HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNING Introduction Human resources planning, commonly abbreviated as HRP and sometimes referred to as workforce planning,

or personnel planning, may be defined as the process of anticipating and making provision for the movement of people into, within, and out of the work organisation. Its primary purpose is to enable the work organisation to maximise the utilisation of its human resources by ensuring that the right number of people, of the right abilities, are available to perform in correspondingly right job positions at the right time. Human resources planning helps work organisations to implement their short- and long-term business plans. Due to the pivotal role of human resources to the performance of organisations, human resources planning is a very important part of the strategic plan of any work organisation. Human resources management is a modern terminology for what traditionally used to be known as personnel management or personnel administration
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Definition of Human Resources Planning Human resources planning is the process of ensuring that human resources requirements of an organization are identified and plans are made for satisfying those requirements. Human resources planning is the process of ensuring availability of the right number of people, doing right thing at the right time in the right place within the right costs. HRP is concerned with matching resources to business needs in the longer terms although also deals with shorter terms needs.

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Background of HRP

In 1960s and 1970s HRP was regarded as a critical tool for business success. In 1980s and 1990s HRP was regarded as a suitable tool for managing downsizing and redundancies. Still at the current time HRP is an important tool for organization success in our ever changing global world.

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Scope of HRP

Basically HRP has emerged from manpower planning. Traditional manpower planning was concerned with number of employees and the levels and types of skills in the organization. Manpower planning was narrower compared to human resources planning. HRP is concerned with broader issues about the employment of people than the traditional quantitative approach of manpower planning.

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Objective of HRP To attract and retain the number of people required within the appropriate skills, expertise and competencies.

To anticipate the problems of potential surpluses or deficit of people. To develop a well trained and flexible workforce hence to be able to adapt uncertain and changing environment. Reduces dependence on external recruitment when key skills are in short supply by formulating retention as well as development strategy. Improve the utilization of people by introducing more flexible system of work. To foresee the turnover of employees and make arrangement to minimize turnover. To develop and maintain quality of workforce. Importance of HRP

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It enables the organization to economize on its recruitment function Better planning assignments to develop managers can be done through personal development plan and succession planning. Helps to make the best use of the labour market effectively and efficiently. Leads to the availability of sufficient time to locate talents in an organization. Provides opportunity of employment for various disadvantaged groups such as women and disabled.

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Functions of HRP The importance of any management function can best be discussed from the point of view

of the advantages derived from its effective and efficient performance. Accordingly, a good and well implemented human resources plan enables the organisation to reap the following major benefits: (1) It enables the organisation to maximise the utilisation of its human resources. Almost all the time, the organisation has the right numbers and quality of employees for its jobs, thus eliminating idle labour power, and overwork of employees. (2) It enables a better achievement of the organisation's objectives by ensuring that management efforts are made in good time to avail the requisite labour power for the organisation's performance processes. (3) It enables the organisation to economise on its recruitment function. An organisation with poor or without human resources planning wastes money hiring the wrong numbers or quality of employees. Such an organisation also cannot screen and validate the applicants' qualifications properly and therefore compels the organisation to invest in extravagant additional training for the new recruits before they can work at anticipated performance standards. (4) It enables the organisation to organise successful exit plans for the advantages of the employees and the organisation. Work organisations with poor or without human

resources planning cannot put in place employee succession programmes that prepare younger staff to take over from retiring staff; they cannot give retiring staff useful preparatory counselling; they are also unable to make the right preparations to meet their financial obligations to retiring employees. (5) It increases the organisation's information base to the advantage of the human resources department and other departments. Such information forms a basis for correct decisions in the implementation of core and non-core human resources programmes. (6) It enables the organisation to make a more effective and efficient use of the labour market. An organisation with good human resources planning, approaches the labour market at the right time and knows what it is looking for in terms of quantities and quality. On the internal labour market, the human resources department knows accurately and at the press of a button the available candidates, their ability particulars from which to proceed to determine the organisations readiness to spare them for the vacant jobs. In both the internal and external markets, the human resources department can accurately describe the human and industrial engineering requirements of the job so that it is able to attract the right applicants. (7) It facilitates career or personal development. An organisation with poor or without human resources planning makes it difficult for its employees to make plans for their personal development, because they cannot clearly identify clear career paths, career opportunities, and conditions for their access. As a result the more marketable and ambitious employees seek employment in other organisations which have clear career opportunities. 1.7 Types of HRP Soft HRP This ensures the availability of right people with the right type of attitude and motivation. The main focus is on qualitative aspect of human resources planning.

Hard HRP This is qualitative analysis in order to ensure the right number of people is available. However according to Jim Franklin who expanded the above two types by relying on specific activities as types of human resources planning; therefore the following are the types of human resource.

Workforce Forecasting To satisfy the organization's strategic objectives, human resources needs to consider what kind of workforce will be needed in the future. Workforce forecasting is a major component of human resource planning, and involves analyzing its current workforce and comparing it to future requirements to discover what gaps and surpluses exist. Recruiting Achieving strategic objectives through the human resource element involves attracting and recruiting quality employees. Benefits, compensation, organizational structure and employee growth or advancement are key elements for finding and hiring good employees. Planning the recruiting process with these elements in mind will assist with future employee selection. Development Development, or training, is a type of human resource planning that focuses on how it can improve the current and future workforce. Training and development programs improve both specific work-related skills and more general skills like customer service or sales training. Training and retraining programs can also focus on reducing current and future liability issues related to workplace safety. Retaining Planning for the retention of employees can be an arduous task, as it is difficult to prevent employees from looking at other employment opportunities. Human resources can help to reduce

this likelihood by planning retention programs that focus on employee recognition, rewards, advancement or growth, a work-life balance and employee benefits. 1.8. Limitations of HRP Lack of top management support Uncertainty of the future Problems of surplus staff/deficit Time consuming activity Poor information base Expensive process