# DU SOL B.Com 3rd Year Human Resource Management Notes Chapter 5 Human Resource Planning (Or Manpower Planning)

## DU SOL B.Com 3rd Year Human Resource Management Notes Chapter 5 Human Resource Planning (Or Manpower Planning)

Question 1.
What is manpower planning ? Discuss its objectives.
Or
What are the objects of human resource planning ?
Human Resource Planning Meaning and Objects :
In order to understand manpower planning, or human resouce planing, we should understand the two terms manpower and planning.

Manpower is the human resources employed in any enterprise, The manpower resource is the most vital factor for the survival and prosperity of a firm. An efficient management will always think of procuring for developing adequate talent for various-positions in the organisation. Planning is the thinking process, the organised foresight, the vision based on facts and experience that is required for intelligent action. Planning means determining what to do, how to do it, when to do it and who is to do it.

Manpower planning may be defined as strategy for the procurement, development, allocation and utilisation of an enterprise’s human resources. One of the functions of human resource management is the procurement of employees in sufficient number. The success of the organisation depends upon the right type of persons placed on the job. It is the responsibility of human resource management to see whether qualified personnel have been placed on the job in sufficient number. This requires planning.

Manpower planning is the planning for manpower resources. Manpower planning ensures adequate supplies, proper quantity and quality, as well as effective utilisation of human resources. Thomas H. Patten defines manpower planning as “the process by which an organisation ensures that it has the right number of people and the right kind of people at the right place at the right time, doing things for which they are economically most useful”.

In the words of Flippo, “An executive manpower planning programme can be defined as an appraisal of an organisation’s ability to perpetuate itself with respect to its management as a determination of measures necessary to provide the essential executive talent.” According to Geisler, “Manpower planning is the process by which a firm ensures tha right number of people and right kind of people at the right place at the right time doing things for which they are economically most useful.”

Thus, manpower planning is the process of developing and determining objective, policies and programmes that will develop, utilize and distribute manpower so as to achieve the goals of the organisation.
The definitions of manpower planning suggest the following features:

1. It aims at ascertaining the manpower needs of the organisation both quantitatively and qualitatively.
2. It includes an inventory of present manpower to determine the status of the present supply of available personnel and to discover developed talent within the organisation. •
3. Manpower planning, like other planning is forward looking or future oriented. If forecasts the needs of future manpower inventory.
4. Manpower planning must focus not only on the people involved but also on the working conditions and relationship in which they work.
5. The basic purpose of the human resource planning is to make optimum utilisation of organisation’s current and future human resources.
6. It is the primary responsibility of the management to ensure effective utilisation of human resources.

Thus manpower planning ensures that the required personnel of required skill are available at the right time. Manpower planning helps in both the selection and developmental activities as it ensures that adequate persons are selected wel I in advance. This would ensure smooth growth of the organisation.

Need Or Objectives Of Manpower Planning :
The following are the main objectives of manpower planning in an organisation –

1. To ensure optimum use of available manpower – In the process of planning, the personnel department takes stock of the present work force and their characteristics. Vacancies should be filled in from among the existing manpower working at the lower level taking into account the characteristics of the persons concerned and the job requirements. Thus available personnel can be employed fruitfully on the job.

2. Forecasting of the future requirements – At the time taking decision for the expansion of the plant, it is necessary to assess the future need of the manpower. The management should also take stock of the present available manpower in the organisation and then it should decide whether the new responsibilities should be given to the existing persons or to the new recruitees who are well qualified in the field. Forecasting thus, helps in filling the right type of job with the right type of man.

If expansion is not planned, changes in the organisation like discharge, retirement, lay-off, retrenchment, demotion, separation etc. all create need of additional workers. They cannot be made available at once. This all requires manpower planning so that right type of fnan may be made available at the right time.

3. Cope with charges – Manpower planning enables the enterprise to cope with charges in competitive forces, market, technology, products and government regulations. Such changes often change the job contents, skill demands, number and type of personnel in the organisation. To cope with the changes manpower planning suggests the new training.programmes to enable the existing personnel to share the responsibility of the changed jobs.

