Planning is very vital function to our everyday activities in every field and every type of work. Human resource planning is also a important and valuable part of human resource management.
Several definitions have been given by different writers that what human resource planning is all about and it’s importance to achieve the organizational goals. Organization that do not plan for future have less opportunities to survive the competition ahead.
What is Human Resource Planning?
Human resource planning may be defined as strategy for acquisition, utilization, improvement, and preservation of the human resources in the organisation. The objective of HRP is to provide the right personnel for the right work and optimum utilization of existing human resource.
The major activities of HRP include: forecasting (future requirements), inventorying (present strength), anticipating (comparison of present and future requirements), and planning (necessary programs to meet future requirements).
HRP involves the gathering of information, making objectives, and making decision to enable the organization to achieve it’s goals and objectives.
Surprisingly, this aspect of HR is one of the most neglected aspects in human resource management field. HRP is a function which is applied accurately in the field of Human resource management in order to reply the answers to the following questions.
- How much strength of staff does the organization have?
- What types of skills and abilities the employees have in the organization?
- What are the functions required by an organization for the optimum utilization of the available human resources?
- How can the organization improve the skills and working conditions of the employees?
- How can the organisation satisfy the needs of employees?
HRP Definitions
According to Dale S. Beach, “HRP is defined as a process of determining and assuring that the organization will have an adequate number of qualified persons, available at the required times, performing jobs which meet the requirements of the enterprise and which provide satisfaction for the individuals involved”.
According to International Labor Organisation, “HRP is the process by which management ensures that it has the right personnel, who who are capable of performing those tasks which helps the organization to achieve its objectives. It involves the forecasting of human resources needs and the projected matching of individuals with expected vacancies”.
According to Jeisler, “Manpower planning is the process which includes forecasting, developing and controlling – through which a firm ensures that it has the right number of people, the right kind of people, and at the right places at the same time doing things for which they are economically most useful”
According to R. Wayne Monday’s in Human Resource Management, Human resource planning is the systematic process of matching the internal and external supply of candidates with job openings that a company anticipates over a certain period of time. Put simply, human resource planning is keeping an up to date compilation of candidates inside and outside the company for future positions”.
According to Coleman, “Manpower planning is the process of determining manpower requirements and the means for meeting those requirements in order to carry out the integrated plan of the organisation”.
Human Resource Planning Objectives
- Recruit and maintain human resource optimally.
- To meet the requirements of the programs of expansion, diversification etc.
- Supply control measure criteria to assure required availability of human resources at given time.
- To expect the effect of technology on work, present employees and future human resource requirements.
- Advancement of knowledge, skill, ability, and discipline etc.
- Estimate the excess or shortage of human resources and proceed accordingly.
- Maintain pleasant industrial relations by maintaining optimum level of human resources.
- Minimize imbalances caused due to non availability of personnel of right kind, right number in right time and right place.
- Making the optimum utilization of human resources.
- Estimate the cost of human resources.
Human Resource Planning
Therefore, human resource planning is required to achieve the objectives of estimating efficient human resources requirements; to meet changing requirements of the organisation with changing technology. And to make full utilization of existing and potential workforce of the organisation.
Human Resource Planning Importance
Fulfill the requirements of the organization
To do work in an organization, every organization needs personnel of desired skill, knowledge, and experience. This human resource requirement of organisation can be effectively fulfilled through proper human resource planning.
It helps in determine the number of human resources required and the type of human resource required to fulfill its needs.
Checking labor disequilibrium
Manpower planning helps to anticipate shortages and/or surpluses of manpower in the organisation. Both the situations are not good for the organization.
In case of shortage of human resources, the physical resources of the organization can not be properly utilized. And, in case of surplus of human resources, these resources may remain under unused.
Therefore, human resource planning helps in correcting this imbalance before it become expensive and unmanageable.
Counterbalance insecurity and changes
There should be proper utilization of human and non human resources in the organization. Sometimes the organization may have adequate non human resource such as machines, materials, and money but due to inadequate human resources the manufacturing and production process of the organisation cannot be started.
Therefore, human resource planning helps to offset uncertainties and changes as far as possible. And it enables to ensure availability of right human resources at right time and right place.
Fulfill the personnel requirements of the organisation
As in the existing organization, some posts may fall vacant due to retirements, resignations, promotions, accidents, and death of the employees.
Hence, there is a constant need of replacing the people or filling the vacant places with better options.
Therefore, human resource planning estimates the future requirements of the organization and helps to get human resources of right kind, right number, in right time, and right place.
Expansion, diversification, and modernization of the organization
It helps to execute future plans to meet expansion, modernization, and diversification needs of the organization.
Manpower planning ensures that organization has the proper kind of human resources available to meet these needs when required.
It ensures that organization has personnel of desired skills and knowledge available to handle the challenging job requirements.
Training and development of the employees
As a result of changing requirements of the organization due to globalization and the changing technologies day by day, there is a constant need of training and development of the employees.
It improves the skills and provide advancement of employees. Thus, it helps in meeting the future needs of the organization through highly skilled employees.
Fulfill individual needs of employees
It helps to satisfy the individual needs of employees for promotion, transfer, salary encashment, better benefits etc.
Helps in formulation of budgets
It helps in anticipating the cost of human resources such as salary and other benefits etc. It facilitates the formulation of human resource budget various departments or divisions of the organisation. So, it may help in, formulating the suitable budgets for an organization.
To check unemployment
It the method of right sizing of employees by the organization, some of the employees may become surplus. It means that the organization does not require their service now.
It tries to foresee the need of redundancy. It plans to check job loss or to provide for alternative employment in consultation with various concerned parties and authorities.
Conclusion
Human Resource planning is very important part of human resource management and very beneficial for an organization. As the human resource planning is the process by which a management determines how an organization should move from its current manpower position to desired manpower position.
Therefore, through human resource planning the management strives to have the right number and the right kinds of people at the right places, at the right time, to perform things which results in both the organization and the individual receiving the maximum long run benefits.