HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING

HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNINGOBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

1. To know the human resource planning process.

2. To know the need and importance of planning.

3. To know how human resource planning is carried out in a company.

1. INTRODUCTION

HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNINGHumanresources (HR)planningrefers to classic HR administrative functions, and the evaluation and identification ofhumanresources requirements for meeting organizational goals. It also requires an assessment of the availability of the qualified resources that will be needed. To ensure theircompetitive advantagein the marketplace and anticipate staffing needs, organizations must implement innovative strategies that are designed to enhance their employee retention rate and recruit fresh talent into their companies.Humanresources planningis one way to help a company develop strategies and predict company needs in order to keep their competitive edge.Planning for human resource is more important than planning for any other resource as demand for the later depends upon the size and structure of the former whether it is in a country or in an industry. Further, management of human resources hardly begins from human resources planning .In fact it is the basis for most of the other functions.Planning the right man for right job and developing him into effective team member is an important function of every manager. It is because HR is an important corporate asset and performance of organizations depends upon the way it is put in use. HRP is a deliberate strategy for acquisition, improvement and preservation of enterprises human resources. It is a managerial function aimed at coordinating the requirements, for and availability of different types of employees. This involves ensuring that the organization has enough of right kind of people at right time and also adjusting the requirements to the available supply.E.W Vetter viewed human resources planning as a process by which an organization should move from its current manpower position to its desired manpower position. Through planning management strives to have the right number and right kind of people at the right places at the right time, doing things which result in both the organization and the individual receiving maximum long-run benefit.According to Leon C Megginson, human resources planning is an integrated approach to performing the planning aspects of the personnel function in order to have a sufficient supply of adequately developed and motivated people to perform the duties and tasks required to meet organizational objectives and satisfy the individual needs and goals of organizational members.

Human resources planning may be viewed as foreseeing the human resource requirements of an organization and the future supply of human resources and

1. Making necessary adjustments between these two and organizational plans.

2. Foreseeing the possibility of developing the supply of human resources in order to match it with requirements by introducing necessary changes in the functions of human resources management .In this definition, human resource means skill knowledge, values, ability, commitment, motivation etc., in addition to the number of employees.OBJECTIVES OF HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNING

The important objectives of manpower planning in an organization are:-

1. To recruit and retain the human resources of required quantity and quality.2. To foresee the employee turnover and make the arrangements for minimizing turnover and filling up of consequent vacancies.3. To meet the needs of the program of expansion, diversification, etc.4. To foresee the impact of technology on work, existing employees and future human resources requirements.5. To improve the standards skill, knowledge, ability, discipline, etc.6. To assess the surplus or shortage of human resources and take measures accordingly.7. To maintain congenial industrial relations by maintaining optimum level and structure of human resources.

8. To minimize imbalances caused due to non-availability of human resources of right kind, right number in right time and right place.

9. To make the best use of its human resources.

10. To estimate the cost of human resources.IMPORTANCE OF HRPHuman resource planning is important for helping both organisations and employees to prepare for the future but you might be thinking Are not things always changing? So what is the value of planning? The answer is that even an imperfect forecast of the future can be quite helpful. Consider weather forecasts. You can probably think of occasions when it snowed, even though the television weather forecaster predicted there would be no snow. Conversely, you can probably think of times when it did not snow, even though the weather forecaster predicted a foot of snow by the next morning. You may be surprised to lean that as inaccurate as weather forecasts sometimes seem to be many organisations pay a forecasting service for regular weather updates. The reason for this is quite simple. Even a production that is sometimes wrong is better than no forecast or production at all. Perhaps the best example is the stock market. If someone had even a fairly accurate way to predict which stocks would go up and which stocks would go down, that person could make a great deal of money investing in the stock market, even though there would be some mistakes. The key is whether ones production tool improves the chances of making the right decisions. Even though the predictive tool may not be always accurate, as long as it is more accurate than random guessing it will result in better decisions.

The same point applies to human resource planning. Even though neither organisations nor employees can look into the future, making predictions can be quite helpful, even if they are not always accurate. The basic goal of human resource planning, then, is to predict the future and, based on these predictions, implement programmes to avoid anticipated problems. Very briefly humans resource planning is the process of examining an organisations or individuals future human resource needs (for instance, what types of skills will be needed for jobs of the future) compared to future human resource capabilities (such as the types of skills employees or you already have) and developing human resource policies and practices to address potential problems for example, implementing training programmes to avoid skill deficiencies.NEED FOR PLANNING

The need for planning arises mostly due to the fact that modern organisations have to survive, operate and grow in highly competitive market economics where change is the order of the day. The change may be either revolutionary (sudden) or evolutionary (slow). The different areas of change include: change in technology, change in population, change in economic structures and systems, change in policies of government, change in employee attitudes behavior etc. These changes create problems for the management through threats and challenges. Managers have to bear the problems caused due to the changes and act upon them tactfully in order to avoid or reduce the effects of these problems on the survival, operation and growth of the organisation.