4. Help in recruitment and Selection – Sound manpower planning helps in recruitment and selection of right type of man at the right job, at the right time. The personnel department, in the process of planning might come to know what type of person, it is to.be recruited. It may recruit the persons after proper scrutiny. The rate of labour turn over is also reduced by an effective manpower planning.

5. Maintaining Production level – Manpower planning helps in maintaining production level. The labour turn over, absenteeism, illness and level of workers all reduce the strength of the workers. Manpower planning estimates all these hazards before hand and maintains the production level by arranging for the shortfall in the existing manpower. Two types of analysis are important in this connection – work load analysis and work force analysis.

6. Effective Employee development programme – An effective employee development programme cannot be worked out unless it is linked with the manpower .requirement of the organisation while developing a development programme, the talent, abilities and motives of the individuals as well as of the organisation should be taken into consideration. An effective manpower planning also aims at making the employee development programme effective.

7. Other objectives – Other objectives of manpower planning may be – (a) establishing good industrial relations, (b) reduction in labour costs, (c) coping with the national policy on employment, (d) linking human resource planing with organisation planning (e) identifying areas of surplus personnel so that corrective measures may be taken in time, (f) meeting needs of expansion and diversification.

Question 2.
Explain the importance of manpower planning.
Importance Of Human Resource Planning:
The sound personnel policy requires that there should be adequate number of persons of the right type tp attain its objectives. Personnel objectives cannot be achieved without proper manpower planning. The importance of manpower planning can be judged from the following benefits:

1. Increase in the size of Business – Manpower planning is very helpful when there is expansion of the plant. At the time of taking the decision for expansion of the plant, a large number of workers are required to be recruited. For this purpose a stock of the existing manpower should be taken and future need of the personnel should be assessed. It is very essential to know whether presonnel are to be recruited from outside or from inside and how the training facilities are to be arranged. For all this manpower planning is essential.

2. Effective recruitment and selection policy – Manpower planning helps in formulating effective recruitment and selection policy. Manpower planning is concerned with the right type of people from all sources to meet planned requirements. Manpower planning anticipates manpower needs to develop the existing manpower to fill the future gaps. Thus only right man on the right job at the right time may be recruited and selected.

3. Effective employee development programme – Manpower planning reveals the training needs of the working manpower with the result that training and development programmes become more effective. No effective employee development programme can be worked out unless it is linked with the manpower requirements of the organisation.

4. Reduction in labour cost – Manpower planning ensures recruitment and maintenance of better developed manpower resource which results in reduced manpowers costs. Forecasting of long term manpower needs to help the management to forecast the compensation costs involved.

5. Efficient work force – Manpower planning ensures on the one hand, development of personnel at work and on the other hand, high morale of the personnel. Manpower planning motivates the existing employees and creates favourable psychological climate for motivation. Management succession gets the best contribution from the workers.

6. Avoiding disruption in production – Manpower planning may v help the organisation in procuring the skilled and qualified workers because future needs of personnel may be estimated and they are selected and trained on the basis of a well developed selection and training policy thus ensuring j uninterrupted production.

7. Good Industrial Relations – Manpower planning helps the management in developing the good industrial relations. With the help of manpower planning management may plan to absorb the redundant workers to some new jobs after training in case redundancies of workers are caused by automation or any other reason.

8. National policy on employment – National policy on employment does not allow any employer to oust the worker once employed by the organisation. It is very essential to recruit the workers carefully according to the needs of the enterprise. Only manpower planning can help the organisation in this regard. ’

9. Replacement of Employees, Employees who retire, die, resign and ‘ become incapacitated need immediate replacements, to avoid disruption in production. Provision for replacement of personnel can be made only on the basis of human resource planing.

