As a result of economic reforms initiated in the recent past, the Ghanaian econo

Question

As a result of economic reforms initiated in the recent past, the Ghanaian economy has been globalised. The regulations and controls have been relaxed. Many more multinationals have been inclined to make their entry in Ghana. Consequently, market dynamics especially nature of competition has been drastically changed. Ghanaian organisations are finding it difficult to compete with their counterparts coming from outside. You are a manager in one of the well-established pharmaceutical company already working in Ghana for the last 20 years. To compete with multinational company you personally feel that production as well as distribution systems are to be made cost effective so that better quality of medicines can be produced and distributed at reasonable cost. For improving cost-effectives of the system you carry an opinion that your organisation is overstaffed. You are bringing this fact to the knowledge of the managing director. He is discussing this problem with you in the light of human resource planning and development. The managing director of the company is asking you the following questions.

Questions:

1. What is human resource planning?

2. What are the activities involved in human resource planning?

3. Discuss various steps involved in human resource planning?

4. How will you convince your managing director that human resource planning and development would help in making production and distribution systems cost effective?

Explanation / Answer

1) Human Resource Planning is an ongoing process that helps in optimizing the utilization of organizational resources. This also involves forecasting and predicting the human resource requirements of the organization and fulfilling those requirements with the existing resources.

The main objective is to obtain a tradeoff between the employees and the jobs within the organization and estimate the shortages or surpluses. Hence, the concepts of demand and supply comes into picture.

2) The main activities involved in the Human Resource Planning would be:

a) Organizational Chart/ structure: In order to determine the staffing needs, the Chart should be designed determining the positions and hierarchies. This also specifies the band of the employees.

b) Budget Plan: Once the Chart is prepared, the requirement is known. Accordingly, for onboarding the employees, the hiring and training costs along with the Compensation should be planned. For upskilling the current employees, the training budget is allocated.

c) Recruiting: The process of recruiting should start with the advertising, applications screening, proper JD Postings, the procedures of conducting interviews and background checks. The strategy should be developed.

d) Employee Management: The new recruitee should be aware of the organizational policies and practices. The resource should be welltrained with the help of internal training sessions, seminars and sucession planning.

3) The various steps involved in Human Resource Planning includes:

a) Analyzing the supply of current resources: This involves developing a clear understanding on current resource strength of the organization in terms of the skills, talents, qualifications, experience, age, designations, performance ratings etc. This involves a discussion with the managers of all the departments to gather the necessary outputs.

b) Calculating the demand for resources: Keeping in mind the points like attrition, retirements, promotions, relocations, resignations, abrupt dismissals the requirement should be forecasted and included in the planning phase.

c) Demand Forecast: In order to obtain the tradeoff between the future demand and the current supply, demand forecasting is used. This forecast should be aligned with the organizational goals.

d) Integrating the HR Source strategy and its implementation: After finding and reviewing the gaps, the HR department develops plans to overcome it. As a part of it, there might be policy revision, providing training and coaching, talent acquisition, communication with the employees and relocation (if needed).

4) With HR Planning and development, the current capacity of the human resources is identified and the staffing challenges are met with the changing business environment. As resources are the most valuable resources of any organization, the HRP helps the management in meeting the future demand with the appropriate supply of the resources in the right time and place. After a thourough analysis, the process of recruitment is initiated which helps in cost optimization.

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