Human resource planning ultimately translates the organization’s overall goals the number and types of workers needed to meet those goals. Without clear cut planning, and a direct linkage to the organization’s strategic direction, estimation of an organization’s human resource needs are reduced to mere guesswork. This means that human resource planning cannot exist in isolation. It must be linked to the organization’s overall strategy. The steps involved in linking are as follows:
1. Assessing current human resources: Assessing current human resources begins by developing a profile of organizations current employees. This is an internal analysis that includes information about the workers and the skills they currently possess. From a planning viewpoint, this input is valuable in determining what skills are currently available in the organization. The profile of the human resource inventory serves as a guide for supporting new organizational pursuits or in altering the organization’s strategic direction. This report also has value in other HRM activities, such as selection individuals for training and development, promotion, and transfers.
2. Determining the Demand for labor: Once an assessment of the organization’s current human resources situation has been made and the future direction of the organizations has been considered, a projection of future human resource needs can be developed.
3. Estimating the future supply of labor: Estimating changes in internal supply requires the HR to look at those factors that can either increase or decrease its employee base. An increase in the supply of any units’ human resources can come from a combination of four sources, new hires, contingent workers, transfers in, or individuals returning from leaves. Decreases in the internal supply can come about through retirements, dismissals, transfers out of the unit, layoffs, voluntary quits, sabbaticals, prolonged illnesses or deaths. HRM manager should consider these increases and decreases to estimate the future supply of labor.
4. Estimated Changes in future supply: there are some factors outside the organization that influence the supply of available workers. We should review these changes outside the organization to estimate changes in the future supply.
5. Matching the demand and supply of labor: The objective of human resource planning is to bring together the forecasts of future demand for workers and the supply for human resources, both current and future. The result of this effort is to. Pinpoint shortages both in number and in kind, to highlight areas where over staffing may exist.
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