Question

Human Resource Planning (HRP) represents a significant improvement on traditional Manpower Planning exercise. To what extent does HRP represent an improvement towards an organisation’s assessment of it human resource needs?

Word limit: 3000 words

Answer 1

Human resource planning is a two-phased process by which management can project the future manpower requirement and develop suitable action plans to accommodation the implications of projections.

Human resource planning is a continuous process. It cannot be rigid or static; it is amenable to modifications, review and adjustments in accordance with the needs of the organisation or the changing circumstances. Thus, human resource planning is the process of developing and determining objectives, policies and programs that will procure develop and utilise human resources so as to achieve the goals of the organisation.

The major objectives of manpower planning are as follows:

1. To ensure optimum use of existing human resources.

2. To forecast future requirement for human resources.

3. To link human resource planning with organisational planning.

4. To control the cost aspect of human resources.

5. To formulate transfer and promotion policies.

6. To meet the needs of expansion and diversification programmes.

Objectives of Human Resource Planning – Principle Objectives of Human Resource Planning

The penalties for not being correctly staffed are costly to any organization in today’s business context. On the other hand understaffing loses the business economies of scale and specialization, orders, profits and most importantly the customers. Overstaffing is wasteful and expensive, if sustained, and it is costly to eliminate because of modern legislation in respect of redundancy payments, consultation, minimum periods of notice, etc.

Hence in order to ensure the competitive efficiency of the business, any organization requires meticulous planning of its staffing activity. This involves the assessment of present and future needs of the organization to be compared with the present resources and future predicted resources along with the involvement of appropriate steps so as to effectively plan and balance the demand and supply of manpower in the organization. This is known as human resource planning (HRP) or manpower planning.

Human resource planning has the following principal objectives. These objectives not only help the organization to facilitate proper functioning of the organization, but also act like a bridge so as to ensure that the HR practices are linked with the strategic goals and objectives of the organization.

1. To ensure having an estimate of employee requirement along with matching skill or competency so as to efficiently meet organizational needs and objectives.

2. To provide information about how existing manpower are to be employed and what types of skills and or competencies are to be developed for achieving the desired levels of performance.

3. To indicate the requirement of additional manpower when and wherever required by the organization.

4. To cope immediate changes or fluctuations regarding the requirement of a particular skill and or competency in the workforce.

5. To ensure productive and efficient utilization of human resources and reduce manpower wastage.

6. To assess and forecast future skills requirements of the employees in the organization.

7. To provide control measures so as to ensure that necessary resources are being made available as and when required.

8. To provide guidelines so as to enable employees to train and develop themselves for higher pursuits and effective performances.

9. To form the basis of career planning and succession planning in the organization.

The productivity, performance, and the profitability of an organization depend upon having a good quality workforce. The need for manpower is constantly on the rise at an accelerated pace due to the expansion of markets, development of new products due to high rate of innovation, economic growth, increase in investment and jobs are created overnight.

Features of HRP:

i. It is a continuous process

ii. It is a predetermined course of action

iii. It includes planning and development of human resources

iv. It is futuristic

v. It has a systemic approach.

Objectives of HRP:

i. To optimally utilize the present employees.

ii. To post the right people, for right job, at right place and at right time.

iii. To bridge the gap between demand and supply of workforce.

iv. To effectively and efficiently deal with surplus and deficit workforces.

v. To decide on future quality and quantity of manpower.

vi. To determine cost and control of human resources.

vii. To formulate transfer and succession policies.

viii. To evolve development programmes.

ix. To achieve organizational objectives.

x. To ensure that current human resources are employed to have the optimum use.

xi. To assess or forecast skill needs for future.

xii. To institute control measures to ensure the availability of the necessary resources as per requirements.

xiii. To link manpower planning with organisational planning

xiv. To determine recruitment levels.

xv. To anticipate redundancies.

xvi. To determine optimum training levels.

xvii. To provide a basis for management development programme.

xviii. To esteem cost of the manpower in a new project.

xix. To assist productivity bargaining.

xx. To assess future accommodation requirements.

xxi. To study the cost of overhead and value of service functions.   

xxii. To decide whether certain activities need to be sub-contracted, etc.