Efficient managers can foresee the problems likely to occur and try to prevent them.

As pointed by Terry, successful managers deal with foreseen problems and unsuccessful managers struggle with unforeseen problems. The difference lies in planning. Managers have to foresee to make the future favourable to the organization in order to achieve the goals effectively. They introduce action, overcome current problems, prevent future uncertainties, adjust the goals with the unforeseen environmental conditions and exert all their resources to achieve their goals.

According to Megginson, to have an organisation that looks forward to the future and tries to stay alive and prosper in a changing world, there must be active, vigorous, continuous and creative planning.

Thus, there is a greater need for planning in order to keep the organisation dynamic in a changing situation of uncertainty

More specifically, HRP is required to meet following objectives:

1) Forecast HR requirement.

2) Cope-up with the change in market conditions, technologies, products, government regulations and policies, etc.

3) Use existing HR productivity.

4) Promote employees in a systematic manner.

If used properly, it offers a number of benefits:

1) Create reservoir of talent.

2) Prepares people for future.

3) Expand or contract.

4) Cut cost.

5) Succession planning.ADVANTAGES AND ROLE OF HRP Now-a-days organizations are fully dependent on human resources. Thus, they are giving great importance to Human Resource (Manpower) Planning.Following points bring out advantages / role of HRP:-1. To make optimum utilisation of human resources: HRP helps to make optimum utilisation of the human resources in the organisation. It helps to avoid wastage of human resources.

2. To forecast manpower requirements: HRP helps to forecast the future manpower requirements of all organisations. It helps to forecast the number and type of employees who will be required by the organisation in a near future.

3. To provide manpower: Every organisation requires manpower to conduct itsbusinessactivities. HRP provides different types of manpower as per the needs of the organisations.

4. To face manpower problems: HRP helps to face the manpower problems, which are caused by labour turnover, introduction of new technologies, etc.

5. To integrate different plans: HRP helps to integrate the personnel plans with the other important plans of the organisation.

6. To make employee development programmes more effective: HRP selects the right man for the right post. The right man will get maximum benefits from the employee development programmes. Therefore, HRP helps to make the employee development programmes more effective.

7. To reduce labour cost: Today the cost of labour is about 25% to 45% of the cost of production. So the labour cost is increasing very quickly. Labour cost has to be reduced in order to face competition. HRP helps to avoid both shortage and surplus of labour. It helps to make optimum utilisation of labour. It also helps to reduce labour turnover. All this helps to reduce labour cost.

8. To enable organisations to grow: When an organisation grows, the number of jobs also increases. More employees are required to perform these jobs. HRP helps to supply these employees to the organisations. So HRP enables the organisation to grow.

9. To identify potential replacements: Each year many employees either retire or leave or are taken out of the organisation. HRP helps to find replacements for these employees. These replacements may be either from inside or from outside the organisation.

10. To avoid disturbance in the production process: In HRP, the manpower requirements of the organisation are determined well in advance. So the manpower is supplied continuously to the organisation. This helps the production process to run smoothly. Thus, HRP helps to avoid disturbances in the production process.

11. Basis for effective recruitment and selection: HRP is the basis for effective recruitment and selection in the organisation. It helps the organisation to select the right man for the right post.

12. Basis for employee development programmes: HRP is the basis for employee development programmes.

CONCEPTS OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING RECRUITMENT- Recruitment is the most important function of personnel administration. Recruitment is understood as the process of searching for and obtaining applicants for jobs, from among whom the right people can be selected. Theoretically, recruitment process is said to end with the receipt of applications, in practice the activity extends to the screening of applications so as toeliminate those who are not qualified forthe job.

A process of finding and attracting capable applicants for employment. The process begins when new recruits are sought and ends when their applications are submitted. The result is a pool of applications from which new employees are selected.In the words of Edwin & Fillipo Recruitment is the process of searching forprospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organization. According to this definition recruitment is a prospecting job where organizations make searching for prospective employees but in practice prospective employees also seek out organizations like organizations seek out prospective employees.

