Levels of human resource planning

Human resource planning could be at the national, ministerial, sectoral, organisational and departmental levels.

At the national level, it is important to know the pool of human resource available and the one that will be required in the distant future because a nation cannot develop without having the right people, both in numbers and skills. The same applies to ministries, sectors, and organisations. HRP is a means to match demand and supply of the labour force. At the national level, the following approach is useful.

· Consider the annual economic sectors’ growth for the planning period e.g. 5 years,

· Review the stock of labour in the base year. Primary, secondary, colleges, universities, professionals e.g. doctors, engineers, accountants etc.

· Translate the annual economic growth in terms of labour requirement

· Consider the attrition rate due to retirement, deaths etc,

· Consider the number of people leaving schools, colleges etc. The starting point is to look at the school enrolment and transition to different universities and training in other institutions and years of graduation,

· Monitor the unemployment rate,

· Fill the gap between demand and supply by proposing action to be taken at certain times in the planning stage. Planning propositions may include emphasis on training in certain disciplines; controlling attrition rate, which may be a result of HIV Aids through national campaigns, or altering the retirement age.

HRP at specific ministries or sectors will by and large use the above approaches but under the influence of both internal and external factors influencing the ministry or sector. For example, if it is planning for the agricultural sector, although having a rough picture of the macro and micro economic environment is important, focus should be more on agriculture and other closely related sectors.

Assessing the status of human resource planning

You might be employed in a ministry, local authority; NGO, private organisation etc. and you would like to know how well you are doing in terms of HRP. The following instruments, outlined in Table 4.1, may be used as a checklist.

Table ;  Human resource planning barometer

The checklist can be as long as desirable. If most of the questions do not have genuine and specific answers and perhaps ending up in the ‘do not know’ category, extra effort on HRP agenda is needed. It is important that the indicators or measurements are quantitative as much as possible in order to be able to more precisely assess the outcome of the planning intervention. However, this does not put aside possibilities of having good qualitative indicators or measurements. In any case, planning is about decision making with limited information. This advises some kind of caution for managers so that they calculate the risks involved in such decisions, including motivation or demotivation of some members of staff who may not be happy with unfavourable decisions.

Practical issues in human resource planning

Human Resource Plans will cover policy issues, human resource areas, objectives and targets as shown in Table 4.2. All the elements shown in the table, and many others that may be necessary, should be implemented with flexibility. A mechanism should be put in place to provide feedback on the status and modifications on the plans on weekly or quarterly basis.

Table;  Human resource planning matrix

Sources of human resource planning data

What type of information is necessary for human resource planning and where do you get it? The data for human resource planning is obtained from different sources but mainly from the organisation and individuals. The data from the organisation includes, vision, mission, strategies, objectives, activities, resources and the time scale of the strategic plan. The individual employee data covers, the name, date of birth, permanent address, gender, marital status, academic qualifications, professional qualifications, training, job location and the history of their career development as well as current status. Other useful data will include reward packages, terms of service, and working environment. Baseline data on these areas will be useful not only in forecasting demand and supply but also in supporting specific decisions to be made and strategies to be adopted in the implementation of the human resource plan.

Human resource planning and budgeting

If human resource planning is to be effective, an extensive exchange of information will be needed between line management, personnel specialists, financial managers and senior managers. Systems and procedures have to be established to ensure that this happens and to encourage the cyclical exchange of information on which sound staffing decisions can be based.

Underlying the process of information exchange is the need to ensure that decisions affecting human resources fully take into account the resources available in the organisation, as laid out in the budget. There is a presumption that human resource planning is only likely to be effective if budgetary guidelines and constraints are incorporated in the plans. To understand how this integration is to be achieved, it is necessary to look at the human resource demand forecasts within the organisation.

Decentralised human resource demand forecasting

‘The bottom up’ approach to demand forecasting is fully aligned to decentralised decision making in the organisation, which is what management theorists say is so important in establishing commitment and motivation on the part of the managers (Robins 1992). The essence of the approach is that once organisational goals have been translated into unit objectives, the managers in charge of those units are left to determine those personnel requirements themselves. The strength of this approach is that managers are best placed to know the current working practices, technology used and performance levels that can be achieved, and therefore forecast demand. The next stage in the ‘bottom up’ approach in human resource planning is for the entire organisation to be involved in the whole process. There is a distinct possibility that the level of staff requirement, as determined by managers throughout the organisation, is to be aggregated into one set of data. However, there is a distinct possibility that when integration happens, given the absence of certain preconditions for the level of staff requirement, the organisation risks having an unaffordable excess of human resources. The following weaknesses on the part of managers contribute to this situation:

· Human resource assessment based on personal preferences rather than job requirements.

· Entrenchment of the existing work practices and procedures instead of looking for better ways of improving productivity.

· Difficulties in assessing the performance of administrative staff.

· The tendency to overstate staff requirements for contingency purposes.