the most communication. The goal of human resources is to bolster the company’s reputation through hiring, training and promoting employees who represent the company’s highest level of service and product delivery. Strategic planning from the human resources perspective also means that the human resources leader plays an integral role in the development of organization-wide goals and objectives. For many years, human resources was considered merely an administrative section of the organization concerned only with processing new hires, payroll, health insurance forms. Today, human resources leaders with progressive companies are represented at the executive level in vice president and assistant vice president roles to provide strategic development for business success.

2) Human Resources Development

Training, development and motivation are activities in which human resources professionals engage to prepare the current workforce for the challenging demands that future goals and objectives bring. Development of employee skills, providing training to help employees gain new job skills and motivating employees are part

of the human resources development arm of the department. Human resources development often underlies the organization’s succession planning, therefore, the training and development of future leaders is determined as executive leadership assesses the skills, capabilities and aptitude demonstrated by current supervisors, manager and leaders within the company. Succession planning can ensure the company has a seamless transition in promoting the best qualified individuals to roles that will lead the company into future success.

3) Work Force Planning

The recruitment and selection section of the human resources department is involved in this aspect of human resources planning. Work force planning involves projecting future employment trends, conducting workforce studies to discern the level of employees that will need to be hired, and keeping abreast of graduates from institutes and universities who will be entering the work force ready for careers. Work force planning also includes looking inward at the current work force to determine which employees have the skills, aptitude and desire to move into other positions with the company. Recruiters and human resources leaders look at occupational and employment projections as well because this type of data is essential to planning the human capital value of the company future. The State of Texas Workforce Planning Guide contains several important factors pertaining to workforce planning and development: provides a clear rationale for linking expenditures for training and retraining, development, career counseling, and recruiting efforts. It helps maintain or improve a diversified workforce. It helps an agency prepare for restructuring, reducing or expanding its workforce.

4) Forecasting future manpower requirements, where we use mathematical projections, to project trends in the economic environment and development of the industry.

5) Making an inventory of present manpower resources and assessing the extent to which these resources are employed optimally. Procuring competent personnel requires positive recruitment efforts and the development of a variety of recruitment sources. These sources must consider not only the nature and conditions of the external labor market, but also the presence of qualified personnel who are available to fill vacancies through internal promotions or transfers.

6) Anticipating manpower problems by projecting present resources into the future and comparing them with the forecast of requirements to determine their adequacy, both quantitatively and qualitatively.

NEED FOR HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING.

Human Resource Planning is a mandatory part of every organization’s annual planning process. Every organization that plans for its business goals for the year also plans for how it will go about achieving them, and therein the planning for the human resource:

To carry on its work, each organization needs competent staff with the necessary qualifications, skills, knowledge, work experience and aptitude for work.

Since employees exit and organization both naturally (as a result of superannuation) and unnaturally (as a result of resignation), there is an on-going need for hiring replacement staff to augment employee exit. Otherwise, work would be impacted.

In order to meet the need for more employees due to organizational growth and expansion, this in turn calls for larger quantities of the same goods and services as well as new goods. This growth could be rapid or gradual depending on the nature of the business, its competitors, its position in the market and the general economy.

Often organizations might need to replace the nature of the present workforce as a result of its changing needs, therefore the need to hire new set of employees. To meet the challenge of the changed needs of technology / product/service innovation the existing employees need to be trained or new skill sets induced into the organization.

Manpower planning is also needed in order to identify an organizations need to reduce its workforce. In situations where the organization is faced with severe revenue and growth limitations it might need to plan well to manage how it will reduce its workforce. Options such as redeployment and outplacement can be planned for and executed properly.

OBJECTIVES OF HUMAN RESOURSE PLANNING

* Providing an accessible, speedy, cost-effective, bi-lingual and responsive service for departmental management, individual members of staff, and other clients of Human Resources. This service will include the provision of strategic vision, specialist advice and practical support.

* Consulting and seeking the views of Deans of Colleges, Heads of Schools / Departments and Senior Managers on staffing and employment related matters, in order to devise policies and practices which meet the existing and developing needs of the University and its component parts, and advising colleagues of developments as necessary.

