HR Management
Human resources planning has three main stages - forecasting demand, analyzing the availability of human resources to meet that demand and formulating a strategy to ensure the organization acquires the resources it needs.
The first step is forecasting demand. The human resources department must determine what its HR needs are going to be going forward. They must take several things into account. One is the growth rate of the company. This will help determine the number of people that the company is going to need. The second thing that must be taken into account is the types of workers that will be needed. This will help to direct the strategy when the time comes. By doing this forecasting, the human resources department will have a strong sense of what positions will need to be filled, and by how many workers.
The second step is analyzing the availability of human resources. This step has two main parts. The first is that human resources must analyze the internal human resources. They need to know what the firm's current capabilities are, since it is always easier to deal with human resource situations internally.
This will help to identify any potential shortfalls in the firm's human resources that are going to exist. Then the human resources department needs to analyze the availability of external human resources. It needs to look at employment trends to determine how many workers are going to be available and what types of workers are going to be available. By doing these two steps, the firm will have a sense of the gap between what they expect to need and what they expect to have; and then will also have a sense of what is expected to be available in the external marketplace.
The third step is to formulate a strategy. This will encompass a wide range of tasks. The number and types of workers needed must be identified. A time frame will need to be set with respect to when these workers will be needed. Then, the firm will need to structure its wages and benefits packages in line with what they expect will be needed to attract the workers. The firm cannot find itself in a position where it cannot attract the workers it needs. If all of these steps are taken, the company will be able to meet its human resources needs.
