Human Resource Planning and Techniques Available to Organizations - Essay Example

Human Resource Planning and Techniques Available to Organizations Modern business world sets new tasks for managers one of which is to utilize employee expertise. It is one of most important impacts on organization performance and development. HR planning and development help to assure the utilization of human capital. A Human Resource Plan helps to define organization’s human resources goals and the method of their achievement during certain timeframe. The plan defines the tasks for manager like setting requirements for staff, recruiting and selecting individuals, training and retraining, coaching, counseling and motivating.

Planning also helps in the forecasting process like forecasting of employment levels and budgets. Besides, the plan serves a basis to measure actual performance and review the tasks in case of the need. The outcomes of the effective HR planning process are successful communication of employees and management, employee discipline and morale, low employee turnover, improvement of employee skills, high client satisfaction followed by the increase of profit. That’s why HR specialist should analyze not only company goals but business per se and budget, range of technological innovations, employee turnover rate, employee skills and accordingly training needs.

Human resource plan should comply with legislation which highlights employment standards and industry requirements. Planning activities include establishing of an information system, completing an inventory, analyzing requirements, external and internal labour markets, identifying training needs and possibilities and controlling costs. HR professionals deal with HR documents such as applications, job descriptions and evaluation methods. They determine salaries with regard to job offered, market value and budget.

However, the main tasks to be accomplished to build meaningful HR agenda are: 1) focusing on people philosophies and themes, highlighting their role in the business; 2) developing business-unit people plans built into the strategic and operating plans of the business units and major functions; 3) focusing on company-wide HR priorities to get the right degree of commonality in HR policy, practice and objectives among HR professionals in the business units; 4) developing HR operations plans. (Sacht) L.

Adler (2006) believes that the war for talent has just begun in spite of utilization of better technology and recruitment practices and tools. He highlights the importance of several things which are important to win this war. They are effective leadership, reorganization, becoming talent-centric, getting C-level executive commitment, changing the role of hiring manager and investing money in recruitment team. Modern critical leadership traits include vision and the courage to act, creativity and an innovative mindset and the ability to build an integrated team.

Successful recruiters are able to see the advantages of future technologies, concepts, and emerging trends and they are not afraid to apply them in practice even when they are met with skepticism and disapproval from senior management. The ability to build a team of people who complete each other is crucial for the overall success of business. (Wheeler, 2006) Wheeler (2006) believes the recruiting world is firmly embedded in 1970 or 1980 while progressive recruiters successfully utilize recruiting websites, online screening and assessment, recruiting image and brand development. J. Sullivan (2006) claims the importance of application of ‘next practices’ in human resource management area.

In the turbulent world of changes best practices are not enough to compete. Benchmarking and emulating best practices is not going to work in modern business world. By ‘next practices’ he means practices which help the company to do thing never done before. For example, in the candidate assessment process an average practice is to conduct behavioral interviews with all candidates. The best practice is adding an online test as the first screen. Sullivan (2006) offers the next practice of replacing the test with an online video simulation developed for this job which more effectively assesses the candidate's skills, weaknesses, and capabilities.

In the previous work we have discussed such planning techniques as recruitment and selection process and training methods. From all variety of recruitment tools we chose recruitment through employment agencies followed by further selection procedure in the office of the company. As the world is rapidly changing and the business process are transforming, more and more leaders become aware of the competitive advantage which talented people can create for the business. That’s why the traditional tools of recruiting are not adequate.

Recent years show the outburst of recruitment process outsourcing. In the modern world of globalization the recruitment involve the development of professional employment organisations (P.E.O.’s), the use of modern means of communication which is email and the internet for sourcing jobs and candidates and the continuing trend towards contractors and temporary staff. (Uzelac) Many companies throw off their non-core activities often outsourcing human resource function to P.E.Os. Employment agencies take care of all positions through organization from unskilled positions to the CEO.

This approach is beneficial for all kinds of modern organization as employment agencies have better expertise in recruitment systems and networks to source the right candidates. They often focus on the employer who benefits from quality services and the time saved. The company has more time to concentrate on core activities and owns a greater flexibility. That’s why we suggest outsourcing the recruitment function to the P.E.O is the best way to find the right candidates for vacant position apace with modern trends.

However, United Utilities cannot limit itself to the services of the employment agency and rely solely on their expertise. That’s why qualified candidates will be additionally tested and interviewed. This will be done not only to back up the selection process performed by the employment agency but to improve the chances of hiring successfully, e.i checking employee motivation and “buying” new talent. Organizations which want to utilize talented staff should not only check employee tenure and skills but to get successful recruit interested in the job offered exhibiting career paths.

The proactive role in the recruitment process is making recruits voice their goals and preferences. This allows filtering vacancy information and pushing relevant openings to prospects on a personalised basis. Even online recruitment should involve this kind of personalization to influence a potential recruit’s decision to join a company. (Understanding Human Capital, 2003) The educational program of the United Utilities includes mentor and peer groups, training of managers as leaders and coaches and on-the-job training.

On-the-job training is perfectly suiting training method for United Utilities as it allows broadening employee skills and increasing productivity without great costs. This method of training will be appropriate for lower level personnel while middle and high management can benefit from mentor and peer groups. CEO and higher management are believed to carry all responsibility for the company’s welfare and are perceived to have all answers. However, what they often lack is objective, outside sounding boards or unbiased people.

Trade shows and industry association meetings are not enough to get stimulation from peers. (Lefko, 2001) That’s why executive coaching has become very preferable option for large companies like United Utilities. The desired support can also come from peer groups which help entrepreneurs to share knowledge and experience with colleagues in an open atmosphere. Small groups of colleagues are also welcome in the large organization to create the atmosphere of "sharing, caring and trust." (Lefko, 2001) References Adler, L.

(March 31 2006). Why We Lost the War for Talent. Nine things recruiting executives can do today to prepare for tomorrow. [Electronic Version]. Retrieved 5 July, 2006 from http://www.erexchange.com. Lefko, M. (2001). It s Lonely at the Top - Who Do You Turn To? - Chief executive officers, management techniques and analysis Los Angeles Business Journal, May 28. Sacht, J. Integrated line management and HR planning [Electronic Version]. Retrieved 4 July, 2006 from http://www.workinfo.com/free/Downloads/107.htm. Sullivan, J.

(June 26, 2006). Seeking Out "Next Practices," the Next Generation of Best Practices. Improve your recruiting by developing a process for identifying next-generation best practices. [Electronic Version]. Retrieved 3 July, 2006 from http://www.erexchange.com/tb/229FCAF1A1A947CEA92E5174ABDE250C. Understanding Human Capital - a Fresh Approach to the Recruitment Process. (September 2003 ). Webster Buchanan Research. Uzelac, B. International Recruitment Trends [Electronic Version] from http://www.

peopleatwork.com.au/articles/international.asp. Wheeler, K. (April 05, 2006). We Need Talent Leaders. All of the traditional tools of recruiting are coming under scrutiny. [Electronic Version]. Retrieved 3 July, 2006 from http://www.erexchange.com