POSTED BY ewwink on Dec 14 under Organizational

Unlike many years ago, today the business organizations are under immense pressure because of the umpredictable, turbulent and competitive environment. If the businesses are to keep up with the ever increasing competition, then they obviously have to manage their resources effectively. Managing the resources have to be done with careful consideration. Managing the human aspect of the organization is very vital as the the success of the entire organization depends on it’s workforce. In other words, managing the workforce in an organization is indeed not an easy task as people basically have different feelings, aspirations thoughts and needs. However, when it comes to managing the human resources effectively, it is rather important to plan how to utilize the humen resources better, in order to get the most out of the workforce, while fulfillling their needs. This is where the human resource planning comes into action thsu taking into consideration both the orgainzation and the employees.

Human resources planning is the process by which the management ensures that the right number of people with the right skills are available at the right time, in the right job, in order to help the organization achieve it’s objectives. In other words, human resource planning is all about finding out in advance how many workers are needed to perform the tasks, how many employees with the required skills are avilable within and outside the organization and how is it possible to fulfil the staffing needs of the organization when needed. Human resource planning is not new. It has been practised by many organizations in the past as well, in order to ensure that the right person does the right job at the right time. However, in the past the nature of human resource planning practised by many organizations were slightly different to what  it is today. This was because, the environmental conditions in the olden days were stable and certain, and as a result, the human resource planning was mainly focussed towards the short term demand for labour.

But today, with the increasing nature of environmental stability, changes in technology and the ever increasing competition, the nature of  human resource planning  has changed thus focusing on both the short term and the long term labour needs of the organizations. In other words, they not only plan the workforce for the current situation, but also for the many years ahead. If not, then the organizations that do not plan for the future have not much of opportunities to survive the increasing competition.

Having said that, in order to utilize the human resources effcetively, the human resources planners basically have to forecast the organizations workforce needs first, and then come out with a plan which will direct them  how to fulfil those needs. In other means, if the human resource planners are to provide the right number of people with the right skills in order to perform the tasks at the right time, then they obviously have to gather information, came up with objectives and make decisions.

When it comes to human resource planning, there are  three main key areas that have to be addressed by the human resource planners. These includes finding out the demand for labour, performing a supply analysis and balancing both the demand and the supply of labour in the organization. If we go into see each of the key areas in more detail,  first of all the human resource planning begins with understanding the corporate strategy and objectives of the organization. In other means, if they are to decide on how many employees are needed with the right skiils, then they have to know where the organization is heading . With knowing nothing about where the organization wants to go, and how they want to achieve it’s corporate strategy, it is no point coming up with plans regarding the workforce. This is because the number and types of employees needed basically depends on what the organization wants to achieve.  Only once they have an insight to the strategies and objectives of the organization, then they are able to forecast the demand for labour needed by the organization  both in the short term as well as the long term.

Once the human resource planners have an through knowledge of how many employees are needed in the organization with the required skiils,  then next what they do is to take a count of the current workforce in the organization. In other words an inventory of course, to find out how many employees are currently available in the organization and the skills and knowledge of the employees, inaddition to their profile facts such as age , sex , and where theycome from etc. This basically provides the human resource planners with with an insight to what types of skills are available immediately, which will in turn help them to decide what needs to be done next.

Taking into consideration the inventory of the current workforce available immediately, then they go into analyze the internal supply of labour availabe against the estimated demand for labour both in the short term as well as the long term that is necessary to achieve the strategies and objectives of the organization. By doing so, they compare both the figures in order to find out whether the deman for labour could be fulfilled by the immediately available workforce. In other words, to see whether there is a gap between the supply and demand for labour. Then of course, if there happens to be a gap between the supply and demand for labour that means there is either a shortage or a surplus of labour.

However, if there happens to be a surplus or shortage of labour supply  then the human resource planners will develop strategies in order to remove this gap. If there is a surplus meaning to say that the internal supply of labour available is more than the forecasted demand, then they will probably take cation to reduce the available workforce uisng strategies such as retirement, reduce hours and remove flexi hours etc.But if there happen to be a shortage in the labour supply, then they will develop strategies such as recruitment, increase over time increase temperary workers, increse flexi hours etc in the short term. But whenit comes to long term planning,  they mainly concentrate on strategies such as training and development, promotion and career development programs etc, in order to prepare the existing workforce for the future demand of the organization. At the end, human resource planning also involves in keeping a track of the strategies they have implemented in order to findout whether the required labour demends have been met.

To conclude, it should be said that human resource planning is vital for any organization whether big or small. This is because, it does affect the entire organization by way of preparing the workforce to achieve its objectives. If the organizations are to face the challenges in the future, it is of course the human resource planning that paves the way for the organization to utilize the workforce effectively and efficiently. If not for human resource planning, the organizations will be un prepared to face the on going competition. Hence so, it should be said that orgainzations survival amaong the competitors mainly depends on how well the organizations human resource planning is.  

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