* Implementing the Human Resource Strategy in order to address issues relating to collaboration with other HEI, the management of change, staff recruitment and retention, equal opportunity and equal pay systems, reward and motivation, the progression and development of staff, HR forecasting and planning, and staff performance and review.

* Developing an integrated set of HR policy statements, codes of practice and guidelines to ensure that common standards prevail throughout the University, and through liaison with the OHSU, ensure that due and proper consideration of health and safety issues is reflected in its policies; providing high quality management information, recommendations and advice to senior colleagues on HR issues, employment law, statutory compliance, national and local collective agreements, and professional good practice.

* Introducing and maintaining appropriate conditions of service for all staff groups, and to promote greater harmonisation of basic conditions and entitlements throughout the University.

* Managing consultation and collective bargaining arrangements with recognised trade unions and staff representatives, by fostering a spirit of partnership, cooperation and mutual understanding, and by implementing effective communications networks with staff generally.

* Reviewing existing reward structures, pay systems, progression procedures, and grade structures.

* Develop, monitor and report on the progress of the University’s Strategic Equality Plan and Action Plan to ensure that the principles of equality are embedded in all University functions and that the University meets the requirements laid out in equality legislation.

* Providing individual members of staff with information relating to staff development and training opportunities, pay and other benefits, pension scheme entitlements, retirement options, flexible working arrangements and Family Friendly policies.

* Providing advice and support to Deans of Colleges and Heads of Schools / Departments on the management of health, welfare, grievance or disciplinary matters relating to an individual member, or group, of staff.

* Producing and maintaining an up-to-date information handbook for Deans of Colleges and Heads of Schools / Departments and members of staff.

TYPES OF PLANS

There are nine types of plans, such as, philosophy, purpose, objectives, strategies,policies, procedures and rules, programs and budgets. Now we shall discuss inbrief each of these types of plans.

1) Philosophy: The organizations’ role that they wish to play in society in terms ofphilosophy. The philosophy of the company should have clarity of thought andaction in the accomplishment of economic objectives of a country. Thephilosophy bridges the gap between society and the company.

2) Purpose: Every kind of organized group activities or operations has a purpose.For example, the purpose of a bank is to accept deposits and grant loans andadvances.

3) Objectives: Objectives are the ends towards which organizational activity isaimed. Every department has its own objectives which may not be completelysame as of the other department or organization.

4) Strategies: Strategy is determination of the basic long term objectives of anenterprise and the adoption of courses of action and allocation of resources

necessary to achieve these goals.

5) Policies: Policies are general statements or understandings which guide ordirect thinking and action in decision making. However, all policies are notstatements.

6) Procedure and Rules: Procedures are plans that establish a desired method ofhandling future activities. They detail the exact manner in which a certainactivity must be accomplished.

7) Programs: These are complexes of goals, policies, procedures, taskassigment rules, steps to be taken, or sources to be employed and other elementsnecessary to carry out a given course of action.

8) Budget: A budget is a statement of expected results in terms of members. It maybe referred to as a numerical program. Cash budget, sales budget, capitalexpenditure budget are some of the examples of budget.

STEPS IN HUMAN RESOURSE PLANNING PROCESS

Human resources planning is a process that identifies current and future human resources needs for an organization to achieve it goals. Human resources planning should serve as a link between human resources management and the overall strategic plan of an organization. Aging worker populations in most western countries and growing demands for qualified workers in developing economies have underscored the importance of effective Human Resources Planning.

As defined by Bulla and Scott (1994), human resource planning is ‘the process for ensuring that the human resource requirements of an organization are identified and plans are made for satisfying those requirements’. Reilly (2003) defined

workforce planning as: ‘A process in which an organization attempts to estimate the demand for labour and evaluate the size, nature and sources of supply which will be required to meet the demand.’ Human resource planning includes creating an employer brand, retention strategy, absence management strategy, flexibility strategy, talent management strategy, recruitment and selection strategy.

