PEOPLE RESOURCING

People Resourcing

People Resourcing

Introduction

Human resource planning is the responsibility of all managers. It focuses on the demand and supply of labour and involves the acquisition, development and departure of people. This is recognised as a vital HR function as the success of an organisation depends on its employees. The purpose of HR planning is to ensure that a predetermined number of persons with the correct skills are available at a specified time in the future (Khatri, 2000: 336). Thus, HR planning systematically identifies what must be done to guarantee the availability of the human resources needed by an organisation to meet its strategic business objectives.

To achieve this HR planning cannot be undertaken in isolation. It must be linked to the organisation's overall business strategy, and concentrate on the organisation's long-range human resource requirements. Cooperation between the HR function and line management is necessary for success. It allows the HR manager to anticipate and influence the future HR requirements of the organisation. Effective HR planning ensures a more effective and efficient use of human resources; more satisfied and better developed employees; more effective equal employment opportunity (EEO) and affirmative action (AA) planning; and reduced financial and legal costs (Grundy, 1997: 507).

Discussion Analysis

Effective HR planning considers both the internal and external environmental influences of an organisation, its objectives, culture, structure and HRM. This is because HR planning must reflect the environmental trends and issues that affect an organisation's management of its human resources. This includes consideration of globalisation, growth of Internet use, the economy, women in the work force, demographic changes, the casualization of the work force, employee literacy, skill shortages, acquisitions, mergers and divestures, deregulation, flexible work schedules, telecommuting, outsourcing, quality of life expectations, pollution, income tax levels and union attitudes (Castley, 1996: 15).

Changing demography of the labour market

Labour markets are in a continuous state of change not least because of long-term demographic trends shaping the composition of the labour supply. Many Western nations and other advanced economies such as Japan have ageing populations as a result of falling birth rates and lengthening life expectancy (Bordoloi & Matsuo, 2001: 169). The labour market is, therefore, increasingly composed of older workers, many working beyond retirement out of choice or compulsion, as the supply of new labour market entrants continues to diminish. In the UK, for example, the population aged over 65 grew by 31 per cent from mid-1971 to mid-2006, whilst the population aged fewer than 16 declined by 19 per cent over the same period (Office for National Statistics [ONS], 2008). This pattern is forecast to extend well into the future with the old-age dependency ratio - the number of people aged 65 and over as a proportion of the number of people aged 16-24 - predicted to rise from 23:8 in 2005 to 29:7 in 2020 (Madouros, 2006).

A further influence on labour market composition is the long-term trend of increasing female participation in the workforce. In the UK at the beginning of the twentieth century, around five million women ...