Lesson-13 Staffing - Introduction To Human Resource Management, Planning and Planning Process
Lesson-13 Staffing - Introduction To Human Resource Management, Planning and Planning Process
Lesson-13 Staffing - Introduction To Human Resource Management, Planning and Planning Process
Learning Objectives
Human Resource
Once when what was the secret of success of Sony Corporation its founder Mr. Akio
Mortia remarked that there is no ‘magic’ in the success of Japanese companies in general
and Sony in particular. The secret of their success was simply the way they treat their
employees. Under Mortia, Sony was built on the premise that employees were the most
valuable part of the company. It is the people who are its permanent associates and it is
they who serve the organization with their work, talent, creativity and drive.
The concept of HR emerged in the mid 1980s against the background of the works of
famous writers on management, like Pascale and Athos (1981) and Peters and Waterman
(1982), who produced lists of the attributes that they claimed characterized successful
companies.
The American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) has developed different
functions of HRM leading to quality of work life, productivity and readiness for change.
The different functions are as follows:
Fomburn et al in 1984 introduced the HRM concept consisting of four generic processes
or functions. These are:
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3. Rewards-- It should reward short as well as long-term achievements.
4. Development-- Developing high quality employees.
Rewards
Development
Another name for managerial function of human resource management is staffing. The
managerial function of staffing is defined as filling, and keeping filled, positions in the
organization structure. This includes identifying work-force requirements, inventorying
the people available and recruiting, selecting, placing, promoting, appraising, planning
the careers of, compensating and training or otherwise developing both candidates and
current jobholders to accomplish their tasks effectively and efficiently. In other words,
human resource management encompasses those activities designed to provide, motivate
and coordinate the human resources of an organization.
There is a saying that the company he keeps knows a man and similarly the people it is
comprised of know an organization. Without competent people, organizations will either
pursue inappropriate goals or find it difficult to achieve the desired goals. Human
dynamics play an important role in surmounting obstacles, defusing complex situations
and achieving organizational goals. It is because of this reason that some organizations
succeed in spite of major obstacles, environmental changes and challenges, while others
crumble rather quickly under external pressures.
Corporate mission or philosophy and strategic plan give birth to culture in organizations.
Human resource planning defines the balance of demand and supply of human resources
in the organization, training and development play an important role in instilling the
culture while goal setting and appraisals make the culture performance oriented and
enable it to operate with predictability, reward management reinforces the culture and
succession planning helps in maintaining the culture. Earlier, productivity was the focus
but now retention of human resource is considered to be equally important.
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Planning and Planning Process
Human Resource Planning (HRP) is not merely a piece of the personnel staff function;
but is a management process. Effective human resource planning is a process of
analyzing an organization’s human resource needs under changing conditions and
developing the activities necessary to satisfy these needs. It is essentially a two-step
process as shown in figure 11-2 below.
Need Forecasting
Forecast of HR needs
• Immediate and long-term needs
• External hiring needs
• Reductions and reallocations
• Improved utilization and development
Program Planning
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-Responsibilities -Promotion and transfer
-Standards -Training and development
-Quality of work life -Termination/retirement
Companies commonly prepare annual forecasts of staffing needs as a base for external
recruitment, promotions and annual training program planning. But this one-year
planning horizon fails to consider long-range business plans and needs, such as new
facilities, new products, retrenchments and expansion. Effective human resource planning
involves long-range career development and long range planning for utilization of human
resources in an organization.
The role of human resource planning is to incorporate the planning and control of human
resources into the corporate level plans so that all resources are used together in the best
possible combination.
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addition, the danger of the company’s plans failing due to not having the right people in
the right place at the right time is also obviated.
Process-- HRP has been defined the strategy for acquisition, utilization, improvement and
preservation of an organization’s manpower. Proper approach to manpower utilization,
training and development are essential for the success of a manpower plan is as is the
balancing of the supply and demand of manpower.
The present education system of our country is inadequate to match the technological
needs. Companies will, therefore, have to add these skills through training at appropriate
intervals.