From Manpower

Planning to Human
Resource Planning
Lecture Topic 3

1
Overview of Lecture

 Developmental overview of HR
Planning
 Purpose of HR Planning

 Various Stages of HR Planning

 The Case Against/For HR Planning

 Adapting Traditional HR Planning

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 Definitions of HR Planning (1)
“…strategy for the acquisition, utilisation,
improvement and preservation of an organisation‟s
human resources”
(Department of Employment 1974)
(cited by Bratton and Gold, 2003, p194)
“…the process for identifying an organisation’s
current and future human resource requirements,
developing and implementing plans to meet these
requirements and monitoring their overall
effectiveness”
(Beardwell and Claydon, 2007, p159)
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 Definitions of HR Planning (2)

“…the process of interpreting the

environment, predicting its effects on the
organisation, evaluating these effects,
planning and controlling the appropriate
measures in order that the right human
resources are available when required”
(Boella, 2000)

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 Developmental Overview (1)

 Bramham (1994) argues

 Manpower Planning as QUANTITATIVE –
concerned with forecasting demand and
supply of labour
 Human Resource Planning as far wider
encompassing a whole range of activities:
• Motivation of employees, employee attitudes,
organisational culture

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Developmental Overview (2)

According to Taylor (2002)

MP and HRP are concerned with
 „looking ahead‟, using systematic
techniques, i.e. auditing skills to be
able to meet org. requirements of the
future.
 Having „the right people, with the right
skills, in the right places at the right
time.
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Why Look ahead and
Forecast?
 To deal with changes
 External Environmental Situations
• Expansion
• Competition
• Globalisation
• Technological
• Political
• Social
• Economical
• Ecological
• Legal
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Purpose of HR Planning

 Recruitment Gaps
 Training and Development

 Staff Costings

 Redundancy

 Collective Bargaining

 Accommodation

(Taylor 2002)

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Stages in HR
Planning
(Taylor 2002)

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The HR Planning Cycle has
four general stages:
1. Forecasting future demand of HR
2. Forecasting future internal supply of
HR
3. Forecasting future external supply of
HR
4. Formulating responses to the
forecasts

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Stage 1: Forecasting Future
Demand (1)
 Requires looking at:
 Skills required
• To achieve Business Targets (Goals, Design,
Culture)
• Assess skills available Vs Required
 Predict how many people required
 Skills will depend on:
 Timescale
 Nature of Org. activities

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 Stage 1: Forecasting Future
Demand (2)
Techniques Used to Forecast Demand:
1 Systematic Techniques
 Time series or ratio trend analysis
 Work-study approach
 Productivity trend analysis
2 Managerial Judgement
3 Combined Approach (1+2)
4 Working back from costs
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 Stage 2: Forecasting Internal
Supply
 Involves identifying/acknowledging the
existing staff employed by an organisation
 department by department
 grade by grade
 Involves:
 Skills Audits
 Predicting Staff Turnover
 Internal promotion analysis

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Stage 3: Forecasting External
Supply (1)
 Filling the GAP using the external labour
market:
 Local
 National
 International

 HR Planners must gain an understanding of the

dynamics of the Labour Market to update plans
as trends change and develop

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 Stage 3: Forecasting External
Supply / Dynamics of the Labour Market
 The following statistics can be most useful
 General population density
 Population movements
 Age distribution
 Social class
 Unemployment rates
 School leavers
 Proportion with higher education
 Skill levels
 Skills shortages

 Sources of Info include: „Labour Market Trends‟,

Labour Market Quarterly, Annual Social Trends survey,
Chamber
15 of Commerce, Training and Enterprise
Councils
Stage 4: Formulating Responses
to the Forecasts/Action Planning
 Forecasting should identify any
potential mismatch between future
demand and supply
 If demand exceeds supply – develop
plans to match the shortfall
 If supply is likely to exceed demand –
develop plans to reduce the surplus
(Taylor, 2002; Beardwell and Claydon, 2007)

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 Action Planning – Alternative View
point (Boella, 2000)
 Outsourcing
 Plans:
 Redundancy
 Redeployment
 Retirement
 Recruitment
 Training
 Retention
 Succession
 Review:
 A plan will always need constant review: E.g.:
 Extensions
 External environmental factors
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 Turnover increases
 Use of HR Planning in
Practice
According to Rothwell, 1995; Flokowski, 1998;
and Liff, 2000)
 Systematic HR Planning is mainly restricted
to large public sector organisations and
firms operating in stable environments
 Other organisations may use it in a casual
way and may rely more on managerial
judgement

(cited by Taylor, 2002)

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The Case Against HR
Planning
 Based on the simple proposition that it is
difficult to forecast demand and supply with
any ACCURACY!
 Forecasting relies on past experience to
predict future developments
 Forecasts are based on questionable
assumptions
 The future is uncertain for organisations!
(Taylor, 2002)

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The Case for HR Planning
 There are 2 main arguments for HRP:

1. The need to view plans as adaptable

 Plans should be continually updated in light
of environmental developments
2. Turbulence requires more attention to
planning
 There is a greater need for organisations to
develop their capacity to plan accurately

(Taylor, 2002; Beardwell and Claydon, 2007)

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Adapting Traditional HR
Planning
 Many writers believe there is a need to
adapt the traditional methods of HR
planning to suit the needs of organisations
operating in an unpredictable environment:
 Micro Planning
 Contingency Planning
 Succession Planning
 Skills Planning
 Soft HR Planning
(Taylor, 2002)

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Summary

 The term Manpower Planning (MP)

has gradually been replaced by
Human Resource Planning (HRP)
 Concerned with looking ahead and
using systematic techniques to assess
the extent to which an organisation
will be able to meet its requirements
for labour in the future

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References
 Beardwell, J & Claydon, T (2007), Human resource
management: a contemporary approach, 5th edition,
London, Pearson Education
 Boella, M.J (2000) Human Resource Management in
the Hospitality Industry, 7th edition, Cheltenham,
Nelson Thornes
 Bramham, J. (1994) Human resource planning, 2nd
edition, London, Institute of Personnel Development,
1994
 Bratton, J & Gold, J. (2003) Human resource
management: Theory and practice, 3rd edition,
Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
 Foot, M & Hook, C. (2005) Introducing human
resource management, 4th edition, Harlow, Pearson
Education.
 Taylor, S. (2002) People Resourcing, 3rd edition,
London, Chartered Institute of Personnel and
23 Development.
Revision Questions

 What are the aims/objectives of HRP?

 Outline the stages of HRP.

 Highlight the case for and against

HRP.
 Outline alternative methods to the
traditional approach to HRP

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