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MB18211 HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

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UNIT II – The Concept of Best Fit Employee

Importance of Human Resource Planning – Forecasting human resource requirement –
matching supply and demand – Internal and External sources. Recruitment – Selection –
induction – Socialization benefits.

Sources and Reference:

Human Resource Planning: Definition, Importance, Objectives, Process & Prerequisites

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Human resource planning aims at fulfilling the objectives of manpower requirement. It helps
to mobilize the recruited resources for the productive activities. The human resource planning
is an important process aiming to link business strategy and its operation. The importance of
human resource planning are as follows:
1. Future Manpower Needs
Human resource planning ensures that people are available to provide the continued smooth
operation of an organization. It means, human resource planning is regarded as a tool to
assure the future availability of manpower to carry on the organizational activities. It
determines the future needs of manpower in terms of number and kind.
2. Coping with Change
Human resource planning is important to cope with the change associated with the external
environmental factors. It helps assess the current human resources through HR inventory and
adapts it to changing technological, political, socio-cultural, and economic forces.
3. Recruitment of Talented Personnel
Another purpose of HR planning is to recruit and select the most capable personnel to fill
job vacancies. It determines human resource needs, assesses the available HR inventory level
and finally recruit the personnel needed to perform the job.
4. Development of Human Resources

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Human resource planning identifies the skill requirements for various levels of jobs. Then it
organizes various training and development campaigns to impart the required skill and
ability in employees to perform the task efficiently and effectively.
5. Proper Utilization of Human Resources
Human resource planning measures that the organization acquires and utilizes the manpower
effectively to achieve objectives. Human resource planning helps in assessing and recruiting
skilled human resource. It focuses on the optimum utilization of human resource to
minimize the overall cost of production.

6. Uncertainty Reduction
This is associated with reducing the impact of uncertainty which are brought by unsodden
changes in processes and procedures of human resource management in the organization.

Human Resource Planning

Human Resource Planning is a systematic process of forecasting both the prospective demand
for and supply of manpower, and employment of skills with the objectives of the
organization. It can also be termed as the method of reviewing the manpower necessities to
ensure that right kind of skills is made available to the organization.
The main purpose of HRP is to set the goals and objectives of the company. In other words, it
is to have the precise number of employees, with their skills matching the requirements of the
organization, so that the organization can move towards its goals. Chief objectives of Human
Resource Planning are as follows:
▪ Guarantee ample supply of resources, whenever there is a need for it.
▪ Make sure that the current manpower in the company is being used properly.
▪ To foresee the potential requirements of manpower at various skill levels.
▪ Evaluate excess or scarcity of resources that are available at a given point of time.
▪ Predict the impact of technological changes on the resources as well as on the kind of
jobs they do.
▪ Manage the resources that are already employed in the organization.
▪ Ensure that there is a lead time available to pick and train any supplementary human
resource.

Need for Human Resource Planning

The need of HRP may arise because of the following reasons:

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 1. In India, unemployment is a grave concern. Scarcity of manpower and that too with the
required skill sets and competence, has given rise for need of Human Resource Planning.
2. It comes handy for smooth and continuous supply of workers when a huge number of
employees is retiring, or leaving the company or maybe they are incapable of working
due to psychological or physical ailments.
3. There is a need for Human Resource Planning when there is an increase in employee
turnover, which is obvious. Some examples of this turnover are promotions, marriages,
end of contract, etc.
4. Technological changes lead to a chain of changes in the organization, right from skill
sets product methods and administration techniques. These changes lead to an overall
change in the number of employees required and with entirely different skill set. It is
here that the Human Resource Planning helps the organization deal with the necessary
changes.
5. Human Resource Planning is required to meet the requirements of diversification and
growth of a company.
6. There is a need for Human Resource Planning in downsizing the resources when there is
a shortage of manpower. Similarly, in case of excess resources, it helps in redeploying
them in other projects of the company.

Importance of Human Resource Planning

After the need for HRP, it is apt to discuss the importance of it. A few are mentioned below.
▪ It gives the company the right kind of workforce at the right time frame and in right
figures.
▪ In striking a balance between demand-for and supply-of resources, HRP helps in the
optimum usage of resources and also in reducing the labor cost.
▪ Cautiously forecasting the future helps to supervise manpower in a better way, thus
pitfalls can be avoided.
▪ It helps the organization to develop a succession plan for all its employees. In this way,
it creates a way for internal promotions.
▪ It compels the organization to evaluate the weaknesses and strengths of personnel
thereby making the management to take remedial measures.
▪ The organization as a whole is benefited when it comes to increase in productivity,
profit, skills, etc., thus giving an edge over its competitors.

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Human Resource Planning Process

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In any Human Resource Planning model there are three key elements which the management
should adhere to:
1. Forecasting recruitment needs: There are a number of ways in forecasting your
business needs, to know the exact number of employees required to run the business.
Factors to be considered are the economic situation of any given country, internal and
external factors of an organization and the demand for the products.
2. Evaluate Supply: In estimating this, there are two aspects, one is the evaluation of the
internal resources and the other is the prospective or external resources. Among the two,
external factors require extra care, these include education, unemployment rate and law
that is in existence. Evaluating these factors very closely will help the organization in
filling the right resources at the right time with the right skill set.
3. Supply and demand balance: This element of Human Resource Planning is very
important, as striking a balance between these two forces will help the organization in
understanding if there is shortage or excess of employees available in a particular group.
It also helps in understanding as to the need of full time or part time needs of the
organization.
Human Resource Planning – Introduction:
Human resources undoubtedly play the most important part in the functioning of an
organization. The term ‘resource’ or ‘human resource’ signifies potentials, abilities,
capacities, and skills, which can be developed through continuous interaction in an
organizational setting.
The interactions, interrelationships, and activities performed all contribute in some way or
other to the development of human potential. Organizational productivity, growth of
companies, and economic development are to a large extent contingent upon the effective
utilization of human capacities.
Hence, it is essential for an organization to take steps for effective utilization of these
resources. In the various stages in the growth of an organization, effective planning of human
resources plays a key role. Matching the requirements of the job with the individual is
important at all stages, including the recruitment procedures, in this endeavour.
When organizations contemplate diversification or expansion, or when employees have to be
promoted, human resource planning plays an important role. Further, the organizational
plans, goals, and strategies also require effective human resource planning.

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Human Resource Planning – Meaning:
E.W. Vetter viewed human resource planning as “a process by which an organisation should
move from its current manpower position to its desired manpower position. Through
planning, management strives to have the right number and right kind of people at the right
places at the right time, doing things which result in both the organisation and the individual
receiving maximum long-run benefit.”
According to Leon C. Megginson human resource planning is “an integrated approach to
performing the planning aspects of the personnel function in order to have a sufficient supply
of adequately developed and motivated people to perform the duties and tasks required to
meet organisational objectives and satisfy the individual needs and goals of organisational
members.”
Human resource planning may be viewed as foreseeing the human resource requirements of
an organisation and the future supply of human resources and- (i) making necessary
adjustments between these two and organisational plans; and (ii) foreseeing the possibility of
developing the supply of human resources in order to match it with requirements by
introducing necessary changes in the functions of human resource management. In this
definition, human resource means skill, knowledge, values, ability, commitment, motivation,
etc., in addition to the number/of employees.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Human resource planning (HRP) is the first step in the HRM process. HRP is 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.
HRP translates the organization’s objectives and plans into the number of workers needed to
meet those objectives. The actual HRM process starts with the estimation of the number and
kind of people required by the organization for the coming period.
HRP is also known by other names such as ‘Manpower Planning’, ‘Employment Planning’,
‘Labour Planning’, ‘Personnel Planning’, etc. HRP is a sub-system in the total organizational
planning. In other words, HRP is derived from the organizational planning just like
production planning, sales planning, material planning, etc.

