Human Resource Planning

Human Resource planning

Human Resource Planning also termed as Manpower planning. It is one of the functions in human resource management where we decide the following:

  • How many employees are required to do a particular task/job?
  • On what basis are we going to decide the number of employees required?
  • Where will be the employees allocated?
  • What are the skills required in those employees to the job?
  • What is the cost required to get the required number employees?
  • Which are the sources from where we may find the prospective employees?
  • What is the deadline that is required for hiring the prospective employees?

Objectives of Human Resource Planning

  • To fulfill the needs of required Labour for the particular work.
  • To accomplish the organizational or business objectives.
  • Based on the manpower planning other interrelated jobs like recruitment, selection & training programme can be decided.
  • The entire productivity depends on the accuracy of manpower planning.
  • To identify the areas of surplus & deficit of employees.
  • To identify the cost involved.
  • Helps in succession planning.
  • To get the best talent available if timely manpower is available.

Process of HRP: Steps of Manpower Planning

  • Analyze the business plan.
  • Forecast the demand and supply of manpower.
  • Estimate the net manpower required.
  • Based on the estimate check the availability of the manpower within the organization and plan for transfer, promotion and redeployment of employees.
  • In case of deficit of the manpower internally we need to find out the external sources of recruitment of manpower based on the time limit and the cost factor.

Factors that affect the manpower planning:

1) The type of business.

2) The demand and supply of manpower available.

3) The budget allocated for the manpower procurement.

4) The time limit estimated for the manpower procurement.

5) The various barriers to manpower planning.

Barriers to Manpower Planning

1) The accuracy of forecasting.

2) Unwanted absenteeism

3) Attrition

4) Under utilization of the manpower.

5) Extended Break timings.

6) Terminations and layoff

The above mentioned points highlighted may disturb or prove the manpower planned inaccurate and become obstacles in manpower planning.

Determining the Manpower Requirement:

1) Managerial Judgment Method:
a) Estimate the size of the project
b) Budget approved for the hiring
c) Do a complete work force analysis(resignations, retirements, Promotions, transfers etc)
2) Predictor Variable Method (regression method)
i.e No. of Employees Recruited VS No. of units produced. Or Amount of units sold.

This is done by using past records to estimate the future requirements.

Markov Analysis: This technique of manpower planning is named after a Russian mathematician Andrei Andreyevich Markov. This model is used to determine the internal flow of human resources. It simply shows as probabilities the average rate of historical movement of employees from one job to another.

3) Bottom Up Technique

Each operations manager will give their requirement to the HR team and then aggregated to draw the organizational level forecast.

Important things to be kept in mind before doing any Manpower planning:

  1. a) Do a complete work force analysis
    b) Check out the internal recruitment possibilities
    c) Time Span to hire.
    d) Cost/finance approved for the required manpower.
    e) Type of manpower required (permanent/contract).

Evaluation of HRP

The HR department should establish a process that allows for a regular review of their workforce planning efforts for the following efforts:

  • To identify deviations or to reveal deficiencies
  • To make necessary modifications in the manpower plans based on the needs of the business
  • To determine the extent to which human resource objectives have been met
  • To determine whether long run planning objectives will be met
  • To address new workforce and organisational issues that can occur

HRP at Different Levels

HRP may broadly be carried out at Strategic Level, Divisional or Intermediate Level and Business Unit levels.

HRP at Strategic Level:

At a strategic level, organisation structure is crafted based on which the various functions are chalked out where the hierarchy of each function is finalized.

HRP at Divisional or Intermediate Level:

In this level, every function of the management determines the length and breadth of the division based on the presence of the operation in every region. Based on the presence of the operations and hierarchy the manpower planning is done looking at the span of control.

HRP at Business Unit level:

Here micro manpower planning is done based on the number of sub divisions, the amount of work carried out by each employee based on the number of activities to be conducted in every unit.

Job Analysis:

Job Analysis is a process of identifying, collecting and analyzing

  • the duties and responsibilities required for the job
  • the skills required to the job
  • the work environment required for the job
  • the education level required for the job
  • the selection criteria required for the job
  • the worth of the job( job evaluation)

Reason for conducting job analysis

  • To frame a recruitment strategy for the job
  • To decide the selection process for the job.
  • To access the training need for the job.
  • To set the performance benchmarks for the job.
  • To finalize a compensation structure for the job

Process of Job Analysis

  • Develop preliminary job information (Review existing docs)
  • Conduct initial tour of work site (observe)
  • Conduct interviews
  • Conduct second tour of work site
  • Consolidate the job info
  • Verify the job description

Methods for collecting the data for Job analysis:

  • Questionnaire method
  • Observation method
  • Interview method
  • Data available from log books.
  • Internet research
  • Viewing sample job descriptions
  • Researching and sharing with other companies that have similar jobs.
  • Views form experts

Job Description: It describes about the duties & responsibilities required for the JOB.

  • Job duties
  • Job Responsibilities
  • Working Conditions
  • Reporting Relations
  • Performance Standards

Job Specification: It describes about the skills and quality required by a PERSON to do a job.

  • Human requirements
  • Education
  • Skills
  • Personality
  • Age restrictions
  • Job related knowledge
  • Experience Required

Job Design :It refers to organizing a particular job in a systematic and methodical way.

  • The job contents.
  • The tasks involved in the job.
  • Working hours etc.

Reason for doing Job Design

  • An employee gets complete information about his job.
  • An employee can set his/her priorities in regards to his job.
  • No overload will be on an employee.
  • Greater job satisfaction arises.

Methods of Job Designing

Job Enlargement: Adding more duties and responsibilities with increased workload in the same level of activity

Job Enrichment: It is a way to motivate employees by giving them increased responsibility and variety in the job i.e re-designing the job. Here an employee feels satisfied.

Job Simplification: It is a technique where a particular job is broken into various subparts and relatively into simple tasks.

Job Rotation: It a process where employees are transferred from one task to another task/department/function once they master at one particular area of performance.

De-jobbing: Employees are allowed to go beyond their Job Descriptions

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