Human resource planning is the responsibility of all managers. It focuses on the demand and supply of labour and involves the acquisition, development and departure of people. This is recognised as a vital HR function as the success of an organisation depends on its employees.

The purpose of HR planning is to ensure that a predetermined number of persons with the correct skills are available at a specified time in the future. Thus, HR planning systematically identifies what must be done to guarantee the availability of the human resources needed by an organisation to meet its strategic business objectives. To achieve this HR planning cannot be undertaken in isolation. It must be linked to the organisation’s overall business strategy, and concentrate on the organisation’s long-range human resource requirements.

Process of Human Resource Planning

1.Analysing the Corporate Level Strategies: – Human Resource Planning should start with analysing corporate level strategies which include expansion, diversification, mergers, acquisitions, reduction in operations, technology to be used, method of production etc. Therefore Human Resource Planning should begin with analysing the corporate plans of the organisation before setting out on fulfilling its tasks.

2. Demand forecasting: – Forecasting the overall human resource requirement in accordance with the organisational plans is one of the key aspects of demand forecasting. Forecasting of quality of human resources like skills, knowledge, values and capabilities needed in addition to quantity of human resources is done through the following methods: -a. Executive or Managerial Judgement: – Here the managers decide the number of employees in the future. They adopt one of the three approaches mentioned below: -

Bottom-Up approach: – Here the concerned supervisors send their proposals to the top officials who compare these with the organisational plans, make necessary adjustments and finalise them.

Top-Down approach: – Here the management prepares the requirements and sends the information downwards to the supervisory –level who finalises the draft and approves it.

Participative Approach: – Here the supervisors and the management sit together and projections are made after joint consultations.

Drawbacks

The chief drawback of these methods is that estimation of manpower is made using guesswork.

b. Statistical Techniques: – These methods use statistical methods and mathematical techniques to forecast and predict the supply and demand of Human Resources in the future.

Ratio-Trend analysis: – In this method depending on the past data regarding number of employees in each department, like production department, sales department, marketing department and workload level, etc ratios for manpower are estimated. Past values are plotted and extrapolated to get fairly accurate future projections.

c. Work Study method: – This technique is suitable to study the correlation between volume of work and labour i.e. demand for human resources is estimated based on the workload. Work study method is more appropriate for repetitive and manual jobs when it is possible to measure work and set standards.

d. Delphi Technique: – ‘Delphi’ Technique is named after the Greek Oracle at the city of Delphi. In this method, the views of different experts related to the industry are taken into consideration and then a consensus about the Human Resource requirement is arrived at. Delphi technique is used primarily to assess long-term needs of human resource.

3. Analysing Human Resource Supply: – Every organisation has two sources of supply of Human Resources: Internal & External. Internally, human resources can be obtained for certain posts through promotions and transfers. In order to judge the internal supply of human resources in future human resource inventory or human resource audit is necessary. Human resource inventory helps in determining and evaluating the quantity of internal human resources available. Once the future internal supply is estimated, supply of external human resources is analysed.

4. Estimating manpower gaps: – Manpower gaps can be identified by comparing demand and supply forecasts. Such comparison will reveal either deficit or surplus of Human Resources in the future. Deficit suggests the number of persons to be recruited from outside, whereas surplus implies redundant employees to be re-deployed or terminated. Employees estimated to be deficient can be trained while employees with higher, better skills may be given more enriched jobs.

5. Action Planning: – Once the manpower gaps are identified, plans are prepared to bridge these gaps. Plans to meet the surplus manpower may be redeployment in other departments and retrenchment. People may be persuaded to quit voluntarily through a golden handshake. Deficit can be met through recruitment, selection, transfer and promotion. In view of shortage of certain skilled employees, the organisation has to take care not only of recruitment but also retention of existing employees. Hence, the organisation has to plan for retaining of existing employees.

6. Modify the Organisational plans: – If future supply of human resources form all the external sources is estimated to be inadequate or less than the requirement, the manpower planner has to suggest to the management regarding the alterations or modifications in the organisational plans.7. Controlling and Review: – After the action plans are implemented, human resource structure and the processes should be controlled and reviewed with a view to keep them in accordance with action plans.

