What Is Human Resource Planning and How Does It Contribute to Achieving an Organisations Goals

This essay discusses the importance of HR planning and the major steps of planning in order to demonstrate its importance and use: Forecasting; Inventory, Audit, HR Resource Plan, Acting on Plans, Monitoring and Control. So what is human resource planning and how does it contribute to achieving organizational goals? Human resource planning is the responsibility of all managers. HR planning links people management to the organization's mission, vision, goals and objectives, as well as its strategic plan. A key goal of HR planning is to have the right number of people with the right skills, experience and competencies in the right jobs at the right time and costs. When we prepare our planning programme, Employers /senior managers should bear in mind that their staff members have their own objectives and that people are different from the other resources that are deployed in an organization as people have thoughts, feelings, and aspirations. This is the reason why employees seek employment within companies that match their needs best (eg. Flexi working hours, training etc.. ). Human resources are the people that work for an organization, and Human Resource Management is concerned with how these people are managed. The term HRM has thus come to refer to an approach, which takes into account both: †¢The needs of the organization †¢The needs of its people. Neglecting these needs would result in poor motivation that may lead to unnecessary poor performance and even Industrial actions. Commencing an HR Plan is often complicated, but the results provide a smooth and efficient set of processes that allow organizational goals to be achieved in an orderly fashion. Planning involves gathering information that would enable managers and supervisors to make sound decisions. The information obtained is also utilized to make better actions for achieving the objectives of the Organization. There are many factors that you have to look into when deciding on a HR Planning programme. As mentioned above HR Planning involves the gathering of information, making objectives, and making decisions to enable the organization achieve its objectives. When HR Planning is applied in the field of HR Management, it would assist to address the following questions: How many staff does the Organization have? †¢What is the cost of employees and can they be reduced? †¢What type of employees as far as skills and abilities does the Company have? †¢How should the Organization best utilize the available resources? †¢How can the Company keep its employees? Human resource management therefore involves finding out about the needs and aspirations of individual employees, for example through the appraisal process and then creating the opportunities within the organization (e. g. through job enlargement) and outside the organization (e. . through taking up educational opportunities at local colleges/universities) for employees to improve themselves. HRM therefore relates to every aspect of the way in which the organization interacts with its people, e. g. by providing training and development opportunities, appraisals to find out about individual needs, training and development needs analysis, etc. Opportunities and courses for individuals to develop skills, knowledge and attitudes that help the organization to achieve its objectives. Development – the provision of opportunities and courses for individuals to develop skills, knowledge and attitudes that help themselves to achieve personal objectives. Training and development needs†¦ From the above we can see that HR have a huge task keeping pace with the all the internal and external changes and ensuring that the right people are available to the Organization at the right time. The changes in composition of a workforce not only influence the appointment of staff, but also the methods of selection, training, compensation and motivation. It becomes critical when Organizations merge, plants are relocated, and activities are scaled down due to financial problems. Poor HR Planning and/ or a lack of it in the Organization are likely to result in huge costs and financial looses. It may result in staff posts taking too long to be filled or unable to find the required skills. This can inflate costs and obstruct effective work performance and motivation as employees may be requested to work unnecessary overtime and may not put more effort due to fatigue / lack of motivation. If extra work is then delegated this may stretch employees beyond their capacity which will cause unnecessary disruptions to the production of the Organization. Employees are put on a disadvantage because their lifestyles are disrupted and they are not given the chance to plan for their career development. The most important reason why HR Planning should be managed and implemented is due to cost savings and ensuring the right skills are available at the required time; because costs form an important part of the Organizations budget, workforce Planning enables the Organization to provide HR provision costs. For example when there is a staff shortage, the organization can consider options other than just recruiting new staff, such as training and transferring of staff. The first step in HR Planning requires that we gather data on the Organizational goals objectives; in effect its management understand where the Organization wants to go and how it wants to get to that point and