Human Resource Planning – Definition:

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The organisation’s objectives and strategies for the future determine future requirement of
human resources. It only means that the number and mix of human resources are reaction to
the overall organisational strategy. If the intent is to get closer to people possessing requisite
qualifications, the organisation should act quickly.
Human Resource Planning or Manpower Planning (HRP) is the process of systematically
reviewing HR requirements to ensure that the required number of employees with the
required skills is available when they are needed. Getting the right number of qualified
people into the right job is the crux of the problem here.
In actual practice, this is not easy. Due to constant changes in labour market conditions,
qualified people possessing relevant qualifications are not readily available. The organisation
needs to go that extra mile, dig up every source of information and exploit every opportunity
that comes its way in order to identify talent.
HRP is simply not a process of matching the supply of people (existing employees and those
to be hired or searched for) with openings the organisation expects over a given timeframe. It
goes a step further in order to reach out to right kind of people at right time, spending time,
resources and energies. Without careful planning, advance thinking and prompt actions, it is
next to impossible to get competent and talented people into the organisation.
Human resource planning is the responsibility of both the line and the staff manager. The line
manager is responsible for estimating manpower requirements. For this purpose, he provides
the necessary information on the basis of the estimates of the operating levels. The staff
manager provides the supplementary information in the form of records and estimates.

Human Resource Planning – Need and Importance:

The following points highlight the need and importance of HRP in the organizations:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
I. Assessing Future Personnel Needs:
Whether it is surplus labour or labour shortage, it gives a picture of defective planning or
absence of planning in an organization. A number of organizations, especially public sector
units (PSUs) in India are facing the problem of surplus labour.
It is the result of surplus labour that the companies later on offer schemes like Voluntary
Retirement Scheme (VRS) to eliminate surplus staff. Thus, it is better to plan well about
employees in advance. Through HRP, one can ensure the employment of proper number and
type of personnel.
II. Foundation for Other HRM Functions:

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ADVERTISEMENTS:
HRP is the first step in all HRM functions. So, HRP provides the essential information
needed for the other HRM functions like recruitment, selection, training and development,
promotion, etc.
III. Coping with Change:
Changes in the business environment like competition, technology, government guidelines,
global market, etc. bring changes in the nature of the job. This means changes in the demand
of personnel, content of job, qualification and experience needed. HRP helps the organization
in adjusting to new changes.
IV. Investment Perspective:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
As a result of change in the mindset of management, investment in human resources is
viewed as a better concept in the long run success of the enterprise. Human assets can
increase in value as opposed to physical assets. Thus, HRP is considered important for the
proper planning of future employees.
V. Expansion and Diversification Plans:
During the expansion and diversification drives, more employees at various levels are
needed. Through proper HRP, an organization comes to know about the exact requirement of
personnel in future plans.
VI. Employee Turnover:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Every organization suffers from the small turnover of labour, sometime or the other. This is
high among young graduates in the private sector. This necessitates again doing manpower
planning for further recruiting and hiring.
VII. Conformity with Government Guidelines:
In order to protect the weaker sections of the society, the Indian Government has prescribed
some norms for organizations to follow. For example, reservations for SC/ST, BC, physically
handicapped, ex-servicemen, etc. in the jobs. While planning for fresh candidates, HR
manager takes into consideration all the Government guidelines.
VIII. International Expansion Strategies:
International expansion strategies of an organization depend upon HRP. Under International
Human Resource Management (IHRM), HRP becomes more challenging. An organization
may want to fill the foreign subsidiary’s key positions from its home country employees or
from host-country or from a third country. All this demands very effective HRP.

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IX. Having Highly Talented Manpower Inventory:
Due to changing business environment, jobs have become more challenging and there is an
increasing need for dynamic and ambitious employees to fill the positions. Efficient HRP is
needed for attracting and retaining well qualified, highly skilled and talented employees.

Human Resource Planning – Objectives:

The main objectives of HRP are:
(i) Proper assessment of human resources needs in future.
(ii) Anticipation of deficient or surplus manpower and taking the corrective action.
(iii) To create a highly talented workforce in the organization.
(iv) To protect the weaker sections of the society.
(v) To manage the challenges in the organization due to modernization, restructuring and re-
engineering.
(vi) To facilitate the realization of the organization’s objectives by providing right number
and types of personnel.
(vii) To reduce the costs associated with personnel by proper planning.
(viii) To determine the future skill requirements of the organization.
(ix) To plan careers for individual employee.
(x) Providing a better view of HR dimensions to top management.
(xi) Determining the training and development needs of employees.

Human Resource Planning – Organisation:

Every line manager is responsible for planning manpower of the respective department and
the top management is responsible for the planning of resources for the entire organisation.
The personnel department supplies relevant information and data to all the line managers and
helps those regarding interdepartmental transfers, promotions, demotions etc. Personnel
department also helps in using the techniques and forecasting the manpower.
Personnel department forecasts internal mobility surplus or deficit of human resources for the
entire organisation, prepares action plans regarding redeployment, redundancy, employment,
development and internal mobility and submits plans to the management at the top which
either by its own or by appointing a committee reviews departmental plans and overall plans,
make necessary adjustments and finalises the plans. Personnel department in its turn prepares
modified plans for the departments based on finalised overall plan and communicates them to
respective heads of department.

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Personnel department may co-ordinate the control activity of human resource plan and it has
to send coordinated reports to the management at the top for actual review, control and
monitor the human resource system. The management at the top may appoint a committee
consisting of heads of department and external identification of deviations, reasons thereof
and steps to be taken to correct the deviations. The committee further helps the management
in executing the programmes of corrections.

Human Resource Plan – Factors:

Several factors affect HRP. These factors can be classified into external factors and internal
factors.
External Factors:
i. Government Policies – Policies of the government like labour policy, industrial relations
policy, policy towards reserving certain jobs for different communities and sons-of the soil,
etc. affect the HRP.
ii. Level of Economic Development – Level of economic development determines the level
of HRD in the country and thereby the supply of human resources in the future in the country.
iii. Business Environment – External business environmental factors influence the volume
and mix of production and thereby the future demand for human resources.
iv. Level of Technology – Level of technology determines the kind of human resources
required.
v. International Factors – International factors like the demand for resources and supply of
human resources in various countries.
vi. Outsourcing – Availability of outsourcing facilities with required skills and knowledge of
people reduces the dependency on HRP and vice-versa.
Internal Factors:
i. Company policies and strategies – Company policies and strategies relating to expansion,
diversification, alliances, etc. determines the human resource demand in terms of quality and
quantity.
ii. Human resource policies – Human resources policies of the company regarding quality of
human resource, compensation level, quality of work-life, etc., influences human resource
plan.
iii. Job analysis – Fundamentally, human resource plan is based on job analysis. Job
description and job specification determines the kind of employees required.

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iv. Time horizons – Companies with stable competitive environment can plan for the long run
whereas the firms with unstable competitive environment can plan for only short- term range.
v. Type and quality of information – Any planning process needs qualitative and accurate
information. This is more so with human resource plan; strategic, organisational and specific
information.
vi. Company’s production operations policy – Company’s policy regarding how much to
produce and how much to buy from outside to prepare a final product influence the number
and kind of people required.
vii. Trade unions – Influence of trade unions regarding number of working hours per week,
recruitment sources, etc., affect the HRP.