10. Technological Progress. Human resource planning is helpful in effective utilisation of technological progress. To meet the challenges of pew technology, existing employers are to be retrained or new employees are to be recruited. ,

Question 3.
What are the prerequisites for manpower planning ?
Prerequisites For Manpower Planning:
The implementation and development of manpower planning need following prerequisites:

1. Goals or Objectives of Business – Every business enterprise has some goals or objectives. The manpower planning must be integrated with business policies as regards to profitability, production, sales and development of resources. Any change in business objectives would certainly affect the manpower planning. For example a company decides to introduce computer system in the interprise. This change will affect the manpower planning i.e., company will have to recruit computer operators or it will train its existing employees in computer science. Thus, determination of business objectives clearly in advance is a prerequisite for the effective manpower planning.

2. Support of Top-level management – Manpower planning must have the initiative and support of top level management. Personnel manager of a staff authority can only advise or guide the top management, he cannot implement decisions. Action on decisions or suggestions of the personnel manager are to be taken only at the initiative of top executives. Thus support of top management is a must for the effective manpower planning.

3. Well organised human resourcedepartment – Manpower planning requires forecasting the requirements and developments of the personnel. For this purpose, there is a need of a well organised human resource department. This department collects, records, analyses, interprets and maintains the facts and figures relating to all the personnels in the organisation.

4. Determination of related personnel policies – Determination of personnel policies regarding promotion, transfer, wages, fringe benefits, training, leaves etc. is a prerequisite for manpower planning. Without these policies manpower planning will be of little use.

5. Responsibility – The responsibility of manpower planning should be assigned to some responsible senior personnel. He should be provided all figures relating to the planning.

6. Fixing Planning Period – Planning is concerned with problem of future. The planning period is divided into short term and long term. Planning period depends on the nature of the business and the social, economic and political environment. Long-term planning is preferable for basic and heavy industries. Consumer goods industries may not resort to long term plans. The other important factors are. rate of population growth education and training facilities, cost of training etc.

7. Manpower standards – In order to avoid the problems of overstaffing and understaffing, the optimum manpower standards should be determined on the basis of prevailing standards in similar organisations, past experiences and work measurement. These factors will reduce the cost of production and ‘will increase the quality of production and will help in preparation of manpower plans.

Question 4.
Explain the process of human resource planning.
Or
Discuss the steps in the process of human resource planning.
Process Of Human Resource Planning:
The process of manpower planning consists of the following steps:

1. Analysing Organisational Objectives and Plans. The first step in the process of human resource planning is to analyse the organisational objectives and plans. The ultimate objective of manpower planning is one of matching employee abilities to enterprise requirements with an emphasis on future instead of present arrangements. Objectives may be short term or long term.

Further, organisational plans concerning technology, production, marketing finance, expansion and diversification should be analysed in order to have idea about the volume of future work activity. The plans may further be analysed into sub-plans and detailed programmes. Future organisation structure and job-design should be made clear and any change in the organisation structure should be examined so as to anticipate the manpower . requirement. A company’s plans are based on economic forecast, company’s sales and expansion forecast, and the labour market forecasts.

2. Preparing Manpower Inventory. The main purpose of human ” resource planning is to avoid the situation of over-staffing and under-staffing and for this purpose, a stock of existing manpower is to be assessed.

Manpower inventory refers to the assessment of the present and the v potential capabilities of present employees qualitatively and quantitatively. It reveals the degree to which these capabilities are employed optimally and helps to identify the gaps that exist or that are likely to arise in the firm’s human resources. Preparation of manpower inventory involves determination of personnel to be inventories, cataloguing of factual background information of each individual, systematic appraisal of each individual and listing the present and potential abilities and aptitudes of each.

3, Forecasting Manpower Needs or Demands. Forecasting of future manpower requirement is the most important part of manpower planning. The forecasting is made on the basis of corporate and functional plans, future activity levels, and future needs for human resources in the organisation. The number of people and the skill levels needed in future depends on production and sales budgets, workload analysis, work-force analysis estimated absenteeism and labour turnover etc. For a given level of operation, certain other factors like technology used, make or buy decision, job contents, behavioural pattern and control system. It is thus necessary to make projection for the new posts to be created and the vacancies arising in current manpower. The forecasting should be qualitatively and quantitatively depending upon business objectives.

