Human resource Planning

HR planning definition

 Human Resource planning is the

process by which an organisation
ensures that:
 It has the right number and kinds of people,
 At the right places,
 At the right time,
 Capable of effectively and efficiently completing
those tasks that will help the organisation
achieve its overall strategic objectives.
Definition (cont..)

 It is the process of assessing the future

supply of and demand for human
resources.
 It also provides mechanisms to eliminate
any gaps that may exist between supply
and demand
 It is a process of determining what
positions in the firm will have to be filled
and when
Definition (cont..)

 Human Resource planning translates the

organization’s overall goal into the
number and types of workers needed to
meet those goals.
 Without clear-cut planning, estimation of
an organization’s human resource need
is reduced to mere guesswork.
Definition (cont..)

 Thus, HR planning determines the

number and types of employees to be
recruited into the organisation or phased
out of it
Factors affecting planning
1. Organisation HR policies on recruitment, promotion,
succession management and career planning,
retirement, workforce mix etc
2. organizational values and strategies
 values - If it values longevity of employees, then
the HR plan might adopt that a strategy to recruit
and promote from within.
 Strategy
 How does the organisation intend to use
HR to achieve business strategy
 If an organisation is pursuing a
diversification strategy, then the HR plan
should ensure that it is prepared with staff
that can help the firm achieve its strategy,
e.g. new organisation structure, recruitment
and selection, training etc
3. Changing demographic - more young,
more old, more educated
If the markets of labour changes to more young,
more old, more women or more educated
people etc, then the job descriptions,
compensations strategies and general way of
working might have to change to suit these
groups
4. Government policy. Requirement for
gender balance, disability employment,
mandatory retirement age
Factors affecting planning (Cont..)

 5. The type of people employed and the

task they perform.
 An organisation may not need to plan very
far in advance for unskilled labour, since
they will usually be in abundant supply.
 Certain high skills job require planning
activities that project a year or two into the
future. Planning for executive replacement
may need even 5 years ahead
Process of HR planning
 Review your current organizational strategic
plan
 Review the current human resources situation
 Forecast on the future HR needs ( supply and
demands)
 Planning on meeting HR needs
 Implement the plan – recruit, select, training ,
downsizing
1. Reviewing the current strategic
plan
 HR planning goes hand in hand with the organizational
strategic planning
 Strategic planning refers to the organizational
decision about how it wants to accomplish its mission
and strategies
 The first stage of HR planning is the point at which
HRM and strategic planning initially interact.
 What is the future direction of the company and what
are the implications of HR
 Future direction in terms of technology, markets,
organizational structures, etc
2. Review the current human
Resource situation
 This is done by studying HR records to
determine:
 How many do we have in what category?
Quality and quantity
 Who is leaving the organization and when
( project turnover as result of resignation
and termination)
3. Forecasting Future Human
Resource Needs

I. Forecast Staff demand

II. Forecast Staff supply
Forecasting demand

 How many, what levels when

 The demand is closely tied to the strategic
direction that the organization has decided to
take. – are we engaged in reengineering?,
technological changes? that will shrink/change
the workforce in the coming years
Forecasting demand (cont…)
 Consider:
 major customer requirements and hence forecast
on revenue and seasonal fluctuations
 Projected staff turnover ( as a result of resignation
or termination or retirement)
 Strategic decisions to upgrade the quality of
products or services or enter new markets
 Technological and other changes resulting in
increased productivity
Techniques of forecasting demand

 Experts estimates - provide the

organisation with demand estimates
based on experience, guesses, intuition,
and subjective assessment of available
economic and labour force indicators
 Trend Projections - Developing a
forecast based on past relationship
between a factor related to employment
and employment itself
Techniques for forecasting ….

 Statistical modeling -Using sophisticated

forecasting and modeling techniques,
using factors such as sales, GDP, incomes
etc and develop mathematical models for
forecasting
 Unit demand forecasting - The unit
manager analysis person by person, job –
by-job needs in the present as well as in
the future
Forecasting supply
 Internal supply
 The main task is to determining which current
employees might be qualified for the projected
openings
 This determines how many, and what kind of
employees are currently available in terms of skills and
training necessary for the future.
 The major tool used to assess the current supply of
employees is the skills inventory
 In some organisations, there will be a separate
inventory just for managers called a management
inventory
Skills inventory
 Purpose: to note what kind of skills, abilities,
experiences, and training the employees
currently have.
 By keeping track of these, the organisation
can quickly determine whether a particular skill
is available and when it will be needed
 Skills inventory are also useful in career
planning, management development and
related activities
Contents of a skills inventory

 Once a decision has been made to

create a skills inventory, the HR
manager must determine what
information will be contained in the
system.
Contents of a skills inventory (cont..)

