- Future Personnel Needs:
Planning is significant as it helps determine future personnel needs. Surplus or deficiency in staff strength is the result of the absence of or defective planning.
- Coping with Change:
HRP enables and enterprise to cope with changes in competitive forces, markets, technology, products, and government regulations. Such changes generate changes in job content, skill demands, and number and number and type of personnel. Shortage of people may be noticed in some areas while surplus in other areas may occur.
- Creating highly talented Personnel:
As was mentioned earlier, jobs are becoming highly intellectual and incumbents are getting vastly professionalized. L & T, an engineering giant, has MBA’s, engineers and technicians who collectively constitute 70 percent of the other employee strength of 20000.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. Furthermore, technology changes will often upgrade some jobs and degrade others.
For e.g. Indian Telephone Industries had a stronger technology to start with, which later developed into crossbar telephone system. This was later changed to electronic technology?
Another facet of the high talented personnel is management succession planning. Who will replace the retiring chief executive? From what pool of people will top executive be selected and how will these individuals be groomed for their increased responsibilities?
HRP is an answer to these and other related questions.
- Protection of Weaker sections:
In matters of employment and promotions, sufficient representation needs to be given to
SC/ST candidates, physically handicapped, children of the socially politically oppressed and backward-class citizens. These groups enjoy a given percentage of jobs, not withstanding the constitutional provision, which guarantees equal opportunities for all
- International Strategies:
International expansion strategies depend upon HRP.
The department’s ability to fill 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 the growing trend towards global operation, the need for HRP will grow, as well as 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 development considerations grow complex.
Without effective HRP and subsequent attention to employee recruitment, selection, placement, development and career planning, the growing competition for foreign executives may lead to expensive and strategically disruptive turnover among key decision makers.
- Foundation for personnel functions;
Manpower planning provides essential information for designing and implementing personnel functions, such as recruitment, selection, personnel movement (transfers, promotions, layoffs) and training and development.
- Increasing Investments in Human resources
Another compelling reason for HRP is the investment and organization makes in its human resources. Human assets, as opposed to physical assets, can increase in value.
An employee who gradually develops his/her skills and abilities becomes a more valuable resource.
Because an organization makes investments in its personnel either through direct training or job assignments, it is important that employees are used effectively throughout their careers. The rupee value of a trained, flexible motivated and productive workforce is difficult to determine, although attempts are being made to do so, as in HR accounting (HRA).
- Resistance to change and Move:
There is a growing resistance among employees to change and move. There is a lot a growing emphasis on self-evaluation and on evaluation of loyalty and dedication to the organization. All these changes are making it more difficult for the organizations to assume that it can move its employees around anywhere and anytime it wants, thus increasing the importance and necessity of planning ahead.
- Other Benefits
Following are other potential benefits of HRP:
- Upper management has a better view of the HR dimensions of business decision.
- Personnel costs may be less because the management can anticipate imbalances before they become unmanageable and expensive.
- More time is provided to locate talent.
- Better opportunities exist to include women and minority groups in future growth plans.
- Better Planning of assignments to develop managers can be done
- Major and successful demands on local labour markets can be made.