Human Resource Planning

• Human resource planning forecasts an organization's future supply of employees and demand and matches the two.
• The HR department contributes to organizational success through proper staffing, varying HR plans based on different strategies, proactive responses via planning, and actionable tactical plans.
• HR planning uses basic information to live-time predictive analytics.

Human Resource Plan Sophistication Levels

• No formal planning is typical in small companies, where HR activities are reactionary.
• Basic planning occurs in companies that recognize HR planning needs, engage in mixed proactive and reactionary planning, and focus on the short term (1-2 years).
• Advanced planning involves a direct link between strategy and HR planning, anticipating needs 3-5 years in advance.
• Sophisticated planning integrates senior HR professionals into the strategic process, planning for 5+ years with expertise and technology.

Workforce Planning Process Steps

• Forecast demand for resources
• Assess supply of resources
• Develop HR objectives
• Design and implement workforce systems to balance demand and supply
• Establish and conduct evaluation

Factors Driving Demand Forecasting

• Strategic plan
• Demographic impacts
• Turnover
• Legal and technological changes
• Competitors
• Budgets and revenue forecasts
• New ventures
• Organizational and job design

Techniques for Estimating Future Human Resource Needs

• Expert techniques include informal decisions, formal expert surveys, and the Delphi technique.
• Trend techniques involve extrapolation and indexation.
• Other techniques are budget/planning analysis, new-venture analysis, and simulation models.

Expert Projection Forecasts

• Informal and Instant Decisions utilizes expert forecasts of future HR needs
• Nominal Group Technique use managers to make forecasts, discuss ideas, and rank them.
• Delphi Technique surveys experts and shares summaries to converge opinions.

Trend Projection Forecasts

• Extrapolation extends past rates of change into the future.
• Indexation matches employment growth with an index, like the ratio of production employees to sales.
• Statistical Analysis uses sophisticated methods allowing for changes in the underlying causes of demand.

Other Forecasting Methods

• Budget and Planning Analysis is when organizations needing HR planning generally have detailed budgets and long-range plans.
• New Venture Analysis uses planners to estimate human resource needs via comparisons with similar operations.
• Simulation and Predictive Models are more sophisticated approaches.

HR Tools for Supply Estimation

• Internal supply indicators use human resource audits, which includes skills inventories, management inventories, and replacement charts or summaries
• Transition matrices and Markov analysis are used
• External supply indicators incorporate labor market analysis, community attitudes, and demographic trends.

HR Audits for Internal Supply Estimates

• Skills Inventories summarizes worker skills and abilities.
• Management and Leadership Inventories reports management capabilities.
• Replacement Charts lists likely replacements for each job.
• Replacement Summaries lists replacements for each job and their strengths/weaknesses.

Supply of Human Resources: External Supply Estimates

• Labour Market Analysis studies the firm's labour market to evaluate present or future availability.
• Community Attitudes affects nature of the labour market.
• Demographic Trends affects the availability of external supply.
• ESDC publishes labour force projections
• Statistics Canada publishes reports
• Canadian Occupational Projection System (COPS) is available.

Strategies for Areas with Oversupply of Human Resources

• Headcount reduction is achieved through layoffs, leaves without pay, incentives for voluntary separation, and termination.
• Attrition is achieved through hiring freezes and early or phased retirement officers.
• Alternative Work Arrangements includes job sharing and part-time employees.

Strategies for Areas with Lack of Employees

• Hire Employees by using full-time, part-time or temporary
• Find Source Service Providers by using independent contractors, third parties, outsourcing and crowdsourcing
• Develop Employees Internally by using replacement charts, succession planning, career development, float and transfer
• Find Existing Work Arrangements by using Overtime, flexible schedules, Flexible time and location and Flexible policies

Staffing Options For Gaps in Human Resources

• Full-time hires are where internal transfers or promotions are not feasible, resulting in additional fixed costs.
• Part-time workers are a popular strategy for meeting HR needs.

Source Service Providers

• Independent contractors are freelancers or self-employed individuals.
• Consultants provide expert advice and counsel in a particular area.
• Outsourcing contracts tasks to outside agencies or persons.
• Crowdsourcing uses an undefined network of people via an open call.
• Co-sourcing uses an external team to support and work with an internal team.

Strategies to Develop Employees

• Promotions move an employee to a job with higher pay/responsibility/organizational level.
• Succession and career plans are utilized.
• Training and development are provided.

Strategies for Creating Flexible Work Arrangements

• Overtime involves working beyond normal hours.
• Flexible retirement targets employees near retirement to extend contributions.
• Float and transfer moves an employee to another job relatively equal in pay/responsibility/level.

Final Step Program Measurement and Evalution

• The planning process evaluates workforce planning activities against organizational goals.
• Improvement should be measured year over year.
• Examines if vacancies in key roles being reduced, and whether internal or external recruits were achieved

Human Resource Information Systems

• A Human Resource Information System is used to collect, record, store, analyse, and retrieve data concerning an organization's human resources.
• The stakeholders who use the information from an HRIS are HR professionals, managers, and employees.

Key Considerations for HRIS Functions

• Size
• Information that needs to be captured
• Volume of information transmitted
• Firm's objectives
• Technical capabilities
• Reporting capabilities

Essential HRIS functions

• Must determine who should have access and who should have the right to change input data to maintain considerations for privacy
• Must have high level security precautions to prevent unauthorized disclosure of information and viruses, etc.

Ways HRIS can be an Important Tool for Strategic HRM

• Increased efficiency via enhanced service delivery
• Increased effectiveness by helping stakeholders make better decisions
• Increased contribution to organizational sustainability through talent management
• Increased visibility with enhanced HR competencies

Human Resource Accounting

• Human Resource Accounting (HRA) measures the present cost and value of human resources as well as their future worth to the organization.