Human Resource Planning at Different Levels:

Different institutions make HRP at different levels for their own purposes, of which national
level, industry level, unit level, departmental level and job level are important.
i. National level – Generally, government at the centre plan for human resources at the
national level. It forecasts the demand for and supply of human resource, for the entire nation.
ii. Sector level – Manpower requirements for a particular sector like agricultural sector,
industrial sector or tertiary sector are projected based on the government policy, projected
output/operations, etc.
iii. Industry level – Manpower needs of a particular industry like cement, textiles, chemical
are predicted taking into account the output/operational level of that particular industry.
iv. Unit level – This covers the estimation of human resource needs of an organisation or
company based on its corporate/business plan.
v. Departmental level – This covers the manpower needs of a particular department in a
company.
vi. Job level – Manpower needs of a particular job family within department like Mechanical
Engineer is forecast at this level.
vii. Information technology – The impact of information technology on business activities,
human resource requirement and human resource plan is significant. It requires multi skilled
experts, preferably less in number.

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Human Resource Planning – Quantitative and Qualitative Dimensions:
Human resources have a dual role to play in the economic development of a country. On one
hand they are the consumers of the products and services produced by the organizations while
on the other hand they are one of the factors of production.
Along with capital and other factors of production, human resources can lead to increase in
production and economic development. The rate of growth of human resources is determined
by two aspects quantitative and qualitative.
Variables Determining the Quantity of Human Resources:
1. Population Policy:
Some population policies operate by influencing the factors responsible for growth such as
fertility, marriage and mortality. These are known as population influencing policies. Another
category of policies known as responsive policies are implemented to adjust to observed
population trends with the help of programmes like health, nutrition, education, housing, etc.
The aim of population policies is to achieve an optimum population for enhancing the
country’s development.
2. Population Structure:
The structure or composition of the population is determined by two factors, sex composition
and age composition.
(i) Sex Composition:
Sex ratio is the ratio of males to females in the population. It is the basic measure of the sex
composition of the population of any area. Higher the number of females, higher will be the
population growth rate in future.
(ii) Age Composition:
It is the distribution of population by age groups. Age composition is the result of past trends
in fertility and mortality. The supply of labour depends on age composition as economically
active population falls in range of 15-65 age groups.
3. Migration:
Net migration is another factor which causes changes in the population. Age and sex
composition determine the natural growth in population, but for calculating the overall
changes in population it is important to consider net migration also.
Net migration = total immigrants – total emigrants
A positive net migration will lead to a rise in population growth rate while negative net
migration will reduce the growth rate of population. Migration can be both interregional and
international.

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4. Labour Force Participation:
The population of any country consists of workers and non-workers. The workers are the
people, usually in age group of 15-65, who participate in economically productive activities
by their mental or physical presence.
These include:
i. Employers,
ii. Employees,
iii. Self-employed persons, and
iv. Those engaged in family enterprises without pay.
The others in the population are the non-workers such as students, infants, elderly, beggars,
retired people, inmates of jail or mental institutions, unemployed, etc. They do not contribute
to any productive economic activity. It is the changes in the working population which affect
the growth of human resources. The number of people who are unemployed but available for
work also impacts the availability of labour.
Qualitative Aspects of Human Resource Planning:
The quantitative dimensions help to ascertain human resources in numbers while the
productive power of human resources is assessed by the qualitative dimensions. For example,
there may be hundreds of applicants for 20 vacancies, but out of these only a few may meet
the quality standards required for the job.
Factors which determine the quality of human resources are:
1. Education and Training:
The quantity and quality of education and training received by human resources impacts their
knowledge and skills. Education and training are important for the upliftment of both
individual and society. It can be of two types, formal and informal.
Formal education is imparted through schools and colleges while informal education and
training takes place through on-the-job training methods. Formal education stresses the
transfer of theoretical knowledge, while informal education emphasizes on practical
application of knowledge.
2. Health and Nutrition:
Health and nutrition along with education are vital for Human Resource Development. Health
and nutrition impact the quality of life, productivity of labour and the average life
expectancy.
Health status is determined by:
(i) Purchasing power of people.

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(ii) Public sanitation, climate and availability of medical facilities.
(iii) People’s understanding and knowledge of health, hygiene and nutrition.
3. Equality of Opportunity:
Not all segments of people comprising human resources get equal employment opportunities.
There is bound to be some discrimination.
The most common forms of discrimination are:
(i) Social discrimination – Discrimination on basis of gender, religion or social standing.
(ii) Economic discrimination – Discrimination based on financial positions or possession of
wealth by the sections of workforce.
(iii) Regional discrimination – These are in form of discrimination between rural and urban
population or between people belonging to different regions/ states.
Discrimination affects the quality and productivity of the human resources belonging to
different sections of the population. The privileged classes get access to best education,
nutrition and health facilities while underprivileged are deprived of their right share in the
development process. For the overall, well rounded development of the country’s human
resources, effective policies need to be implemented to deal with the problem of
discrimination.

Human Resource Planning – Prerequisites:

i. There should be a proper linkage between HR plan and organizational plan.
ii. Top management support is essential.
iii. Proper balance should be kept between the qualitative and quantitative approaches to
HRP.
iv. Involvement of operating managers is necessary.
v. Proper alignment between short-term HR plans and long-term HR plans should be there.
vi. HR plan should have in-built flexibility in order to adopt environmental uncertainties.
vii. Time period of HR plan should be appropriate to needs and circumstances of the
organization.

Human Resource Planning – Relationship with Other Personnel Processes:

From a systems view, human resource planning is interrelated with many of the
organization’s other endeavors in personnel management. The strongest relationship exists
between human resource planning and selection. In fact, all selection efforts really are an
integral part of the whole human resource planning process.

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Organizations that have either stable or increasing human resource needs must go into the
external labour market and hire employees even though they generally follow a promotion-
from within policy.
In addition, human resource planning is related to both performance appraisal and training
and development. Performance appraisals can pinpoint the skills that will be required for
employees to move into higher-level positions via promotion, while training and development
efforts may then be designed to provide these skills.
To meet organizational goals, human resource planning seeks to ensure that the
organization’s demand for individuals at any particular time will be just met by available
human resources. This view assumes that “stockpiling” employees at levels greater than
needed and being understaffed are both undesirable.
This assumption represents a major difference between planning for human resources and
planning for non-human resources. Although it is generally unacceptable to stockpile or build
inventories of human resources, organizations may find it necessary or desirable to build up
raw materials or finished-goods inventories.
It is unacceptable to hold human resource inventories for three reasons. First, human
resources are costly and it may be difficult to justify the expense of excess personnel. There
are sounder and more cost-effective options available to personnel planners in business firms.
Second, excess people are not engaged in productive work, and are likely to be bored and
frustrated by the lack of anything constructive to do.
Such boredom and frustration can create problems because excess people may make
unnecessary work for productive people and may even inhibit the firm’s total productive
efforts.
Third, since human resources, particularly skilled and professional people, may be in short
supply, taking productive workers out of the economy’s labour pool may be considered
socially unacceptable.
It is equally undesirable for an organization to operate with too few employees. As with
“stockpiled” employees, individuals may feel frustrated, but in this case because of overwork
rather than a lack of productive activity. This situation may also be dysfunctional to an
organization’s goals.
Consider, for example, a department store during the holiday season with a shortage of sales
personnel. In addition to the frustrations experienced by employees, such understaffing may
also result in loss of employee efficiency.

