The Nature and Purpose of Human Resource Planning - Essay Example

1-NATURE AND PURPOSE OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING Nature of Human Resource Planning Human Resource Planning is one of the most crucial concepts of theHuman Resource Management (HRM). As defined by Taylor (1998), the human resource planning is an organizational way to assess and evaluate the prospective requirements regarding employees i.e., the human resources that may arise within an organization. Therefore, human resource planning exists to assist the organization to manage the needs arising out of labor issues. Bramham (1994) confirms this thought by describing the human resource planning as a crucial aspect in the determination and prediction of employee demand and supply. He further includes the plans and strategies developed for the purpose of maintaining the desired number of employees in the organization and the employee-centered issues like incentives, motivation etc in the scope of human resource planning. HRP is therefore a title attributed to the organizational activities on the part of employers to review the labor needs of organization, which may be current or potential and then devise new strategies or revise the existing plans in order to fulfill the needs of organization. It may imply that an organization is supposed to assess employees' personal needs and potential such as the employment benefits, job appraisals, workplace environment and other motivating factors along with the organizational requirements in order to best structure the plan for human resources. If an organization completes its planning for human resources without any consideration to the needs of human resources, it might not prove to be a success because the accurate evaluation of demand and supply of labor is not a guarantee that the organization would be able to fulfill the organizational needs in future. It should therefore include an accurate assessment of the organizational current or future needs with respect to employees, an evaluation of employee capability to meet those needs, specification of any deficiencies or lack of workforce expertise, determination of strategies to overcome the loopholes in employee efficiency or workforce deficiency and finally, to keep on reviewing and updating the strategies in order to adjust to any unpredictable needs. Purpose of Human Resource Planning The human resource planning is an effective means to analyse any approaching contingencies and threats to the goals of the organization. Mullins (1996) explains that proper assessment and analysis of employee deficiency and efficiency can lead to before time evaluation of problems threatening the accomplishment of organizational objectives. He further states that the purpose of this planning is to enable an organization to determine and resolve the labor-related issues before they can actually occur. The chief objectives of human resource planning as illuminated by Bramham (1987) and Mullins (1996), are summarized below: To provide an organization with the necessary information and assessment regarding the employees not quantitative but also qualitative in nature. For instance, the expertise, qualification, experience and other qualities that an organization needs. To assist an organization on the way to determine, analyze and devise effective training and development programs in order to make the existing and potential employees capable to be utilized for the accomplishment of organizational objectives. This should not only indicate a specific type of training program, but also specify their length, duration, and dimensions. To enable the management to realize the needed quantity and quality of workforce in order to avoid under or over staffing that may result in higher costs for the organization. This type of planning helps an organization to find suitable ways to reduce the cost on employees by staffing efficient and skilled workplace and emphasizing on quality rather than quantity. To allow the organization to foresee the future competition and market requirements that might need the contribution of skilled workforce towards the survival of business. Therefore, the organization will be able to structure the human resource in a way so that it could meet the future requirements of business as well as market. To familiarize the organizations to arrival of any future needs with respect to the expansion of business. If the organization predicts the need for employing more workforces or creating new departments in the organization in future, it certainly will need more space, facilities and resources to adjust to the business expansion. THE SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT APPROACH VERSUS THE PEOPLE-ORIENTED APPROACH TO JOB DESIGN The different management approaches can be adopted by an organization in order to utilize the workforce towards the accomplishment of its goals and objectives. The two contradictory approaches are common for an organization to adopt in the pursuit of devising human resource policies for the employees' job design. These two approaches are known as the scientific management approach and the people-oriented approach of management. Both these theories and approaches have been in place to enhance the worker efficiency and productivity towards the fulfillment of management objectives, but they have an alternate style to approach management problems and employee-centered issues arising in an organization. Carrell, Elbert and Hatfield (2000) have discussed both of these theories in relation to the human resource management. The scientific management approach was put forth by the most renowned management theorist named Frederick Taylor, who was known as the father of scientific management. This approach advises the management to take the path of rule and regulations imposed upon the employees pushing them to work at their optimum. This theory was based actually management-centered and focused upon the maximum utilization of human resources potential towards the fulfillment of management's organizational goals by means of pressure and control. Hence, when the approach was adopted by the management, it was proved to be very successful in regulating the employee activities and attaining maximum profitability at the initial stages. The people-oriented approach as noted by Carrell, Elbert and Hatfield (2000), was introduced in reaction to the above-mentioned theory. It emphasized on the importance of employee satisfaction in the pursuit of attaining organizational objectives. This theory mentioned that the most effective way to utilize employee potential in an organization is to consider the employee needs while devising the policies for human resources management. The managers should give attention to employees' personal and emotional objectives, satisfaction and a secured workplace environment for better employee efficiency. Thus the employees are treated as an asset of the organization leading to productivity and profitability under this approach. Ever since this approach has been integrated to the management practices