Human Resource Planning

1. STRATEGIC hr RESOURCING
Emphasizes the importance of HR in achieving organizational capability and therefore the need to
find people whose attitudes and behaviour are likely to be congruent with what management
believes to be appropriate and conducive to success.
Business and resourcing strategies must be integrated so that the HR can implement the business
strategy. Considerations for integrating the two include;
o The number of people required to meet business needs;
o Skill and behaviour required to support the achievement of business strategies;
o Impact of organizational restructuring as a result of rationalization, decentralization,
delayering, acquisitions, mergers, product or market development, or the introduction of
new technology.
o Plans for changing the culture of the organization in such areas as ability to deliver,
performance standards, quality, customer service, team working, and flexibility that
indicate the need for people with different attitudes, beliefs and personal characteristics.
HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING
This involves determining the number of employees that an organization requires in order to
achieve its strategic goals. It involves determining how many people are required, what type of
people, what skills they should possess, when they should be acquired, and if need be when they
should be released from the organization, and how best they should be utilized.
HR planning is the ‘process of ensuring that the human resource requirements of the organization
are identified and plans are made for satisfying those requirements’
Reilly (2003) ‘a process in which an organization attempts to estimate the demand for labour and
evaluate the size, nature and sources of supply which will be required to meet the demand.
Objectives
 To obtain and retain the people that the organization needs; their required skills,
competencies and expertise.
 Make the best use of human resources in the organization- optimizing the use of resources
 Anticipate problems related to surpluses and deficiencies;
 Develop a well trained and flexible work force so as to enable the organization adapt to
uncertainty and changing environment.

2.  To reduce the dependency on external recruitment as much as possible through progression
plans and schemes of service.
Steps
1. Scenario Planning
Involves scanning the organizational environment with specific reference to the labour market with
a view of identifying issues or factors that are potentially capable of affecting supply of labour in
the market. In scenario planning you analyse the PEST Political; Economic; Social and
Technological environmental factors. Making a broad assessment of environmental factors and
the likely impact on people requirements.
Assessment of the environmental changes that are likely to affect the organization so that a
prediction can be made of the possible situations that may have to be dealt with in the future.
This is done systematically using the PEST approach and how these factors might affect the
organization and the labour market.
2. Demand Forecasting
This involves estimating the future needs of the people in the organization and their level of
competencies by reference to the organization’s strategic plans such as mergers, branch expansion,
increasing sales all of which have human resource implications.
Estimating the future number and caliber of employees you need in an organization in order to
support your operations. (Number- how many; caliber- skills, qualifications; competencies)
Factors influencing demand forecasting include;
Long term plans- future plans such as mergers, expansion, technological change, diversification.
These are the organization’s long term strategic plans which will then be translated into activities,
responsibilities and positions which will in turn be translated into human resource requirements.
Short Term Plans- these are organizational operational activities spanning up to 1-2 years. They
include production plans, workload, sales volume increase, quality, new customers, shifts etc.
This helps us to determine the number of people we require in an organization. For example,
mergers may result in lay-offs, and expansion will result in demand for more people
Techniques used in Demand Forecasting
1. Managerial Judgment- this is a qualitative technique based on human judgment. Managers sit
down, think about the future workload of the organization and decide on the type of people they

3. need. In spite of its weakness (bias, subjectivity) it is commonly used because of convenience and
ease.
Bottom-UpApproach-supervisors sit to review the workload, refers it to middle management who
then take it to top management for decision making.
Top-Down Approach- requirements are determined by top management, taken to departmental
managers for review and down to supervisors for implementation.
Some organizations use bottom-up and top-down approach combination.
2.Ratio-Trend Analysis
Expressing one category of employees in terms of another. for example direct versus indirect
employees; this method is objective, quantitative and scientific. (Direct workers include
production, technical while indirect include clerical and support staff). Ratio could also be used
to compare causal factors against number of employees required (e.g. sales volume and number of
people required). Trend involves studying the organizations’ employment levels over a number of
years and to predict future needs.
3.Work –Study Technique
Involves determining the operations involved in carrying out work and the number of people
required to carry out those operations. It involves
Method study- the number of operations and tasks in a job
Time study-how much time each operation takes.
Total time is then determined and the manager will then ascertain how long one individual can
take; and number of people needed for the work.
This method is appropriate for blue collar jobs (technical jobs).
4.Computerized information system
Many organizations now computerize their HR systems and this assists them forecast personnel
needs using specialized packages.
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4. 3. Supply Forecasting
This involves determining available manpower by referring to current pool of employees, the
labour market trends, and future availability making due allowance for wastage through natural
attrition.
This is determining the number of people who are likely to be available either from the
organization or outside it, i.e. internal and external supply of labour.
Factors that may affect this number are
Internal movement of staff; promotions; wastage; attendance in hours worked.
Scope of coverage
Five areas are covered;
Analysis of existing human resources- who do we have in the organization in each department
(functional classification); what abilities do they have (skill classification); age classification to
help us know the young who can be developed further and those approaching retirement; those
likely to leave, length of service will help us determine survival rate or turnover rate calculate as
leavers per year divided by average number of staff in post during year multiplied by 100; (=
percentage wastage).
Potential loss of existing resources through internal promotion (analysis of internal movements)
- This is an attempt to predict the proportion of employees in a particular category who are likely
to be promoted or moved in future. This is dome through analysis of scheme of service.
Organizations come up with a management succession plan to show how the employees who will
be promoted transferred or exit will be replaced.
A chain reaction should be built from top to bottom where there is upward mobility leading to
recruitment.
Analysis of results of supply and demand forecasting- an attempt to synchronize both supply
and demand so as to determine the next course of action on the basis of deficits or surpluses.
Consider sources of HR supply within the organization
Organizations undertake successionplanning-which involves plans the organization makes to fill
its most important management positions, succession planning includes the following:
 Analysis of demand for managers and professionals at company level; function and
skill;
 Audit of existing executives and projection of likely future supply from internal
and external sources;
 Planning of individual career paths; career counseling;
 Accelerated promotions with development;
 Performance related training and development to prepare individual for future
roles;
 Planned strategic recruitment;
Sources of supply outside the organization
While making decisions to recruit, consider the following alternative scenarios about the future of
the organization in terms of any anticipated mergers, expansion, continuity, competition, new