FORECASTING TECHNIQUES

Forecasting techniques vary from simple to sophisticated ones. It may be stated thatorganizations generally follow more than one technique. The techniques are:

1) HR Demand Forecast

Demand forecast is the process of estimating the future quantity and quality of peoplerequired. The basis of the forecast must be the annual budget and long term corporateplan, translated into activity levels for each function and department.Demand forecasting must consider several factors — both external as well as internal.

The external factors are competition, economic climate, laws and regulatory bodies,changes in technology and social factors. Internal factors include budget constraints,production levels, new products and services, organizational structure and employeeseparations.

2) HR Supply Forecast

Personnel Demand analysis provides the manager with the means of estimating thenumber and kind of employees that will be required. The next step for the managementis to determine whether it will be able to procure the required number of personnel andthe sources for such procurement. This information is provided by supply forecasting.Supply forecasting measures the number of people likely to be available from withinand outside an organization, after making allowance for absenteeism, internalmovements and promotions, wastage and changes in hours and other conditions ofwork.

3) New Venture Analysis

New venture analysis will be useful when new ventures contemplate employmentplanning. This technique requires planners to estimate HR needs in line withcompanies that perform similar operations. For example, a petroleum company thatplans to open a coal mine can estimate its future employment by determiningemployment levels of other coal mines.

4) Other Forecasting Methods

The organizations follow more than one technique for forecasting their peoples’ needs.L&T, for example, follows ‘bottom-up’ of management judgement and work studytechniques for demand forecasting. Forecasting process in L&T begins duringNovember of every year. The Department heads prepare their personnel estimates(based on details of production budget supplied to them) and submit the estimates to

the respective personnel managers. The personnel heads will review the estimates withthe departmental heads and will send final reports to Bombay office where centralizedHR department is located. Estimates are reviewed by the HR department and finalfigures are made known to those personnel managers who initiate steps to hire therequired number of people in the following year. The forecast is made for once in Fiveyears, but is broken down to yearly requirements.We turn now to approaches to human resource planning and discuss some importanttrends that will affect organization, employees, and job applicants alike. Each of thesesteps is discussed below in detail.

EXAMINING EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL ISSUES

External and internal issues are the forces that drive human resource planning. Anissue is any event or trend that has the potential to affect human resource outcomes,such as employee motivation, turnover, absenteeism, the number and types ofemployees needed and so forth. External issues are events or trends outside of theorganization, such as work force demographics and technology. Internal issues refer toevents or trends within the organization, such as business strategy, organizationsstructure and company profitability..

1) Work Force Demographics: Potentially important external issue is the compositionof the national workforce. Specifically, there are likely to be changes in the social,gender and age composition of the workforce. Asians will comprise a large percentageof the workforce in the future. Women are also expected to comprise a large segmentof the workforce than in the past. The number of married women who are employedhas doubled since 1970. The increased participation of women will have a pressure onorganizations to provide pro-family policies, such as flexi time, and child care to

support working mothers. Increased representation of minorities will result in moreemphasis on diversity programs to ensure harmonious relations between workersfrom different racial and ethnic groups.

2) Technology: Organization are investing so much amount on information technologyduring the 1980s. Given the size of the investment, a variety of changes in the humanresource area have occurred. Human resource requirements have come downdrastically due to technological changes.There are many organizations who have announced plans to reduce its workforcearound 50 per cent employees as a result of technological changes. Now that you haveread about some of the external issues that affect human resource planning, you willlearn about some important internal issues.

3) Organizational Structure: Many businesses today are changing their organizationalstructure. Organizational structure refers to how work tasks are assigned, who reportsto whom, how communications and decisions are made? As part of their restructuringduring some companies are creating teams to perform the work.Business Strategy: The approach that a company adopts in conducting business isreferred to as its business strategy. For example, a particular company may adoptstrategy on quality enhancement, cost reduction and so on and so forth. It is importantfor organizations to monitor both the internal and external environment to anticipateand understand the issues that will affect human resources in the future.

