MEANING

HRP is a forward looking function and an organisational tool to identify skill and competency gaps and subsequently develop plans for development of deficient skills and competencies in human resources to remain competitive.

 HRP is influenced by technological changes and other global business compulsions. HRP ensures benefits to the organisations by creating a reservoir of talent, preparing people for future cost[1]cutting and succession planning besides creating a back-up plan in case of diversification and expansion

As Quinnmills indicates, human resource planning is a decision making process that combines three important activities

 (1) identifying and acquiring the right number of people with the proper skills,

(2) motivating them to achieve high performance, and

(3) creating interactive links between business objectives and resource planning activities.

DEFINITION OF HRP

Human resource planning is the process by which an organisation ensures that it has the right number and kind of people, at the right place, at the right time, capable of effectively and efficiently completing tasks that will help the organisation achieve its overall objective.

Human resource planning, then translates the organisation’s objectives and plans into the number of workers needed to meet those objectives. Without a clear cut planning, estimation of human resource need is reduced to mere guesswork

NATURE OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING

From the above definition we can get some general characteristics or nature of Human Resource Planning they are:

1. HR Plan must incorporate the human resource needs in the light of organizational goal

2. HR Plan must be directed towards well defined objectives

3. HR Plan must ensure that it has right number of people and the right kind of people at the right time doing right work for which they are economically most useful

4. HR Planning should pave the way for an effective motivational process

 5. Adequate flexibility must be maintained in HR Planning to suite the changing needs of the organization.

NEED OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING

Human resource Planning is a two-phased process which involves not only analyses of the current human resources but also makes manpower forecasts and thereby draws employment programmes. Human Resource Planning is required to firm in following manner:

1. Shortages and surpluses can be identified so that quick action can be taken wherever required.

2. All the recruitment and selection programmes are based on manpower planning.

3. It also helps to reduce the labour cost as excess staff can be identified and thereby overstaffing can be avoided.

 4. It also helps to identify the available talents in a concern and accordingly training programmes can be chalked out to develop those talents.

5. It helps in growth and diversification of business. Through manpower planning, human resources can be readily available and they can be utilized in best manner.

 6. It helps the organization to realize the importance of manpower management which ultimately helps in the stability of a concern.

OBJECTIVES OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING

 The basic purpose of having a manpower plan is to have an accurate estimate of the number of employees required with matching skills requirement to meet organizational objectives. It provides information about the manner in which existing personnel are employed, the kind of skills required for different categories of job and manpower needs over a period of time in relation to organization objectives. It would also give an indication of the lead time that is available to select and train the required number of additional manpower. More specifically human resource planning is required to meet the following objectives:

Ø Forecast Personnel Requirements: HRP is essential to determine the future manpower needs in an organization in the absence of which it would be difficult to have the services of right kind of people at the right time.

 Ø Cope with Changes: HRP is required to cope with changes in market conditions, technology, products and government regulations in an effective way.

Ø Use existing manpower productivity: By Keeping an inventory of the existing personnel in an organization by skills, level, training, qualification, work experience, it will be possible to utilize the existing resources more effectively in relation to the job requirements. This also helps in decreasing wages and salary cost in the long run.

Ø Promote employees in an systematic manner: HRP provides useful information on the basis of which management decides the promotion of eligible personnel in the organization.

In the absence of which it may be difficult to ensure regular promotions to competent people on a justifiable basis.

 IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING (HRP)

1. Future Requirement: Planning is essential as it helps in determining personnel needs. Surplus or deficiency in staff strength is the result of the absence of or defective planning

2. Creating Highly Talented Personnel/Reservoir of Talent: As jobs nowadays are becoming more intellectual and incumbents are getting vastly professionalized it is the duty of the HR manager to attract and retrain qualified and skilled personnel for this they need to very effective in planning and utilization of manpower available. Therefore the organization can have a reservoir of talent at any point of time. People with requisite skills are readily available to carry out the assigned tasks.

3. Prepare People for Future: People can be trained, motivated and developed in advance and this helps in meeting future needs for high quality employees quite easily. Likewise manpower shortages can be met comfortably through proper Human Resource Planning.

