Human Resource Planning

 People are the foundation of all organizations, and they are also its most valuable strategic resource. Without people, no organization could possibly accomplish its goals. To reach high performance standards, firms need to use their human resources properly. According to Choudhury (2007), all organizational goals are accomplished through efficient human resource planning; efficient human resources planning is a tool for developing long-term capacity to handle workforce difficulties. Therefore, the management of human resources has the potential to help businesses thrive and become profitable, competitive and sustainable.

It turns out that human resource planning is the process by which the organization's future needs for the necessary resources and its potential for future resources are defined. This process identifies whether the organization needs more workers and what kind of workers and skills are needed to handle future workloads, as well as whether there is a shortage or surplus of workers needed to complete the planned amount of work, including the size of the work in the organization's current strategy.

Figure 1 - HR Planning

The Concept of Human Resource Planning

Human resource planning is the process of making sure that the organization's needs for human resources are determined and strategies are created to meet the requirements. The first step in human resource management is human resource planning, which deals with socialization, recruitment, selection and job analysis as well as the needs for human resources. According to Koubek (2007), Personnel planning helps the organization reach its objectives by predicting development, establishing goals, and putting plans into action that guarantee present and future business duties are completed with a sufficient number of employees.

Human resource planning is a procedure that assists in carrying out crucial HR duties, such as providing accurate and timely information regarding when to conduct employee recruitment.

Another concept of HR planning is creating and executing plans and programs to guarantee that the appropriate number and kind of people are accessible at the appropriate time and location to meet organizational needs is known as human resource planning. 

Figure 2 - Concept of HR planning

The Importance of Human Resource Planning

Raising productivity is one of the most important corporate objectives, and planning human resources is crucial to achieving this productivity. According to Hassan (2003), businesses will face significant challenges in terms of cost and expertise if they are unable to properly articulate and implement the three core functions of human resource planning, which include labor forecasting, managing employee demand and supply in the market, and maintaining a balance between labor supply and demand predictions.

Table 1 - Importance of HR planning, (Rouya Hassan, 2004)

The Objectives of Human Resource Planning

An organization decide to use human resource planning for a number of reasons. The objectives of human resource planning within an organization are contingent upon its specific circumstances. Human resource planning's goal is to forecast an organization's labor needs while accounting for both internal and external labor supplies in order to satisfy staffing demands. In other words, it aims to close the gap between what is required and what is available (Michael, 2006). Additional elements that impact the forecasting of personnel demand include financial constraints, resignations, contract terminations, retirement, new technology in the industry, decisions to improve the quality of services rendered, and hiring objectives for minorities. A mathematical formula is employed in the context of human resource planning to estimate future demands for human resources based on a known relationship between an organization's employment level and some measurable output factors like income, sales, or production level (Noe, 2012).

According to Said Salim (2009), these are the objectives of human resource planning,

1.          Getting ready for training courses and getting people ready to take over their positions.

2.          Achieving alignment between the organization's strategic plans, the strategy for human resource management and all of its initiatives.

3.          Calculating the expense of human resources and creating the budgets for bonuses and salaries.

4.          Assembling the necessary workforce to complete tasks at the appropriate time and location

5.          The planning of employment transfers and promotions.

6.          Filling positions left by resignations, retirements or other reasons for leaving the service.

7.          Adequate readiness for the recruitment, selection, and appointment processes.

The Process of Human Resource Planning

Planning for human resources encompasses all activities related to ongoing environmental scanning and organizational strategy, goal and policy reviews to guarantee that the appropriate amount and quality of human resources are accessible when and where they are required. According to Randhawa (2007), Human resource planning is a dynamic, continuing process that involves numerous interconnected tasks that need to be updated and changed as circumstances change. Making an inventory of the current workforce is a necessary step in human resource planning since it allows for the assessment of the state of the workforce, including its size, type and scope of work. The inventory additionally looks at the skills, experience and age distribution of the workforce (Randall, 2000).

