HR
Planning for a business enterprise needs a conceptual outlay to enable business
managers to identify, plan and implement planning for manpower. There is a
need to appreciate basic definitions of planning as is understood and applied
in commercial situations, the core strategy necessary for an organisation to
embark upon the journey of recruiting, the methods and practices adopted by
organisations in a current scenario and the inherent constraints built into the
planning process.
Introduction
and Definition
HR
planning may be defined as an articulated business strategy based on current
and future business forecast for the acquisition, utilization, development, and
retention of an enterprise’s human resources.
The
strategy articulates the need as it exists today and the plan necessitates
formulation of the goals and action plan for achievement of the people plan.
The process facilitates hiring and retaining the right profile of people at
varying jobs, positions, places and time frames depending on the organisational
need.
While
considerable strategic time, competence and managerial inputs has been
dedicated to the planning of corporate economic resources, such as investment,
technology, systems, manufacturing capabilities, research and development, new
product development, customer management, planning for resource requirement has
been denied its priority, particularly at the company level. At the global
level, manpower research are periodically organized more to determine
employment potential, state of the unemployment rate, type, kind, demographics,
rather than to identify, indicate and suggest on how the manpower requirements
of the various priority areas and nations at large should be met, both
qualitatively and quantitatively.
HR
planning being a relatively contemporary activity is today an area of in depth
study and research. Its importance and implications, given the critical need
for funding micro and macro level growth a fast changing economy, have been
realized at the corporate level in most countries of the world. At the macro
level, however despite the realization of the advantages of HR planning,
countries with well-established HR planning programs are still a relative
minority, even among the large countries. The ability to predict, plan, search,
resource and execute a well orchestrated HR Plan is still not a state of art activity.
Needless to mention the growing population in several parts of the world makes
this job several times more complex.
However
on balance there is little evidence to claim, that with the rising state of
unemployment, several economies stagnating or into recession, increasing cost
of labour and the substantial portion that it forms of the total running costs
of a company, many more firms- large, medium and small- will be persuaded to go
in for some of scientific HR planning.
Fundamentally
the market has changed. It is world of the knowledge worker. The rise of the
intellect has been imminent. HR Planning no longer can confine itself to the
traditional sources for hiring and retaining. The skill of yesterday is neither
available and nor are not being sought after by the new generation. The human
resources of today see their roles having changed from that of a doer to that
of a thinker and in most occasions’ thinker doer. Organisations in contrast
have continued to nurture and retain a set of human resource who have become
more redundant than ever before.
HR
Planning: Purpose and Goals
The
purpose and goals of HR planning are mainly:
1. To ensure optimum and
effective use of human resources currently employed;
2. To research and
reconfigure new skill sets to cope with organisational needs given depleting
relevant skills population
3. To assess the
employability of the human resource given changing skills and competencies
4. To draw specific outlines
of competencies as they differ from today
5. To assess or forecast
future skills requirement if organisation’s overall objectives are to be
achieved; and
6. To identify control
standards to ensure that necessary resources are identified, available as and
when required.
7. To fundamentally study
the corporate strategy, the business mission and overall philosophy of
recruiting VS systems, technology, outsourcing.
8. Analyze the people market
environment and its changes as it affects the firm vis a vis competition.
Corporate
goals for attaching importance to HR planning and forecasting exercises are:
1. to determine hiring
pattern and specific action plans
2. to anticipate
redundancies
3. to minimize downsizing,
surpluses, early retirement;
4. to plan for optimum training
levels;
5. to manage management
development programs;
6. new project forecasting
and recruitment planning
7. to cost the manpower in
new project;
8. to assist productivity
bargaining; and
9. To assess future
accommodation requirements.
The basic
Process of HR Planning (Planning ahead for recruitment)
1. Analyze the environment
of the organisation and its past operations
2. Evaluate the environment
for HR trends, patterns, educational changes, literacy levels, demographic
transitions in people
3. Evaluate education
patterns, school pass out rates, professional courses capacity, market
liberalization for international opportunities, and availability of easy
financing for college studies
4. Evaluate any major shift
in people relocation, geographic movements, natural calamity constraints
5. Establish Corporate
strategy, goals, objectives and action plans
6. Link the corporate
strategy to the HR strategy and mission
7. Ensure connectivity of
corporate plans to hr plans and targets
8. Determine the
Organisation Structure, process flows, design details
9. Draw up a Demand
Forecast for Manpower
10. Conduct a HR Inventory
both at the micro and macro levels
11. Plan for an Attrition
Process both desired and undesired
12. Design HR policies for
retention and career planning of high performers
13. Integrate HR policies
with changing aspirations of the employees and the potential population in the
market place
14. Draw up a supply
Forecast for Manpower evaluating source, actual availability, and possibility
of attraction to the corporate
15. Study whether Demand is
greater or less than Supply
16. Establish Manpower
Objectives for short, medium and long term and keep flexibility on the profile
and employee fit with the corporate culture
17. Start an Action program
and make individuals and teams responsible for meeting the recruitment targets.
18. Update the Manpower
records and make system data friendly.