SELECTIONSelection is the process of picking up individuals (out of the pool of job applicants) with requisite qualifications and competence to fill jobs in the organization. A formal definition ofSelection is as under

Definition of Selection:

Selection is the process of differentiating between applicants in order to identify and hire those with a greater likelihood of success in a job. INDUCTIONThe action or process of inducting someone to a post or organization. Once an employee is selected and placed on an appropriate job, the process of familiarizing him with the job and the organization is known as induction.Induction is the process of receiving and welcoming an employee when he first joins the company and giving him basic information he needs to settle down quickly and happily and stars work. Induction can be defined as a process of introducing the employee who is newly elected to the organization. When an employee is given a letter of appointment he joins the company on duty. The very first thing that the company does is, introduces the new employee to the organization and people working there. An induction program may be conducted at a particular center for all employees or at different places (branches of the company) for different employees. Normally the new employee is called together to the staff training college for the induction program.A process through which a new employee is integrated into an organization, learning about its corporate culture, policies, and procedures, and the specific practicalities of his or her job. An induction program should not consist of a one-day introduction, but should be planned and paced over a few days or weeks. In the United States there is a growing use of boot camps, which work to assimilate a new employee rapidly into the culture of the employing organization. ORIENTATIONThe process of welcoming and introducing employees to their jobs, co-workers and the organization by providing them with information regarding such items as policies, procedures, company history, goals, culture and work rules

Two questions need to be answered in regards to the orientation of a new employee:

1. Who will orientate the new employee?

2. What should be covered during orientation?

One person should be in charge of handling orientation. Generally, this will be the owner/operator; however, on large farm operations, another employee may specifically be responsible for orientating all new employees. Having just one individual in charge of orientation ensures a consistent message to new employees. The orientation of a new employee can involve several people even though one person has overall responsibility.

Generally, the process of orientation begins by taking the new employees around the factory and offices of the company. The supervisor gives new employees' introduction to the fellow employees and provides the immediately needed information about others as well as about the organisation, so that he feels comfortable in the new surroundings. Lectures and discussions may be arranged to provide the necessary information and guidance. Handbooks, manuals and pamphlets may also be supplied for the orientation of the new employees. TRAININGProcess of teaching new knowledge and skills to perform their job effectively. Organizedactivityaimed at imparting information and instructions to improve the recipientsperformanceor to help him or her attain arequiredlevel ofknowledgeorskill.Educationalpreparationfor performing a job that is typically provided tostaffby thebusinessthat has recently hired them before they becomeactiveinserviceto thecompany. Employee training is increasinglyrequiredto assist theworkforceinusingmoderntechniques,tools,strategiesandmaterialsin theirjobs.The term training refers to giving skills and knowledge to new or present employee to perform their task or job.Example showing a machine or tool how to operate.According to Dale S Beach, training is the organized procedure by which people learn new knowledge and skills for definite purpose.

DEVELOPMENT

Development refers to the learning opportunities designed to helpemployees grow.

Developmentreferstothoselearningopportunitiesdesignedtohelp the employeesgrow.Developmentisnotprimarilyskill-oriented.Instead,itprovidesgeneralknowledgeand attitudes which will be helpful to employees in higher positions. Efforts towards development often depend on personal drive and ambition. Development activities, such as those suppliedby management developmentalprogrammes, are generally voluntary. PERFORMANCE APPRAISALPerformance Appraisal is the systematic evaluation of the performance of employees and to understand the abilities of a person for further growth and development. Performance appraisal is generally done in systematic ways which are as follows:

1. The supervisors measure the pay of employees and compare it with targets and plans.

2. The supervisor analyses the factors behind work performances of employees.

The employers are in position to guide the employees for a better performance.Objectives of Performance Appraisal

Performance Appraisal can be done with following objectives in mind:

1. To maintain records in order to determine compensation packages, wage structure, salaries raises, etc.

2. To identify the strengths and weaknesses of employees to place right men on right job.

3. To maintain and assess the potential present in a person for further growth and development.

4. To provide a feedback to employees regarding their performance and related status.

5. To provide a feedback to employees regarding their performance and related status.

6. It serves as a basis for influencing working habits of the employees.

7. To review and retain the promotional and other training programmes. PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENTThe role of HR in the present scenario has undergone a sea change and its focus is on evolving such functional strategies which enable successful implementation of the major corporate strategies. In a way, HR and corporate strategies function in alignment. Today, HR works towards facilitating and improving the performance of the employees by building a conducive work environment and providing maximum opportunities to the employees for participating in organizational planning and decision making process. Today, all the major activities of HR are driven towards development of high performance leaders and fostering employee motivation. So, it can be interpreted that the role of HR has evolved from merely an appraiser to a facilitator and an enabler.

Performance management is the current buzzword and is the need in the current times of cut throat competition and the organization battle for leadership. Performance management is a much broader and a complicated function of HR as it encompasses activities such as joint goal setting, continuous progress review and frequent communication, feedback and coaching for improved performance, implementation of employee development programmes and rewarding achievements.

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONSThe term Industrial Relations comprises of two terms: Industry and Relations. Industry refers to any productive activity in which an individual (or a group of individuals) is (are) engaged. By relations we mean the relationships that exist within the industry between the employer and his workmen.