The major determinants of future human resource demands are –

• Employment Trends. Trends in companys manpower can be judged by examining the changes in the payroll over the last five years within each group. By this examination, expansion or contraction may be measured.
• Replacement Needs. This need arises due to death, retirement, resignation, and termination of employees. The replacement needs may rebate to specific manpower group e.g. supervisory, clerical skilled etc. This can be assessed on the basis of past experience and future retirement situations.
• Productivity. Improvement in productivity influence the manpower planning. Gains in productivity will decrease the requirement of manpower or vice-versa.
• Absenteeism. The demand for manpower depends upon rate of absenteeism. If it is high steps should be taken to reduce it to the minimum.
• Growth and Expansion. Company’s growth plans and expansion programme should be carefully analysed to judge their impact on human resource requirements in future. Steps must be taken for procuring or developing the talent required.

4. Expected loss of Manpower, From the present stock of manpower, a discount should be given for the likely changes in manpower during the period of planning. Potential losses of human resources may be caused due to death, disability, dismissals, resignations, promotions, transfers, retrenchments, or lay off, terminations, ill health, absenteeism, deputation etc. The study of potential loss of workers should be studied in order to make an estimate of the future needs of the work-force.

5. Estimating Manpower Gaps. A comparison between the existing work-force and the projected work-force or manpower demands should be made to identify the gap between the demand and supply of work-force. It will reveal either surplus or deficit of work-force in future. The deficit suggests the number of persons to be recuited from outside whereas surplus implies redundants to be redeployed or terminated. Similarly, gaps may occur in terms of knowledge, skill and aptitudes. Employees who are dificient qualitatively, can be trained whereas employees with higher skills can be redeployed over other jobs requiring higher skills.

6. Action Planning. Once the manpower gaps are identified, action plans are developed to bridge the gaps. Action plan to meet the surplus manpower may be prepared. The surplus manpower can either be redeployed in other department/units or can be retrenched. However, retrenchment should be made only in consultation with trade unions. People may be persuaded to quit voluntarily through golden hand shake.

Deficit, on the other hand, can be met through recruitment, selection, transfer, promotions and training plans. Realistic plans for the procurement and development of manpower should be made to ensure a continuing supply of trained people to take over jobs as and when they fall vacant, either by promotion or recruitment or through training. In this way, redundancies and shortages of manpower can be avoided in the long run. Necessary modifications in the plans may be made if manpower market situation warrants.

7. Monitoring and Control. Once the action plans are implemented, the human resource jsystem and structure need to be reviewed and regulated periodically. Zero base budgeting may be used to encourage managers to justify their plans. Monitoring and control phase involves allocations and utilisation of human resources over time. Review of manpower plans and programmes reveals the surplus or deficiencies. Corrective actions may be taken immediately to remove the surplus or deficiency. Necessary modification in action plans may be made in the light of changing environment and needs of the organisation. An appraisal of manpower plans serves as a guide in future manpower planning.

Question 5.
Briefly discuss the quantitative and qualitative aspects of human resource planning.
Quantitative And Qualitative Aspects Of Human Resource Planning:
The analysis of manpower planning leads to two broad aspects of the subject viz quantitative aspect and qualitative aspect. The quantitative aspect is concerned with the determination of right number of personnel required for each type of job in the organisation and the qualitative aspect relates to specifying the quality of personnel on each job laying down the educational, professional qualifications, work experience, psychological traits etc. we shall now discuss these two aspects of manpower planning.

Quantitative Aspect of Manpower Planning:  Quantitative aspect of manpower planning relates to forecasting the demand and supply of man-power and fill up the gap if any on the basis of manpower productivity, capacity utilisation and costs to identity needs for improvement in productivity or reduction in costs. For this purpose various action plans are prepared and implemented. Manpower budgets are prepared for setting standards and monitoring the implementation of manpower plans.

A. Demand Forecasting Techniques. Demand forecasting is the pro-cess of estimating the number of personnel required in future taking the cor-porate and functional plans and future activity level of the personnel in the organisation. In a manufacturing concern, the sales budget is translated into a manufacturing plan giving number and types of products to be made in each period. But the human resource requirements for a given level of operations vary depending upon the production technology, process, make or buy decision of the managements, job contents, behaviour patterns and control systems.

