Human resource planning is the process of systematically anticipating and carrying out the movement of people into, within, and out of an organization. It involves determining future quantitative and qualitative staffing needs, and developing activities to meet those needs. The key objectives of HRP are deciding organizational goals, estimating future human resource requirements, and auditing current human resources.

1. What is Manpower / Human Resources Planning (HRP)?
Manpower planning or HR planning are synonymous. HR planning is more broad-based.
Hereinafter, we will call it Human Resource Planning or HRP in short.
Human resource planning is the process of anticipating and carrying out the
movement of people into, within, and out of the organization. Human resources
planning is done to achieve the optimum use of human resources and to have the
correct number and types of employees needed to meet organizational goals.
We also can say that, Human resource planning is the process of systematically reviewing
human resource requirements to ensure that the required numbers of employees with
the required skills are available when and where they are needed.
Human resource planning includes four factors:
Quantity : How many employees do we need?
Quality : Which skills, knowledge and abilities do we need?
Space : Where do we need the employees?
Time : When do we need the employees? How long do we need them?
Definition of Human Resources Planning (HRP)
HRP can be defined as the task of assessing and anticipating the skill, knowledge and
labor time requirements of the organization, and initiating action to fulfill or
‘source” those requirements. Thus, if the organization as a whole or one of its
subsystem is not performing to the benchmark, in other words, it is declining, it may
need to plan a reduction or redeploys its existing labor force. On the other hand, if it is
growing or diversifying, it might need to find and tap into a source of suitably skilled
labor.
Let’s look into some definitions of HRP as given by different experts.
Coleman has defined HR/MP planning as “The Process of determining manpower
requirements and the means for meeting those requirements in order to carry out the
integrated plan of the organization.”
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2. Stainer defines manpower planning as “Strategy for acquisition, utilization, improvement
and preservation of an enterprise’s human resources.”
Vetter opines that it is the process by which management determines how the
organization should move from its manpower position to its desired manpower
position to carry out integrated plan of the organization.
According to Geisler, “Manpower planning is the process – including forecasting,
developing and controlling by which a firm ensures that it has-
• The right number of people,
• The right kind of people,
• At the right places,
• At the right time, doing work for which they are economically most useful”.
Wickstrom very beautifully summarizes the features of HRP,
Forecasting future manpower requirements, where we use mathematical projections, to
project trends in the economic environment and development of the industry.
Making an inventory of present manpower resources and assessing the extent to which
these resources are employed optimally. Procuring competent personnel requires
positive recruitment efforts and the development of a variety of recruitment sources.
These sources must consider not only the nature and conditions of the external labor
market, but also the presence of qualified personnel who are available to fill vacancies
through internal promotions or transfers.
Anticipating manpower problems by projecting present resources into the future and
comparing them with the forecast of requirements to determine their adequacy, both
quantitatively and qualitatively; and
Planning the necessary programs of requirement, selection, training, development,
utilization, transfer, promotion, motivation and compensation to ensure that future
manpower requirements are properly met.
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3. We may figure out the leading features of HRP from mentioned definitions.
• It’s a systematic approach. Cause it ensures a continuous and proper staffing. It
avoids or checks on occupational imbalances (shortage or surplus) occurring in
any of the department of the organization.
• There is a visible continuity in the process. (Based on Wickstrom’s definition)
• There is a certain degree of flexibility. That is, it is subject to modifications
according to needs of the organization or the changing circumstances. Manpower
plans can be done at micro or the macro levels depending upon various
environmental factors.
Thus, we can summarize that: “HRP is a kind of risk management. It involves realistically
appraising the present and anticipating the future (as far as possible) in order to get the
right people into right jobs at the right time”. (Reiterating the view of Geisler).
Need / Importance of Human Resources Planning (HRP)
HRP is a double-edged weapon.
If used properly, it leads not only to proper utilization, but also reduces excessive labor
turnover & high absenteeism, improves productivity and helps to achieve organizations
goal.
On the other hand, faulty use leads to Disruption in flow of work, lower productivity, less
job satisfaction, lower production & high cost of production.
Human Resource Planning (HRP) is a needed for following reasons:
• To ensure optimum use of manpower and capitalize on the strength of HR. The
organization can have a reservoir of talent at any point of time. People skills are
readily available to carry out the assigned tasks, if the information is collected
and arranged beforehand with the help of effective HR Planning.
• To forecast future requirements (this is done by keeping track of the employee
turnover.) and provides control measures about availability of HR labor time. If,
for example the organization wants to expand its scale of operations, it can go
ahead easily. Advance planning ensures a continuous supply of people with
requisite skills who can handle challenging jobs easily.
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4. • To face the challenges the business is facing due to turbulent and hostile
environmental forces (e.g. technology, social, economic and political upheaval)
impinging on single one of them. Although planning has always been an essential
process of management, increased emphasis on HRP becomes especially critical
when organizations consider mergers, relocation of plants, downsizing, or the
closing of operating facilities.
• To face Rapid Technological Changes. The myriad changes in production
technologies, marketing methods and management techniques have been
extensive and rapid. Their effect has been profound on job contents and job
contexts. These changes cause problems relating to redundancies, retraining and
redeployment. All these suggest the need to plan manpower needs intensively
and systematically.
