Meaning, Nature and Need of Human Resource Planning HRP

Table of Content:

Meaning of Human Resource Planning

Human Resource Planning Meaning: Another name for  Human Resource Planning is Manpower Planning. Human Resource Planning (HRP) can be defined as a process of balancing the people’s supply including the present and prospective employees with the potential job openings in the organisation in a given period. It is the system of the organisation to ensure the availability of the right number of people, the right type of people, at the right time and the right place to attain the organisational objectives. 

HRP is also known as: 

1. Manpower planning, 

2. Personal planning or 

3. Workforce planning.

 It comes under the preview of organisational planning and is a future-oriented activity. Inappropriate planning may result in the excess recruitment of the staff, a rise in expenses regarding direct costs and training costs and other amenities for employees besides the production cost. Inappropriate recruitment also results in an adverse impact on the self-esteem and the efficiency of the employee. All these factors highlight the importance of HRP in an organisation

Nature of Human Resource Planning

The nature of human resource planning is as follows :

1) Continuous Activity: 

It is an ongoing activity as the need for assessing the supply and demand of the manpower resources within the organisation never comes to an end.

 2) Clearly Specified Objectives: 

HRP objectives may be guided by the strategic and operational planning of the organisation. Basically, the needs of the human resources within the organisation are based on the firm’s objectives HRP also aims at developing human resources, sharpening the technical skills of resources, assisting them in planning their career map, retaining them, etc.

3) Assessing the Staff Requirements: 

HRP focuses on the pre-planning of the needs regarding human resources within the organisation. All the proceedings related to the recruitment, selection and training procedure are planned in advance.

4) Maintaining Inventory of Existing Human Resources :

It consists of the record of present human resources. The manager must be aware of the available manpower supply for fulfilling the higher positions in the future.

Need of Human Resource Planning

Human resource planning is needed due to the following reasons:

1) Balancing Employment-Unemployment Situation:

HRP tries to balance the educated unemployed skilled youth of the nation and the skill requirements in the industry.

 2) Technological Upgradations:

There have been continuous upgrades in the marketing methods management techniques, and systems of the production technologies in the industry. It has also demanded modifications to the job profiles. HRP must plan the manpower needs accordingly to avoid redundancy, re-training, or re-deployment problems.

3) Changes in the Organisational Environment:

 In the dynamic and ever-changing business environment, organisations are always subjected to variations and breaks in their system of working. Therefore, organisations must rely on HRP to strategically plan their manpower requirements.

4) Diverse Workforce:

In the present scenario of the business environment, the workforce consists of people of different ages, gender, social background and culture having different skills altogether. An effective HRP is required here for proper planning of the manpower needs of the organisations.

5) Skill Shortages:

In this competitive era of business, the system of working in organisations is becoming more and more complicated on account of the special and rare skills required within the firm for accomplishing the task. Therefore, HRP has an important task of not only attracting the required potential but also ensuring retaining them in the organisation.

6) Government Interference:

Various legislative measures such as provisions regarding the work conditions and working hours, restrictions on child and women employment, contract labour, casual labour, etc. and government interference in the administration of the functioning of the firm have necessitated more systemic HRP for the firms.

7) Judicial Regulations: 

Gone are the days when employees were treated as objects within the organisation. The various legislative measures have strengthened the positions of the employees in the organisation. Various labour laws have been implemented to ensure that the employees do not face unjustified lay-off, retrenchment, etc. HRP is responsible for forecasting the requirements after considering this fact.

 8) Justified Recruitment:

It is very natural for an organisation to get recommendations for recruitment from various groups like trade unions, political groups, and private sources. To avoid this type of partial recruitment, HRP must be strictly implemented in the system. 

9) Systematic Concept: 

As with the growth of the concept of people management, there has been a need to maintain transparency in the system which can be fulfilled by maintaining a systematic and transparent record by HRP.

10) Lead Time: 

As new employees are being trained for the new job responsibilities and profile, sufficient time is required for the employees and for the management to assess the employee’s worth and assign the task accordingly. HRP provides lead time for all these issues.

Related Articles:

• Conceptual foundation of organisational behaviour
• Organisational Behaviour(OB)
• Functions of human resource management
• Roles and responsibilities of a manager 
• Objectives of human resource management 
• Organisational setup of HR-Department
• Roles and responsibilities of HR manager
• Models of organisational behaviour

Questions:

1. What is the nature of planning?

2. What is human resources planning?

3. Define human resource planning.