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Customers may respond to long lines and excessive waiting by taking their business
elsewhere, with resultant loss of sales by the organization. Having too many or too few
employees may create numerous problems for organizations-problems that can be reduced or
eliminated through effective human resource planning.

Human Resource Planning – Cost Contribution Analysis:

Cost-contribution analysis of human resources is most important in HRP with a view to plan
for more effective human resource system. The human resource components necessary to
maximise employee contribution to the job and the organisation, and minimise the cost,
should be determined in advance with the help of human resource accounting techniques.
The optimum human resource system should be planned and determined as the human
resources system is the control system in the organisation because it emphasises the human
contribution which critically influences the organisational effectiveness. Planning the human
resource system includes determining the type of human resource components like creative
and innovative skills and abilities, dynamism, leadership qualities, commitment,
identification with the organisation, etc., considering the measures to acquire those human
resources through recruitment, training and development and adjusting the components.
Similarly, cost of human resource should be streamlined and it should be taken as investment
on human resources and not as mere cost. These items include remuneration cost (Pay,
allowances, fringe benefits, other indirect costs), recruitment cost (cost of job design,
advertising cost, cost for conducting tests, interview, reference checks, medical examination
and induction), training costs, etc.
Human Resource Accounting (HRA) envisages capitalisation of all expenses like cost of
recruitment, training etc. One of the systems of HRA i.e., replacement cost of human asset is
an important tool for the formulation of manpower budget and plan for human resources.

Human Resource Planning – Responsibility:

Human resource planning is the responsibility of the personnel department. In this task, it is
aided by the industrial engineering department, the top management and the team of directors
of different departments. It is mostly a staffing or personnel function.
The overall responsibility lies with the Board of Directors because, as the manpower planning
scheme of Hindustan Lever indicates, “these members are in a position to direct the future
course of business, set appropriate goals for the management concerned in the formulation of
personnel policies.”

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The personnel department’s responsibility is “to recommend relevant personnel policies in
respect of manpower planning, devise methods of procedure, and determine the quantitative
aspects of manpower planning.”
The responsibilities of the personnel department in regard to manpower planning have
been stated by Geisler in the following words:
(i) To assist, counsel and pressurise the operating management to plan and establish
objectives;
(ii) To collect and summarise data in total organisation terms and to ensure consistency with
long- range objectives and other elements of the total business plan;
(iii) To monitor and measure performance against the plan and keep the top management
informed about it; and
(iv) To provide the research necessary for effective manpower and organisational planning.

Integration of Strategic Planning and Human Resource Planning:

Human resource planning like production planning, financial planning and marketing
planning, should be a unified, comprehensive and integrated part of the total corporation.
Human resource manager provides inputs like key HR areas, HR environmental constraints
and internal HR capabilities and HR capability constraints to the corporate strategists. The
corporate strategists in turn communicate their needs and constraints to the HR manager. The
corporate strategic plan and HR plan thus incorporates both HR and other functional plans.
Corporations formulate plans to fit four time spans:
i. Strategic plans that establish company’s vision, mission and major long-range objectives.
The time span for strategic plans is usually considered to be five or more years.
ii. Intermediate – range plans covering about a three year period. These are more specific
plans in support of strategic plan.
iii. Operating plans cover about one year. Plans are prepared month by month in sufficient
detail for profit, human resources, budget and cost control.
iv. Activity plans are the day-by-day and week-by-week plans. These plans may not be
documented presents the link between strategic plan and human resource plan.
Strategic Plan Vis-a-Vis Human Resource Plan- Corporate — Level Plan:
Top management formulates corporate-level plan based on corporate philosophy, policy,
vision and mission. The HRM role is to raise the broad and policy issues relating to human
resources. The HR issues are related to employment policy, HRD policies, remuneration

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policies, etc. The HR department prepares HR strategies, objectives and policies consistent
with company strategy.
I. Intermediate – Level Plan:
Large-scale and diversified companies organise Strategic Business Units (SBU) for the
related activities. SBUs prepare intermediate plans and implement them. HR managers
prepare specific plans for acquiring future managers, key personnel and total number of
employees in support of company requirements over the next three years.
II. Operation Plan:
Operation plans are prepared at the lowest business profit centre level. These plans are
supported by the HR plans relating to recruitment of skilled personnel, developing
compensation structure, designing new jobs, developing leadership, improving work-life, etc.
III. Short-Term Activities Plan:
Day-to-day business plans are formulated by the lowest level strategists. Day-to-day HR
plans relating to handling employee benefits, grievances, disciplinary cases, accident reports,
etc., are formulated by the HR managers.

Human Resource Planning and Environmental Scanning:

Environment influences human resource management as well as business. Environmental
scanning helps to know the nature and degree of environmental influence on human resource
plan as well as business plan.
Managers have to scan the following environmental factors in particular:
i. Social factors including cultural factors, religious factors, child-care, educational
programmes and priorities.
ii. Technological developments including information technology, people soft, automation
and robotics.
iii. Economic factors including international, national and regional factors.
iv. Political factors including legal issues, laws and administrative factors.
v. Demographic factors including gender, age and literacy.
vi. Industry growth trends, competitive trends, new products, new processes, services and
innovations.
The environmental scanning will help the managers to foresee the possible changes and make
the adjustments in order to prevent the possible negative effects and get ready for the positive
effects.

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In addition to scanning the external environmental factors, organisations like Infosys,
Satyam, Volvo and Southwest Airlines scan internal environmental factors. Organisational
cultures, employees’ cultures affect the human resource plan as well as other areas of HRM.
Organisations conduct cultural audits to know the impact of attitudes, values and activities of
employees. As observed by Sears, employee positive attitude has direct and positive impact
on customer satisfaction and revenue.
Most of the companies benchmark their standing and progress against each other as
environmental scanning and HR planning are aimed at competitive advantage. Benchmarking
is identifying the best HR practices like training and compensation in the industry, compare
them with those of the firm and take steps to improve the practices to match with those of the
best practices in the industry.
Target for benchmarking need not be a competitor, but the best in the industry, or companies
in other industries. ‘Human Capital Benchmarking Report’ published by the Saratoga
Institute provides information of 900 companies’ practices. Companies can use this source as
well as the survey report of ‘Business Today’, published every year in addition to various
research reports on pay structure, return on investment per employee, turnover rates, cost per
hire, etc.