The term industrial relations explains the relationship between employees and management which stem directly or indirectly from union-employer relationship.Industrial relations are the relationships between employees and employers within the organizational settings. The field of industrial relations looks at the relationship between management and workers, particularly groups of workers represented by a union. Industrial relations are basically the interactions between employers, employees and the government, and the institutions and associations through which such interactions are mediated. COUNSELING

Support processin which a counselorholdsfaceto face talks with another person to help him or her solve a personalproblem, or helpimprovethatperson'sattitude,behavior, orcharacter.Counseling is similar to coaching in that it shares the same goal, improving performance and/or stopping inappropriate workplace behaviors. With counseling, however, the meeting between the supervisor and the employee takes on a different feel. In such meetings the supervisor attempts to understand and identify the issues contributing to the performance or behavioral problem. Accordingly, in a counseling meeting, the supervisor is focused on listening, verifying their understanding of the problem and engaging in problem solving with the employee. Like the coaching transaction, the supervisor and the employee leave the counseling meeting with a corrective plan in mind. Counseling is letting the employee know that the supervisor takes the issue seriously and wants to help them get past it. At the same time, the message is clear from the supervisor--the employee's performance must improve, behaviors must change or more serious steps will have to be taken.

PROMOTIONS

Promotion is advancement of an employee to a better job. Better in terms of greater responsibility, more prestige or status, greater skill and especially increased rate of pay or salary.-PaulPigors and Charles A.Myers

Promotion is defined as giving higher position to the employee, which carries high status more responsibilities and higher status. Promotion means advancement of employee in terms of pay and status also improvement in working conditions.

Promotions are used to fill the positions which are more important to fill rather than the present position of employee. It can be filled by external recruitment but employees having eligibility and experience must be appointed for their motivation. Also it will decrease labour turn over as external recruitment costs more. Also increase in salary and status will increase job satisfaction.

When scale of pay is increased without changing job it is calledup-gradationand promotion involves changes in job as well as high salary.

TERMINATIONTermination is an action taken by the employer to end the employer/employee relationship. Employers have a basic right to terminate the employment of an employee, but along with that right comes responsibilities. Employers must comply with the employment/labour standards and human rights legislation for their jurisdiction and beyond that, employers must treat employees fairly and in good faith as defined by common law or civil law DISMISSALDismissalis where the employer chooses to require the employee to leave, generally for a reason which is the fault of the employee. The most common colloquial term for dismissal in America is "getting fired" whereas in Britain the term "getting the sack" or "getting sacked" is also used.

LAYOFF

A less severe form of involuntary termination is often referred to as alayoff. Alayoffis usually not strictly related to personal performance, but instead due toeconomiccycles or the company's need to restructure itself, the firm itself going out of business or a change in the function of the employer (for example, a certain type of product or service is no longer offered by the company and therefore jobs related to that product or service are no longer needed). One type of layoff is the aggressive layoff; in such a situation, the employee is laid off, but not replaced as the job is eliminated.

Often, layoffs occur as a result of "downsizing", "reduction in force" or "redundancy". These are not technically classified as firings; laid-off employees' positions are terminated and not refilled, because either the company wishes to reduce its size or operations or otherwise lacks the economic stability to retain the position. In some cases, a laid-off employee may eventually be offered their old position again by his/her respective company, though by this time he or she may have found a new job.

TRANSFERSA transfer is a relocation of an employee to the same class in a different department or job site or to a related classification within the same salary range.

A transfer is a lateral move to a position in the same classified pay range (classified position)or to a position with comparable duties and responsibilities (non-classified positions).VOLUNTARY TRANSFER: Transfer requests may be granted at any time, subject to the availability of positions and the qualifications of the applicant. Employees who have requested a transfer shall be given first consideration for a transfer based upon, but not limited to seniority, job performance, qualifications, and the needs of the District.

THE PLANNING PROCESSThe planning process is influenced by overall organisational objectives and the environment of business. HRP essentially involved forecasting human resource need assessing human resource supply and matching demand supply factors through human resource related programmes.THE HRP PROCESS

1. Organisational Objectives and Policies

HR plans to be made based on organisational objectives implies that the objectives of the HR plan must be derived from organisational objectives. Specific requirements in terms of number and characteristics of employees should be derived from the organisational objectives. Organisational objectives are defined by the top management and the role of HRP is to sub serve the overall objectives by ensuring availability and utilization of human resources.

2. HR Demand Forecast

Demand forecast is the process of estimating the future quantity and quality of people required. The basis of the forecast must be the annual budget and long term corporate plan, translated into activity levels for each function and department.

Demand forecasting must consider several factors both external as well as internal. The external factors are competition, economic climate, laws and regulatory bodies, changes in technology and social factors. Internal factors include budget constraints, production levels, new products and services, organisational structure and employee separations.

