What is the importance of Human Resource Planning?

(i) Increasing Investments in Human Resources.
Human assets can increase in value.
An employee who develops his/her skills and abilities becomes a more valuable resource.
Because an organisation makes investments in its personnel either through direct training or job assignments, it is important that employees are used effectively throughout their careers.

(ii) Resistance to Change and Move
There is a growing resistance among employees to change and move. There is also a growing emphasis on self-evaluation and on evaluation of loyalty and dedication to the organisation. All these changes make it more difficult for the organisation to assume that it can move its employees around anywhere and anytime it wants, thus increasing the importance and necessity of planning ahead.
Human Resource Planning helps unite the perspectives of both line and staff managers. Human Resource Planning requires the input and cooperation of all managers within an organisation. No one knows better the needs of a particular unit or department than an individual manager responsible for that area.
Communication between Human Resource staff and line managers is essential for the success of HR planning initiatives.

(iii) Future Personnel Needs
Planning helps to determine future personnel needs. Surplus or deficiency in staff strength is the result of the absence of or defective planning. All public sector enterprises find themselves overstaffed now as they never had any planning of their personnel requirements.

(iv) Part of Strategic Planning
HR management must become an integral part of strategic management process. All activities of HRM-planning, hiring, training, remunerating, and maintaining- must be merged with strategic management.
HR planning becomes a part of strategic planning at two ends. At the beginning of strategic planning, HRP provides a set of inputs into the strategic formulation process in terms of deciding whether the types and numbers of people are available to pursue a given strategy.
At the end of strategic planning process, HRP is relevant in terms of implementation concerns. Once the strategy is set, executives need to make resource allocation decisions, including those pertaining to structure, processes and human resources.

(v) Creating Highly Talented Personnel
The HR manager must use his/her ingenuity to attract and retain qualified and skilled personnel. These people are known for job hopping, thereby creating frequent shortages in the organisation. Manpower planning helps prevent such shortages. Technology changes will often upgrade some jobs and degrade others.

(vi) International Strategies
International expansion strategies depend upon HRP. The department’s ability to fill in key jobs with foreign nationals and the re-assignment of employees from within or across national borders is a major challenge facing international businesses.
With growing trend toward global operation, the need for HRP will grow and the need to integrate HRP more closely into the organisation’s strategic plans. HRP will grow increasingly important as the process of meeting staffing needs from foreign countries and the attendant cultural, language, and developmental considerations grow complex.

(vii) Foundation for Personnel Functions
Human Resource Planning provides essential information for designing and implementing personnel functions such as recruitment, selection, personnel movement (transfers, promotions, layoffs) and training & development.

---

maurice.mutuku answered the question on April 15, 2019 at 06:09