What is HR Planning?

HR Planning

• What is HR Planning?

• Why is it rarely done?
• What is the connection between a firm’s strategic orientation and HR planning?

Organizational Life-Cycle Stages and HR Activities

Organizational Life-Cycle Stages and HR Activities (cont’d)

How does HR Planning occur?

1. What does the environment look like?
2. What are our future personnel needs? (forecast demand)

a. Judgmental

• Estimates
• Rule of Thumb
• Delphi Technique
• NGT
• Brainstorming

The Nominal Group Technique

• A small group of 4-5 people gathers around a table. Leader identifies judgment issue and gives participants procedural instructions.
• Participants write down all ideas that occur to them, keeping their lists private at this point. Creativity is encouraged during this phase.
• Leader asks each participant to present ideas and writes them on a blackboard or flipchart, continuing until all ideas have been recorded.
• Participants discuss each other’s ideas, clarifying, expanding, and evaluating them as a group.
• Participants rank ideas privately in their own personal order and preference.
• The idea that ranks highest among the participants is adopted as the group’s judgment.

The Delphi Technique

How does HR Planning occur?
1. What does the environment look like?
2. What are our future personnel needs?
a. forecast demand
        b. Statistical (regresion)

Statistical Techniques Used to Project Staffing Demand Needs

Regression analysis

Past levels of various work load indicators, such as sales, production levels, and value added, are examined for statistical relationships with staffing levels. Where sufficiently strong relationships are found, a regression (or multiple regression) model is derived. Forecasted levels of the retained indicator(s) are entered into the resulting model and used to calculate the associated level of human resource requirements.

Productivity ratios

Historical data are used to examine past levels of a productivity index (P):

P = Work load / Number of People

Where constant, or systematic, relationships are found, human resource requirements can be computed by diving predicted work loads by P.

Statistical Techniques Used to Project Staffing Demand Needs (cont’d)

Personnel ratios

Past personnel data are examined to determine historical relationships among the employees in various jobs or job categories. Regression analysis or productivity ratios are then used to project either total or key-group human resource requirements, and personnel ratios are used to allocated total requirements to various job categories or to estimate for non-key groups.

Time series analysis

Past staffing levels (instead of work load indicators) are used to project future human resource requirements. Past staffing levels are examined to isolate and cyclical variation, long-tem terms, and random movement. Long-term trends are then extrapolated or projected using a moving average, exponential smoothing, or regression technique.

Regression Analysis

1. Statically identify historical predictor of workforce size
Example: FTEs = a + b1 sales + b2 new customers

2. Only use equations with predictors found to be statistically significant

3. Predict future HR requirements, using equation

Example: (a) FTEs = 7 + .0004 sales + .02 new customers

      (b) Projected sales = $1,000,000 Projected new customers = 300

       (c) HR requirements = 7 + 400 + 6 = 413

Determining the Relationship Between Hospital Size and Number of Nurses

How does HR Planning occur?

2. What are our future personnel needs? (demand forecast cont.)

b. Statistical (cont.)

    Ratio analysis

3. Are resources available – internally or externally – to fill those needs?

a. Internal

    Replacement charts

Employee Replacement Chart for Succession Planning

3. Are resources available – internally or externally – to fill those needs?

a. Internal

    Replacement charts

    Promotability

3. Are resources available – internally or externally – to fill those needs?

a. Internal

    Replacement charts

    Promotability

    Succession planning

    Skills inventory

    Transition (Markov) matrix

A Sample Transition Matrix

b. External – what do you look at?

    - Try to determine availability of qualified labor; Surplus? Shortage?

4. What should we do?

  Create plan of action to reconcile supply and demand

a. Set objectives

b. Generate alternatives

Staffing Alternatives to Deal with Employee Surpluses Source: Compliments of Dan Ward, GTE Corporation

Staffing Alternatives to Deal with Employee Shortages Source: Compliments of Dan Ward, GTE Corporation

4. What should we do?
  create plan of action to reconcile supply and demand

   a. Set objectives

   b. Generate alternatives

   c. Assess alternatives

Alternative Scheduling Options

4. What should we do?

  create plan of action to reconcile supply and demand

   a. Set objectives

   b. Generate alternatives

   c. Assess alternatives

   d. Choose alternative – KEEP PHILOSOPHY IN MIND

5. How did we do?

   a. Did company avoid surplus/shortage?

   b. Evaluate usefulness of methods used

   c. Goals v. Production Levels, etc.