Human Resource Planning – Mapping an Organisation’s Human Capital Architecture:

The linkage between strategy and HR should focus on the development of core competencies.
Some of the MNCs like Sony, Starbucks, Domino’s Pizza and South-West Airlines
revolutionised their companies by developing core competencies.
These competencies helped these companies to have leverage by learning faster than others.
Core competency is a portfolio of employee skills. Different skills of employees can be
grouped based on ‘Strategic value’ they create and their distinctiveness to the organisation.
They are as follows:
i. Core Knowledge Workers:
This group of employees possesses firm-specific skills which are linked to the company’s
strategy like R&D skills for pharmaceutical company and teaching skills for university
employees. Companies invest in training of these employees, provide them with freedom and
autonomy and offer higher salaries.
ii. Traditional Job-Based Employees:

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This group of employees possesses skills that are important to the organisation, but are not
critical/unique (like accountants, finance, marketing personnel). Companies invest less in
developing these employees, but provide short-term financial benefits.
iii. Contract Labour:
This category of employees possesses skills, which are of less strategic value (like clerks,
receptionists, drivers, security, etc.). This category of employees is normally hired from
external agencies on contact basis. Organisations do not invest in training these employees
and the employment relations are transactional.
iv. Alliance/Partners:
This group of employees has unique skills, but not directly related to organisation’s core
function like lawyers, auditors and consultants. Companies do not employ them on regular
basis, given their tangible link to the strategy but establish long- term alliances and
partnerships with them.
HR managers make decisions with regard to whom to employ internally, whom to contract
externally and the type of the employment relationship to be maintained. HR manager also
considers the cost-benefit approach of internal employment vs. external contract in HRP.
v. Ensuring Fit and Flexibility:
Alignment between strategic planning and programmes, policies and practices of HR is vital
and need to achieve two types of fit viz., external fit and internal fit.
A. External Fit:
External fit brings alignment between the business objectives/goals and major HR
initiatives/practices. Growth strategy of the company is to be aligned with recruiting people
with creative and innovative skills, providing freedom to them and investing on training for
developing such skills. Low cost strategy is to be aligned with employing
performance/productivity oriented employees.
B. Internal Fit:
Internal fit brings alignment among various HR policies and practices in order to establish
configuration that is mutually reinforcing. Efficiency and creativity come from integrated
effort of job design, HR Plan, recruitment and selection, training, performance management,
compensation and motivation. Therefore, there should be integration among all HR functions.
In addition, management should follow either individual approach or team approach for all
HR functions.
Successful external and internal strategy and HRM alignment helps the organisation to
increase organisational capability and competitive advantage.

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vi. Cohort Analysis:
It is an analysis of risk factors of groups in which a group having one or more similar
characteristics is closely monitored over time simultaneously with another group. It is one
type of clinical study design and should be compared with a cross-sectional study. Cohort
studies are largely about the life histories of segments of populations, and the individual
people who constitute these segments. This method is used where case study approach is not
feasible, creates too many statistical problems, or generally produces unreliable results. This
is also called follow up study.
Cohort analysis helps to separate growth metrics from engagement metrics and helps to
measure growth and identify growth problems.

Edgar Schein’s Human Resource Planning and Development System:

In his article entitled Increasing Organizational Effectiveness through Better Human
Resource Planning and Development, Edgar Schein suggests that the process of HR planning
and developing staff must take into account two important sets of needs – the needs of the
company, and the needs and desires of the individual employees.
In the new millennium with companies showing less concern about employee career
development, it’s useful to pay attention to the idea that when both employee and corporate
needs are taken into account, the results, for both parties are much superior to the situation
where only one set is considered.
Schein’s approach integrates HR planning and employee development.
This approach contains the following components:
1. Strategic business planning
2. Job/Role planning
3. Manpower planning and Human Resource Inventorying.
In addition staffing processes also form a part of the model
4. Job analysis
5. Recruitment and selection
6. Induction/socialization and initial training
7. Job design and job assignment
8. Development planning
9. Inventorying of development plans
10. Follow-up of development activities
11. Career development processes and a good deal more.

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When doing an internal scan for purposes of human resource planning the questions that
should be addressed.
When evaluating an organization’s current human resource capabilities for the
purposes of human resource planning, the following questions and issues need to be
addressed:
1. Are there any key forces affecting the organization’s operations (collective agreements,
staffing issues, cultural issues, work/life balance, demographics, technology requirements,
budget issues, expectation of clients)?
2. What knowledge, skills, abilities and capabilities does the organization have?
3. What is the company’s current internal environment? What elements support the
company’s strategic direction? What elements deter the organization from reaching its goals?
4. How has the organization changed its organizational structure? How is it likely to change
in the future?
5. How has the organization changed with respect to the type and amount of work it does and
how is it likely to change in the future?
6. How has the organization changed regarding the use of technology and how will it change
in the future?
7. How has the company changed with respect to the way people are recruited?
8. What is the public’s (or customers’) perceptions of the quality of the organization’s
products, programmes, and/or services? What is being done well? What can be done better?
9. Are current programmes, processes or services contributing to the achievement of specific
organizational goals?
When doing an external scan of the environment for purposes of human resources
planning (HR planning), we should look for:
In order to do human resource planning, we need to have a sense of both the current external
environment, and anticipate things that may happen in the future in the labour market place.
We do this via an external scan or environmental scan that can address the following issues
and questions.
1. How is the current external environment? What elements of the current environment are
relevant to the company? Which are likely to inhibit the company from arriving its goals?
2. What are the company’s specific issues and implications of these issues? What key forces
in this environment need to be addressed and which ones are less critical?
3. What is the impact of local trends on the company (demographic, economic, political,
intergovernmental, cultural, technology, etc.)?

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4. Are there comparable operations that provide a similar service? How might that change?
How would that affect the company?
5. Where does the work of the company come from? How might that change and how would
it affect the organization?
6. How might the external environment differ in the future? What forces at work might
change the external environment? What implications will this have for the organization?
7. What kinds of trends or forces affect similar work in other jurisdictions?
8. What kinds of trends or forces affect the company’s partners/stakeholders and customers?

Human Resource Planning – Benefits:

Human Resource Planning (HRP) anticipates not only the required kind and number of
employees but also determines the action plan for all the functions of personnel management.
The major benefits of human resource planning are:
i. It checks the corporate plan of the organisation.
ii. HRP offsets uncertainties and changes to the maximum extent possible and enables the
organisation to have right men at right time and in right place.
iii. It provides scope for advancement and development of employees through training,
development, etc.
iv. It helps to anticipate the cost of salary enhancement, better benefits, etc.
v. It helps to anticipate the cost of salary, benefits and all the cost of human resources
facilitating the formulation of budgets in an organisation.
vi. To foresee the need for redundancy and plan to check it or to provide alternative
employment in consultation with trade unions, other organisations and government through
remodeling organisational, industrial and economic plans.
vii. To foresee the changes in values, aptitude and attitude of human resources and to change
the techniques of interpersonal, management, etc.
viii. To plan for physical facilities, working conditions and the volume of fringe benefits like
canteen, schools, hospitals, conveyance, child care centres, quarters, company stores, etc.
ix. It gives an idea of type of tests to be used and interview techniques in selection based on
the level of skills, qualifications, intelligence, values, etc., of future human resource.
x. It causes the development of various sources of human resources to meet the organisational
needs.
xi. It helps to take steps to improve human resource contributions in the form of increased
productivity, sales, turnover, etc.

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xii. It facilitates the control of all the functions, operations, contribution and cost of human
resources.

Human Resource Planning – Problems:

Though HRP is beneficial to the organisation, employees and trade unions, some problems
crop up in the process of HRP.
Important among them are:
1. Resistance by Employers and Employees:
Many employers resist HRP as they think that it increases the cost of manpower as trade
unions demand for employees based on the plan, more facilities and benefits including
training and development. Further, employers feel that HRP is not necessary as candidates
are/will be available as and when required in India due to unemployment situation.
Employers’ version may be true about unskilled and clerical staff but it is not true in the case
of all other categories as there is shortage for certain categories of human resources.
Trade unions and employees also resist HRP as they view that it increases the workload of
employees and prepares programme for securing the human resources mostly from outside.
The other reason for their resistance is that HRP aims at controlling the employees through
productivity maximisation, etc.
2. Uncertainties:
Uncertainties are quite prominent in human resource practices in India due to absenteeism,
seasonal employment, labour turnover, etc. Further, the uncertainties in industrial scene like
technological change, marketing conditions also cause uncertainties in human resource
management. The uncertainties make the HRP less reliable.
3. Inadequacies of Information System:
Information system regarding human resources has not yet fully developed in Indian
industries due to low status given to personnel department and less importance attached to
HRP. Further, reliable data and information about the economy, other industries, labour
market, trends in human resources, etc., are not available.