3. HR Supply Forecast

Personnel Demand analysis provides the manager with the means of estimating the number and kind of employees that will be required. The next step for the management is to determine whether it will be able to procure the required number of personnel and the sources for such procurement. This information is provided by supply forecasting. Supply forecasting measures the number of people likely to be available from within and outside an organisation, after making allowance for absenteeism, internal movements and promotions, wastage and changes in hours and other conditions of work.

4. HR Programming

Once an organisations personnel and supply are forecast, the two must be reconciled in order that vacancies can be filled by the right employees at the right time. HR programming assumes greater importance in the planning process.5. HR Plan Implementation

Implementation is nothing but converting an HR plan into action. A series of action programmes are initiated as a part of HR plan implementation. Some such programmes are recruitment, selection and placement, training and development, retraining and redeployment, the retention plan and the redundancies plan.6. Control and EvaluationThe HR plan should include budgets, targets and standards. It should also clarify responsibilities for implementation and control, and establish reporting procedureswhich will enable achievements to be monitored against the plan. These may simply report on the numbers employed against establishment and on the numbers recruited against the recruitment targets. They should also report employment costs against budget, and trends in wastage and employment ratios.Other Forecasting Methods

The organizations follow more than one technique for forecasting their peoples needs. L&T, for example, follows bottom-up of management judgement and work study techniques for demand forecasting. Forecasting process in L&T begins during November of every year. The Department heads prepare their personnel estimates (based on details of production budget supplied to them) and submit the estimates to the respective personnel managers. The personnel heads will review the estimates with the departmental heads and will send final reports to Bombay office where centralized HR department is located. Estimates are reviewed by the HR department and final figures are made known to those personnel managers who initiate steps to hire the required number of people in the following year. EXAMINING EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL ISSUES

External and internal issues are the forces that drive human resource planning. An issue is any event or trend that has the potential to affect human resource outcomes, such as employee motivation, turnover, absenteeism, the number and types of employees needed and so forth. External issues are events or trends outside of the organisation, such as work force demographics and technology. Internal issues refer to events or trends within the organisation, such as business strategy, organizations structure and company profitability.

Work Force Demographics: Potentially important external issue is the composition of the national workforce. Specifically, there are likely to be changes in the social, gender and age composition of the workforce. Asians will comprise a large percentage of the workforce in the future. Women are also expected to comprise a large segment of the workforce than in the past. The number of married women who are employed has doubled since 1970. The increased participation of women will have a pressure on organisations to provide pro-family policies, such as flexi time, and child care to support working mothers. Increased representation of minorities will result in more emphasis on diversity programmes to ensure harmonious relations between workers from different racial and ethnic groups.

Technology: Organisation are investing so much amount on information technology during the 1980s. Given the size of the investment, a variety of changes in the human resource area have occured. Human resource requirements have come down drastically due to technological changes. There are many organisations who have announced plans to reduce its workforce around 50 per cent employees as a result of technological changes. Now that you have read about some of the external issues that affect human resource planning, you will learn about some important internal issues. Organisational Structure: Many businesses today are changing their organizational structure. Organisational structure refers to how work tasks are assigned, who reports to whom, how communications and decisions are made? As part of their restructuring during some companies are creating teams to perform the work. Business Strategy: The approach that a company adopts in conducting business is referred to as its business strategy. For example, a particular company may adopt strategy on quality enhancement, cost reduction and so on and so forth. It is important for organisations to monitor both the internal and external environment to anticipate and understand the issues that will affect human resources in the future.

DETERMINING FUTURE ORGANISATIONAL CAPABILITIES

The second step of the human resource planning process involves an analysis of future organisational or personal capabilities. Capabilities include the skill level of employees, productivity rates and number of employees, etc. In the past, more emphasis was on predicting the number of employees of human resource supply the company was likely to have in the future. Organisations may use varieties of procedures to estimate the supply. These procedures are generally categories as either quantitative which use mathematical or statistical procedures or qualitative which use subjective judgement approaches. The quantitative procedure generally use past information about job categories and the number of people retiring, being terminated, leaving the organisation voluntarily and being promoted. One of the most well known quantitative procedures is the Markov analysis. This technique uses historical rates of promotion, transfer and turnover to estimate future availabilities in the workforce. Based on the past abilities, one can estimate the number of employees who will be in various positions within the organisation in the future. Qualitative or judgemental approaches are much more popular in forecasting human resource supplies. Among the most frequent used methods are replacement planning, succession planning and vacancy analysis. Replacement planning evolves an assessment of potential candidates to replace existing executives and other top level managers as they retire or leave for other organisations. Succession planning is similar to replacement planning, except that it is more long term and developmentally oriented. Finally, vacancy analysis is much like the Markov analysis, except that it is based on managerial judgements of the probabilities. If knowledgeable experts provide estimates, vacancy analysis may be quite accurate.

