Objective of resourcing strategy

Resourcing strategy ensures that the organization

obtains and retains the people it needs and employs
them efficiently. The organization attracts such people
by being ‘the employer of choice’. It retains them by
providing better opportunities and rewards than
others and by developing a positive psychological
contract that increases commitment and creates
mutual trust. Furthermore, the organization deploys
its people in ways that maximize the added value they
supply.
 Strategic HRM approach to resourcing

• The HRM approach to resourcing therefore

emphasizes that matching resources to
organizational requirements does not simply
mean maintaining the status quo and
perpetuating a moribund culture. It can and
often does mean radical changes in thinking
about the skills and behaviours required in the
future to achieve sustainable growth and
cultural change.
 Integrating business and resourcing
strategies
The philosophy behind the strategic HRM approach to resourcing is that
it is people who implement the strategic plan. Business and resourcing
strategies are based on understanding the direction the business is
going (interpreted from BCG matrix or M&S typology) as well as
determining:
• the numbers of people required to meet business needs
• the skills and behavior required to support the above
• the impact of organizational restructuring as a result of
decentralization, mergers, product or market development, or
introduction of new technology
• plans for changing the culture of the organization in such areas as
performance standards, quality, customer service, team-working and
flexibility that indicate the need for people with different attitudes,
beliefs and personal characteristics
 Employee resourcing strategy
Employee resourcing is not just about recruitment and selection. It is also
extends into learning and development programs to enhance skill and modify
behaviors, and methods of rewarding people for the acquisition of extra
skills. It consists of:
1. Human resource planning – assessing future business needs and deciding
on the numbers and types of people required.
2. Resourcing plans – preparing plans for finding people from within/outside
the organization and/or for training programmes to help people learn new
skills.
3. Retention strategy – preparing plans for retaining people needed by the
organization
4. Flexibility strategy – planning for increased flexibility in the use of human
resources to enable the organization to make the best use of people and
adapt swiftly to changing circumstances.
5. Talent management strategy – ensuring that the organization has the
talented people it requires to provide for management succession and
meet present and future business needs
 Human resource planning
• Human resource planning determines the human resources required by the
organization to achieve its strategic goals It is concerned with matching
resources to business needs in both the long and short term, in both
quantitative and in qualitative terms.
• Links to business planning: identifies and acquires the right number of
people with in accordance with business needs, motivates them to perform
well and creates interactive links between business objectives and people-
planning activities.
• Hard and soft human resource planning: Plans for people required in terms
of numbers, skills, values and behaviors, as well as how they are deployed.
• Approaches to human resource planning: through demand (in reference to
corporate plans and future activities) and supply (with reference to company
turnover, labour market trends and demographics) forecasts and action
planning (strategies for recruitment and selection, internal promotion,
downsizing)
 Resourcing Plans
Indicate what steps need to be taken to appoint people
from within the organization and what learning and
development programs need be planned for them.
• Internal resourcing: based on data from regular job
analyses and need assessments
• External resourcing: develop a recruitment strategy by
becoming ‘employer of choice,’ defining knowledge,
skills and abilities of recruits and determining the most
effective method of obtaining the required people.
 Steps in recruitment strategy
1. Define skill and competency (behavioural) requirements from needs
assessment on which selection procedure (interviews and tests) will
be based
2. Analyse the factors affecting decisions to join the organization:
these can be goodwill of organization, compensation package, TnD
facilities available, opportunity to use knowledge and skills.
3. Competitive resourcing includes factors listed above. Seek
competitive advantage by exploiting those that are superior to rivals
4. Alternative strategies for satisfying human resource requirements:
these consist of outsourcing, flexible, multi-skilling and skills training
5. Recruitment and selection techniques: finding staff likely to deliver
the required sort of behavior and who will fit into the organization’s
culture readily. This will include the use of skills
analysis, competency mapping, the internet,  biodata, structured
interviews, psychometric testing and assessment centres.
 Retention Strategy
Retention strategies aim to ensure that key people stay with the
organiation and that turnover is reduced. They will be based on
an analysis of why people stay and why they leave. Exit
interviews, attitude surveys and focus groups with loyal
employees can shed light on these reasons. Some issues include:
• Pay: problems arise because of uncompetitive, inequitable or
unfair pay systems. Pay in consideration of market rate and
reward good performance fairly
• Job design: Dissatisfactory jobs should provide opportunities
for learning and growth.
• Performance: clarify responsibilities, create goals jointly with
employees, provide feedback
• Learning and development: provide opportunities for skill
enhancement, learning and applying new skills
 Retention Strategy (cont.)
• Career development: instituting policies for promotion from within,
career guidance
• Commitment: build by sharing organization’s mission and vision,
communicating frequently with them and involving them in
decision-making
• Lack of group cohesion: build teams
• Dissatisfaction and conflict with management and supervision;
Incompetent and unfair leadership can be remedied by building
better leadership through TnD and better grievance handling
procedures
• Recruitment, selection and promotion: Should be systematic
• Overmarketing: Don’t oversell company
 Flexibility Strategy
Aims to provide for greater operational and role
flexibility.
• Find alternatives to full-time regular staff,by
having a ‘core’ and a ‘peripheral’ group
Outsourcing: getting work done by external
firms or individuals
• Multi-skilling: to increase the ability of people
to switch jobs or carry out several tasks
 Talent Management Strategy
Talent management strategies deal with the processes required
to ensure that the organization attracts, retains, motivates and
develops the talented people it needs.

Everybody has talent. The premise of TM strategy is to acquire

and nurture talent wherever it is and wherever it is needed by
using a number of interdependent policies and practices, such as
becoming employer of choice; hiring the best possible people;
offering them challenging and satisfying jobs, developing their
potential and leadership capabilities, providing an enabling
environment and work-life balance, rewarding excellence,
conducting talent audits, and managing succession.