Likewise Harbison (1973) argued that, Human resource planning involves a number of tasks, such as projecting current resources into the future and comparing them with requirements forecasts to determine their adequacy, forecasting human resource requirements, creating an inventory of current resources and evaluating how well they are being used and planning the necessary programs of requirements, selection, training and development, utilization, transfer promotion, motivation and compensation to ensure that future requirements for human resources are appropriately met. 

Figure 3 - Steps in HR planning

The Stages of Human Resource Planning

The planning process for human resources goes through several sequential and linked stages, the most significant of which are listed below, to create a strategic plan that explains the organization's requirement for human resources.

 

a)      Demand forecasting - A strategic plan outlining the organization's requirement for human resources is formed through a series of sequential and integrated stages of human resources planning, the most significant of which are listed below.

b)      Supply forecasting – After assessing the possibility of supply loss, by estimating the number of workers and evaluating the available resources and capacity to provide in the future.

c)      Needs assessment – By examining supply and demand to determine whether there will be shortages or if there will be an increase in human resources, which the company can utilize for its next objectives.

d)      The cost and productivity analysis – Through examining the cost of energy and worker productivity in order to find ways to cut costs and increase productivity.

e)      Calculating employment-related budget preparation and control tools - The process of re-estimating the budget and its requirements involves addressing the challenges posed by unfavorable employment plans.

The Supervisor's Role in Human Resource Planning

HR procedures and corporate strategy are integrated in successful HR planning. That being said, it is easier said than done. In order to ensure a successful integration, line managers must work with the HR specialist to determine the practices necessary to achieve the business strategy. In HR planning, supervisors are important. HR planning wouldn't be as valuable to the company if their input wasn't included because it wouldn't be connected to the organizational objectives. Without a doubt, the line managers' contributions are valuable; the prejudices resulting from the supervisors' decisions are the source of the issue. Consequently, the HR planning team must examine practical ways to lessen or do away with them (Smith et al., 1992).

Line managers are essential to the implementation of many HR initiatives and plans. One cannot undervalue their significance in HR strategy. Thus, in order to successfully implement diverse HR activities, HR managers need collaborate closely with line managers and ask for their cooperation. As part of their duties, line managers are responsible for handling HR matters within their departments. As a result, they are in a good position to provide the HR department with pertinent information and insights in order to meet the objectives of the company in terms of hiring, retaining and training people. Having stated that, even while line managers are essential to HR planning, their decisions are not always impartial.

Figure 4 - Roles and Responsibilities of Supervisors    

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Human Resource Planning

The application of strategic management with human resource planning can yield several advantages and disadvantages for the firm. Below mentioned are some advantages and disadvantages of human resource planning,

 

Table 2 - Advantages and Disadvantages of HR planning, (Rouya Hassan, 2004)

 References

Aslam H.D. et al. (2014), ‘Human Resource Planning Practice in Managing Human Resource: A Literature Review’, International Journal of Human Resource Studies, 3(1), 200-211. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313269693_Human _Resource_Planning_Practice_in_Managing_Human_Resource_A_Literature_Review (Accessed 7th April, 2024)

Jha J.K. and Singh M. (2019), ‘Human Resource Planning as a Strategic Function: Biases in Forecasting Judgement’, Human Performance Technology, 1576-1588. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332203363_Human_Resource_Planning_as_a_Strategic_Function_Biases_in_Forecasting_Judgement (Accessed 7th April, 2024)

Megraf A.S. and Ehmouda I.A. (2016), ‘The Impact of Strategic Planning of Human Resources on the Organization’, International Journal of Scientific and Research publication, 6(10), 312-317. Available at: https://www.ijsrp.org/research-paper-1016/ijsrp-p5845.pdf (Accessed 7th April, 2024)

Samwel J.O. (2018), ‘Human Resource Planning as an Important Practice to Anticipate Future Human Resource Requirements of the Organization – Literature Review’, International Journal of Research in Business Studies Management, 5(3), 24-30. Available at: https://www.ijrbsm.org/papers/v5-i3/4.pdf (Accessed 7th April, 2024)