In recent years, organisations have become concerned with a broader range of issues of future capabilities. For example, organisations have begun to estimate their future productivity levels. Towards this end, bench marking is a technique that has become popular. Bench marking involves comprising an organisations human resource practices and programmes to other organisations. Although bench marking often focuses on an organisations competitors, best practices bench marking focuses on the programmes and policies used by outstanding organisation. For example, Federal express, leadership evaluation system, employee survey programme and total quality management efforts are frequently studied by other organisations because of their reputations.

DETERMINING FUTURE ORGANISATIONAL NEEDS

In this step, the organisation must determine what is human resource needs will be in the future. This includes the number of employees that will be needed, the types of skills that will be required. Productivity rates needed to complete successfully. There are methods for examining the future number of employees; also several procedures are there for predicting the number of employees needed in the future. This is referred to as the human resource demand two basic approaches or estimating human resource demand are qualitative and quantitative methods.

Two quantitative techniques for estimating human resource demand are ratio analysis and regression analysis. Ratio analysis involves comparing the number of employees to some index of work load. If your organisation was planning its future training and development (T&D) staffing demand in five years, you could estimate the number of employees likely to be employed by the company in five years. And then use this ratio to determine the number of T&D employees needed in given years. For example, if your company was expecting to have 5,000 employees in five years, this ratio would suggest that around 21 T&D employees would be needed. Regression analysis relies on factors or predictors that determine the demand for employees, such as revenues, degree of automation, and so forth. Information on these predictors from past years, as well as the number of workers employees in each of these years is used to produce an equation or formula. The organisation can then enter expected figures for the predictors, such as revenues and degree of automation into the formula to obtain an estimated number of employees needed in future years.

Regression analysis is more sophisticated than ratio analysis and should lead to more accurate predictions of employee demand. Although both procedures are widely used, they have their weaknesses. A major weakness is the factors that were related to workforce size may not be relevant factors in future years. Turning now to qualitative tools for estimating the demand for employees, the most common tool is the bottom-up forecast where department managers make estimates of future human resource demands based on issues, such as new positions needed, positions to be eliminated or not filled, expected overtime hours to be worked by temporary, part-time or independent contractor employees and expected changes in workload by department. Like any other technique, bottom-up forecasting has its shortcomings. For instance, line managers may overestimate the demand in order to ensure that they dont find themselves understaffed.CASE STUDY

HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING OF WIPRO

AN OVERVIEW:

Wipro started as a vegetable oil company in 1947 from an old mill founded by Azim Premji's father. When his father died in 1966, Azim, a graduate in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, took on the leadership of the company at the age 21. He repositioned it and transformed Wipro (Western India Vegetable Products Ltd) into a consumer goods company that produced hydrogenated cooking oils/fat company, laundry soap, wax and tin containers and later set up Wipro Fluid Power to manufacture hydraulic and pneumatic cylinders in 1975. At that time, it was valued at $2 million.

In 1977, when IBM was asked to leave India, Wipro entered the information technology sector. In 1979, Wipro began developing its own computers and in 1981, started selling the finished product. This was the first in a string of products that would make Wipro one of India's first computer makers. The company licensed technology from Sentinel Computers in the United States and began building India's first mini-computers. Wipro hired managers who were computer savvy, and strong on business experience.

In 1980 Wipro moved in software development and started developing customized software packages for their hardware customers. This expanded their IT business and subsequently invented the first Indian 8086 chip. Since 1992, Wipro began to grow its roots off shore in United States and by 2000 Wipro Ltd ADRs were listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

With over 25 years in the Information Technology business, Wipro Technologies is the largest outsourced R & D Services provider and one of the pioneers in the remote delivery of IT services. Being a global provider of consulting, IT Services, outsourced R&D, infrastructure outsourcing and business process services, we deliver technology-driven business solutions that meet the strategic objectives of our Global 2000 customers. Wipro today employs 96,000 people in over 50 countries. A career at Wipro means to learn and grow continuously, opportunities to work on the latest technologies alongside the finest minds in the industry, competitive salaries, stock options and excellent benefits.HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING:

Human resources planning are an important component of securing future operations. For sustainability, plans must be made to ensure that adequate resources are available and trained for all levels of an organization. Although police organizations are stretched to meet current service requirements, it is important that they also spend time to create plans to ensure there will be officers to fill future positions. These plans must be prepared well in advance, with targets set for the short, mid and long term.

Not only must adequate resourcing be considered for the bulk of the workforce but special consideration must be given for the leadership of each organization. This requires developing specialized succession plans for identifying and grooming potential future leaders. The leader candidates must receive management, leadership, and all relevant knowledge and skills training. Plans should also be created to leverage the knowledge of those leaving todays leadership roles so that future leaders are fully informed. Securing future policing operations requires careful planning and a clear implementation strategy.

