Page 42 - DMGT406_HUMAN_RESOURCE_MANAGEMENT

Unit 2: Human Resource Planning

4. Techniques of estimating demand for human resources: Notes
(i) mere approximations.
(ii) are rarely done
(iii) involve HR audits

(iv) can be very accurate
(v) employ skills inventories.

2.4 Significance of Human Resource Planning

HR planning involves gathering of information, making objectives, and making decisions to
enable the organization achieve its objectives. When HR planning is applied properly in the
field of HR Management, it would help address the following questions:
1. How many staff does the organization have?

2. What type of employees, as far as skills and abilities are concerned, does the company
have?
3. How should the organization best utilize the available resources?

4. How can the company keep its employees?
HR planning makes the organization move and succeed in the 21st century that we are in.
Human resources practitioners who prepare the HR planning programme would assist the
organization to manage its staff strategically.
The programme does not assist the organization alone, but will also facilitate the career planning
of the employees and assist them to achieve the objectives as well. This augments motivation
and the organization would become a good place to work. HR planning forms an important part
of management information system.
HR has enormous tasks - keeping pace with all the changes and ensuring that the right people
are available to the organization at the right time. It is changes in the composition of the
workforce that force managers to pay attention to HR planning. The changes in composition of
workforce not only influence the appointment of staff, but also the methods of selection, training,
compensation and motivation. It becomes very critical when organizations merge, plants are
relocated, and activities are scaled down due to financial problems.

2.5 Requisites for Successful HRP

1. Organization Culture: Organization's culture is an important determinant to the
formulation of HR policies. Organizational attitudes towards policies span the spectrum.
On one end of the scale are the companies that have a policy for everything. Banking is a
lot like that. U.S. banks are still (despite banking deregulation efforts during the 1980s)
highly regulated entities and policies are needed to control all aspects of operations. At
the other end of the spectrum are the companies that have only a few policies (only those
required by the laws that are relevant to that company). Most companies fall somewhere
in between these two extremes. The manager writing any policy needs to understand
where on the spectrum the company falls and how the policy can be made to fit the
organization's culture to enhance compliance.
2. Support from Employees: Enhancing compliance to policies also begins with staff
participation. One lesson learnt by the vast number of organizations that have gone

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