5. products in the market. Forecast on general economic conditions; local labour market conditions;
availability of potential job candidates in specific occupations.
4. Forecasting the requirements
Analyzing the demand and supply forecasts with a view to identifying/determining any future
deficits or surpluses.
5. Productivity and cost Analysis
Analyzing the productivity, capacity utilization and cost in order to identify the need for
improvement in employee productivity.
6. Action Planning
Prepare detailed plans to deal with the forecasts deficit or surpluses of people and to improve their
utilization, flexibility and efficiency.
Put in place an overall plan to deal with shortages-identify young people who join the organization;
establish linkages with universities, colleges so that the graduates can provide pool of employees.
Improve incentives, pay to attract people; training and career development; recruit diverse
employees.
HR development plan-this is an attempt to have in place a well trained workforce with skills
necessary to respond to job requirements in the organization now and in the future.
What is the number of existing employees who need training (training gap analysis); devise an
appropriate training program and review it from time to time; train and retrain in response to
changes in technology; and attach promotional prospects to the training.
Recruitment Plan- this handles the way you can attract potential employees to the organization.
Identify type and number you require based on supply and demand forecasting. Stipulate the likely
source and ways in which they can be attracted.
Retention Plan- this aims to minimize employee turnover rate (come and go rate). This ensures
employees are available to prevent a halt in operations. An Exit Interview will assist management
know why people leave; conduct surveys of existing employees from time to time; have a
suggestion plan where employees write constructive comments without appending their names.
The retention plan should address areas that could lead to dissatisfaction such as constant pay
review; training opportunities; job enrichment; transparent career development (e.g promotion);
employee participation; employee welfare.

6. Productivity plans- program for improved productivity and reducing costs; streamlining methods,
procedures and systems for doing work; reduce bureaucracy; offer inbuilt incentives to the worker.
Downsizing Plan- reduction of surplus labour force thereby also reducing employment costs;
achieving voluntary retirement or natural attrition.
FLEXIBILITY ARRANGEMENTS
As far as possible constitute some measure of flexibility in HR requirements. The HR plan should
be able to cope with changes. Areas of flexibility include;
Contract based Flexibility- covers new forms of flexibility contract; i.e. specific tasks to be
completed upon which the organization may decide to give you another task; the organization is
not bound to retain the employee. This arrangement is suitable for highly skilled workers and is
advantageous since it taps expertise from workers; saves on costs, and is result oriented.
Time BasedFlexibility- employees can start work and leave at any time provided they put in the
number of hours required in a day/week (Flexitime)
Employees can work from home in an arrangement where they are connected by phone, internet
and fax (Teleworking/Telecommuting).
This reduces tardiness, absenteeism, congestion at the office, enhances productivity, jobs are
completed on time, though it is not easy to supervise.
Job based Flexibility- (Functional Flexibility)- increasingly it becomes necessary to move people
from one job to another such as job rotation to facilitate employees ability to take extra workload
in emergency situations.
Skill based Flexibility- a situation where an employee possesses a range on skills necessary for
him to perform different skills (Multiskilling). Advantages of multiskilling include eliminating
redundant work force; easy to introduce new method or equipment; full use of machines or
equipment and enabling employee reach their full potential.
Disadvantages of multiskilling is the possibility leaving to work elsewhere once their skills are
perfected; high training costs; team working is undermined; not all employees may be competent
in all areas.
Organization-based- can vary the types of employment using part-time/fulltime workers;
temporary/permanent workers.
7. Budgeting and Control
Involves setting human resource budgets and standards and then monitoring the actual
implementation.
Business Plan

7. Fig. 1 Human Resource planning Flow Chart
Challenges Facing Manpower Planning
Population movement;
Pay systems;
Trade unions;
Technological changes;
Government legislation;
Changes in education systems;
Economic conditions.
Forecast of activity levels
Analysis of requirements
Numbers,skills,behaviours
Demand Forecasting
Supply Forecasting
Scenario Planning
Forecast of future
requirements
Action Planning
Recruitment
Training
Downsizing
Increasing Flexibility