• To face Organizational Changes. In the turbulent environment marked by cyclical
fluctuations and discontinuities, the nature and pace of changes in organizational
environment, activities and structures affect manpower requirements and require
strategic considerations means perfect HR Planning.
• To determine recruitment/induction levels. We may explain this with an
example: manager wants to determine what kind of induction the organization
will require at such and such date. If we have a ready HR plan, we will have fairly
good idea what kind of people are being recruited and at what position. Thus we
can successfully plan our induction level.
• To determine training levels and works as a foundation for management
development programmes
• To know the cost of manpower if there is a new project is being taken up,
example: in cases of expansions or a new factory, one would naturally requires
more human resources, hence a budgetary allocation can be made in advance for
this upcoming corporate strategic move.
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5. • To assist in productivity bargaining. For example, if a firm is going fully
automated, it can negotiate for lesser workers as required for the same amount
of the job by using the manpower predictions regarding the same. It can offer
higher incentives to smoothen the process of voluntary layoffs.
• To assess accommodation requirements. We may have a question, how that can
be related to HRP? A good HRP can assist in solving many problems of the firm,
from day to day ones to very strategic ones, too. For example: an organization
decides to establish its production center in a remote area, an accurate HR plan
can help it to decide how many people will be required there, and thus start the
process of establishing a township for them in advance. The physical facilities
such as canteen, school, medical help, etc., can also be planned in advance.
An organization may incur several intangible costs as a result of inadequate HRP or, for
that matter, the lack of HRP. For example, inadequate HRP can cause vacancies to remain
unfilled. The resulting loss in efficiency can be costly, particularly when the lead-time is
required to train replacements. Situations also may occur in which employees are laid
off in one department while applicants are hired for similar jobs in another
department. This may cause over hiring and result in the need to lay off those employees
to make effective plans for career or personal development. As a result, some of the
more competent and ambitious ones may seek other employment where they feel they
will have better career opportunities.
From the above discussion we get to the following conclusion.
Manpower planning has maintained its imperatives for several reasons: (i) a
growing awareness of the need to look into the future, (ii) a desire to exercise control
over as many variables as possible which influence business success or failure, (iii) the
development of techniques which make such planning possible.
Hence, success depends much on proper use of Human Resource Planning.
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6. Objectives of Human Resources Planning (HRP)
Objectives of Human Resource Planning are,
• Deciding Goals: Human Resource Planning fulfils individual, Organizational &
National goals.
• Estimating future organizational structure and MP requirements: It’s related with
No of Personnel’s required, job-family, age distribution of employees (Ex. 20-29),
qualification & experience desired, salary range etc.
• Auditing Human Resources: Once the future needs of HR are estimated, the next
step is to determine the present supply of MP resources. This is done through
skill inventory. This prevents overstaffing and understaffing.
• Job Analysis: Job analysis is the process of studying and collecting department
information relating to operations and responsibilities of a specific job. The
immediate products of this analysis are job description and job specification.
Job description is an organized factual statement of duties and responsibilities of
a specific job, whereas, job specification is a statement of the minimum
acceptable qualities necessary to perform a job properly.
Some other objectives we may mentioned as follows.
• To achieve more effective and efficient use of employees / human resources.
• To better recruit employees who possess the necessary skills and competences.
• To achieve a higher rate of satisfied and better developed employee.
• To facilitate training and development programmes.
• To facilitate the roll-out of strategic plans / missions.
• To achieve more effective equal opportunity planning.
• To relieve the organisation of unnecessary / unneeded labour.
• Ensure organization is responsive to changes in environment.
Based on above discussion we may conclude that objective of HR planning is to
guarantee availability of the HR needs of the organisation at specified times in the
future. Or, Right people in right place at right time. It is a systematic HR process to help
the organisation meet its business objectives.
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7. Objectives of Human Resources Planning (HRP)
Objectives of Human Resource Planning are,
• Deciding Goals: Human Resource Planning fulfils individual, Organizational &
National goals.
• Estimating future organizational structure and MP requirements: It’s related with
No of Personnel’s required, job-family, age distribution of employees (Ex. 20-29),
qualification & experience desired, salary range etc.
• Auditing Human Resources: Once the future needs of HR are estimated, the next
step is to determine the present supply of MP resources. This is done through
skill inventory. This prevents overstaffing and understaffing.
• Job Analysis: Job analysis is the process of studying and collecting department
information relating to operations and responsibilities of a specific job. The
immediate products of this analysis are job description and job specification.
Job description is an organized factual statement of duties and responsibilities of
a specific job, whereas, job specification is a statement of the minimum
acceptable qualities necessary to perform a job properly.
Some other objectives we may mentioned as follows.
• To achieve more effective and efficient use of employees / human resources.
• To better recruit employees who possess the necessary skills and competences.
• To achieve a higher rate of satisfied and better developed employee.
• To facilitate training and development programmes.
• To facilitate the roll-out of strategic plans / missions.
• To achieve more effective equal opportunity planning.
• To relieve the organisation of unnecessary / unneeded labour.
• Ensure organization is responsive to changes in environment.
Based on above discussion we may conclude that objective of HR planning is to
guarantee availability of the HR needs of the organisation at specified times in the
future. Or, Right people in right place at right time. It is a systematic HR process to help
the organisation meet its business objectives.
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