There are three basic demand forecasting techniques –

1. Managerial Judgement
2. Statistical Techniques
3. Work study techniques

In many cases, a contribution of the above techniques may be used.

1. Managerial Judgement. Under this technique, the experienced manager at top level estimate the future need of different departments, on the basis of their knowledge of expected future work-loaded and employee efficiency. The top management takes advice of different concerned departments. These forecasts are reviewed and agreed with the departmental managers. This may be known as top-down approach.

Alternatively, a ‘bottom-up’ approach may also be considered. Under this approach like department managers estimate the workload of their re-spective departments and decide the number of people they need in future. ‘They submit the proposals with the top management for approval. Both these techniques may be sometimes combined to get the best results. This is a very simple and time saving method but is not suitable for large concerns because of its subjective character.

2. Statistical Techniques. The most commonly used statistical man-power forecasting techniques in ratio-trend analysis.

(i) Ratio-trend Analysis. Under this method certain ratios (e.g. total output to total number of workers, total sales to total saler person, direct workers made for absenteeism, overtime, idle time, labour turnover etc. The following example illustrates the procedure –

Illustration. Suppose a cement factory aims to produce 50,000 tons of cement during 2007-08. The standard manhours required to produce one tonne of cement are estimated to be 10. On the basis of past experience the factory estimates that on an average, the worker can contribute 2500 hours per year. The total work load and the number of workers required may be estimated as follows –

1. Production budgeted output , – 50,000 tonnes
2. Standard manhours required per tonne – 10 hours
3. Total man hours used for producing 50,000tons (ixii) – 5,00,000 hours
4. Manhours available per worker during the year – 2,500 hours
5. Number of workers required ((iii) / (iv)) – 200 workers

Thus, 200 workers will be needed in 2007-08 to achieve the production
target of 50,000 tonnes of cement. However, this is not a reliable estimate because of a number of factors such as absenteeism, availability of raw materials, power breakdown, strikes, lockout etc,.influence the production schedule and allowance should be given for these factors. Gaps in the existing workforce cannot be considered is the basis of above estimates unless a work force analysis is needs.

(ii) Work force Analysis. All the existing workers are not likely to be available everyday throughout the year. So, an allowance is made for absenteeism. labour turnover, and other contingencies. If we assume that on an average 5 percent of the workforce will remain absent and another 5 percent is lost due to resignation, retirement, deaths, terminations etc. Thus, l0 percent additional workforce should be provided for. In the above illustration 10% of the actual workforce required on the job should be recruited. In this way 220 workers are required during the year. This analysis involves a detailed study of part performance, part behaviour and retirement date of each and every employee. This analysis is called work force analysis.

B. Supply Forecasting Techniques. Supply forecasting measures the quantity of manpower that is likely to be available to fill up the vacant posts. Such sources of labour supply may be within or outside the organisation. The supply analysis covers –

1. Existing manpower resources,
2. Potential losses to existing resources through labour wastage.
3. Potential changes to.existing resources through promotion, transfer etc,
4. Effect of changes in conditions of work and absenteeism.
5. Sources of supply within the organisation.

1. Existing Manpower Resources. The first supply resource analysis is to identify the existing workforce by function, department, occupation, level of skill and states just to identify the resource centres. Consisting of broadly homogeneous groups to make supply forecasts.

Such analysis reveals the number of employees internally available if needed in future having special abilities and skills. It is just to know how many people will be available for promotion internally and where they can be found.

An analysis by age is also important to avoid problems arising from a sudden rush of retirement, a block in promotion aspect or a preponderance of older employees, lengths of service analysis is also important because it will provide evidence of survival rates, which are a necessary tool for use by planners in predicting future resources.

The study of existing ratios between different categories of staff is also important to know the areas where rapid changes are seen and which may result in manpower supply problem.

