Introduction
Human resource planning is the analysis of organization human resource needs so as to have the required staff with competent skills and qualifications as per to the organizational requirements. It puts into consideration both the internal and external factors affecting an organization.
Information acquisition
This is the process of gathering relevant information pertaining to organizational human resource requirements. This includes establishing the number of staff required currently or in the future, skills and technical know how, trends in the labor market, human resource compensation, labor unions, government policies pertaining employment and all other factors affecting human resource in an organization.
Making objectives
It’s the responsibility of human resource management to plan organizational future goals relating to its staff and to communicate to the staff the organizational set goals. This ensures the organization has a common goal or direction in which all the staff members must work towards its achievement and implementation. The HRM also sets the working standards so as to ensure the work is done according to organization expectations and standards.
Decision making
The human resource management decides on various issues relating to human resource. The decision made by human resource management is based on the information gathered and the objectives of the organization. The decisions made by human resource management include recruitment of staff, staff motivation, training, staff remuneration, organization succession planning, demographic changes and quality management of staff. The decisions made by human resource management ensure the organization keeps abreast with any unforeseen incident pertaining to human resource.
Steps in Human Resource Planning
Forecasting
This involves collecting all information and data about organization’s objectives in order to plan for the future requirements of employees by the organization as it strive to achieve its goals. When forecasting, the human resource management must bear in mind the changing trends in skills, technology, labor laws and government policies. This helps the organization to have a clear plan on how to handle any unforeseen circumstances affecting the labor market at any time.
Inventory
This involves carrying out an analysis of current number of staff in an organization. Inventory helps to know the situation of an organization in terms of number of employees, qualifications of employees to ascertain if their skill meets the organization goals, whether human resource is understaffed or overstaffed. Through the inventory the HRM is able to advice the organization on all issues pertaining to recruitment of more employees, transferring from one department to another depending on skills, laying off redundant human resource and training in order to cope with the emerging market needs.
Auditing
Human resource management auditing involves examining data collected at inventory stage. The data maybe the past human resource data, current data concerning the labor turnover, age of employees, gender, training costs, skills of employees, job requirements and job evaluation (DeCenzo & Robbins, 2007). Auditing enables the HRM to plan for the future in terms of capital required by employees, future skills needed in the job market and the age balancing for the smooth running of the organization.
Human resource planning
It’s the planning of organizational human resource requirements. It involves planning for new positions in an organization and how to fill them, budgeting for employees remuneration, training costs so as to make them competent in their fields of specialization and coming up with job time schedules.
Monitoring and control
This involves supervising and controlling the already agreed and implemented human resource programme. It ensures that the employees adhere to the set standards of the organization. It brings order and stability in the organization as it ensures that each employee works in the respective place of work and perform the duties required without interfering with the other employees. It ensures that all other resources are utilized in collect manner.
Reference
DeCenzo, A.D. & Robbins, P. S. (2007). Fundamentals of Human Resource Management. 9th Ed. New York. NY: John Wiley & Sons. Electronic.
Hendry, C. (1995) Human resource management: a strategic approach to employment. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Print.
Bandt, A. & Haines, G.S. (2004). Successful Strategic Human Resource Planning. New York. NY: Systems Thinking Press. Print.