HRM 1: Workforce Planning

• The lecture focuses on Human Resource Management (HRM) 1, specifically workforce planning
• The lecture is presented by Dr. Thorsten Eger in 2025

Learning Objectives

• Explain the strategic HRM process
• Demonstrate HR planning and apply it to an example
• Describe the process and results of job/requirements analysis
• Summarize work design concepts
• Apply the critical incidents technique correctly

Strategic Planning

• Strategy defines an organization's behavior and how it copes with its environment
• Strategic HRM creates a coherent, planned framework for employees that supports long-term goals
• Strategic planning helps management determine organizational purposes/objectives and how to achieve them
• It is an ongoing process to gain a competitive advantage and positions the organization in the external environment

Four Steps of Strategic Planning

• Determination of the organizational mission
• Assessment of the organization and its environment
• Setting specific objectives or direction
• Determination of strategies to accomplish those objectives
• The four steps can be derived from a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)

First Step: Mission Determination

• Mission should state the basic purpose and the scope of organization operations
• Vision provides a statement about the direction in which the company is headed and clarifies its strategic intent
• Strategy should include a long-term action plan designed to achieve a goal/objective, stating how business should be conducted
• Core values are beliefs and principles that the company uses as a foundation for its decisions
• A mission statement should concisely explain the company's purpose, its goals, and the products/services it offers
• Good mission statements inform the company culture and big picture strategies
• They should surprise, inspire, and transform the business by providing a clearly stated purpose
• Mission statments should guide a company to the future

Example Mission Statements

• General Mills: "We make food the world loves"
• Microsoft: "Our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more."
• Uber: "We ignite opportunity by setting the world in motion."
• Google: "To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."
• Tesla: "To accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy."
• TED: "Spread ideas."
• Spotify: "Our mission is to unlock the potential of human creativity - by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by it."

Second Step: Environmental Assessment

• External analysis determines the external threats and opportunities
• Internal analysis determines the internal strengths and weaknesses of the organization
• When assessing the environment, consider strategies that use strengths to maximize opportunities and minimize threats; also strategies to minimize weaknesses by taking advantage of new opportunities and avoid threats

Fourth Step: Strategy Setting

• Strategies should be developed to leverage company strengths and minimize weaknesses
• HR professionals should be highly involved, considering how the workforce's composition influences strategy

Levels of Strategy

• Corporate Strategy which determines in which area a company can and should be active
• Business Area Strategy which decides how competition should be handled in the individual business units
• Functional Sub-strategy which helps to implement higher-level strategies
• Strategy implementation involves changes in leadership, organizational structure, information systems, technology, and human resources

Human Resource Planning

• Strategic planning involves top management determination of organizational goals
• Human resource planning (workforce planning) is a systematic process of matching internal/external talent supply with anticipated job openings over time
• The objective is to ensure enough employees: with the required qualities who are available at the right time, in the right place and in a cost-effective manner

Human Resource Planning Process

• The process includes external and internal environmental analysis
• Strategic planning leads to human resource planning which includes forecasting human resource requirements and availability
• Those elements determine where the company has a surplus or shortage of employees

Forecasting Human Resource Requirements

• It is the process of determining the number, skill, and location of employees needed to meet organizational goals

Quantitative Requirement Forecast

• Quantitative requirement forecast determines the amount of employees to meet service volumes
• It is based on the concrete quantity of work (measured in working time)

Qualitative Requirement Forecast

• Qualitative requirement forecast records competence, knowledge, skills and behavior for staff to fulfill service volumes
• Qualitative is based on the requirement profiles and the required knowledge, skills and behavior derived from them

Quantitative Human Resources Planning

• The difference is caluclated between the expected hires in the target and the sum of actual employees and expected leaves and hires
• Techniques include zero-based forecasting, bottom-up forecasting and relationship between sales volume and number of workers

Forecasting Human Resource Availability

• Involves determining whether the firm can secure employees with necessary skills and from which sources
• If a shortange of employees is expected, innovative recruitment and compensation incentives could be offered

Surplus of Employees

• If a surplus is forecasted, alternatives like restricted hiring, reduced hours, or early retirement can be implmented.
• Downsizing could be required.
• Succession planning ensures qualified individuals are available for key managerial roles when vacancies occur, promoting smooth transitions and efficiency
• Example: Strategic workforce planning at Lufthansa Technik

Job Analysis

• Job analysis a basic HRM tool
• Job analysis systematically determines the skills, duties, and knowledge required to perform jobs

What it includes

• tasks, responsibilities, duties, staffing, training/development, performance appraisal, compensation, safety/health, employee/labor relations and legal considerations
• Job analysis is performed for new companies or with new/significantly changed jobs
• Job descriptions and job specifications can be prepared from the information gathered

Job Description

• Document provides the information regarding the essential tasks, duties, and responsibilities of a job
• Job Specification outlines minimum acceptable qualifications
• They are often combined into one document, the job or role profile

Components of a Job Profile (Role Profile)

• For Job Description: job title, location, reporting lines, purpose, main duties, responsibilities, and key interfaces
• For Job Specification: knowledge, competencies, skills, experiences, qualifications, and other characteristics
• Example: Extract from the job description of a field sales individual to highlight tasks

Job Analysis Methods:

• Questionnaires
• Observation
• Interviews
• Employee Recording
• Existing Job or Function Descriptions
• Critical Incidents Technique (CIT)
• Combination of Methods

Inventory of Tasks:

• Descriptions of the activities a specific job involves.
• Helpful to define extent, difficulty and relevance
• The individual activities can be farther classified according to different criteria

Critical Incidents Technique (CIT)

• The assumption that successful and unsuccessful employees differ in how they behave during particularly important job situations
• It deals with events that deviate form the "normal", i.e with critical events/key events
• CIT can include what characterizes situations, concrete behavior of an employee and what are the consequences of the respective behavior
• As well as asking what is especially effective or ineffective

CIT Procedures

• Collating critical incidents is required
• Assessment of collated incidents is also needed
• A checklist ist created which details behaviours critical for success and how the best and worst behaviours occur
• This criteria is used for job specification and selection procedure

Example CIT

• Critical incident involving an “administrative assistant position"
• The situation in the department was one of intense activity
• The behavior was forgetfulness and impossibility/incapability of setting priorities
• The consequence was increased time and effort from several people to see this taks through

Competency Profile

• The requirements resulting from the analysis of tasks and critical incidents gets transalted into a profile of competencies

Competencies

• An individual's capability to orchestrate/apply knowledge, skills, and abilities consistently to perform work successfully

Competency modelling

• Specifies/ defines competencies necessary for success in a group of jobs in an industry context
• Job descriptions + specifications should be translated to a competence profile that maps the four "classic" areas of competence:
• Technical, Methodical, Social and Personal Competencies
• All job profiles relate to other HRM functions