When I look at where we have come, what gives me tremendous satisfaction is not so much the success, but the fact that we achieved this success without compromising on the value we defined for ourselves. Values combined with a powerful vision can turbo-charge a company to scale new heights and make it succeed beyond ones wildest expectations. Azim Premji

The basic purpose of having a manpower plan is to have accurate estimate of required manpower with matching skills requirements. The main objectives are:

Forecast manpower requirements.

Cope with changes environment, economic, organizational.

Use existing manpower productively.

Promote employees in a systematic way. MODEL OF HRP SYSTEM

A. Human Resource Policies :- Manpower Planning Recruitment & Selection Training & Development Performance Appraisal Promotion, Transfer, & Demotion Administration Section Grievance Handling Kaizen suggestion Welfare ActivitiesRECRUITMENT:

Recruitment refers to the process of screening, and selecting qualified people for a job at an organization or firm, or for a vacancy in a volunteer-based organization or community group. While generalist managers or administrators can undertake some components of the recruitment process, mid- and large-size organizations and companies often retain professional recruiters or outsource some of the process to recruitment agencies. External recruitment is the process of attracting and selecting employees from outside the organization.A. Internal Sources :- Promotions and Transfer

Job postings

Employee Referrals

B. External Sources :- Advertisement

Employment Agencies

On campus Recruitment

Employment exchanges

Education and training institute WIPRO Recruitment Process :-WIPRO recruitment process consists of three rounds.

Round 1 : Written test

1. Verbal: This section will have 15 questions related to synonyms, antonyms, Analogies, SC, Prepositions and reading comprehension.

2. Aptitude: This sections will have 15 questions related to aptitude topics like Time & Work, Time & Distance, Blood Relations, Series Completion, Puzzles, Calendars, Clocks, Percentages, Ratio proportions, Ages, Pipes and Cisterns etc.

3. Technical: This section will have 20 questions related to basic technical concepts from C, C++, Java, Linux, UNIX, DBMS, SQL, Programming fundamentals, Hardware, Software Engineering, Micro Processors etc. Candidates are informed to brush up their technical skills which were covered in their regular academic curriculum.

Round 2: Technical Interview

This is a major elimination round. Candidates should be thorough with their basic technical skills to clear this round. Candidates are here by informed to be prepared with their core subjects.

Round 3: HR Interview

Candidates can expect basic HR interview questions like Tell me about yourself, Why should I hire you, Why only WIPRO, What is SIX sigma level. Candidates will be tested in their communication and vocabulary during technical and HR interviews.

Round 4: Placement

Upon Joining, the incumbent shall be given an employee code number by Manager(HR) and he shall fill up the joining forms and shall submit the same to the Manager(HR) for further course of action. Wipro recruit 40% employees from campus recruitment. Another popular source for Wipros Recruitment is the Online Placement through NSR (National Skill Registry).HUMAN RESOURCES INFORMATION SYSTEMS (HRIS) HRIS Objectives

Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) is an integration of HRM and Information Systems (IS). HRIS or Human resource Information system helps HR managers perform HR functions in a more effective and systematic way using technology. It is the system used to acquire, store, manipulate, analyze, retrieve, and distribute pertinent information regarding an organization's human resources. A human resource information system (HRIS) is a system used to acquire, store, manipulate, analyze, retrieve, and distribute pertinent information about an organization's human resources.

IMPACT OF HRP

HRP itself is a process of determining human resources needs in the future and of monitoring responses to these needs. HRP links a companys business plans and broad objectives with the specific programmes and other HRM activities. Organisations need to learn to forecast HR needs more effectively. More analytic techniques, driven by strategic planning are vital. Organisations must learn to manage employee performance more effectively. Even though performance measurement is complex and ill-defined, yet it is critical to effective management for this very reason. Organisations must also learn to manage careers of their employees more effectively.

Impact of Technology on HRP

In order to cope with the competition, organisations have to ensure on:

a) Producing goods and services more efficiently and economically.

b) Innovating product and processes so as to gain competitive advantages.

Advances in computer technology have offered organisations new opportunities to enhance and streamline their processes. Computer aided design (CAD), and computer aided manufacturing (CAM) reduce human resource involvement and shrink the cycle time. Advances in information technology has reduced efforts required in impacting, retrieval, processing, and sharing of data. Accurate and timely information can be made available to different levels of management for decision making. All these changes in technology result in a change in occupational and skill profile of manpower. Different manufacturing technologies have different skills required to design, operate and maintain the machines and equipment. Also, the same technology can have a different impact on different categories of workers and industries. The actual skill implications of technology change will depend on:

a) Management policy for deployment of manpower

b) Attitudes bargaining strength of the union

c) Ability of manpower to adjust and adopt to the new technology.