2. Labour wastage. Labour wastage due to labour leaving the organisation should be analysed in order to forecast future losses and to identify the reasons for leaving the organisation plans should be drawn to replace uncontrollable loses. The following are certain techniques to measure such losses’ –

(i) Labour Turnover Index. The one traditional formula for measuring wastage is labour turnover index which is given below –

$$\frac{\text { No.of leavers in a specified period }}{\text { Average no. of employees during the same period }} \times 100$$

The method is common in use because it is easy to calculate and to understand. The formula can be misleading also. The main objection to the measurement of labour turnover in terms of the figure may be inflated by the high turnover of a relatively small proportion of labour force.

The labour wastage percentage is a suspect if the average number of workers .employed upon which this percentage is based, is unrepresentative of recent trends because of considerable increases or decreases during the period in the number employ.

(ii) Labour stability Index. It is an improvement over the labour turn-over index. Labour stability index is shown as below –
$$\frac{\text { No. with one year’s service or more }}{\text { No. employed within the year }} \times 100$$

The formula shows a tendency of stay workers in the organisation and therefore shows the degree of which there is a continuity of employment.

(iii) Length of service Analysis. The analysis is made to know the av-erage length of service of peopl^ who leave the organisation. This also gives an index of labour turnover. It is also crude and not fair because it only deals with the total number of people who leave the organisation. A more refined analysis would be to calculate such an index for each category of employees and then compare them with previous figures.

(iv) Survival Rate. The survival rate of employees is the proportion of employees recruited within a certain period and who remain with the firm after so many months or years of service. Thus, if the analysis finds that the workers who have completed their apprenticeship time during last 2 years, only 50 percent are with the company, it means the survival rate is 50 percent > and the company has to train 100 workers during the next five years if company requirement is only of 50 workers.

3. Internal Promotions and Transfers. The supply forecast should indicate the number of vacancies that will have to be filled to meet the demand forecast. Vacancies in the organisation arise because people leave the organisation or due to expansion of the organisation. The vacancies are filled up by transfer or promotion within the department/organisation that may produce a chain reaction of replacements. In a large organisation, persistent pattern of promotion and transfer may develop and it may be possible to predict the proportion of employees who are likely to be promoted or moved in future, starting a chain reaction. For this purpose, management succession planning should be worked out in the organisation by reference to known, retirements and transfers.

4. Changing conditions on work and Absenteeism. A study should also.be undertaken to have effect of change in working conditions on work and absenteeism. This may cover factors like change in weekly working hours, overtime policy, length and timing of holidays, retirement policy for employing part timers, and shift system. The effect of absenteeism on future supply of labour should also be studied and trend in absenteeism should be analysed to trace causes and identify possible remedial actions.

5. Sources of Supply. Sources of labour supply internal as well as ex-ternal should also be established. Internal sources include the output from internal training schemes or the management development programmes and the reservoirs of skills and potentials.that exist within the organisation; When developing expansion plans outside sources should also be explored. Thus, insidp and outside availability of labour supply should be used when preparing development plans. If skilled or desirable persons are not available internally or externally, actions may be taken to develop or redevelop training or retraining programme to upgrade the available manpower to meet the company’s needs. There are so many local or national factors which have bearing on the supply of manpower.

Qualitative Aspect of Manpower Planning. Having done the exercise of determining the number of manpower for each job in the organisation, the next step comes to determine the quality of the people required for individual job. The quality of manpower required varies from job to job. Therefore, the quality of employees required for a job can be determined after determining the job requirements. The nature of job would help determining the minimum acceptable qualities of the person to be put up on the job.

The aspect is the qualitative aspect of manpower planning. The process of determining the na ture of the job together with the minimum acceptable qualities on the part of the personnel required for adequate performance of the job is termed as job analysis. To quote Endwin B. Flippo – “Job analysis is the process of studying and collecting information relating to the operation and responsibilities of a specific job. The immediate product of this analysis are job description and job specifications With the help of information obtained through job analysis are job- description and job specification. Job description is a summary of the tasks, duties and responsibilities in a job. Basically, the job description indicates what is done, why it is done and where it is done and briefly how it is done. In other words, it sets performance standards telling what performance, the job demands. The employee must know what is expected and what is below or above standards so that he may perform better.

