Workforce Planning

Introduction

Human Resource Management, or HRM for short, is one of the most important factors in running a prosperous company, though it isn’t always handled with the time and focus that it deserves. To completely understand what HRM is and its influence on the success or failure of a business, we first must know what it means.

The function of Human Resource Management is to recruit, develop and utilise the staff within an enterprise in the manner in which is most suitable to accomplishing the aims and objectives of the enterprise.

This essentially translates to “using people in the business in the best way possible” although that would be an over-simplified assertion that does not reflect the real nature and scope of HRM. HRM describes all of the methods and processes that are involved in ensuring that all members of staff in a company are pulling in the same direction, and more significantly, in the right direction.

At its center, HRM combines three primary elements that are fundamental to the productive output of the staff. These factors include motivation, management and leadership, and organisational structures. As a result, HRM can be employed on all levels of management in your organisation, not just the shop floor staff, and it could even be used to alter the structure of those levels of management as well. It is a wide-ranging subject that is explored in more detail in this article.

Why is it Necessary?

Quite simply, businesses don’t operate without employees. As such, some level of human resource management is necessary for any organisation to operate at all, let alone in an effective and profitable manner. Even if you don’t appreciate exactly how HRM affects the every day working of your business you will certainly be employing some sort of HRM in order to keep trading.

Human Resource Management has an effect on every level of your corporate activities with various degrees of visibility. The most evident HRM tasks involve the hiring and firing of employees as well as financial systems such as payroll. It may also impact on motivation and communication inside your company, which are much more intangible variables but are critical nonetheless. Bad HRM practice in these less visible domains can have a negative impact on your organisation but go undetected for long intervals.

It also goes without saying that each organisation is unique and will have a unique set of challenges to face and opportunities to take advantage of. HRM can act as a flexible tool that translates workforce potential into financial gains and can adapt to fully utilise the strengths of your company. Without it, your competitors may well be afforded the chance to prosper where you missed out.

HRM is a general business approach and could be employed on firms that organise the setting up a company and any other sort of business as well.

Impact on Business

Whilst this all appears very interesting and significant, how does it actually impact on the daily operations of your business, and more importantly, how will it help to enhance the performance and success of your company?

Recruitment & Training

This is probably the area of a business that is most affiliated with human resources – recruitment. Nearly every business in the world, and especially companies that are growing, need to recruit people to work for them. Either existing employees have left, or new possibilities have arisen which mean there are roles that have to be filled. HRM can make sure your recruitment process gets the right people into the right roles at an affordable price.

It’s also important to keep your staff training procedures up-to-date to make sure that your workforce is fully capable of doing the job they are there to do. Whether it is a new piece of legislation or a new piece of technology that alters the market, there is an on-going requirement to keep your organisation up-to-date and prepared to make use of any opportunity. There is an expression that states that “if you are not moving forward you are going backwards” which can be applied to business.

You may also discover that the expensive practice of external recruitment can be averted if your organisation has adequate training facilities in place. It is much easier to train an existing worker to a higher level and then use external recruitment to fill the gap left at the lower level than it is to recruit straight to a higher level. This strategy can be used at almost every level of management within your organisation.

Employee Relations

When you have the suitable men and women working for you it is important to keep them working for you, and to make certain they are doing a decent job. This can be achieved via good employee relations. The most evident employee relations exercise is the art of motivation – a wide topic itself – but other employee relations issues can include disciplinary and grievance management. All of these things are an essential part of the overall HRM picture.

Finances

You cannot keep employees at your organisation by good motivational methods only. They’ll want to be paid a fair amount and on time. Payroll must be one of the initial systems that is created when you launch a business, but they still need to be taken care of and updated when personnel join, leave or switch pay grade. Poor management of your payroll system can quickly lead to catastrophe in terms of your workforce.

Industrial Relations

Numerous firms will have to work with trade union or other workers rights organisations which can be very forceful when protecting the interests of their members. When dealing with such bodies it is beneficial to have individuals within your company who can communicate comfortably with them whilst keeping the interests of your own organisation in mind at the same time.

