Human resources planning Definition Need and importance Objective Planning Process

1. Human Resources planning
BY AAYUSHI BHAWSAR

2. Meaning
E.W. Vetter viewed human resource planning as “a process by which an organisation
should move from its current manpower position to its desired manpower position.
Through planning, management strives to have the right number and right kind of
people at the right places at the right time, doing things which result in both the
organisation and the individual receiving maximum long-run benefit.”
Human resource planning (HRP) is the first step in the HRM process.
HRP translates the organization’s objectives and plans into the number of workers
needed to meet those objectives. The actual HRM process starts with the estimation of
the number and kind of people required by the organization for the coming period.
HRP is also known by other names such as ‘Manpower Planning’, ‘Employment
Planning’, ‘Labour Planning’, ‘Personnel Planning’, etc.

3. Definition
Human Resource Planning or Manpower Planning (HRP) is the process of systematically
reviewing HR requirements to ensure that the required number of employees with the
required skills is available when they are needed. Getting the right number of qualified
people into the right job is the crux of the problem here.
In actual practice, this is not easy. Due to constant changes in labour market conditions,
qualified people possessing relevant qualifications are not readily available. The
organisation needs to go that extra mile, dig up every source of information and exploit
every opportunity that comes its way in order to identify talent.

4. Need and Importance
I. Assessing Future Personnel Needs:
Whether it is surplus labour or labour shortage, it gives a picture of defective planning or
absence of planning in an organization. A number of organizations, especially public sector
units (PSUs) in India are facing the problem of surplus labour.
II. Foundation for Other HRM Functions:
HRP is the first step in all HRM functions. So, HRP provides the essential information
needed for the other HRM functions like recruitment, selection, training and development,
promotion, etc.
III. Coping with Change:
Changes in the business environment like competition, technology, government guidelines,
global market, etc. bring changes in the nature of the job. This means changes in the demand
of personnel, content of job, qualification and experience needed. HRP helps the organization
in adjusting to new changes.
IV. Having Highly Talented Manpower Inventory:
Due to changing business environment, jobs have become more challenging and there is an
increasing need for dynamic and ambitious employees to fill the positions. Efficient HRP is
needed for attracting and retaining well qualified, highly skilled and talented employees.

5. Human Resource Planning – Objectives:
i) Proper assessment of human resources needs in future.
(ii) Anticipation of deficient or surplus manpower and taking the corrective action.
(iii) To create a highly talented workforce in the organization.
(iv) To protect the weaker sections of the society.
(v) To manage the challenges in the organization due to modernization, restructuring
and re-engineering.
(vi) To facilitate the realization of the organization’s objectives by providing right
number and types of personnel.

6. (vii) To reduce the costs associated with personnel by proper planning.
(viii) To determine the future skill requirements of the organization.
(ix) To plan careers for individual employee.
(x) Providing a better view of HR dimensions to top management.
(xi) Determining the training and development needs of employees.

8. 5 steps in the human resource planning process
The actual process of human resource planning involves five general phases. Listed below
help you navigate the process:
1. Analyze organizational objectives and plans
Success in HR planning relies on its connection to business goals, so you must start with a
Determine what the organization wants to achieve in the future, how it intends to
contribute to it.
Each department will have unique objectives that HR will need to be involved in. Ideally, HR
management and has a clear grasp of what every area of the company is aiming for. Once
ascertain how HR will meet those needs. For example, some departments may need you to
others may need to be downsized and reassign some current employees.

9. 2. Evaluate the current state of your workforce and uncover gaps
Before you go forward with plans for the future, you need to assess where the organization’s
strengths and weaknesses.
Do you have the right number of experienced employees?
Which skills at what levels do you already have on board with your existing staff? To do this, you
consider the following:
•What is your total number of employees?
•How many employees are in each department?
•How many employees hold each position?
•What are the education, skills, competencies, and qualifications of your employees?
•How do employees rank in the performance evaluation data?
•What are the ages of your employees? (How many are approaching retirement?)
There are several ways HR professionals can investigate these variables, such as:
•Meet with managers and department heads for their judgment of their employees’ abilities and where
•Conduct employee self-evaluations.
•Analyze HRIS data.
•Look at past performance reviews.

10. 3. Forecast future HR requirements
Forecasting demand is the critical stage of the HR planning process. Bearing in mind
gauge the coming demand and supply of qualified employees. Demand forecasting
of people needed and the level of talent required. Supply forecasting estimates future
position expansion) and external sources and their ability to meet your needs.
You accomplish this forecasting using internal data and market and industry trends. Be
as these:
•New products or services on the horizon
•Prospective mergers or acquisitions
•Labor costs
•Projected employee retirements/vacancies and turnover rates
•Technological advances and automation
Scenario planning is a way to brainstorm situations that may affect the direction of
your organization and labor requirements in the future. Consider technological
new government regulations, etc., and consider how you can be flexible and which

11. A gap analysis allows you to compare current employee quantity and skill levels with what will be needed to
meet the organization’s goals. This method involves:
•Recognizing the current workforce status.
•Ascertaining what the ideal situation looks like.
•Identifying where the current lapses exist.
You can use a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis to compile your findings and
see which elements need the most focus.

