Planning is deciding in advance. In a broad sense, planning entails anticipating future opportunities and threats and drawing up a blueprint to coordinate, motivate, and control the activities of the available assets for the effective implementation of organizational goals and objectives in a time-bound manner.Eric W. Velter defines Human Resource Planning or manpower planning as the process by which management determines how an organization should move from its current human resources position to its desired human resources position. Through planning, management strives to have the right number and the right kind of people at the right place, at the right time, to do things which result in, both, the organization and the individual receiving the maximum long-range benefit.Coleman defines human resources planning as the process of determining manpower requirements and the means for meeting those requirements in order to carry out the integrated plan of the organization.Stainer defines human resources planning as the strategy for the acquisition, utilization, improvement, and preservation of an enterprise's human resources. It relates to establishing job specification or the quantitative requirements of jobs determining the number of personnel required and developing source of human resources.
[...] The exact time span of the human resource plan depends on the degree of uncertainty prevailing in an organization's environment. Companies operating in an unstable environment such as Information Technology draw up human resources plans for a relatively short period. Other organizations, such as universities, where the environment is stable draw up human resource plans extending up to many years. Many organizations make human resource plans that extend to five years and more. However, only forecasts up to two years provide any reasonable level of accuracy, and even such forecast requires constant review and readjustment. [...]
[...] Managerial judgments are crude rule of the thumb predictions made by managers about their human resource requirements based on their subjective factors, after considering the various factors known to them in the course of their day-to-day role. Ratio-trend method depends on the crude estimates made by different departments in an organization, like for instance the sales department determining the number of customer calls a salesperson should make in a week, and then making an estimate of the workforce required on a proportionate basis, based on existing and expected volumes of work. [...]
[...] In recent years, with Human Resources becoming the sole repositories of knowledge in an organization and thus a critical source of competitive advantage, the process of Human Resource Planning has taken a strategic dimension and many organizations in fact align their business goals and objectives with the availability or the lack of availability of human resources. Such a strategic dimension of Human Resource Planning focus on the business risks ort losses leading from insufficient, disrupted or mis-deployed human resources. ADVANTAGES AND APPLICATIONS OF HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNING Human Resource Planning is not a common activity in many organizations because of the fact that many people are not aware of the concept, or the advantages this concept brings to the organization. [...]
[...] Human resources planning exercise plays a critical role in determining whether organizations would find it profitable to outsource non-core processes or hire in-house workers to undertake such tasks. The decision depends on various factors such as availability of skilled workforce, wage levels, ability of the managers to control the non-core activities effectively and the likes. CONCLUSION In the words of Peter Ducker, major force behind world investment is human resources”. Though all the firms buy the same material and machines, the people in a firm make the difference in the final product or service. [...]
[...] FACTORS AFFECTING HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNNING While the generic process of human resource planning remains more-or-less the same across organizations, several considerations, both internal and external to the organization influence Human Resource Planning on an organizational level basis. Some of such considerations are type and strategy of organization, environmental uncertainties, time horizons, type and quality of forecasting information, nature of jobs being filled and off- loading the work. Type and Strategy of Organization The nature of the business, whether the organization produces goods or offers services, and the number and type of staff required at different levels influence human resources planning to a considerable extent. [...]
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