Regardless of the market they trade in, anytime a offshore bvi looks to expand they must use recruitment to increase its existing workforce.

Workforce Planning

We have seen the effect that human resource management can have on a business and on the whole it seems like good HRM will have a good effect on any business. As a rule, this is the case, but good HRM doesn’t just occur overnight. It should be planned according to the goals of the organisation and then carried out thoroughly.

One way to implement HRM ideas to your company is via workforce planning – a system that has the aim of making sure your workforce can complete the upcoming tasks needed for your company to be successful. It can be defined as:

Definition

Workforce planning is the method of anticipating in advance the human resource needs of any enterprise, both in terms of the quantity of employees necessary and the proper skill mix. Recruitment and training policies are designed with a long term emphasis in order to make sure that the organisation is able to operate without being limited by a lack of appropriate labour. It is a bit of a balancing act, but when done correctly can bring about many benefits.

Requirements

Evaluating your workforce demands is essential to the proper planning of your staff in the short-term and long-term future. If your business is subject to seasonal shifts in demand, such as in the tourism industry, or suffers from seasonal fluctuations in staff levels then your workforce planning needs to take these factors into consideration. Also bear in mind any upcoming retirements or times of maternity/paternity leave or you could experience a shortage of qualified personnel.

Recruitment

Whether you are recruiting externally or from inside your existing workforce you still want to find the correct person to fill the position. As part of your workforce planning you should draw up a job description that details the job that will be carried out as well as a person specification which will give an indication of the sort of person that would be a perfect fit for the job and your organisation. By mixing and prioritising the elements of these two descriptions you will be able to recognise the ideal job applicant.

Selection

The selection process can be as involved or as simple as you deem necessary. Beyond standard job selection interviews there are a number of ways you can learn about about applicants for your jobs, including aptitude tests, group interviews and even psychometric testing. These sophisticated techniques may not be relevant to all workforce planning assignments but are an option to organisations.

Training & Development

The main goal of staff training and development is to develop a better quality of worker in your organisation. Workforce planning can use training to fill upcoming gaps in the skill set of your workforce which is generally quicker and more economical than external recruitment.

Before you hire another organisation to market your company with regard to offshore incorporation assess your own staff for people with web based experience.

Workforce Motivation

It almost goes without saying that well motivated workers are going to deliver a better standard of work and have a greater quantity of output than unhappy workers. This improved working rate will inevitably lead to a rise in the profitability of a business.

Essentially, all motivational tactics can be separated into two sets that are often called the “carrot and stick” approach to motivation. The analogy refers to the two ways to make a donkey carry your belongings, either by tempting it with a carrot, or threatening it with a hit from a stick!

Whether you use the carrot strategy or the stick approach will largely depend on your own management approach, as well as the business you work in and the type of people that you employ.

Financial

The most typical financial motivators are payment schemes. You can pay workers in a number of different ways, either a fixed amount for a set service, by an hourly or daily rate, or a rate linked to production, such as a commission scheme.

Another financial motivation technique involves what are known as incentive schemes, where additional financial rewards are given out for good overall performance. This may include commission beyond a fixed salary, performance-related pay levels or even offering a share of company profits.

Non-financial

Many human resource advocates have their own thoughts about the other factors that motivate people to do the job, although these are often seen as an added bonus to a worker. It is broadly acknowledged that income is the critical motivational factor for the majority of people. If you would like to learn more about these ideas I would recommend looking up the work of Elton Mayo, Abraham Maslow and Fredrick Herzberg.

The Changing Face of HRM

As previously mentioned, HRM is a versatile application that is there to match the characteristics of your staff to the goals of your organisation. As such, it has had to keep changing to a corporate climate that is continuously changing for one reason or another.

Perhaps there is a new piece of government law that will have an effect of how your business can carry out its operations, or maybe a fresh manufacturing technology will come along that will revolutionise your industry. Either way, if you want to ensure that your staff is performing to its optimum level then your HRM system should be flexible enough to cope with an ever-changing economy.