A job specification on the other hand is a statement of the minimum acceptable quantities (educational qualification, mental abilities, special qualifications and physique etc.) necessary to perform a job properly. It designates the qualities required for acceptable performance. The major use of job specification is to guide in the recruiting and selecting of people to fill jobs.

Question 6.
Discuss the problems in human resource planning. How can these problems be tackled successfully ?
Problems In Or Limitations Of Human Resource Planning:
The problems in the process of human resource planning are as follows –

1. Inaccuracy – Human resource planning forecasts the demand for and supply of manpower during plan period. Forecaste can never be a cent percent projection, Longer the time horizon, greater are the chances of inaccuracy. Inaccuracy may be higher when departmental forecasts are aggregated without critical review or where variables in the environment are ignored.

2. Time and costs involved – Manpower planning is a time consuming and expensive exercise. A good deal of time and costs are involved in data collection and their analysis to make forecasting. Being a costly affair, only large sized firms can resort to manpower planning.

3. Resistance by Employees and Employers – Employees and trade unions feel the manpower planning a futile and useless exercise. They feel that due to large scale unemployment, people will be available as and when required. Moreover they feel that the employer tries to increase their work load through manpower planning. The manpower planning regulates them through productivity bargaining.

Employers also resist manpower planning because they feel that it increases the cost of labour. Managers and Jiuman resource planners do not fully understand the human resource planning process and lack a strong sense of purpose.

4. Inefficient Information System – In most of the Indian industries, the human resource information system is not satisfactory. In the absence of reliable human resource data, it is not possible to develop fully the human resource plans.

5. Uncertainties – There are certain uncertainties or constraints in the way of human resource planning. These are absenteeism, labour turnover seasonal employment, technological changes, and market fluctuations etc. It is therefore, risky to depend upon general estimates of manpower because of the rapid changes in the international and external environment.

6. No Top Management Support – There is lack of support and commitment from the top management. In the absence of support of top management, the human resource experts find it difficult to carry out the manpower plans in their true spirit. Sometimes, it happens that the process is started with great funfare but is not sustained due to lack of support from the top.” In some cases, sophisticated human resource technologies are adopted only because their rivals have introduced them. These may not yield results unless matched with the needs and environment of the particular industry or enterprise.

7. Too much focus on Quantitative Aspect – In some enterprises, too much emphasis is laid on the quantitative aspect of human resource planning to ensure a smooth flow of people in and out of the organisation. This sometimes overlooks the more important aspect i.e. qualitative aspect of manpower planning i.e., the quality of human resource, career planning and development, skill development morale etc.

Thus, limitations of human resource planning arise both from inherent limitations of forecasting and from human weaknesses.

Making Human Resource Planning Effective:
We have just studied various problems faced by, a human resource expert in manpower planning. The following steps may be taken to make the human resource planning effective –

1. Proper Organisation of Human Resource Functions – The human resource planning functions should be well organised. A separate cell, section, division or committee may be constituted within the human resource department to provide adequate focus and to coordinate the planning efforts at various levels.

2. Support from the Top – Top management must support and be committed to the human resource planning. Before starting any human resource planning process, top management must be consulted and its commitment should be ensured. Moreover, the exercise should be carried out within budget allocation. Other restraints should also be considered in detail. It is really useless to formulate plans which cannot be implemented due to financial and other supports from the management.

3. Participation – For the successful human resource planning, active participation of operative executives is required. If possible, trade union support should also be sought. Such participation will help to improve understanding of the process and thereby reduce resistance.

4. Information System – A systematic information system or data base should be developed in order to facilitate the human resource planning.

5. Tailor made – Human resource plans should be balanced with corporate plans of the enterprise. The method and techniques of human resource planning should commensurate with the corporate objectives, strategies and environment.

6. Balanced Focus – The quantity and qualify aspects, should be equally stressed. The stress in filling future vacancies should be to recruit right people to right job or other than to match the existing staff with existing jobs. Promotion of existing staff should be considered carefully.

DU SOL B.Com 3rd Year Human Resource Management Notes