manpower planning assignment

7/28/2019 Manpower Planning Assignment

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An organisation set on the growth path needs competent people to achieve itsobjectives. And finding the right human resources is not an easy task. One needseducated, skilled manpower for sales, product management, research anddevelopment, production, etc.

Manpower planning is not limited to hiring and retaining talent, but anticipatingfuture manpower needs of an organisation. In a dynamic business scenario,manpower planning is critical to organisational growth and stability. It is integralto recruiting, retaining, retraining and redeployment of talent. Linked to businessneeds of the organisation, the process is much more complicated than it seems,primarily because it also involves developing skills and competencies of existingemployees to meet market demands which can change with time.

Concept of Manpower planning

o Process by which Management determines how the management

should move from its current manpower to its desired manpowerutilization

o Described as formal planning in emphasizing the following:

Establishment and recognition of future job requirements

Scanning the organization thru systematic manpower audit

Assured supplies of qualified participants

Development of available manpower

Effective utilization of current and prospective workforcemembers

Importance of manpower planning

Understaffing loses the business economies of scale and specialisation, orders,customers and profits.Overstaffing is wasteful and expensive, if sustained, and it is costly to eliminatebecause of modern legislation in respect of redundancy payments, consultation,and minimum period of notice etc. very importantly, overstaffing reduces thecompetitive efficiency of the business.

The basic factors determining future staffing are:a. Sales and production forecasts

b. The effects of technological change on task needsc. Variation in the efficiency, productivity, flexibility of labour as a result oftraining, work study, organisational change, new motivations etc.,d. Changes in employment practices, use of subcontractors etc.,e. Variations due to new legislations e.g., payroll taxes or their abolition, newhealth and safety requirementsf. Changes in government policies like investment incentives, trade grants etc.


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What should emerge from this blue sky gazing is a thought out and logicalstaffing demand schedule for varying dates in the future which can then be

compared with the crude supply schedules. The comparisons will then indicatewhat steps must be taken to achieve a balance. That in turn, will involve thefurther planning of such recruitment, training, retraining, labour reductions-earlyretirement or redundancy or changes in workforce utilisation as will bring supplyand demand into equilibrium.

Manpower planningOperations Research can assist the HR manager to identify the current andfuture effect of aging and diminishing population growth. Changes in companystrategy can be analysed as well, enabling the HR manager to set its recruitmentstrategy in support of the company goals. As in any other OR project, the first

step is to analyse the current situation, identify what the current age distributionis, what are the company goals in terms of size and capabilities of the requiredworkforce. This will give insight in the current impact of aging. Using scenarioanalysis, company growth scenarios can be identified together with themanagement of the company. This will give insight in the size and capabilities ofthe required future workforce.

Planning staff levels requires that an assessment of present and future needs ofthe organisation be compared with present resources and future predictedresources. Appropriate steps then be planned to bring demand and supply intobalance. Thus the first step is to take a satellite picture of the existing workforce

profile and then to adjust this for years ahead by amendments for normalturnover, planned staff movements, retirements etc., in line with the businessplan for the corresponding time frames. The workforce profile is to be studiedbased on numbers, skills, ages, flexibility, gender experience, forecastingcapabilities, character, potential etc.

A buffer/pipeline of suitable candidates is necessary to prevent any last minutesurprises. "The recruitment team today works along with business line managersto plan ahead of their manpower needs.

The best strategy to formulate a backup plan includes grooming fresh talent andcreating a second line at all functions. Building second line personnel in theorganisation, coupled with robust systems, will ensure that company gets acompetitive edge over other market players.

Working closely with the business groups and keeping an active talent inventoryand effective churning the internal employee database (from skills availability andreferencing programme perspective.) is the key. Identifying the skill matrix of the


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internal talent pool and putting to good use during business exigency optimisesthe manpower utilisation at any given point.

Steps involved in Manpower planning process

Step1 : Job Analysis / job design - Mgt must define what work to be performed ,how tasks to be carried out and allocated into manageable work units (jobs)Step 2 : Job description & job specification - refers to incumbent where a jobspecification with regard to qualification and experience needed to perform a jobStep 3 : Forecasting procedures: Corporate planner has to forecast the numberof people needed for a particular job can be done by forecasting the internalsupply and external supply of the people who can perform the job

Six methods can be used to forecast the future human resource needsviz :

Planning for the statusquo

Thumb rules Unit forecasting

The Delphi Method

Scenarios

Computer Simulation

Step 4 : Internal Supply of Manpower

Many companies are or will be facing the consequences of aging and diminishingpopulation growth. These trends will lower the available workforce over the nextyears; even with stable workforce requirements it will become harder and harderto keep the available workforce at the required level.
http://bp2.blogger.com/_ZFyQSxO4f1s/R-eQ153aShI/AAAAAAAAABQ/fuLJj9zh3FY/s1600-h/Aging.jpg


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As can be seen from the above figure, the available workforce within thecompany will diminish over time because of aging, increasing the gap betweenthe required and available workforce. This means that every year, even when thecompany stays at the same size, more people need to be recruited to fulfil the

workforce demand, putting the recruitment department under a lot of pressure.This pressure even increases because the available group of people to recruitfrom will decrease, because of diminishing population growth. This situation willeven worsen more because companies dont tend to be stable in terms size, alsoservice offerings will change leading to a different set of required capabilities.

Thus through these various processes the required manpower can be accuratelydetermined in companies. Manpower planning thus helps to identify suitable setsof employees.

Corporate objectives

Process flow chart Depicting forecast on Manpower Planning

Demand for Manpower

Market Demand Assess Manpower Supply Labour Market

Existing Potential

Manpower Estimate

Training Plans Promotion Success Plan Pay Productivity Plans

Periodic reviews

manpower planning assignment

Documents