DETERMINING FUTURE ORGANIZATIONAL CAPABILITIES

The second step of the human resource planning process involves an analysis of futureorganizational or personal capabilities. Capabilities include the skill level ofemployees, productivity rates and number of employees, etc.

In the past, more emphasis was on predicting the number of employees of humanresource supply the company was likely to have in the future. Organizations may usevarieties of procedures to estimate the supply. These procedures are generallycategories as either quantitative which use mathematical or statistical procedures orqualitative which use subjective judgment approaches.

The quantitative procedure generally use past information about job categories and thenumber of people retiring, being terminated, leaving the organization voluntarily andbeing promoted. One of the most well known quantitative procedures is the Markovanalysis. This technique uses historical rates of promotion, transfer and turnover toestimate future availabilities in the workforce. Based on the past abilities, one canestimate the number of employees who will be in various positions within theorganization in the future. Qualitative or judgmental approaches are much morepopular in forecasting human resource supplies.

Among the most frequent used methods are replacement planning, succession planning and vacancy analysis. Replacement planning evolves an assessment of potential candidates to replace existing executives and other top level managers as they retire or leave for otherorganizations. Succession planning is similar to replacement planning, except that it ismore long term and developmentally oriented. Finally, vacancy analysis is much likethe Markov analysis, except that it is based on managerial judgments of theprobabilities. If knowledgeable experts provide estimates, vacancy analysis may bequite accurate.

In recent years, organizations have become concerned with a broader range of issuesof future capabilities. For example, organizations have begun to estimate their futureproductivity levels. Towards this end, bench marking is a technique that has becomepopular. Bench marking involves comprising an organization’s human resource

practices and programs to other organizations.

Although bench marking often focuses on an organization’s competitors, best practicesbench marking focuses on the programs and policies used by outstandingorganization. For example, Federal express, leadership evaluation system, employeesurvey program and total quality management efforts are frequently studied byother organizations because of their reputations.

DETERMINING FUTURE ORGANIZATIONAL NEEDS

In this step, the organization must determine what is human resource needs will be inthe future. This includes the number of employees that will be needed, the types ofskills that will be required. Productivity rates needed to complete successfully. Thereare methods for examining the future number of employees, also several proceduresare there for predicting the number of employees needed in the future. This is referredto as the human resource demand two basic approaches or estimating human resourcedemand are qualitative and quantitative methods.

Two quantitative techniques for estimating human resource demand are ratio analysisand regression analysis. Ratio analysis involves comparing the number of employeesto some index of work load. If your organization was planning its future training anddevelopment (T&D) staffing demand in five years, you could estimate the number of

employees likely to be employed by the company in five years. And then use this ratioto determine the number of T&D employees needed in given years. For example, ifyour company was expecting to have 5,000 employees in five years, this ratio wouldsuggest that around 21 T&D employees would be needed.

Regression analysis relies on factors or predictors that determine the demand foremployees, such as revenues, degree of automation, and so forth. Information on thesepredictors from past years, as well as the number of workers employees in each ofthese years is used to produce an equation or formula. The organization can then enterexpected figures for the predictors, such as revenues and degree of automation into theformula to obtain an estimated number of employees needed in future years.Regression analysis is more sophisticated than ratio analysis and should lead to moreaccurate predictions of employee demand. Although both procedures are widely used,they have their weaknesses. A major weakness is the factors that were related toworkforce size may not be relevant factors in future years.

Turning now to qualitative tools for estimating the demand for employees, the mostcommon tool is the bottom-up forecast where department managers make estimates offuture human resource demands based on issues, such as new positions needed,positions to be eliminated or not filled, expected overtime hours to be worked bytemporary, part-time or independent contractor employees and expected changes inworkload by department. Like any other technique, bottom-up forecasting has itsshortcomings. For instance, line managers may overestimate the demand in order toensure that they don’t find themselves understaffed.