Human Resource Planning – Recent Implications:

Most of the organisations, employed human resources without proper HR plans before 1990s.
This was more acute in the public sector whose objective was creation of employment
opportunities. The absence of human resources planning before 1990s led to the following
implications in Indian companies.

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(i) Overstaffing – Most of the organisations are found to be overstaffed compared to their
counterparts in other countries.
(ii) VRSI Golden-handshake – The absence of human resources planning led to overstaffing.
Consequently, most of the organisations announced VRS/Golden-handshake programmes in
order to reduce the consequences of overstaffing.
(iii) Delayering and Downsizings Most of the organisations de-layered their organisations
and announced downsizing programmes to rectify the consequences of overstaffing.

Human Resource Planning – Recent Trends:

Unfortunately, the human resource planning efforts of organizations have often been
inadequate by failing to emphasize the truly systematized approach geared toward meeting
overall objectives.
As Lopez and others have observed:
Some organizations have perceived manpower planning primarily in terms of budgeting to
control labour costs; others have viewed it as a management development technique; still
others see it as a table of back-ups and replacements for current employees; and finally,
others have viewed it as a means of establishing a human resource information system and a
personnel inventory.
Since each of these approaches is necessarily limited in scope, the state of the art in human
resource planning has limped along quite slowly.
Toward More Sophisticated Human Resource Planning:
In recent years, both personnel practitioners and researchers emphasized some of the basic
facets of personnel decision making (1) taking systems and contingency approaches, and (2)
developing more sophisticated human resource forecasting and planning models. For
example, the growth of equal employment opportunity regulations in recent years has
increased the awareness of human resource planners of the effects of external changes on
personnel systems.
The observations are in order regarding these more sophisticated approaches. First, more
complex planning systems have generally been used in larger firms. Large organizations
generally must undertake complex human resource planning and can afford the higher costs
of such approaches.
Second, although a wide range of human resource models have been developed, some of
these models have ignored so many “real life” personnel variables that they have had

25
virtually no practical application. On the positive side, there have been numerous quantitative
models that have been very useful to organizations.
There are a number of reasons for the recent increase in the use of more sophisticated human
resource planning models. For example, organizations simply have been growing larger and
more complex, requiring more sophisticated approaches. This has been especially true in
those organizations in which interdependencies have increased.
The invention and development of the computer has made possible the analysis of complex
human resource problems that would previously have been so time-consuming as to be cost
prohibitive or virtually impossible to deal with by manual computations.
“The manpower mix in organizations had gradually come to focus around highly skilled
managerial and technical talent.” Such personnel have at times been in short supply, and
more of a lead time has been required for their training and development.
Once an integrated, well-thought-out human resource planning programme has been initiated,
managers tend to appreciate its benefits and work together with the firm’s human resource
specialists in developing viable programmes-“they are more willing to plan in this area, if
only they are shown how to begin,”
Problems with Sophistication in Human Resource Planning:
Despite these reasons for the growth of more sophisticated human resource planning,
such approaches face a number of problems:
1. There is an inherent mathematical complexity associated with efforts to model human
resource systems.
2. Always there is a lack of certainty surrounding human resource needs in the future,
coupled with the existence of an acquisition lead time for meeting those needs. Even if an
organization’s human resource planning experts were completely uncertain about the number
of operation researchers that would be needed at a point in future, the organization would
face no problems if it could at that future time instantaneously obtain any number of such
personnel to meet its objectives.
However, lead times are needed to recruit and train new personnel and to train and promote
existing employees for new positions or assignments. Acquisition lead times have become
more of a problem in recent years because of the needs for highly skilled managerial and
professional personnel.
Since this trend is expected to continue in future years, the problem of acquisition lead times
creates forecasting difficulties for most organizations.

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Finally, human resource plans must be updated more frequently in firms (or in any of their
subsystems) in which greater uncertainty exists. As one observer has observed-
“Increasing instability and the greater uncertainties associated with certain job requirements
(e.g., research and development or marketing) indicate a requirement for more up-to-date
information on emerging needs. This manpower data is increasingly subject to change, and
organizational needs dictate timely information with appropriate systems support”.

Forecasting human resource requirement

Forecasting human resource demand is the process of estimating the future human resource
requirement of right quality and right number. As discussed earlier, potential human resource
requirement is to be estimated keeping in view the organisation's plans over a given period of
time. Analysis of employment trends; replacement needs of employees due to death,
resignations, retirement termination; productivity of employees; growth and expansion of
organisation; absenteeism and labour turnover are the relevant factors for human resourced
forecasting. Demand forecasting is affected by a number of external and internal factors.

Job analysis and forecasting about the quality of potential human resource facilitates demand
forecasting. So, existing job design must be thoroughly evaluated taking into consideration
the future capabilities of the present employees.

FACTORS AFFECTING HR DEMAND FORECASTING

Human Resource Demand Forecasting depends on several factors, some of which are given
below.

● Employment trends;
● Replacement needs;
● Productivity;
● Absenteeism; and
● Expansion and growth.

There are number of techniques of estimating/forecasting human resources demand:

(a) Managerial Judgement

(b) Work Study Technique
(c) Ratio-trend Analysis (d) Econometric Models
(e) Delphi Model
(f) Other Techniques

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(a) Managerial Judgement: Managerial judgement technique is very common
technique of demand forecasting. This approach is applied by small as well as large scale
organisations. This technique involves two types of approaches i.e. 'bottom-up approach' and
'top-down approach'. Under the 'bottom-up approach', line mangers send their departmental
requirement of human resources to top management. Top management ultimately forecasts
the human resource requirement for the overall organisation on the basis of proposals of
departmental heads. Under the Top-down approach', top management forecasts the human
resource requirement for the entire organisation and various departments. This information is
supplied to various departmental heads for their review and approval. However, a
combination of both the approaches i.e. 'Participative Approach' should be applied for
demand forecasting. Under this approach, top management and departmental heads meet and
decide about the future human resource requirement. So, demand of human resources can be
forecasted with unanimity under this approach.

(b) Work-Study Technique: This technique is also known as 'work-load

analysis'. This technique is suitable where the estimated work-load is easily measureable.
Under this method, estimated total production and activities for a specific future period are
predicted. This information is translated into number of man-hours required to produce per
units taking into consideration the capability of the workforce. Past-experience of the
management can help in translating the work-loads into number of man-hours required. Thus,
demand of human resources is forecasted on the basis of estimated total production and
contribution of each employee in producing each unit items. The following example gives
clear idea about this technique.
Let us assume that the estimated production of an organisation is 3.00.000 units. The standard
man-hours required to produce each unit are 2 hours. The past experiences show that the
work ability of each employee in man-hours is 1500 hours per annum. The work-load and
demand of human resources can be calculated as under:

● Estimated total annual production = 300000 units

● Standard man-hours needed to produce each unit = 2 hrs
● Estimated man-hours needed to meet estimated annual production (i x ii) = 600000
hrs
● Work ability/contribution per employee in terms of man-hour = 1500 units
● Estimated no. of workers needed (iii / iv) = 600000/1500 = 400 units

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The above example clearly shows that 400 workers are needed for the year. Further,
absenteeism rate, rate of labour turnover, resignations, deaths, machine break-down, strikes,
power-failure etc. should also be taken into consideration while estimating future demand of
human resources/ manpower.

