PEOPLE RESOURCING

THE PROCESS OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING

Business strategic
plans

Resourcing
strategy

Scenario planning Demand/supply Labour turnover

forecasting analysis

Work environment Human resource Operational

analysis plans effectiveness
analysis

Resourcing Retention Flexibility Productivity

Work environment
 HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING DEFINED

Human resource planning determines the human resources

(human capital) required to meet the organization’s goals. It also
addresses issues related to how people are employed and
developed in order to improve organizational effectiveness.
It answers five basic questions:
1. How many people do we need?
2. What sort of people do we need?
3. How can we ensure that we attract and retain high-quality
people?
4. How can we make the best use of our people?
5. How can we ensure that we create a work environment that
gives people the opportunity to obtain satisfaction from their
work and to use and develop their skills?
CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING

Limitation: impossible to produce long-term forecasts of the demand and the

supply of people with any accuracy bearing in mind the complex and frequently
changing nature of the business environment within and outside the firm.
Necessary to focus on skills requirements with only broad indications of
numbers in the longer term. The four main HR planning activities are therefore:
• A monitoring activity: of stocks and flows of human resources to
establish a base to respond to what may be unforeseen events.
• An investigatory activity: the exploration of the human resource
implications of changing requirements for people and problems of
attraction and retention so that alternative plans can be made.
• A skills analysis activity: studying the existing skills base and deciding
what changes may be required and how they could be achieved through
development and training activities as well as recruitment.
• A ‘soft HR’ planning activity: considering what behaviours and attitudes
are necessary and making plans to develop them.
THE RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION PROCESS

Analyse requirements

Plan recruitment programme

Define requirements

Attract candidates

Select candidates

Interview Test Assessment centre

1
 DEFINING REQUIREMENTS:
PERSON SPECIFICATION

• Capabilities – knowledge, skills, competence.

• Qualifications – educational, professional, vocational, training.

• Experience – type required (job, organization), duration.

• Personal qualities – personality, motivation, leadership, teamwork,

etc.

• Terms and conditions – pay, hours, holidays, benefits, travelling,

mobility, etc.
 SOURCES OF CANDIDATES

• Promotion or transfer from within organization.

• Advertising.

• The internet.
• Recruitment consultants, executive search consultants,
agencies.
• Straight from universities and schools.

• Asking former employees to return.

• Casual applications.
 SIFTING APPLICATIONS

• Record.
• Acknowledge.
• Compare application against specification.
• Rate: possible, marginal or reject.
• Draw up shortlist (say 7–8 candidates).
• Keep, say, 5–6 candidates in reserve.
• Invite shortlisted candidates to interview.
• Reject unsuccessful candidates.
• Send reserves a holding letter.
 Assessment Centers

• Realistic tasks done in groups

• Assessed by multiple of raters rating multiple domains
• Multiple methods
– in basket group exercise
– leaderless group exercise
• Strong criterion validity (e.g., teachers, police)
– overall scores predict job performance
• Measurement issues
– costly to administer
– different ratings on a task too highly correlated
– dimension ratings not correlated strongly across tasks
– fix? focus on behavior checklists and rater training
 Work Samples

• perform a task under standardized conditions

• historically were for blue collar jobs
– e.g. use of tools, demonstrate driving skills
• white collar examples
– speech interview for foreign worker, test of basic chemistry
knowledge,
• Measurement issues
– high criterion validity if skills are similar to job
– costly to administer
– work best with mechanical, rather than people-oriented tasks
 Psychological Test Types

• Ability Tests
– Cognitive ability
– Psychomotor ability
• Knowledge and skill or achievement
• Integrity
• Personality
• Emotional Intelligence
• Vocational interest
 Personality Tests

• measures predispositions toward particular

feelings and behaviors
• not all tests are based on past research
• many have shown incremental validity
– e.g., predict when controlling for IQ
• Measurement issues
– job relevance
– not easily/often faked or a problem if faked (e.g.,
job faking too)
 The Big Five Inventory

• Openness
– Highs: imaginative, creative, and to seek out cultural and educational
experiences.
– Lows: more down-to-earth, less interest in art & more practical.
• Conscientiousness
– Highs: methodical, well organized and dutiful.
– Lows: less careful, less focused & more likely to be distracted
• Extraversion
– Highs: energetic and seek out the company of others.
– Lows (introverts): tend to be more quiet and reserved.
• Agreeableness
– Highs: tend to be trusting, friendly and cooperative.
– Lows: tend to be more aggressive and less cooperative
• Neuroticism
– Highs: prone to insecurity and emotional distress.
– Lows: more relaxed, less emotional and less prone to distress.
 Interviews

• Structured vs. Unstructured

• Info. gathering vs. interpersonal behavior sample
• Situational interview
– “How would you handle a circumstance in which you needed the
help of a person you did not like?”
• Measurement issues
– structured has more criterion related validity
– value of unstructured?
– Illusion of validity
• Guidelines for structured interviews
– interviewer should know about job
– interviewer should NOT have prior info about interviewee
– individual ratings of dimensions AFTER the interview is over
 ACCURACY OF SELECTION METHODS
1.0 Perfect prediction

0.7
Assessment centres

Work sample tests

0.5 Ability tests
Personality tests
0.3 Structured interviews

Typical interviews
References
0
Graphology
0.1 Source: S Taylor, Employee Resourcing, IPD, 1998
 DOS AND DON’T’S OF SELECTION INTERVIEWING
Do
• Give yourself sufficient time.
• Plan the interview.
• Create the right atmosphere.
• Establish an easy and informal atmosphere.
• Cover the ground as planned.
• Analyse career to reveal strengths,
weaknesses and patterns.
• Ask clear, unambiguous questions.
• Get examples of success.
• •
Make judgements on basis of factual data in
relation to specification.
• Keep control of content and timing.
Don’t
• Attempt too many interviews in a row.
• Start the interview unprepared.
• Plunge too quickly into demanding
questions.
• Ask multiple or leading questions.
• Pay too much attention to isolated strengths
or weaknesses.
• Allow candidates to gloss over important
facts.
Talk too much or allow candidates to do so.
• Allow prejudices to override capacity to
make objective decisions.
 SELECTION TESTS

• Intelligence – measure general intelligence.

• Personality – assess the personality of candidates in order to make

predictions about their likely behaviour in a role.

• Aptitude/attainment – assess abilities or skills and ability to perform

tasks.

• Graphology – assessments made by studying handwriting, generally

regarded as unreliable.
 TALENT MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

Attraction and
retention
policies

Continuing talent audit

The talent
Resourcing pool – a
Business strategy Role Career
strategy skilled,
management
engaged &
committed
workforce

External Performance Management Management

resourcing management development succession

Talent Learning and

Internal
relationship development
resourcing
management

Total Engagement/
reward commitment
Highly talented people: 
•have very different values and motivations from most people;

•more is expected of them and they expect more in return;

•they are often high-impact but high-maintenance too; TEAM
•they think differently (and faster);

•they get bored more readily;

•they need different kinds of challenges;

•they can deal with more complexity but are more complex in
themselves;
•they get frustrated more readily and express themselves readily. 
The manager of a talented team needs to:

learn quickly how to spot and respond to talent;

how to encourage it to grow, whilst gently directing its course;

TEAM
be able to cope with the fact that certain members of the team
may be in some respects brighter and more able than you are – and you
need to be comfortable about that;

completely understand what role they play in the team's success and
communicate that subtly but effectively.

The manager must be respected and be the person that

the talented individual is happy to be led by!