forecasting human resource availability. This involves an examination of the internal and external labour supply. Present employees who can be promoted, transferred, demoted or developed make up the internal supply. The external supply consists of people who do not currently work for the organisation. The needs of the employees are derived from the corporate objectives of the Organization. They stem from shorter and medium term objectives and their conversion into action budgets (eg) establishing a new branch in Singapore by January 2014 and staff it with an Office Manager – ?30,000, an Administrator -?21,550, and two Sales staff – ?18000 per year. For this reason the HR Plan will have a process to convert planned Company strategies into planned results and budgets so that these can be converted in terms of money and skills required. To forecast the organization’s future HR requirements and determine from where they will be obtained. Three sets of forecasts are required: †¢a forecast of the demand for human resources †¢a forecast of the supply of external human resources †¢a forecast of the supply of human resources available within the organization After knowing what human resources are required in the Organization, they will then want to measure / analyze the current employees in the Organization. The HR inventory will relate to data concerning numbers, ages, and locations, and an analysis of individuals and skills. A Skills inventory provides detailed information on professional and technical skills and other qualifications provided in the firm. It reveals what skills are immediately available in the firm when compared to the forecasted HR requirements. Given the constant changes in our lives, competition and the world our HR resources can also change rapidly. HR inventory requires data to be collated; the HR audit involves the examination and analysis of the inventories data. The Audit analyses what had occurred in the past and at present in terms of labor turn over, productivity, age and sex groupings, training costs and absence. With this information, you are better able to predict what will happen to HR / be required in relation to the future of the Organization through patterns and trends. With the audit being completed we are able to look at career Planning and HR plans. People are the greatest assets in any Organization. Individual Organizations develop their employees in the way ideally suited to their individual capacities in accordance with their own goals. The main reason is that the Organization’s objectives should be aligned as near as possible, or matched, in order to give optimum scope for the developing potential of its mployees. Therefore, career planning may also be referred to as HR Planning or succession planning- namely that what will happen if employee A leaves tomorrow? The main issues to consider with HR: †¢Are we utilizing all of the available talent we have in the Organization, and have we enough abilities for the future? †¢Are employees satisfied with our interest in their growth in terms of advancing their career? Designating individuals to planned future posts enables the Senior management to ensure that these individuals are suitably prepared for roles that will arise in the future. There are three fundamentals necessary to start actioning a plan: †¢To have a fixed direction. †¢There must be acceptance and backing from top management for the planning. †¢Detailed knowledge of the available resources (i. e) financial, physical and human (Management and Technical). HR Plans become Corporate plans once they are acted upon as having been made and concurred with top management, the plans become a part of the company’s long-range plan. Failure to achieve the HR Plans due to cost, or lack of knowledge, may result in long-term plans being adversely affected. Given that the success of an organization ultimately depends on how well its human resources are managed, HR planning will continue to grow in importance. Successful HR planning requires the HR manager to ensure that: †¢HR personnel understand the HR planning process †¢Top management is supportive †¢The organization does not start with an overly complex system †¢The communications between HR personnel and line management are healthy †¢The HR plan is integrated with the organization’s strategic business plan †¢There is a balance between the quantitative and qualitative approaches to HR planning. Monitoring and Control is the last stage of HR planning in the Organization. Once the programme has been accepted and implementation launched, it has to be monitored and controlled. The HR department has to make regular reviews to see what is happening in terms of the available resources and that processes are followed with appropriate / expected results (training, recruitment etc.. ). The aims of the reviews are to ensure that we utilize all talents and resources optimally to ensure goals are achieved. As we can see the HR plan is the basis of Human Resources Management. We now have a review of Human Resource planning and its importance as without it- we will not be able to utilize our Organizational talents effectively; we are not likely to have the skills we require, when we require them, to complete projects effectively and maintain a competitive advantage. By using the available talents optimally and in an orderly fashion you are able to enhance profits and develop your company with minimal costs; and this can only be achieved with adequate / sufficient HR Planning.