IMPLEMENTING HUMAN RESOURCE PROGRAM TO ADDRESS ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS

In this step the organization must determine the gaps between future capabilities andfuture needs and then employ the necessary human resource programs to avoid theproblems arising from these gaps.In implementing a new human resource program, following basic steps arerecommended to obtain employee acceptance.

1) Communicate need for the program: Employees would like to know whythe program is being reduced. Many people believe the old saying “If it aint’sbroke, don’t fix it”. It is imperative to explain, then exactly why the change isneeded.

2) Explain the program: Management must explain precisely what theprogram is, how it will be implemented and what its effects will be on otherpractices and programs.

3) Explain what is expected of the employees: Management must discuss how thebehaviours of employees are expected to change as a result of the newprogram system. For example, implementation of a new pay for performancesystem may also redirect employee activities.

4) Establish feedback mechanisms: No matter how carefully planned andimplemented, almost any new policy or practice is likely to lead to questions andproblems. It is critical, therefore, for mechanisms to be established to resolveproblems and answer concerns that arise. Such mechanisms may include atelephone hotline, ongoing survey program as well as a dispute resolutionpolicy. Finally, utility analysis is a relatively recent approach to choosing which, if any,human resource programs should be implemented. Utility analysis and relatedapproaches such as human resource accounting, consider the financial benefits versus

the costs of any human resource program and attempt to base choice of aprogram on its rupee value of the organization. Using such techniques organizationsare able to determine the best way to invest money in employees.

ROLE OF HRP PROFESSIONALS

HRP professionals have to perform the following roles that may be divided into threecategories: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– Managaing career development.

These roles are neither necessarily found in every HRP work, nor they are evenlyweighed in time allocation. Many combinations of roles are possible with differentfocuses based on circumstances of the organization. The first two roles managingrelationships with managers and for mutating strategies are weighed equally. The

activities in these areas are equally important to HRP because of the implicit purposesof anticipating and implementing change in the organization. The strategic roles arecrucial to the HR professionals effectiveness. These skills are very difficult to developwhen compared to administrative skills. The administrative aspects of the work arerepresented in managing the staff function of HRP and in managing employeewelfare activities. These aspects are often seen as supplementary to other aspects anddemand a lot of attention. The remaining three roles represent specialized functionsperformed. Primary attention is given to a combination of three categories ofactivities – collecting and analyzing data, deisgning and applying forecasting systemsand managing career development. These activities are new to the HR function inmany organizations, and are closely linked with the mission of anticipating andmanaging change. Accordingly, they are viewed as central roles of HRPProfessionals.

IMPACT OF HUMAN RESOUCE PLANNING

HRP itself is a process of determining human resources needs in the future and ofmonitoring responses to these needs. HRP links a company’s business plans andbroad objectives with the specific programs and other HRM activities.Organizations need to learn to forecast HR needs more effectively. More analytictechniques, driven by strategic planning are vital. Organizations must learn tomanage employee performance more effectively. Even though performancemeasurement is complex and ill-defined, yet it is critical to effective management forthis very reason. Organizations must also learn to manage careers of their employeesmore effectively.

1) Impact of Technology on HRP

In order to cope with the competition, organizations have to ensure on:

a) Producing goods and services more efficiently and economically.b) Innovating product and processes so as to gain competitive advantages.

Advances in computer technology have offered organizations new opportunities toenhance and streamline their processes. Computer aided design (CAD), and computeraided manufacturing (CAM) reduce human resource involvement and shrink the cycletime. Advances in information technology has reduced efforts required in impacting,retrieval, processing, and sharing of data. Accurate and timely information can bemade available to different levels of management for decision making. All thesechanges in technology result in a change in occupational and skill profile ofmanpower.

Different manufacturing technologies have different skills required to design, operateand maintain the machines and equipment. Also, the same technology can have adifferent impact on different categories of workers and industries. The actual skillimplications of technology change will depend on:

a) Management policy for deployment of manpowerb) Attitudes bargaining strength of the unionc) Ability of manpower to adjust and adopt to the new technology.

