Page 28 - DMGT406_HUMAN_RESOURCE_MANAGEMENT

Unit 2: Human Resource Planning

Coleman has defined human resource or manpower planning as, "the process of determination Notes
of manpower requirements and means of meeting those requirements in order to carry out the
integrated plan of the organization".
According to Wickstrom, human resource planning consists of the following activities:
1. Forecasting future manpower requirements, either in terms of mathematical projections
of trends in the economic environment and development in industry, based upon the
specific future plans of a company;
2. Making an inventory of the present manpower resources and assessing the extent to
which these resources are employed optimally;
3. Anticipating manpower problems of projecting present resources into future and comparing
them with forecast of requirements to determine their adequacy, both quantitatively and
qualitatively;
4. Planning the necessary programmes of requirement, selection, training, development,
utilization, transfer, promotion, motivation and compensation to ensure future manpower
requirements are properly met.

2.2 Need for Human Resource Planning

Human resource planning is practically useful at different levels, as stated by Narayanrao.
According to him;
1. At the national level: It is generally done by the government and covers items like
population projections, programme of economic development, educational facilities,
occupational distribution and growth, industrial and geographical mobility of personnel.
2. At the sector level: It may be done by the government – central or state – and may cover
manpower needs of agricultural, industrial and service sector.

3. At the industry level: It may cover manpower forecast for the specific industries, such a
cement, engineering, heavy industries, consumer goods and public utility industries, etc.
4. At the level of individual unit: It may relate to its manpower needs for various departments
and for various types of personnels.
Human resource planning is deemed necessary for all organizations for one or the other of the
following reasons:

1. HR planning is needed to identify areas of surplus personnel or areas in which there is
shortage of personnel.
2. To meet the challenges of a new and changing technology and new techniques of production,
existing employees need to be trained or new people to be brought to the organization.
3. To carry on its work, each organization needs personnel with necessary qualifications,
skills, knowledge, work experience and aptitude for work. These are provided through
effective manpower planning.

4. Human resource planning is necessary for meeting frequent labour turnover which is
unavoidable.
5. In order to meet the demands for expansion programmes (which are necessary for
organisation's growth), these call for larger requirement of human resources in the
organization.

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