(c) Ratio-Trend Analysis: Demand for manpower/human resources is also

estimated on the basis of ratio of production level and number of workers available. This ratio
will be used to estimate demand of human resources. The following example will help in
clearly understanding this technique.
Estimated production for next year = 1,40,000 units
Estimated no. of workers needed
(on the basis of ratio-trend of 1: 200) will be = 700

(d) Econometrics Models: These models are based on mathematical and

statistical techniques for estimating future demand. Under these models relationship is
established between the dependent variable to be predicted (e.g. manpower/human resources)
and the independent variables (e.g., sales, total production, work-load, etc.). Using these
models, estimated demand of human resources can be predicted.

(e) Delphi Technique: Delphi technique is also very important technique used for
estimating demand of human resources. This technique takes into consideration human
resources requirements given by a group of experts i.e. mangers. The human resource experts
collect the manpower needs, summarises the various responses and prepare a report. This
process is continued until all experts agree on estimated human resources requirement.

(f) Other Techniques: The other techniques of Human Resources demand

forecasting are specified as under:
(a) Following the techniques of demand forecasting of human resources used by other similar
organisations
(b) Organisation-cum-succession-charts
(c) Estimation based on techniques of production
(d) Estimates based on historical records
(e) Statistical techniques e.g. co-relation and regression analysis.

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 Process Human Resource Planning

Internal and External Sources of Recruitment

Recruitment is the process of attracting the potential candidates and motivating them to apply
for the jobs or selecting skilled and right candidates from the pool of applicants and
appointing them for right jobs. Here strategic thinking and decision making can help in

30
finding the potential candidates. Human resources are one of the scarce resources and it is
becoming a challenge to find the right candidate for the right job in the organizations.
So, organizations are approaching consultancies to find the skilled and efficient employees to
get a competitive advantage. Approaching recruitment agencies can give better results, but it
is expensive and may not suitable for all organizations.
Recruitment involves searching for the right candidates and motivating them to apply for the
openings in the organization. Here sources of recruitment are two types i.e., internal sources
and external sources.

Sources of recruitment

Internal sources of recruitment

Internal sources of recruitment involve motivating the employees of the organization
to apply for the openings within the organization. Job openings are informed to the
employees of the same organization by giving internal advertisements, word of mouth
or communication through the hierarchy. Many organizations are practicing this
approach to motivate the skilled employees of the organization, to reduce the
employee turnover, to reduce the cost and to get a competitive advantage. Various
methods of internal sources or recruitment are as follows.

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1.Transfers
The employees of the organization are transferred to the similar jobs of other departments. It
may not involve a change in salary, responsibility, and position of the job. Transfers help in
reducing the boredom and monotony of the employees or it may be used to fill the vacancies
with suitable internal candidates.

2.Promotions
Promotions involve vacancies of the organization are filled by promoting the skilled
employees to the suitable jobs and it can motivate the employees by giving higher position,
increased salary, status, and responsibility. Promotions can help in reducing employee
turnover by creating the hope of getting higher positions.

3.Demotions
Depending on the performance of the employees of the organizations, sometimes managers
have to take decisions regarding lowering the positions of few employees of the organization.
These employees can act as a source of recruitment to the lower positions.

4.Employees of the organization

Employees of the organization communicate or inform about the vacant positions of the
organization to their friends and relatives. In many organizations, they allowed referring
potential candidates for the suitable vacancies.

32
5.Retired employees
If the organizations do not find the right persons to fulfil the key managerial positions then
they call back the retired employees for achieving the objectives.
Advantages of internal sources recruitment
● When the existed employees are given a chance to get the higher positions of the
organization then the employee loyalty increases towards the organization.
● It highly motivates the employees and helps in maximizing the job satisfaction.
● Existed employees of the organization are well known about the organization
culture.
● Internal sources of recruitment highly reduce efforts and cost.
● It helps in reducing the employee turnover.
● It creates a scope to get a competitive advantage by recruiting the skilled
employees for the higher positions.
● It helps in maximizing job security and job satisfaction
● Transfers from one department to another department helps in eliminating
boredom and monotony in employees.
● It helps in reducing the efforts of induction programs.
Disadvantages of internal sources of recruitment
● Internal sources of recruitment reduce the scope of finding skilled and more
efficient people.
● The introduction of new methods and strategies may not always possible with this
approach.
● Losing more efficient persons from the external environment becomes a
competitive advantage to the competitors.
● This approach is not suitable for all the organizations
External sources of recruitment
External sources of recruitment involve motivating the skilled and more efficient candidates
external to the organization to apply for the vacant positions in the organization. Job openings
are informed to the external environment by using various methods such as advertisements,
campus recruitment, employment exchanges, walk in interviews, organizational websites, job
fairs, and job portals.

33
1.Advertisements
To find the skilled and more efficient manpower giving advertisement for the vacant job
position is the better way. Advertisements help in attracting the right candidates and in
maximizing brand image. Advertisements may be given in print media or electronic media, it
gives better results and it is cheaper than approaching third parties.

2.Job portals
With the growing technology and internet usage, job portals are playing a major role in
finding right candidates for right jobs. Job portals can inform up to date job alerts to the
candidates and offer attractive benefits and packages to the employers. The tools and
techniques used by the job portals highly reduce the efforts in finding the skilled candidates.

3.Company’s websites
With the increase in business operations and globalization, the need for human resources is
also increasing day by day. To face a severe competition and to reduce the cost during the
long run, many companies are setting up their own websites for finding and attracting
candidates with competitive skills.

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4.Social networking sites
Communicating about vacant positions of the organization through social networking sites
help in motivation and attracting the highly skilled and more efficient candidates to apply for
the jobs.

5.Placement agencies
Approaching placement agencies reduces the time and efforts to find the right candidates
from the pool of skilled candidates. They use various tools and techniques to filter the
resumes and they send it to the companies for further processing. The main drawback of this
method is commission basis on hiring the candidates.

6.Job fairs and walk in interviews

Walk in interviews and job fairs are declared and conducted by companies to find the skilled
candidates. Following this method highly reduces efforts in finding more efficient human
resources for the bulk requirement.

7.Campus interviews
This is an easy and economical method helps in finding eligible candidates, through this
method organization can find energetic and more competitive candidates for suitable
vacancies, this method is beneficial for both the candidates and companies.

Other sources:

8.Word-of-Mouth:
Some organisations in India also practice the ‘word-of-mouth’ method of recruitment. In this
method, the word is passed around the possible vacancies or openings in the organisation.
Another form of word-of-mouth method of recruitment is “employee-pinching” i.e., the
employees working in another organisation are offered an attractive offer by the rival
organisations. This method is economic, both in terms of time and money.
Some organisations maintain a file of the applications and bio-data sent by job-seekers. These
files serve as very handy as and when there is vacancy in the organisation. The advantage of
this method is no cost involved in recruitment. However, the drawbacks of this method of
recruitment are non-availability of the candidate when needed and the choice of candidates is
restricted to a too small number.

