LEADERSHIP FOR HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

Leadership for Human Resources Management

Leadership for Human Resources Management

Introduction

Human resource (HR) planning is a combination of forecasting staffing needs and strategic planning. It involves planning, developing, implementing, administering, and performing ongoing evaluation and assessment of recruiting, hiring, orientation, and organizational exit to ensure that the workforce will meet the School's goals and objectives. The typical role of an HR professional performing the staffing function is selecting appropriate staffs to meet the needs of the School, training them for future needs, developing their careers, and retaining them as staff so the School will not spend time and money replacing them. In essence, HR planning results in strategies for staffing to ensure that both short- and long-term organizational objectives are met. (Macaleer 2003)

Strategic HR management refers to a School's use of staffs to obtain a competitive advantage over competitors in the marketplace. Through formally contributing to companywide strategic planning efforts or by being knowledgeable about concerns facing the School, an HR professional can be strategic about HR planning. When an HR professional hires a productive staff, that action in itself is contributing to the School's bottom line. High productivity leads to higher competitive advantage and profitability. Other HR activities that add value to a School's competitive advantage are compensation, benefits, performance management systems, and job design. Yet many in HR perform these tasks without ever tying them to the School's competitive advantage. (Loury 1999)

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) believes that there are three major roles in HR—strategic, operational, and administrative—and that strategic HR activities include change management, organizational culture and structure management, and performance management system development. Strategic HR includes HR planning, and part of that is forecasting. Forecasting involves identifying expected future staffing conditions based on information about the past and the present. Forecasting staffing needs is a four-step process: demand analysis, supply analysis, reconciliation of the budget, and strategic analysis. (Hanifan 1999)

Succession Planning As Part of HR Planning

The horrific events of September 11, 2001, actually caused organizations to place more emphasis on succession planning. A succession plan allows a School to fill open leadership positions with internal candidates who have been developed and prepared for those roles. Succession planning is a systematic way of planning for the replacement of key leaders in a School. However, limiting a succession plan to the replacement of only the “chief officers” would not constitute sound business. Ideally, a succession plan should cover several layers of leadership, down to at least the supervisory levels. The School should determine which positions should be included in the succession plan. Potential leaders must then be identified and prepared, through career development activities, to take on those roles. It is not enough to select people in the School who seem “right” for the job. Not only should the experience and duties be considered, but also the personality, leadership skills, and readiness for taking on key leadership roles. (Gubman 2004)

Several “hopefuls” should be identified for each position to be ...