13. Then your job is to find out how you can match the demand for quality employees with the available internal
and external supply by addressing questions like these:
•Do we need to add more employees for new roles? If so, where from? How many? Full-time or part-time?
•Does the market have an adequate supply of potential employees?
•Do we need to train and develop our existing employees for reallocation? Which ones?
•Are we drawing on the expertise of current employees sufficiently?
•Do we need to adapt any of our HR policies or practices to accommodate future human resources needs?

14. 4. Develop and implement a plan
Now it’s time to formulate a human resource action plan that aligns with your
take into account all the analyses you’ve completed and include talent strategies to
get your organization ready for the future.
5. Monitor, review, and reassess your plan
After you put your human resource plan in place, you must determine whether it is
is helping you execute the organizational strategy and achieve goals in areas such as
retention and satisfaction, etc. Monitor the new practices and look for areas where the
It’s also essential to learn how changes are affecting employees. Managers can ask for
reviews, or you can conduct employee surveys to get a feel for how things are going.
Once you have input, you can identify any obstacles and work around them to adjust
can even return to step one and start the planning process again armed with what you
implementation.
Human resources planning processes need to be an ongoing activity that is constantly
stay in sync with all the changes companies must face.

16. Human Resource Plan – Factors:
Several factors affect HRP. These factors can be classified into external factors and internal
factors.
External Factors:
i. Government Policies – Policies of the government like labour policy, industrial relations
policy, policy towards reserving certain jobs for different communities and sons-of the soil,
etc. affect the HRP.
ii. Level of Economic Development – Level of economic development determines the level of
HRD in the country and thereby the supply of human resources in the future in the country.
iii. Business Environment – External business environmental factors influence the volume
and mix of production and thereby the future demand for human resources.
iv. Level of Technology – Level of technology determines the kind of human resources
required.
v. International Factors – International factors like the demand for resources and supply of
human resources in various countries.
vi. Outsourcing – Availability of outsourcing facilities with required skills and knowledge of
people reduces the dependency on HRP and vice-versa.

17. Internal Factors:
i. Company policies and strategies – Company policies and strategies relating to expansion,
diversification, alliances, etc. determines the human resource demand in terms of quality and
quantity.
ii. Human resource policies – Human resources policies of the company regarding quality of human
resource, compensation level, quality of work-life, etc., influences human resource plan.
iii. Job analysis – Fundamentally, human resource plan is based on job analysis. Job description
and job specification determines the kind of employees required.
iv. Time horizons – Companies with stable competitive environment can plan for the long run
whereas the firms with unstable competitive environment can plan for only short- term range.
v. Type and quality of information – Any planning process needs qualitative and accurate
information. This is more so with human resource plan; strategic, organisational and specific
information.
vi. Company’s production operations policy – Company’s policy regarding how much to produce
and how much to buy from outside to prepare a final product influence the number and kind of
people required.
vii. Trade unions – Influence of trade unions regarding number of working hours per week,
recruitment sources, etc., affect the HRP.

18. What is recruitment?
Recruitment is the process of actively seeking out, finding and hiring candidates for a specific
position or job. The recruitment definition includes the entire hiring process, from inception to
the individual recruit’s integration into the company.
Process and recruitment selection
While the recruitment definition and process varies from company to company, there are
some basic steps that any employer can take to make recruitment smoother and more
successful, such as the following:
•Comparing different types of job recruitment software to find the ideal fit.
•Establishing clearly defined standards and expectations for the ideal job applicant.
•Taking proactive steps to integrate new employees with comprehensive “on-boarding.”
•Staying ahead of the latest trends and best practices in recruiting.
To start, a company typically outlines what the job or position entails and creates a profile of
the ideal candidate. The company must then attract the candidate through advertisement or
the use of recruitment software. Applicants are screened and interviewed by predetermined
criteria. When the ideal candidate is chosen, they are hired and integrated into the
workplace, and the recruitment process is complete. Companies often place a high value on
recruitment, meaning they devote the appropriate time and resources to the process.