4. Expand or Contract: If the organization wants to expand its scale of operations, it can go ahead easily. Advance Planning ensures continuous supply of trained manpower who can handles challenges in the job easily.

5. Cut Costs: Planning facilitates the preparation of an appropriate manpower budget for each department or division. This in turn helps in controlling manpower cost by avoiding shortages/ excess in manpower supply.

6. Increasing Investment in Human resources: One another a reason for HRP is the investment an organization makes in its human resources. Human are considered as assets for the organization and an employee who gradually develops his/her skills and abilities becomes more valuable resource.

7. Managerial functions: The four managerial functions, i.e., planning, organizing, directing and controlling are based upon the manpower. Human resources help in the implementation of all these managerial activities. Therefore, staffing becomes a key to all managerial functions.

8. Foundation for Personnel Function: Manpower Planning provides essential information for designing and implementing personnel functions, such as recruitment, selection, promotion, transfer etc.

9. Efficient utilization: Efficient management of personnel becomes an important function in the industrialization world of today. Setting of large scale enterprises requires management of large scale manpower. It can be effectively done through staffing function.

 10. Motivation: Staffing function not only includes putting right men on right job, but it also comprises of motivational programmes, i.e., incentive plans to be framed for further participation and employment of employees in a concern. Therefore, all types of incentive plans become an integral part of staffing function.

 11. Better human relations: A concern can stabilize itself if human relations develop and are strong. Human relations become strong trough effective control, clear communication, effective supervision and leadership in a concern. Staffing function also looks after training and development of the work force which leads to co-operation and better human relations.

12. Higher productivity: Productivity level increases when resources are utilized in best possible manner. Higher productivity is a result of minimum wastage of time, money, efforts and energies. This is possible through the staffing and its related activities Performance appraisal, training and development, remuneration

 13. Succession Planning: HRP as proved prepares employees for future challenges thus the stars are picked up and kept ready for future promotions whenever the need arises, these candidates are constantly being assessed and assisted and when time comes they take the charge without causing much losses.

14. International Strategies: HRP facilitates international expansion strategies. The HR department needs to fill key jobs with experts, motivate them and compensate them.

FORECASTING TECHNIQUES

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

 (a) Managerial Judgement:

Managerial judgement technique is very common technique of demand forecasting. This approach is applied by small as well as large scale organisations. This technique involves two types of approaches i.e. 'bottom-up approach' and 'top-down approach'. Under the 'bottom-up approach', line mangers send their departmental requirement of human resources to top management. Top management ultimately forecasts the human resource requirement for the overall organisation on the basis of proposals of departmental heads. Under the Top-down approach', top management forecasts the human resource requirement for the entire organisation and various departments. This information is supplied to various departmental heads for their review and approval. However, a combination of both the approaches i.e. 'Participative Approach' should be applied for demand forecasting. Under this approach, top management and departmental heads meet and decide about the future human resource requirement. So, demand of human resources can be forecasted with unanimity under this approach.

(b) Work-Study Technique:

This technique is also known as 'work-load analysis'. This technique is suitable where the estimated work-load is easily measurable. Under this method, estimated total production and activities for a specific future period are predicted. This information is translated into number of man-hours required to produce per units taking into consideration the capability of the workforce. Past-experience of the management can help in translating the work-loads into number of man-hours required. Thus, demand of human resources is forecasted on the basis of estimated total production and contribution of each employee in producing each unit items.

(c) Ratio-Trend Analysis:

Demand for manpower/human resources is also estimated on the basis of ratio of production level and number of workers available. This ratio will be used to estimate demand of human resources.

(d) Econometrics Models:

These models are based on mathematical and statistical techniques for estimating future demand. Under these models relationship is established between the dependent variable to be predicted (e.g. manpower/human resources) and the independent variables (e.g., sales, total production, work-load, etc.). Using these models, estimated demand of human resources can be predicted.