According to ILO, introduction of new technology can affect other aspects of workinglike workers responsibilities, skill requirements, job-content, physical and mental workload, career prospects and communication and social relationships at workplace.Skills and knowledge are required for operating and maintaining new technology andparticipating in innovative processes. The manual content of skill tends to decrease forskilled workers and office staff but requirements for mathematical skills and ability toplan and anticipate future situations tend to increase. The methods, systems and styleof management also need changes in line with high skill demands on personnel. Amore democratic and decentralized management style is necessary to motivate highlyeducated employees.

The present education system of our country is inadequate to match the technologicalneeds. The syllabus is outdated, teachers are not fully acquainted with the newtechnology and there is a lack of infrastructure facilities. Therefore, companies willhave to provide appropriate training to add these skills. Manpower planners shouldkeep in mind this requirement and also the requirement of retraining. There may alsobe a need for rationalization of the trade structure because of multi-skilling. Forexample, traditional and relatively conceived metal trades which date back to 1930shave been replaced by six broadly defined occupations. Lathe, mulling, grinding couldbe clubbed as cutting mechanics, production engineering, machine and systems.Engineering, precision engineering and light engineering could be put as industrialmechanics. In office context, we now require persons who are computer trained andalso operate other office equipment such as fax, and Xeroxing machines – this will also require restructuring of employees.

2) HR ProgrammingOnce an organizations personnel and supply are forecast, the two must be reconciledin order that vacancies can be filled by the right employees at the right time. HRprogramming assumes greater importance in the planning process.Implementation is nothing but converting an HR plan into action. A series of actionprograms are initiated as a part of HR plan implementation. Some suchprograms are recruitment, selection and placement, training and development,retraining and redeployment, the retention plan and the redundancies plan.

3) Control and EvaluationThe HR plan should include budgets, targets and standards. It should also clarifyresponsibilities for implementation and control, and establish reporting procedureswhich will enable achievements to be monitored against the plan. These may simplyreport on the numbers employed against establishment and on the numbers recruitedagainst the recruitment targets. They should also report employment costs againstbudget, and trends in wastage and employment ratios.

BARRIERS TO HRPPlanners face significant barriers while formulating an HRP. The major ones arefollowing:

1) HR practitioners are perceived as experts in handling personnel matters, but arenot experts in managing business.

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

3) HR information often is incompatible with other information used in strategyformulation. Strategic planning efforts have long been oriented towards financialforecasting, often to the exclusion of other types of information. Financialforecasting takes precedence over HRP.

4) Conflict may exist between short term and long term HR needs. For example,there arises a conflict between the pressure to get the work done on time and longterm needs, such as preparing people for assuming greater responsibilities. Manymanagers are of the belief that HR needs can be met immediately because skillsare available on the market as long as wages and salaries are competitive.Therefore, long time plays are not required, short planning are only needed.

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

6) Non-involvement of operating managers renders HRP ineffective. HRP is notstrictly an HR department function. Successful planning needs a co-ordinatedeffort on the part of operating managers and HR personnel.

CONCLUSIONToday, human resource planning is viewed as the way management comes to grasp theill-defined and tough-to-solve human resource problems facing an organization.

Human resource planning as a process of determining the human resources requiredby the organization to achieve its goals. Human resource planning also looks atbroader issues relating to the ways in which people are employed and developed inorder to improve organizational effectiveness. HRP is a decision making process thatcombines activities such as identifying and acquiring the right number of peoplethe proper skills, motivating them to achieve high performance and creating interactivelinks between business objectives are resource planning activities. HRP sets outrequirements in both quantitative and qualitative terms. Accurate manpower plan is adream. A common error of many managers is to focus on the organization’s short termreplacement needs. Any human resource plan, if it is to be effective, must be derivedfrom the long term plans and strategies of the organization. The various approaches tohuman resource planning under which a number of major issues and trends in today’swork plan that will affect organization and employees are:(1) Examine external and internal issues, (2) Determining future organizations capabilities, (3) Implementing human resources programs to address anticipated problems.

Although change is occurring very rapidly in the work world it is important for bothorganizations and employees to monitor issues and events continuously and consider their potential effects.