19. A recruitmentpolicyis aframeworkthatclearlyoutlines allyourbusiness’srecruitmentpractices.Thepurposeofa recruitment
policyis topromoteconsistency,transparency,complianceandadherencetolaborlaws andlegislation.
Nobusinesscanaffordtobewithoutone.Theonlydifferencebetween small andlarge
companiesis thescopeandcomplexityof therecruitmentpolicies theyneed toimplement. A smallbusiness canget awaywith a
documentcomprising ofonlyafew pages,wherelargecompaniesneeds a comprehensivepolicywith sub-policiesand
addendums.
Manyregardthe recruitmentandselection processes asperipheraltocorebusinessfunctions,butthat’samisconception.It’sone
ofthe mostimportantfunctionsin anyorganization,nomatterthe sizeor typeof business.Hiring the rightcandidatesto
maintainthe success ofanybusiness iscrucial.And theworkthatgoes into selecting yourfutureemployees isattheheart of
success.
This meansthatyoushouldalwayshaveapipeline ofpotentialcandidatestoaccommodaterestructuring,expansion,
resignations,andretirements.This iswhereasolid recruitmentandselection processpolicywithsomestrategywill comein
handy.

20. Recruitment is the next step in the procurement function of human resources of the
organization.
It involves encouraging qualified people to make application for employment with an
organization. It is not only a matter of satisfying an organisation’s need but it is an
activity which influences the shape of the organisation’s future because the successes or
failure of an organization is dependent on the potential of the employees working
therein.
Recruitment is a positive process because it stimulates people to apply for jobs to
increase the “hiring ratio”, means the number of applicants for a job.

21. Sources of Recruitment in HRM – Internal and External Sources
Internal Sources of Recruitment:
Internal sources of recruitment are those where the vacancy is filled from within the
organisation. It is desirable to look for applicants from within the organisation, if they
have requisite qualifications needed to fill a vacancy. The internal sources of recruitment
include personnel already on the payroll of an organisation. It also includes personnel
who were once on the payroll and wish to return or whom the company may like to
rehire.
1. Promotion:
Promotion involves shifting of an employee to a higher position carrying higher
responsibilities, higher status, and more pay. This promotion may be based upon both
the seniority and merit. Further, it is a vertical shifting of employees or the upward
movement of the employees. The promotion may be temporary or permanent in the
organisation. The promotion without the increase in salary is called dry promotion.
Seniority vs. Merit:
There is always a conflict between the two options that, if the promotion should be based
on merit or seniority.

22. 2. Transfer:
A transfer refers to the shifting of the employees from one job to another without a
drastic change in the responsibilities and the status of the employees. It is the horizontal
shifting of the employees. Transfer of employees is made from one place to another place
in the interest of work, worker, and the organisation.
3. Retired or Ex-Employees:

23. External Sources of Recruitment:
External sources consist of:
The labour market which can be tapped by way of job advertisements in newspapers and
journals; employment exchanges; and notifying vacancies to educational, professional,
and technical institutions. Currently, the Internet (online) has become another very
potential external source of recruitment. Recommendations of employee unions may
also be included in this category.
1. Advertising in Newspapers and Journals:
This is noted to be a popular source for recruiting skilled, supervisory and managerial
cadre personnel. Managerial positions are filled up through open advertisement in most
of the companies. Clearly, higher the category of employees, greater is the use of
advertising to invite external candidates for recruitment. Before advertising the job, an
analysis of the job is a must.
If the right type of person is not prompted to apply, no amount of interviewing or testing
can ever lead to proper recruitment. Interviewing and assessment of candidates serve to
eliminate unsuitable candidates. These cannot be expected to improve the quality of
candidates.

24. 2. Employment Exchanges:
Employment exchanges have been set up by the government for bringing together job
seekers and employers who are looking for employees. This is one of the non-traditional
sources of recruiting workers in India. The primary function of Employment Exchanges
is that of registration of work seekers and their placement against demand notified by
employers.
3. Educational/Professional/Technical Institutions:
Recruitment of managerial, executive, and supervisory personnel (technical and
professional) is widely attempted through notifications and interviews in the
professional, management, and technical institutes such as the IITs, IIMs, Universities,
and other technical and management institutes. This has been popularly termed as
‘campus recruitment/campus placements’.
.4.Internet (E-Recruitment):

25. Unsolicited or Walk-in Applicants:
Those looking for jobs apply on their own initiative when they come to know the
likelihood of certain vacancies from reliable sources or just apply for suitable jobs
without any reference to advertisement or intent to recruit on the part of the employer.
. Others:
This included recruiting daily wage rated workers at the factory gates.
An analysis of the external sources of recruitment shows that for supervisory and
managerial positions advertising through newspapers and journals is the most popular
method of inviting candidates in Indian Companies. Notifying technical and professional
institutes is the next common source for supervisory and managerial personnel;
employment exchanges and unsolicited applicants could be next in order of preference
for supervisors.