2. Human resource management
The management of people at work in order to
assist the organisation in achieving its
objectives.
3. Workforce planning
Workforce planning entails forecasting future
human resources requirements and translating
those requirements into actual needs in terms
of numbers of employees.
4. Workforce planning
It helps an organisation to foresee change, identify
trends and implement human resource
policies, and involves the following:
• workforce requirements should be forecast in the short, medium and long
term
• forecasting must not be regarded in isolation but as an integral part of the
overall strategic plan
• personnel records need to be kept up to date
• forecasts should be prepared by skill/job level
• forecasts must be constantly reviewed and updated
• external factors should be taken into account, such as population
trends, changes in government initiatives
5. Ineffective human resource forecasting can lead to:
• recruitment and selection problems
• inadequately trained employees
• morale/motivation problems
• high levels of stress
• high levels of labour turnover
• high levels of absenteeism
• redundancies
• high costs
• crisis management
6. Supply shortages can be overcome by:
• outsourcing
• sponsoring, training and degree programmes
• retraining existing employees
• increasing mechanisation
• offering better terms and conditions of
employment
• rescheduling work – short term
• increasing overtime – short term
7. Stages in workforce planning
Assessing the
current workforce
Assessing the
workforce
needed in the
future
Identifying the
gaps or areas of
oversupply
Developing
strategies to fill
gaps or reduce
the oversupply
Right
people, right
place, right time
8. Components of a workforce plan
• Appropriate plans should be drawn up for the
short, medium and long term
• Plans should include background analysis, a detailed
plan of action involving recruitment and training and
possibly redeployment or transfers and
redundancies, in order to match current workforce to
the desired one
9. Recruitment
This is the process by which an organisation
fulfills its need to find new employees.
10. Recruitment requires a company to address the
following questions:
• What is the job that needs to be filled? (Job description)
• Are there any alternatives available? (Redeployment, increased
overtime, temporary agency staff, new technology, outsourcing)
• What type of person is needed to fill the vacancy? (Person
specification)
• How can the organisation attract sufficient numbers of suitable
applicants to apply? (Which advertising media should it use?)
• How can the organisation decide if the applicants are suitable?
(Interview, psychometric testing, assessment centres)
• What are the legal implications? (Sex Discrimination Act, Race
Relations Act, Disability Discrimination Act)
11. The method of recruitment and selection used will
depend on:
• level of job within the organisation
• location of the job
• size of the organisation
• resources available
• cost
• supply of labour
• historical factors
• approach and attitudes of management
12. Internal recruitment
Firms may recruit internally through promotion or
redeployment of existing employees. This offers
benefits:
• It is cheaper, as it avoids the need for expensive
external advertising.
• Candidates will have experience of the business
and may not require induction training.
• Selection may be easier, as more is known about
the candidates
13. Internal recruitment
However, problems exist in recruiting internally:
• Selection is from a smaller pool of available
labour and the calibre of candidates may be
lower. This can be significant for senior
appointments.
• Difficulties can result if employees are promoted
from within – former colleagues may resent
taking orders from those whom they formerly
worked alongside.
14. External recruitment
Managers may be keen to have a wider choice of
candidates and therefore advertise externally. The
advantages of this approach are as follows:
• It is likely that higher-quality candidates will be
available following external recruitment, even if
advertisements are only placed in the local
media.
• External candidates will bring fresh ideas and
enthusiasm into the business
15. External recruitment
But drawbacks exist:
• It is more expensive to recruit
externally, especially if national advertising or
employment agencies are used.
• The degree of risk is greater, even if extensive
selection processes are used, as candidates
are less known to the business.
16. Training
Training is the process that attempts to fill the
gap between what the employees have already
on terms of accumulated skills, knowledge and
attributes and what is demanded by the job now
and possibly in the future.
17. Training
This can be part of:
• induction
• training for change
• training for personal development
• skills development
• team building
• attitude training
18. Training
A range of methods can be used involving:
• in-house or external training or a mixture of both
• on-the-job or off-the-job training
• courses
• mentoring
• coaching
• work shadowing
• personalised study programmes
• open-learning packages
19. Training
Decisions regarding methods to be used should be taken
after identifying training needs. Examples of how this
process could be conducted are:
• training needs analysis
• staff appraisal
• assessment centres
Ideally the training provision that is best for a particular
individual and the organisation should be chosen, but
cost is the biggest determinant in many organisations.
20. External training
Appropriate if there are only a few employees with this specific
training need and the training requirement is not specifically
linked to the organisation.
It gives trainees the opportunity to meet people from other
organisations, allowing for an interchange of ideas and a
broadening of understanding. This can also make employees feel
valued and increase their motivation.
21. Internal training
Appropriate if training needs are specific to the
individual organisation. Internal training that
makes use of internal trainers and external
providers can lead to the best of both worlds
22. On-the-job training
On-the-job training is likely to:
• be cheaper as existing employees and equipment can be used
• take place in a realistic environment so there should be no problems in
readjusting from a learning to a work situation
However, problems may result from:
• the employee chosen being a poor instructor unable to teach the proper
skills
• the employee chosen having developed bad habits/short cuts that are
passed on to the trainee
• the work situation being noisy and stressful and not being the best
learning environment
23. Off-the-job training
Off-the-job training often uses specially trained
experts to provide the training. This may result in:
• training being more highly valued by
employees, leading to increased motivation
• opportunities to meet staff from other
organisations and learn about their systems
• reduced stress and distractions by being away
from the workplace
24. Purpose and benefits of training
• ensures the employee has the necessary
skills, knowledge and attributes required for
the job
• can identify potential
• increases efficiency
• reduces costs in the long term
• can lead to increased motivation
• increases employee’s job prospects
