The Art of Manpower

Planning: Aligning People with

Purpose

By- Aman Maheshwari

FPM Scholar- OB & HR
FORE School of Management, New Delhi
What is Manpower Planning?
• Manpower planning, also known as workforce planning or human resource planning, is the process of strategically
analyzing and forecasting an organization’s current and future staffing needs.
• It involves assessing the organization’s objectives, understanding its current workforce, and determining the
optimal workforce structure to achieve its goals effectively and efficiently.
• Decenzo and Robbins described manpower planning as “the process by which an organization ensures that it has
the right number and kind of people, at the right place, at the right time, capable of effectively and efficiently
completing those tasks that will help the organization achieve its overall objectives.”
Need for Manpower Planning
The need for manpower planning arises from the following requirements of a company:

• To proactively identify any shortage of surplus in the workforce to take necessary steps before any serious damage to the company’s
financial prospects.

• Ensure that all recruitment and selection programs are based on manpower planning for best results.

• To reduce labor costs from hiring excess staff or overstaffing shift schedules.

• Manpower planning can also help identify the available talent, such as skilled laborers within the workforce, to further chalk out a
development plan for such workers.

• It also supports the growth and diversification of your business, as through manpower planning, you can best utilize available
human resources.

• Identifying the skills and competencies of human resource for a particular job.

• Monitoring and controlling various HR activities, such as selection, training and performance appraisal.

• Striking a balance between the demand and supply of human resource in order to better respond to the changes in the business
environment.
Advantages of Manpower Planning

Alignment with Optimized Workforce Improved Productivity Talent Acquisition &

Cost Savings
Organizational Goals Utilization and Performance Retention

Manpower planning defines a With workforce forecasting and Proper manpower planning can Through enabling the most Organizations can set up proactive
workforce of the organization highlighting skill deficits be a source of cost savings, competent people for the critical strategies of talent acquisition and
which is well coordinated with manpower planning facilitates to hereby reducing recruitment tasks, manpower planning retention, such as planning for
the overall strategic plan and the effective functioning of the expenses, turnover ration, and assures enhanced performance lateral recruitment and succession,
thereby pulls together human organization and avoidance of increasing productivity of the of the employees that results in thus building culture of talent
resources and business wastage associated with over- invested labor through better desired performance for the integrity and reducing recruitment
objectives.. staffing or under-staffing. managing of the employees. organization in general. costs and turnover rates.
Obstacles of Manpower Planning

Under Utilization of Lack of Education and Manpower Control

Degree of Absenteeism Extent of Overtime
Manpower: Skilled Labor: and Review

The biggest obstacle in Absenteeism is quite The extent of illiteracy a. Any increase in The amount of overtime
case of manpower high and has been and the slow pace of manpower is considered paid may be due to real
planning is the fact that increasing since last few development of the at the top level of shortage of men,
the industries in years. skilled categories account management. ineffective management
general are not making for low productivity in or improper utilization of
optimum use of their employees. Low b. On the basis of manpower. Manpower
manpower and once productivity has manpower plans, control would require a
manpower planning implications for personnel budgets are careful study of overtime
begins, it encounters manpower planning. prepared. These act as statistics.
heavy odds in stepping control mechanisms to
up the utilization. . keep the manpower under
certain broadly defined
limits.
Process of Manpower Planning
Methods of Manpower Planning

1. Analyzing the current manpower inventory- Before a manager makes forecast of future manpower, the current
manpower status has to be analyzed. For this the following things have to be noted-
• Type of organization
• Number of departments
• Number and quantity of such departments
• Employees in these work units

2. Once these factors are registered by a manager, he goes for the future forecasting. After, making future manpower
forecasts- Once the factors affecting the future manpower forecasts are known, planning can be done for the future
manpower requirements in several work units.
Methods of Manpower Planning
1. The Manpower forecasting techniques commonly employed by the organizations are as follows:
a. Expert Forecasts: This includes informal decisions, formal expert surveys and Delphi technique.
b. Trend Analysis: Manpower needs can be projected through extrapolation (projecting past trends), indexation
(using base year as basis), and statistical analysis (central tendency measure).
c. Work Load Analysis: It is dependent upon the nature of work load in a department, in a branch or in a
division.
d. Work Force Analysis: Whenever production and time period has to be analyzed, due allowances have to be
made for getting net manpower requirements.
e. Other methods: Several Mathematical models, with the aid of computers are used to forecast manpower
needs, like budget and planning analysis, regression, new venture analysis.

2. Developing employment programmes- Once the current inventory is compared with future forecasts, the
employment programmes can be framed and developed accordingly, which will include recruitment, selection
procedures and placement plans .

3. Design training programmes- These will be based upon extent of diversification, expansion plans, development
programmes etc. Training programmes depend upon the extent of improvement in technology and advancement to
take place. It is also done to improve upon the skills, capabilities, knowledge of the workers
MANAGING
RECRUITMENT AND
SELECTION IN
ORGANIZATIONS
Recruitment
• Recruitment is a process of searching and attracting effective job seekers for employment.

• Recruitment of candidates is a function which takes place before the process of the selection, which helps to
create a pool of prospective employees for the organization so that the management can choose the right person
for the right job from this selected list.

• According to Edwin B. Flippo, ” Recruitment is the process of searching the candidates for employment and
stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organization”.
Recruitment Needs

• Planned. i.e. the needs arising from changes in the organization and retirement policy.
• Anticipated. i.e. these needs are those activities, which an organization can predict by analyzing trends in internal
and external environment.
• Unexpected. i.e. resignation, deaths, accidents, illness, etc. give rise to unexpected needs.
Recruitment Sources

• Every organization has the option to choose the candidates for recruitment process from two types of recruitment: internal and external sources.

• The sources which take place within the organization (like transfer of employees from one department to other, promotions, etc.) to fill a desired position are known as
internal sources of recruitment.

• Recruiting candidates from all other sources which take place outside the organization (like outsourcing agencies etc.) are known as external sources of recruitment.

Internal Sources of Recruitment External Sources of Recruitment

• Transfers. According to the need the employees are transferred within the • Press Advertisement
organization from one department to another according to their knowledge
and experience. • Educational Institutes

• Promotions. Some employees are promoted in the organization with more • Placement Agencies
benefits and greater responsibilities based on their skills and experience.
• Employment Exchanges
• Upgrading and Demotion of current employees in the organization
according to their work performance. • Contractors

• Employee Referrals

• Internships
Selection

• Selection is the process by which candidates for

employment are distinguished between those who are
suitable for the position and those who are not.

• When the process of selection is done than the

organization gets the most suitable persons who possess
the ability, qualifications and skills to perform on the
required posts for which they are selected.

• In a selection process more candidates are rejected and

less of them are selected, so it can also be called
rejection. This is the reason why selection is called a
negative process.
Difference between Recruitment and Selection

Source- Recruitment and Selection - What is recruitment and selection? ([Link])

Latest Trends in Recruitment and Selection

1. The emergence of employer branding

2. Companies increasingly relying on HR automation.
3. Data driven recruiting and HR analytics
4. Organizations are hiring for soft skills
5. Creation and maintenance of talent pools
6. AI powered head hunting advances
7. Reliance on social recruiting
8. Hiring candidate relationship manager
9. Experience of a candidate
10. The rise of proactive recruiter