TOPIC TWO: HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING(HRP)

-Manpower planning is strategy for acquisition, utilization, improvement and retention of an

enterprise’s human resources.

-Human resource planning is the process of analyzing and identifying the availability and the
need for human resources so that the organization can meet its objectives.

-The focus of HR planning is to ensure that the organization has the right number of human
resources, with the right capabilities, at the right times, and in the right places.

-In HR planning, an organization must consider the availability and allocation of people to jobs over
a period of time.

-Human resource planning is concerned with identifying the organizations demand for
human resources and devising means to ensure that a sufficient supply of labour is
-Actions involved in HR planning may include:-
i. Shifting employees to other jobs in the organization,
ii. Laying off employees or otherwise cutting back the number of employees,
iii. Developing present employees, and/or
iv. Increasing the number of employees in certain areas.
-Factors to consider in HR planning include:
v. The current employees’ knowledge, skills, and abilities and
vi. The expected vacancies resulting from retirements, promotions, transfers, and discharges.
THE OBJECTIVES OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING
1.Forecasting Human Resources Requirements: HRP is essential to determine the future needs
of HR in an organization. In the absence of this plan it is very difficult to provide the right kind of
people at the right time.
2.Effective Management of Change: Proper planning is required to cope with changes in the
different aspects which affect the organization. These changes need continuation of allocation/
reallocation and effective utilization of HR in organization.
3.Realizing the Organizational Goals: In order to meet the expansion and other
4.Promoting Employees: HRP gives the feedback in the form of employee data which can be
used in decision-making in promotional opportunities to be made available for the organization.
5.Effective Utilization of HR: The data base will provide the useful information in identifying
surplus and deficiency in human resources. The objective of HRP is to maintain and improve the
organizational capacity to reach its goals by developing appropriate strategies that will results.
HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING PROCESS
Step1 : Analysis of External environment
-Variable in the external environment of a business should be known. Legal requirements and
completion should be established before carrying out strategic planning.
Step 2: Analysis of internal environment
-Analyze the company workforce. Understanding your workforce and its strengths and
weaknesses allows you to develop plans for short-term and long-term projects.
-Be sure to analyze individual personalities, educations and abilities of the employees, as well as
any anticipated company growth in the near future.
Step 3: Strategic planning- It is where goals and aims of the overall organization are formulated.
Strategic plans and reduced to specific quantifiable and qualitative having human resource plans.
Step 4 Human resource planning:- It is divided into; forecasting requirements and availability.
-Forecasting HR requirements is process of estimating the future numbers of employees
required by an organization and the likely skills and competence they will need.
-Forecasting availability is the estimating of supply of human resources.
Step 5: Comparing demand and supply
-Comparison of demand and supply may result into surplus, shortage or equilibrium.
Methods for Forecasting HR Requirement (Demand):
a. Managerial Judgment
-Managers are given opportunity to think about future workloads and decide how many people
they will need.
-It can be “bottom up” basis where departmental managers submit proposals for agreement by
senior management.
-It is “top down” it forecasts are done by top management possibly acting on advice from
personnel department.
b. Ratio –Trend Analysis:- Carried out by studying past ratios between say number of direct
(production) workers and indirect (support) workers in a manufacturing plant and forecasting future
ratios, having made some allowances for changes in the organization.
C. Work Study Techniques: Used when it is possible to apply work measurements to calculate how
long operations should take and the number of people required.
- Work study techniques for direct workers can be combined with ratio-trend analysis to
calculate the number of indirect workers needed.
6. Forecasting HR Availability (Supply Forecasting)
-Supply forecasting measures the number of people likely to be available from within and outside
organization.
Supply Analysis Areas
-Existing number of people employed by occupation, skills and potential.
-Potential losses to existing resources through attrition/ employee turnover
-Potential changes to existing resources through informal promotions.
-Effects of changing conditions of work and absenteeism.
-Sources of supply from outside the organization.
.Comparison of Availability and Requirement
-When supply equal to demand –the condition is optimum. Action should be to motivate the
workers.
-When demand is greater than supply then there is deficiency –selection and recruitment should
be done to fill the gaps. Terms can be made flexible.
-Increase the internal supply by training and developing employees, retaining employees and
redesigning work.
-When demand is less than supply then it is surplus –right sizing should be done by early
retirements, short term contracts, diversification.
REQUIREMENTS FOR EFFECTIVE HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING
1 HRP must be recognized as an integral part of corporate planning
2. Support of top management is essential
3. There should be some centralization with respect to HRP responsibilities in order to have co-
ordination between different levels of management.
4. Organization records must be complete, up to date and readily available.
5. Techniques used for HR planning should be those best suited to the data available and degree
of accuracy required.
6. Data collection, analysis, techniques of planning and the plan themselves need to be
constantly revised and improved in the light of experience.
FACTORS AFFECTING HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING
7. Type and Strategy of the Organization: HR need is also defined by the strategic plan
of organization.
-If the organization has a plan for organic growth, then organization need to hire additional
employees.
-On the other hand if the organization is going for mergers and acquisition, then
organization need to plan for layoffs, as mergers can create, duplicate or overlap positions
that can be handled more efficiently with fewer employees.
2. Organizational Growth Cycles and Planning:
-The stage of growth in which an organization is determines the nature and extends of HRP.
-Small organizations in the earlier stages of growth may not have well defined personnel
planning compared to established ones.
3. Environmental Uncertainties:- Political, social and economic changes affect all organizations
and the fluctuations that are happening in these environments affect organizations drastically.
-Personnel planners deal with such environmental uncertainties by carefully formulating
recruitment, selection, training and HRP
4. Time Horizons:-HR plans can be short term or long term.
-The extent of time period depends upon the degree of uncertainty that is prevailing in an
organizations environment. Greater the uncertainty, shorter the plan time horizon and vice versa.
5. Type and Quality of information:- The information used to forecast personnel needs
originates from a multitude of sources.
-The forecast depends to a large extent upon the type of information and the quality of data
that is available to personnel planners.
6. Nature of Jobs Being Filled:- Personnel planners need to be really careful with respect to the
nature of the jobs being filled in the organization. Employees belonging to lower level
who need very limited skills can be recruited hastily but, while hiring employees for higher posts,
selection and recruitment need to be carried out with high discretion.
7. Outsourcing:- Several organizations outsource part of their work to outside parties in the form
of subcontract and this affects the human resource planning.
Uses of Human Resource plans
i. For recruitment of employees
ii. Developing training and development programs for employees
iii. For compensation purposes
iv. Retirement and pension schemes
v. Industrial and labour relations
vi. Managing labour turnover
vii. Promotions.