According to ILO, introduction of new technology can affect other aspects of working like workers responsibilities, skill requirements, job-content, physical and mental work load, career prospects and communication and social relationships at workplace.

Skills and knowledge are required for operating and maintaining new technology and participating in innovative processes. The manual content of skill tends to decrease for skilled workers and office staff but requirements for mathematical skills and ability to plan and anticipate future situations tend to increase. The methods, systems and style of management also need changes in line with high skill demands on personnel. A more democratic and decentralized management style is necessary to motivate highly educated employees.

The present education system of our country is inadequate to match the technological needs. The syllabus is outdated; teachers are not fully acquainted with the new technology and there is a lack of infrastructure facilities. Therefore, companies will have to provide appropriate training to add these skills. Manpower planners should keep in mind this requirement and also the requirement of retraining. There may also be a need for rationalization of the trade structure because of multi-skilling. For example, traditional and relatively conceived metal trades which date back to 1930s have been replaced by six broadly defined occupations. Lathe, mulling, grinding could be clubbed as cutting mechanics, production engineering, machine and systems.

Engineering, precision engineering and light engineering could be put as industrial mechanics. In office context, we now require persons who are computer trained and also operate other office equipment such as fax, and xeroxing machines this will also require restructuring of employees.

BARRIERS TO HRP

Planners face significant barriers while formulating an HRP. The major ones are following:

1) HR practitioners are perceived as experts in handling personnel matters, but are not experts in managing business.

2) People question the importance or making HR practices future oriented and the role assigned to HR practitioners in formulation of organisational strategies.

There are people when needed offer handsome packages of benefits to them to quit when you find them in surplus. When the task is so simple, where is the need for elaborate and time consuming planning for human resources.

3) HR information often is incompatible with other information used in strategy formulation. Strategic planning efforts have long been oriented towards financial forecasting, often to the exclusion of other types of information. Financial forecasting takes precedence over HRP.

4) Conflict may exist between short term and long term HR needs. For example, there arises a conflict between the pressure to get the work done on time and long term needs, such as preparing people for assuming greater responsibilities. Many managers are of the belief that HR needs can be met immediately because skills are available on the market as long as wages and salaries are competitive.

Therefore, long time plays are not required, short planning are only needed.

5) There is conflict between quantitative and qualitative approaches to HRP. Some people view HRP as a number game designed to track the flow of people across the department.

6) Non-involvement of operating managers renders HRP ineffective. HRP is not strictly an HR department function. Successful planning needs a co-ordinate effort on the part of operating managers and HR personnel

DATA ANALYSISIn todays competitive world, a company has to carry out human resource planning to survive the competition. Due to planning the company gets to know when and how much human resource is required. Planning helps to get the required human resource on time.In these times of great economic turbulence, the importance of human resource planning is more apparent than ever. A short-sighted lay-off, intended to temporarily reduce overhead, can result in much heavier long-term costs. Firm may one day regret letting people go when they are spending time and money to hire and train new staff. Plus, they lose profits when they lose experienced, knowledgeable employees.

In contrast, a smart human resources plan encourages your organization to keep a longer view of things and retain talent so that, once this economic upheaval has calmed down, organization will have a committed team intact.To retain employees and appoint qualified staff organasations are now more focused on human resource planning.CONCLUSION

Human Resources Planning is one of the strategies to enhance and improve work performance. This it done by proper planning & removing deficiencies and enabling hindrance free working in the organistaion.Human resources planning include analysis of level of skill, current and expected vacancies and also provide plans to take care of the vacancies through training, development and recruiting and hiring new people.

The challenging function of Human resources demands matching future organizational requirement with the supply of right kind of staff. This imperatively necessitate that Human Resource needs to be focused in meeting the current as well as the future requirement of the organization.

ANNEXTUREQUESTIONNAIRE

Q1. Is human resource planning carried out in your company? Yes

No

Q2.Why do u think human resource planning important in an organisation?

Q3.How many different posts are to be filled in the organization in ayear? More than 10

Between 5 and 10

Below 5

Q4. Do you want to keeptraining modules in the planning?

Yes

No

Q5. If answer to question no. 4is yes, then what would be thenature of training?

Technical

Training Soft-skills training

Both

Q6. To how much extent doyou want cost management elements to be included in theHR needs plans?

Little

Moderate

High Q7. Do you recommend promotions based on performance?Always

Most often

Sometimes

Never

Q8.Which of the following areas HR andorganization need to work on?Employee benefitsEmployee retentionEmployee trainingEmployee job needsAccountability towards employeesBIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Human Resource Management VSP Rao2. Human Resource Management Practice Michael Armstrong

WEBLIOGRAPHY

1. www.wipro.com2. http://www.employment-studies.co.uk