Always plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark -- Richard C. Cushing

As per the above quote it is very important to plan your steps and strategy in advance, is their any possibility to plan the human resource in an organization? Yes, because IT giants like Infosys, Wipro, Satyam plans its human resource requirement by visiting campus of colleges even before the student has completed its degree. The reason behind this is human resource planning as an important tool to ensure that their staff is the right staff to do the jobs at the right time.

HR planning may be defined as an articulated business strategy based on current and future business forecast for the acquisition, utilization, development, and retention of an enterprise’s human resources. The strategy articulates the need as it exists today and the plan necessitates formulation of the goals and action plan for achievement of the people plan. The process facilitates hiring and retaining the right profile of people at varying jobs, positions, places and time frames depending on the organizational need.

Hr planning: purpose and goals

The purpose and goals of HR planning are mainly:

1. To ensure optimum and effective use of human resources currently employed;

2. To research and reconfigure new skill sets to cope with organizational needs given depleting relevant skills population

3. To assess the employability of the human resource given changing skills and competencies

4. To draw specific outlines of competencies as they differ from today

5. To assess or forecast future skills requirement if organization’s overall objectives are to be achieved; and

6. To identify control standards to ensure that necessary resources are identified, available as and when required.

7. To fundamentally study the corporate strategy, the business mission and overall philosophy of recruiting VS systems, technology, outsourcing.

8. Analyze the people market environment and its changes as it affects the firm Vis a Vis competition.

Fundamentally the market has changed. It is world of the knowledge worker. The rise of the intellect has been imminent. HR Planning no longer can confine itself to the traditional sources for hiring and retaining. The skill of yesterday is neither available and nor are not being sought after by the new generation. The human resources of today see their roles having changed from that of a doer to that of a thinker and in most occasions’ thinker doer. Organizations in contrast have continued to nurture and retain a set of human resource that have become more redundant than ever before.

Strategic advantages for HR Planning

There are a number of more specific reasons for resorting to HR planning exercises at the level of the undertaking, reasons that can make the exercise essential. These are:

1. To establish the best cost balance between plant and manpower utilization.

2. To determine recruitment, level wise and occupation wise

3. Ensure that we do not inherit surplus manpower hired on account of an incompetent CEO.

4. To ensure that people do not substitute systems and process

5. To anticipate redundancies and avoid unnecessary dismissals or aspirations

6. To decide optimum training levels.

7. To decide on worker training courses

8. To provide a basis for management development programs

Conclusion:

Finally HR planning is continuous, ongoing process; and companies that treat it as a five-year burdensome task will be deeply disappointed. In fact it is preferable that they do start this task as it may turn into a ritual. Even the most carefully calculated forecasts are liable to be overtaken by unforeseeable changes. A system of assorting plans to these changes with as little delay as possible, is an essential part of manpower planning. Indeed one might say that it is the essential characteristic of a well-managed enterprise.

By Nilesh Shah