(e) Delphi Technique:

Delphi technique is also very important technique used for estimating demand of human resources. This technique takes into consideration human resources requirements given by a group of experts i.e. mangers. The human resource experts collect the manpower needs, summarizes the various responses and prepare a report. This process is continued until all experts agree on estimated human resources requirement.

(f) Other Techniques:

The other techniques of Human Resources demand forecasting are specified as under:

(a) Following the techniques of demand forecasting of human resources used by other similar organisations

(b) Organisation-cum-succession-charts

(c) Estimation based on techniques of production

(d) Estimates based on historical records

(e) Statistical techniques e.g. co-relation and regression analysis.

HR Demand Forecast

Demand forecast is the process of estimating the future quantity and quality of people required. The basis of the forecast must be the annual budget and long term corporate plan, 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, organisational structure and employee separations.

HR Supply Forecast

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

New Venture Analysis

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

External and internal issues

External and internal issues are the forces that drive human resource planning. An issue is any event or trend that has the potential to affect human resource outcomes, such as employee motivation, turnover, absenteeism, the number and types of employees needed and so forth.

Work Force Demographics:

Potentially important external issue is the composition of 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 percentage of the workforce in the future. Women are also expected to comprise a large segment of the workforce than in the past. The number of married women who are employed has doubled since 1970. The increased participation of women will have a pressure on organisations to provide pro-family policies, such as flexi time, and child care to support working mothers. Increased representation of minorities will result in more emphasis on diversity programmes to ensure harmonious relations between workers from different racial and ethnic groups.

Technology: Organisation are investing so much amount on information technology during the 1980s. Given the size of the investment, a variety of changes in the human resource area have occured. Human resource requirements have come down drastically due to technological changes. There are many organisations who have announced plans to reduce its workforce around 50 per cent employees as a result of technological changes. Now that you have read about some of the external issues that affect human resource planning, you will learn about some important internal issues.

Organisational Structure: Many businesses today are changing their organisational structure. Organisational structure refers to how work tasks are assigned, who reports to whom, how communications and decisions are made? As part of their restructuring during some companies are creating teams to perform the work.

 Business Strategy: The approach that a company adopts in conducting business is referred to as its business strategy. For example, a particular compnay may adopt strategy on quality enhancement, cost reduction and so on and so forth. It is important for organisations to monitor both the internal and external environment to anticipate and understand the issues that will affect human resources in the future.

IMPLEMENTING HUMAN RESOURCE PROGRAMME TO ADDRESS ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS

 In this step the organisation must determine the gaps between future capabilities and future needs and then employ the necessary human resource programmes to avoid the problems arising from these gaps. In implementing a new human resource programme, following basic steps are recommended to obtain employee acceptance.

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

2) Explain the programme: Management must explain precisely what the programme is, how it will be implemented and what its effects will be on other practices and programmes.

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

4) Establish feedback mechanisms: No matter how carefully planned and implemented, almost any new policy or practice is likely to lead to questions and problems. It is critical, therefore, for mechanisms to be established to resolve problems and answer concerns that arise. Such mechanisms may include a telephone hotline, ongoing survey programme as well as a dispute resolution policy.

ROLE OF HRP PROFESSIONALS

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

1) Administrative role – Managing the organisational 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.

BARRIERS TO HRP

Planners face significant barriers while formulating an HRP. The major ones are following:

 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 organisational 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) 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.

 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 long term needs, such as preparing people for assuming greater responsibilities. Many managers are of the belief that HR needs can be met immediately because skills are 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. Some people view HRP as a number game designed to track the flow of people across the department.

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

HR PLANNING

Human resource planning constitutes an integral part of corporate plan and serves the organizational purposes in more ways than one. For example, it helps organizations to

(i) capitalize on the strengths of their human resources;

 (ii) determine recruitment levels;

(iii) anticipate redundanceis;

 (iv) determine optimum training levels;

 (v) serve as a basis for management development programmes;

(vi) cost manpower for new projects; (vii) assist productivity bargaining;

(viii) assess future requirements;

 (ix) study the cost of overheads and value of service functions; and

 (x) decide whether certain activities need to be subcontracted