35
9.Raiding or Poaching:
Raiding or poaching is another method of recruitment whereby the rival firms by offering
better terms and conditions, try to attract qualified employees to join them. This raiding is a
common feature in the Indian organisations.
For example, several executives of HMT left to join Titan Watch Company, so also exodus of
pilots from the Indian Airlines to join private air taxi operators. Whatever may be the means
used to raid rival firms for potential candidates, it is often seen as an unethical practice and
not openly talked about. In fact, raiding has become a challenge for the human resource
manager. Besides these, walk-ins, contractors, radio and television, acquisitions and mergers,
etc., are some other sources of recruitment used by organisations.
Job Boards
Post your client’s opening on the top job boards to recruit external candidates. The job
advertisement should include a detailed description. Include the skills and qualities your
client is looking for. Consider job board integration with your website and applicant tracking
system. The applicant tracking system will organize candidates who apply through the job
board for you.
Social Media
Use social media recruiting to find outside candidates. If a job seeker has never worked for
your client, you will need to build trust with them. Interact on social media consistently to
form relationships.
Website
Include job openings on your recruiting website. Your clients can also advertise jobs on their
websites. The more you advertise a position, the larger your candidate pool becomes.
Increasing the number of interested candidates helps you find a good match for your client.
Referrals
One great way to find candidates is through recruiting referrals. You find referred candidates
through your network. Let your client list and candidate pool know you appreciate referrals.
Keep in touch with past candidates and clients who can refer you to leads.

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Selection: Meaning and Steps Involved in Selection Procedure
(with diagram)
Selection: Meaning and Steps Involved in Selection Procedure!
Finding the interested candidates who have submitted their profiles for a particular job is the
process of recruitment, and choosing the best and most suitable candidates among them is the
process of selection. It results in elimination of unsuitable candidates. It follows scientific
techniques for the appropriate choice of a person for the job.
The recruitment process has a wide coverage as it collects the applications of interested
candidates, whereas the selection process narrows down the scope and becomes specific
when it selects the suitable candidates.
Stone defines, ‘Selection is the process of differentiating between applicants in order to
identify (and hire) those with a greater likelihood of success in a job’.
Steps Involved in Selection Procedure:
A scientific and logical selection procedure leads to scientific selection of candidates. The
criterion finalized for selecting a candidate for a particular job varies from company to
company.
Therefore, the selection procedure followed by different organizations, many times, becomes
lengthy as it is a question of getting the most suitable candidates for which various tests are to
be done and interviews to be taken. The procedure for selection should be systematic so that
it does not leave any scope for confusions and doubts about the choice of the selected
candidate (Figure 5.6).

37
Brief details of the various steps in selection procedure are given
as follows:

1. Inviting applications:
The prospective candidates from within the organization or outside the organization are
called for applying for the post. Detailed job description and job specification are provided in
the advertisement for the job. It attracts a large number of candidates from various areas.

2. Receiving applications:
Detailed applications are collected from the candidates which provide the necessary
information about personal and professional details of a person. These applications facilitate
analysis and comparison of the candidates.

3. Scrutiny of applications:
As the limit of the period within which the company is supposed to receive applications ends,
the applications are sorted out. Incomplete applications get rejected; applicants with un-
matching job specifications are also rejected.

4. Written tests:
As the final list of candidates becomes ready after the scrutiny of applications, the written test
is conducted. This test is conducted for understanding the technical knowledge, attitude and
interest of the candidates. This process is useful when the number of applicants is large.
Many times, a second chance is given to candidates to prove themselves by conducting
another written test.

5. Psychological tests:
These tests are conducted individually and they help for finding out the individual quality and
skill of a person. The types of psychological tests are aptitude test, intelligence test, synthetic
test and personality test

6. Personal interview:
Candidates proving themselves successful through tests are interviewed personally. The
interviewers may be individual or a panel. It generally involves officers from the top
management.
The candidates are asked several questions about their experience on another job, their family
background, their interests, etc. They are supposed to describe their expectations from the

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said job. Their strengths and weaknesses are identified and noted by the interviewers which
help them to take the final decision of selection.

7. Reference check:
Generally, at least two references are asked for by the company from the candidate.
Reference check is a type of crosscheck for the information provided by the candidate
through their application form and during the interviews.

8. Medical examination:
Physical strength and fitness of a candidate is must before they takes up the job. In-spite of
good performance in tests and interviews, candidates can be rejected on the basis of their ill
health.

9. Final selection:
At this step, the candidate is given the appointment letter to join the organization on a
particular date. The appointment letter specifies the post, title, salary and terms of
employment. Generally, initial appointment is on probation and after specific time period it
becomes permanent.

10. Placement:
This is a final step. A suitable job is allocated to the appointed candidate so that they can get
the whole idea about the nature of the job. They can get adjusted to the job and perform well
in future with all capacities and strengths.

Induction training.
In human resource development, induction training is a form of introduction for new
employees in order to enable them to do their work in a new profession or job role within an
organisation. Training can be systematic or unsystematic training.

The Importance of inducting new Employees to your workplace

Employee induction programs differs from company to company and also depends on the
type of industry. Some view induction programs as a chance to welcome and support new
employees, while other companies view the induction programme as a waste of time and
hope that their new employees ‘hit the ground running’
Apart from being a legal obligation, the new employee induction program is an essential and
critical final piece of the hiring process.

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Here are the two main reasons why you should have this in place:
● It starts the employee off with the right information to ensure maximum productivity as
quickly as possible.
● It fulfils your legal obligation to train new workers to do their jobs safely and what to do
in the event of an emergency
In addition, a strong induction process helps reduce stress and anxiety associated with a new
job, and improves their morale and feelings about the new job and organisation they have
joined.
Induction programs can include both training and mentoring, can be conducted by HR and/or
the department manager, and may last weeks or even months. Regardless of the length, these
programs allow the employee to gain valuable information regarding the organisation and
how they are expected to integrate with it.

Benefits of effective induction training to the organization

● Saves a lot of money and time.
● Reduces employee turnover.
● Ensures operational efficiency.
● Makes the new employee feel respected and valued. ...
● Provides the necessary information. ...
● Helps in establishing good communication
● Workplace Safety
● Increased retention rate
● Improved employee moral
● Increased productivity, and;
● Increased sense of acceptance into the organisation
A well-designed employee induction program not only saves your money and time in the
long run but it avoids money being spent on covering absences such as hiring replacements.

Your induction program should include:

● An introduction to your organisation’s policies and procedures
● Face-to-face introduction to key staff
● Tour of the workplace, pointing out all important facilities
● Safety and Emergency procedures
● Instructions on how to complete day-to-day tasks in a safe manner.

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Advantages of proper induction training to the new employee
1. Makes the new employee feel respected and valued
Good induction training gives a warm welcome to the employee and focuses on clarifying all
his doubts about the organization and his job. It ensures that the new employee feels
comfortable in the organization. It also makes him feel that he is welcomed, respected, and
valued. This motivates the new employee greatly.
2. Provides the necessary information
A comprehensive induction training program helps the new employee get all the necessary
information about the company and clarifies the organization’s expectations on him. This
helps him understand the culture, work norms, policies and procedures of the organization,
and thus enables him to quickly adapt to the work environment.
3. Helps in establishing good communication
Induction training helps the new employee in establishing good communication with the
organization. As part of the induction training program, the new employee is introduced to
his direct supervisor, other employees, leads, and directors of the organization. This makes
him more comfortable when he has to communicate with them later.

A good induction training program facilitates seamless integration of the new recruit,
enabling him to contribute to the organization effectively. Thus, it benefits the company as
well as the new hire.

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