STAFFING THE ORGANIZATION

Human Resource Planning

Overview

How HRP Relates to Organizational Planning

Linking HRP to the Business Strategy

Steps in HRP Process

Tools and Techniques of HRP

Time Frame of HRP

Common Pitfalls in HRP

HRP Defined

Human Resource Planning is the process of systematically reviewing HR requirements to ensure that the required number of employees, with the required skills, are available when needed

Relationship to Organizational Planning

Derived from long-term operational plans of organization

Seeks to identify various HR factors critical to success of organization

Should provide for Clear statement of organization’s mission Commitment of staff members to mission Explicit statement of assumptions Plan of action

HRP Link to the Business Strategy

Be familiar with the business strategy.

Ensure that all traditional human resource programs are satisfying the needs of senior and functional management.

Identify the human resource implications of the organization’s business strategy.

Source: G. Christopher Wood, “Planning for People” (letters to the editor), Harvard Business Review, November-December 1985, p. 230; David R. Leigh, Business Planning Is People Planning,” Personal Journal, May 1984, pp. 44-54.

Linking HRP to the Business Strategy

Identify those human resource issues that may affect business objectives, and notify the appropriate functional managers.

Convert business objectives into human resource objectives that can provide the foundation for a strategic human resource plan.

Review the strategic-planning process to identify new opportunities to involve human resource personnel.

Steps in the HR Planning Process

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Cascade Approach to Setting Objectives

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Source: Redrawn from Anthony P. Raia, Managing by Objectives (Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman and Company, 1974), p. 30. Reprinted by permission of the author.

Methods Used to Forecast HR Planning Needs

Managerial estimates Delphi techniques Scenario analysis Mathematical methods Judgmental forecasts Benchmarking

Some Statistical Modeling Techniques Used to Forecast

HR Needs

Source: Lee Dyer, “Human Resource Planning,” in Personnel Management, ed. Kendrith M. Rowland and Gerald R. Ferris (Boston:

Allyn & Bacon, 1982), p. 59.

Technique1.Time series analysis

2.Personnel ratios

Description Past staffing levels (instead of workload indicators) are used to project future human resource requirements. Past staffing levels are examined to isolate seasonal and cyclical variations, long-term trends, and random movements. Long-term trends are then extrapolated or projected using a moving average, exponential smoothing, or regression technique.Past personnel data are examined to determine historical relationships among the number of employees in various jobs or job categories. Regression analysis or productivity ratios are then used to project either total or key group human resource requirements, and personnel ratios are used to allocate total requirements to various job categories or to estimate requirements for non-key groups.

Some Statistical Modeling Techniques Used to Forecast

HR Needs (Continued)

Source: Lee Dyer, “Human Resource Planning,” in Personnel Management, ed. Kendrith M. Rowland and Gerald R. Ferris (Boston:

Allyn & Bacon, 1982), p. 59.

Technique

3. Productivityratios

4. Regressionanalysis

Description

Historical data are used to examine past levels of a productivity index, Workload P = Number of peopleWhere constant, or systematic, relationships are found, human resource requirements can be computed by dividing predicted workloads by P.

Past levels of various workload indicators, such as sales, production levels, and value added, are examined for statistical relationships with staffing levels. Where sufficiently strong relationships are found, a regression (or multiple regression) model is derived. Forecasted levels of the related indicator(s) are entered into the resulting model and used to calculate the associated level of human resource requirements.

Organizational & HR Planning

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Some Tools to Aid HRP

Skills and management inventories

Commitment manpower planning (CMP)

Ratios and use of vitality index (OVI) analysis

Skills Inventory FormUsed by PPG Industries

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Simple Org. Replacement Chart

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Source: D. L. Chicci, “Four Steps to an Organization/Human Resource Plan,” Personnel Journal, June 1979, p. 392.

Factors Affecting the Time Frame of HRP

Source: Adapted from J. Walker, “Forecasting Manpower Needs,” in Manpower Planning and Programming, ed. E. H. Burack and J. W. Walker

(Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1972), p. 94.

Forecast Factor

Demand

Supply

Netneeds

Short Range(0-2 Years)

Authorized employment including growth, changes, and turnover

Employee consensus less expected losses plus expected promotions from subordinate groups

Numbers and kinds of employees needed

Intermediate Range(2-5 Years)

Operating needs from budgets and plans

Human resource vacancies expected from individual promotability data derived from development plans

Numbers, kinds, dates and levels of needs

Long Range(Beyond 5 Years)

In some organizations, the same as “intermediate”; in others, an increased awareness of changes in environment and technology— essentially judgmental.

Management expectations of changing characteristics of employees and future available human resources.

Management expectations of future conditions affecting immediate decisions.

Common Pitfalls in HRP

Lack of top management support Size of initial effort Coordination with other

management and HR functions Integration with organizational

Plans

Common Pitfalls in HRP, cont

Quantitative vs Qualitative approaches

Noninvolvement of operating managers

The techniques trap

QuestionsQuestions