Problems/ Barriers to HRP (Human Resource Planning)

Problems/ Barriers to HRP (Human Resource Planning)

Human resource planning is as important is not so easy to make. The planners face various problems while formulating human resource plans. The major ones are discussed as follows:

1. People perceive that people are available in abundance in our labor surplus economy. Then, why to spend time and money in forecasting human resources? Surprisingly, this perception about human resource planning is also held by the top management.
2. Another problem in human resource planning is that the demand for and supply of human resources is not cent percent accurate. Experience suggests that longer the time horizon for forecasting human resource requirements, greater is the possibility of inaccuracy in estimates of human resource needs.
3. Various types of uncertainties like labour turnover, absenteeism, seasonal employment, market fluctuations and changes in technology render human resource planning ineffective. The reason being these uncertainties makes human resource forecast mere a guess far from reality.
4. Sometimes human resource planning suffers from a conflict between quantitative and qualitative approaches used for it. Some people view human resource planning as a mere numbers game to track the flow of people across the departments and in and out of the organization. Conversely, others take a qualitative approach focusing on the quality of human resources like career planning development, skill, morale etc.
5. Generally, human resource personnel are perceived as experts in handling personnel matters. But, they are not experts more than often. Hence, human resource requirements estimated by such people are not realistic ones. The organizational plans based on such estimates are endangered to be flopped.
6. As human resource planning is based on data relating to human resources, the same is not maintained in a proper manner in some of the industrial organizations. Then, in the absence of reliable data, it becomes difficult to develop effective human resource plans.

In sum and substance, problems in human resource planning arise both from inherent limitations of forecasting, on the one hand, and from weaknesses of human that do it, on the other. But, both can be overcome.

 

How to Make HRP Effective?

Following are some of the steps that may improve the effectiveness of human resources planning.

1. Human resource plans must be viewed as an integral part of corporate planning. So to say, human resource plans should be tailored with the objectives, strategies and overall environment of the particular organization.
2. The support and commitment of the top management be ensured before starting the process of human resource planning.
3. Personnel records must be complete, up-to-date and readily available to ensure an adequate and strong data-base. Data-base serves as backbone for human resource planning.
4. The time horizon of the human resource plan should be appropriate to accommodate the changing needs and circumstances of the particular organization.
5. Both quantitative and qualitative aspects of human resource plans should be stressed in a balanced manger in order to avoid conflicts between the two.

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You may also like the following topics:

• Meaning and Concept of Human Resource Planning (HRP)
• Techniques of Determining Human Resource Requirement for an Organization
• Problems / Barriers to Human Resource Planning (HRP)
• Approaches to Human Resource Planning (HRP)
• Requirement for Effective Human Resource Planning (HRP)
• Determining Human Resource Requirement
• Reasons for Preparing Human Resource Plan
• Human Resource Management in System Perspective
• Concept of Human Resource Development (HRD)
• Human Resource Management System in an Organization
• Concept and Factors for Development of Human Resource Management (HRM)

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Human Resource Planning

Human Resource Planning

Approaches to Human Resources Planning
Human resource planning involves estimating the size and composition of the future force. It is predetermining future human resource needs and choosing action to satisfy those needs.

The approaches to human resources planning can be
1. Quantitative Approach (i.e. top down Approach): This approach is management driven. It views human resource planning as a numbers game designed to track the flow of people across departments. The foundations of this approach are

1. Human resource management information system (computerized, if possible) 
2. Demand forecasting techniques, especially statistical and mathematical techniques consisting of tools such as;
1. Trend analysis
2. Mathematical models
3. Econometric models
4. Marker analysis, etc.
3. Work study Techniques to lay down work standards

The focus of this approach is to forecast human resource shortages and surpluses. The aim is to reconcile supply and demand of human resources.

2. Qualitative Approach (i.e. Bottom up Approach): This approach is employee driven and focuses on individual employee concerns such as promotion, performance evaluation, career development, etc. Specific highlight can be

• Employee development and training
• Compensation and incentive schemes
• Employee motivational techniques to increase productivity.
• Promotion of employee
• Career planning and development of employees.
• Protection of special focus groups as such women, disadvantages person etc. Managerial judgment and expert forecasts serve as important techniques for forecasting human resource demand.

3. Mixed Approach to HRP: This approach combines both the quantitative and qualitative approaches for the purposes of human resource planning. Efforts are made to strike a balance between both the approaches. They both complement each other.

Relationship of HRP to Strategic Planning

Business organizations prepares plan to reach its objectives. Plan is of short middle and long term. Short-term plan can be considered as tactical plan and long-term plan is strategic plan. Strategic plan includes corporate philosophy strength and policy to achieve organizational goal. Medium-term planning is operational planning. It is concerned with the policy of how efficiently is to operate the organization smoothly. Strategic planning is a systematic process to analyze the opportunities and threats in the environment, assess organization’s strengths and weakness, and identify opportunities of competitive advantage in a long-term perspective.

Every planning is implemented through human resources. Human resources planning are done to support the business planning. So, all the HRP should be linked with business plan. In other word, it can be said that HRP is nothing but the part of business planning. Here HRP are highlighted as all the plans are implemented through HR. Human resource plan cannot be developed as a separate or parallel activity from corporate plan. It should be based on the overall strategies and objectives of the organization. The emerging thinking is that human resource plan should be a partner in the formulation of the corporate strategic plan. Implication of human resources should be considered in the formulation stage of the corporate plan. Human resource should develop a strategic relationship in the development of the corporate strategic plan. HRM should also get everybody in the organization involved in implementing the strategic plan effectively.