BBA HUMAN RESOURCE PLNNING

What is Human Resource Planning

Human resource planning can be defined as the process of identifying the number of people required by an organization in terms of quantity and quality. All human resource management activities start with human resource planning. So we can say that human resource planning is the principle/primary activity of human resource management. From human resource planning the organization identifies how many people it has currently and how many people will be required in future. Based on this information major human resource decisions are taken.

Process of HRP/Steps in HRP

Human resource planning can be defined as the process of identifying the number of people required by an organization in terms of quantity and quality. All human resource management activities start with human resource planning. So we can say that human resource planning is the principle/primary activity of human resource management.

The process of HRP involves various steps they can be explained as:

1. Personnel requirement forecast

This is the very first step in HRP process. Here the HRP department finds out department wise requirements of people for the company. The requirement consists of number of people required as well as qualification they must posses.

2. Personnel supply forecast

In this step, HR department finds out how many people are actually available in the departments of the company.

3. Comparison

Based on the information collected in the 1st and 2nd step, the HR department makes a comparison and finds out the difference. Two possibilities arise from this comparison:

a) No difference

It is possible that personnel requirement = personnel supplied. In this case there is no difference. Hence no change is required.

b) Yes, there is a difference

There may be difference between supply and requirement. The difference may be:

I. Personnel surplus

II. Personnel shortage

4. Personnel surplus

When the supply of personnel is more than the requirement, we have personnel surplus. We require 100 people, but have 125 people. That is we have a surplus of 25 people. Since extra employees increase expenditure of company the company must try to remove excess staff by methods of:

• Layoff
• Termination
• VRS/CRS

5. Personnel shortage

When supply is less than the requirement, we have personnel shortage. We require 100 people; we have only 75 i.e. we are short of 25 people. In such case the HR department can adopt methods like Overtime, Recruitment, Sub-contracting to obtain new employees.

Advantages of HRP

Human resource planning can be defined as the process of identifying the number of people required by an organization in terms of quantity and quality. All human resource management activities start with human resource planning. So we can say that human resource planning is the principle/primary activity of human resource management. The process of HRP plays a very important role in the organization. The importance of HRP can be explained as follows:

1. Anticipating future requirement

Thru this process of HRP, the company is able to find out how   many people will be required in future. Based on this requirement the company could take further actions. This method also helps the company to identify the number of jobs which will become vacant in the near future.

2. Recruitment and selection process

The recruitment and selection process is a very costly affair for a company. Many companies spend lakhs of rupees on this    process. Therefore recruitment and selection must be carried out only if it is extremely necessary. HRP process helps to identify whether recruitment and selection are necessary or not.

3. Placement of personnel

Since the HRP process is conducted for the entire organization, we can identify the requirements for each and every department. Based on the requirement, we can identify existing employees and place them on those jobs which are vacant.

4. Performance appraisal

HRP make performance appraisal more meaningful. Since feedback is provided in performance appraisal and employee is informed about his future chances in same company, the employee is motivated to work better. Information for all this is collected from HRP process.

5. Promotion opportunity

HRP identifies vacancies in the entire organization including all the branches of all the company. Therefore when the company implements promotion policy it can undertake its activities in a very smooth manner.

Limitations of Human Resource Planning

Human resource planning can be defined as the process of identifying the number of people required by an organization in terms of quantity and quality. All human resource management activities start with human resource planning. So we can say that human resource planning is the principle/primary activity of human resource management. Although HRP is a very advantageous method it has some limitations which can be explained as follows:

1. The future is uncertain

The future in any country is uncertain i.e. there are political, cultural, technological changes taking place every day. This effects  the employment situation. Accordingly the company may have to appoint or remove people. Therefore HRP can only be a guiding  factor. We cannot rely too much on it and do every action according to it.

2. Conservative attitude of top management

Much top management adopts a conservative attitude and is not ready to make changes. The process of HRP.

3. Problem of surplus staff

HRP gives a clear out solution for excess staff i.e. Termination, layoff, VRS,. However when certain employees are removed from company it mostly affects the psyche of the existing employee, and they start feeling insecure, stressed out and do not believe in the company. This is a limitation of HRP i.e. it does not provide alternative solution like re-training so that employee need not be removed from the company.

4. Time consuming activity

HRP collects information from all departments, regarding demand and supply of personnel. This information is collected in detail and each and every job is considered. Therefore the activity takes up a lot of time.

5. Expensive process

The solution provided by process of HRP incurs expense. E.g. VRS, overtime, etc. company has to spend a lot of money in carrying out the activity. Hence we can say the process is expensive.