JOB ANALYSIS
-It’s a process of examining jobs in order to identify their main features like duties to be
performed, results they are expected to achieve.
-Job analysis results into two things:
a). Job description and
b). Job specification.
Job Description
-It is organized factual statement of job contents in the form of duties and responsibilities of each
specific job. It is what is used to advertise a job.
Content of Job Description
-Job descriptive should give the following tithe / designation of a job.
i. Job Location
ii. Nature and operation to be performed
iii. Nature of activity
iv. Relationship of a job with other jobs
v. Provision of physical condition on work environment
vi. Limits of Authority
-Job descriptive document is a lot used to determine pay of the job orders and the need for
training.
Job Specification
-A document which outlines minimum acceptable qualification a job holder should posses in
order to effectively perform a particular job. It is used to describe the necessary attributes.
-The following are used for job description(Rodger 1952) point plant
1.Physique (health, appearance)
2.Attainments (educative, qualifications, expertise
3.General intelligence (intellectual capability)
4.Special aptitude (e.g. knowledge in numbers)
5.Interests (cultural interests, sports, philanthropy
6.Disposition (likable, reliable, persuasive)
7.Special circumstances (prepared to work in extra / extra ordinary circumstances)
Job Analysis Methods
1. Observation Method:-A job analyst observes an employee and records all his performed and
non-performed task, fulfilled and un-fulfilled responsibilities and duties, methods, ways and skills
used by him or her to perform various duties and his or her mental or emotional ability to handle
challenges and risks.
-Different people think different and interpret the findings in different ways.
-Therefore, the process may involve personal biasness or likes and dislikes and may not produce
genuine results.
-This particular method includes three techniques:
a). Direct observation:- The first method includes direct observation and recording of behaviour of
an employee in different situations.
b). Work Methods Analysis:- The second involves the study of time and motion and is specially
used for assembly-line or factory workers
c). Critical Incident Technique:-The third one is about identifying the work behaviour that result in
performance.
2)Interview Method:
-In this method, an employee is interviewed so that he or she comes up with their own working
styles, problems faced by them, use of particular skills and techniques while performing their job
and insecurities and fears about their careers.
-This method helps interviewer know what exactly an employee thinks about his or her own job
and responsibilities involved in it.
-It involves analysis of job by employee himself.
3). Questionnaire Method:- Another commonly used job analysis method is getting the
questionnaires filled from employees, their superiors and managers. However, this method also
suffers from personal biasness.