Meaning of Human Resource Planning
Human Resource Planning (HRP) is a system of balancing the supply of people including the present and prospective employees with the potential job openings in the organization over a given period. HRP is the system of the organisation to ensure the availability of the right number of people at the right time and the right place for the achievement of the overall objectives of the organisation. HRP is also known as manpower planning, personal planning or workforce planning. It comes under the preview of organisational planning and future-oriented activity.
Inappropriate planning may result in the excess recruitment of the staff, a rise in expenses regarding direct costs and training costs and other amenities for employees except the cost of production. Inappropriate recruitment also results in an adverse impact on the production, morale and productivity of the employees. All these factors highlight the importance of HRP in an organisation.
Definition of Human Resource Planning
According to James Walker, “Human resource planning is the process of analysing an organisation’s human resource needs under changing conditions and developing activities necessary to satisfy those needs”.
According to Dale S. Beach, “Human resource planning is the process of determination and assuming that the organisation will have an adequate number of qualified persons available at the proper times, performing jobs which meet the needs of the enterprise and which provide satisfaction for the individuals involved”.
According to Bulla and Scott, “Human resource planning is the process for ensuring that the human resource requirements of an organisation are identified and plans are made for satisfying those requirements”
According to Geister, “Human resource planning is the process including forecasting, developing, and controlling by which a firm ensures that it has the right number of people and the right kind of people at the right places at the right time, doing work for which they are economically most useful”.
Nature of Human Resource Planning
To explain the nature of human resource planning, we present it as follows.
1) Specified Objectives
The operational and strategic planning of the organization can guide HRP objectives. The needs of the human resources within the organisation are based on the firm’s objectives. HRP also aims at developing human resources, sharpening the technical skills of resources, assisting them to plan career maps, retaining them and so on.
2) Assessing the Staff Requirements
Human resource planning focuses on the pre-planning of the needs and estimates regarding the human resources within the organisation. Planning encompasses all the proceedings related to the recruiting, selection, and training process.
3) Maintaining Inventory of Existing Human Resources
It consists of the up-to-date record of the organization’s present human resources. The manager should know the available manpower supply for fulfilling the higher positions in future.
4) Regulating Demand and Supply Equation
It is difficult to find the right candidates for the vacant job positions instantly. Examining the future perspective of personnel demand and supply should occur well ahead of time.
5) Formulation of Policies
HRP helps in formulating the policies, programmes and procedures to obtain, expand, safeguard and exploit the organisation’s human resources.
6) Continuous Activity
It is an ongoing activity as the need for assessing the demand and supply of manpower resources within the organisation never comes to an end.
7) Developing a Positive Work Environment
The scope of Human Resource Planning (HRP) extends beyond the mere acquisition of human resources; it also encompasses the establishment and maintenance of optimal working conditions.
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Need for Human Resource Planning
There are multiple reasons why human resource planning is essential.
1) Technological Upgradations
There have been continuous upgrades in the systems of production technologies, marketing methods and management techniques in the industry. It has also demanded modifications accordingly in the job profiles. HRP is necessary to plan manpower needs to avert problems with redundancy, re-training, or re-deployment.
2) Government Interference
Various legislative measures such as provisions regarding the working conditions and hours of work, restrictions on women and child employment, casual and contract labour, etc., and government interference in the administration of the functioning of the firm have necessitated more systemic HRP for the firms.
3) Balancing Employment- Unemployment Situation
HRP tries to strike a balance between the educated unemployed skilled youth of the nation and the skill requirements in the industry.
4) Changes in Organisational Environment
In the ever-changing and dynamic business environment, organisations are always subjected to variations and breaks in their system of working. Therefore, organisations must rely on HRP for strategically planning their manpower requirements.
5) Justified Recruitment
It is very natural in an organisation to get recommendations for recruitment from various groups such as trade unions, political groups, and personal recommendations. Rigorously implementing HRP in the system is important to prevent such partial recruitment.
6) Diverse Workforce
In the present scenario of the business environment, the workforce consists of people of different ages, genders, culture and social backgrounds having altogether different skills. Accurate planning of the organization’s manpower requires the implementation of effective HRP.
7) Skill Shortages
In this competitive era of business, the system of working in organisations is becoming more and more complicated on account of the special and rare skills required within the firm to accomplish the task. Therefore, HRP has an important task of attracting the required potential and it also ensures to retain them in the organisation.
8) Judicial Regulations
The organization has shifted away from the treatment of employees as objects. The various legislative measures have strengthened the positions of the employees in the organisation. Various labour laws have been implemented to ensure that the employees do not face unjustified lay-off, retrenchment etc. HRP is responsible for forecasting the requirements after considering the fact.
9) Lead Time
As new employees are being trained for the new job responsibilities and profile, sufficient time is required for the employees as well for the management to assess the worth of the employee and to assign him tasks accordingly. HRP provides lead time for the above-mentioned issues.
10) People Management Concept
As with the growth of the concept of people management, there has been a need to maintain transparency in the system which can be fulfilled by the systematic and transparent recording by HRP.