and policies, this has resulted into enhanced performance and profitability on the part of the employees. As clear form the above discussion, both the approaches had the same objective i.e., enhancement of organizational productivity. However, these theories treated the matter with two alternative aspects, one relating to regulation and control, while the other concerned with employee satisfaction for the same purpose. When these two approaches come in the way of the management practice of job design, the management's decisions are supposed to be directly hitting the employees' working efficiency. As illustrated by Davis and Wacker (1987), the job design process is not only concerned with creating tasks and assigning to the employees, it is rather an extensive process dealing with the analysis of work requirements, determination of work responsibilities, and benefits returned to employees in consequence of the successful completion of work. He further states that a job design process should include the elements of challenge in the job, vast consideration for the enhancement of employees' working knowledge, capability to take initiative and decisions, recognition of employee efforts, job security and reward on success of work. If we evaluate both the approaches of management in the light of the above statement, the results will become self-evident. In the process of job design, if a management adopts the scientific management approach, it will only be focusing on the organizational profit and would impose any regulation on the employees to achieve this goal. It will have no consideration for employee satisfaction, recognition, learning, decision-making and job security. This approach would rather be centered on exercising control over the employees, confine the decision-making to the management, and allow the managers to terminate the workers not reaching the mark of performance set by them. On the other side, people-oriented approach of management emphasizes the aspect of employee satisfaction for the achievement of organizational goals. Therefore, if a management adopts this approach in the job design process, it will have a consideration for all the aspects necessary for a successful job design, as the approach says all the elements of employee motivation lead to the successful accomplishment of job assigned to the employees. TRAINING PROGRAMMES AND ORGANIZATIONAL NEEDS Training programmes in an organization are designed to either develop the skills of existing employees or introduce new employees to the work-related tools and techniques to ensure better performance and better results on the part of the employees. According to Armstrong (1991), an organization first needs to evaluate the training requirements of the employees and then devise specific training programmes, which are to be implemented and enforced by the management of the organization in order to improve employee skill and efficiency level towards the growth of the business. These programmes are very effective in bringing the best possible performance and productivity out of both the new and existing employees. As an organization's external environment tends to be dynamic and new techniques keep on being introduced in the market, proper training and development of the staff is required to stay competitive in the changing environment. As stated by Beardwell and Holden (1997, p346), "an educated and skilled workforce is essential for the effective functioning of an economy, the competitiveness and wealth of a nation, as well as for the overall well-being of society." An organization needs to first determine the requirements for training its personnel. It may be to brush up on their knowledge, introduce them to new innovations or technology, enhance their skills and expertise etc. After having determined the organizational needs, the management should properly create training programmes and techniques in order to best meet its purpose of training the employees effectively at various levels. A management may devise proper training programmes for employees to meet several organizational needs arising at different points in time. The organizations having a severe lack of trained professionals to carry out specific jobs need to fill this gap of expertise. In such a situation, the organization is left with two choices, i.e., either to hire new professionals to accomplish the goal or to train the existing workers to meet the job requirement. It is however not always possible to find a group of skilled people spontaneously and hire them in the organization. Therefore, the organizations need training programs in order to introduce their existing skilled employees with the further innovations in the field. An organization may also need a training programme when hiring new personnel in order to brush up on their skills to suit the organizational needs. These programmes are required to introduce the newly hired employees to the working requirements, technological aspects of the job, to evaluate their skills and expertise for a specific job and also to assess and employees' learning capability. The need for training will arise for an organization when sudden introduction of new technology takes place in the market and it becomes essential for the organization to train its employees in order to stay competitive in the industry. Due to the changing technological environment, the management needs to keep an eye on the external environment in order to create special training programmes or enforce crash-training courses for the development of employee skills so as to survive productively and profitably in the industry. Therefore, several training programmes are helpful for an organization to meet its specific needs. In particular situations, it even becomes necessary for an organization to train the employees and develop their skills in order to meet the organizational need for skilled employees followed by enhanced profit and results. These training programmes are linked to organizational needs in a manner that they provide the management an opportunity to gain the best results out of the existing workforce and fill the skill-gap among the employees hindering the way of organization towards success and stability. References Armstrong, M. (1991). "A Handbook of Personnel Management Practice", Kogan Page: London. Beardwell, I. And Holden, L. (1997), "Human Resource Management - A Contemporary Perspective", Second Edition: Pitman Bramham, J. (1987). "Manpower Planning," In S Harper (ed.): Personnel Management Handbook. London: Gower Bramham, J. (1994), "Human Resource Planning", (2nd Eds.), London: IPD Carrell, MR, Elbert, NF, Hatfield, RD (2000), "Human Resource Management. Strategies for Managing a Diverse and Global Workforce", The Dryden Press: Orlando Davis, L. E. & Wacker, G.L. (1987), "Job design", Pp. 431-452, in G. Salvendy (Ed.), Handbook Of Human Factors, New York: Wiley Taylor, S. (1998), "People and Organisations, Employee Resourcing", The Cronwell Press Ltd: UK Mullins. L. J. (1996), "Management and Organisational Behaviour", (4th Ed), Pitman Publishing: UK Read More