 The list of data that can be coded into the

skills inventories is endless and it must be
tailored to the needs of each organisation.
 Some of the most common items include:
 Name and Employees number
 Present location
 Date of birth, date of employment
 Job classification
Contents of a skills inventory (cont..)

 Specific skills and knowledge

 Education and field of education( formal
education and course taken since leaving school)
 Professional qualification
 A supervisors evaluation of the employees
capabilities
 Salary range,
 Employees stated career goals and objectives,
including geographical preferences and intended
retirement date
Components of a skills inventory

Content can be put into three components

of as follows:
1. Data summarizing the employees past:
2. Data summarizing status of present
skills
3. Data that focus on the future
Data summarizing the employees
past
 a) Title and brief job description
highlighting positions held in the over the
years either in the organisation or
previous organisations
 b) Critical skills developed in these
positions – manual, cognitive, creative
Data summarizing the employees
past (cont..)
 C) Educational achievements – high
school, job relevant classes, college
(major minor)
 D) significant special project
accomplished during the last five years
( within this organisation or the previous
organisation)
Data summarizing the status of the
present skills
 A) skill related highlights last three
performance appraisals
 B) Employee perception of what is done
well on present job e.g. skill
competencies, perception of how skills
could be improved
 C) Employees supervisor perception of
the same
3. Data that focus on the future
 A) personal career goals – one year, three
years, identify specific positions and
aspiration. Avoid global generalities like
“higher up”
 B) view of the individuals present supervisors
as to what he or she could be prepared to
become. List specific position
 C) specify training and development efforts
that the individual is motivated to undertake –
on the job, off the job, classroom or
experiential
 The above three components are just a
sample and some organisations may
have a skill inventory cataloguing
different job classification
Maintaining the skills inventory
 The skill inventory is maintained by continuous
gathering, handling and updating data. Decisions to be
made include:
1. Method of data gathering: The two principle
method of gathering data are interviewing and
questionnaire
2. When to update: Updating must be planned – e.g.
annual update, or where changes are frequent,
monthly update
3. Manual or computerizes: A decision will also have
to be made on whether to store data manually or
to computerize it
Forecasting external supply

 From the labour market

 Consider: economic indicators –
competition and wage levels, cost of
living, education levels, unemployment
levels
 Forecast on the availability of potential
job candidates in specific occupation
e.g. IT, HR, Finance etc - is there an
under or over supply.
Action decisions in HR planning
 After HR planning system has analyzed both
the supply and demand for future workers,
these two forecasts are compared to
determine what if any actions should be taken.
 Whenever there is a discrepancy between the
tow estimates, organisations need to choose a
course of action to eliminate the gaps
Action decisions on a shortage of
employees
 Use of overtime - if the shortage is small and the
employees are willing to work overtime, it can be filled
with present employees
 Recruitment for skills where there are gaps.
 recalling employees who were laid off
 Use of part time workers, subcontracting,
 Training and development staff to meet the resource
gaps
 Promoting employees from lower level to higher levels
where there are gaps
Action decisions in surplus
conditions
 Attrition and Hiring Freeze – through attrition,
individuals who quit, die, or retire are not replaced. Those
who remain must handle the same workload with fewer
people.
 Early Retirement/ Buy Outs –a means of encouraging
more workers to leave the organisation early with some
incentives .
 Lay offs – can be temporary or permanent. A temporary
lay off occurs during slack periods when the workforce. As
soon as the work resumes to its normal level, workers are
called.. Companies have no legal obligation to provide a
financial cushion to laid-off employees
 Leave of Absence without Pay – this gives workers
the opportunity to take leaves of absence without pay.
Individuals offered this leave are usually employees
whose jobs may be eliminated in the future.
 Demotions – to reduce the number of employees
where there is a surplus at a senior level and there is a
shortage at a lower level
 Transfers – employees can be transferred from
areas/departments with surpluses to department with
shortages
 Creation of more work – the
organisation can expand its operations
by going into other locations or
producing additional products
 Note: As an approach to dealing with a
surplus, most organisations avoid lay
offs and rely more on attrition, early
retirements and creation of work
Plan to meet Human Resource
need
Develop operational plans for each of the
above actions: e.g.
I. Training and development plans
II. Recruitment and selection plans
III. Retirement/right sizing plans
IV. Transfer plans