Change, Follow, or Get Out of the Way Essay

Change in an organization can be and usually is difficult for various reasons. Much of the difficulty is in the approach used to initiate change and the willingness to stay engaged and stamina to sustain change through to the end. Organizations can choose to lead by recognizing and implementing change, follow in the shadow of organizations leading the market, or get out of the way by standing still and eventually going under. With this said; if change was easily done and successful for every organization there would be no need for change management specialists and years and years of study to establish approaches and models for implementing change. Change would be a natural evolutionary process such as a caterpillar evolves into a butterfly, but it is not that simple. Seemingly simple changes to processes or procedures can cause an unbalance with leaders and employees alike. First the need for change needs to be identified; followed by the proper model or approach used to implement this change. During this paper, I will discuss implementing the Advanced Skills Management (ASM) software change in an organization by using Kotter’s Eight-Step Approach. First it is important to give some background on how organizations are structured specifically aviation squadrons with respect to the Marine Corps. The military branches are large separate decentralized organizations that are controlled ultimately by the President of the United States. Since it is impossible for the President to efficiently manage all branches and all the separate divisions within them, each branch has a leader or CEO. Aviation squadrons are made up of different Military Occupational Specialties that pertain to the type model series aircraft assigned. Each specialty has different responsibilities in the care and maintenance of the aircraft; therefore, requires separate and different training and is broken down into separate departments. It has all the typical levels of management expected; executive managers, middle managers, and frontline managers as well as managerial types such as staff managers and line managers. The Commanding Officer would be considered the CEO with the Executive Officer, Sergeant Major, Maintenance Officer, and Maintenance Training Chief falling into the general manager level. The Officer in Charge of each division would fall into the mid-level and the Senior Marine in each department being the front-line managers. Each has similar reporting criteria, responsibilities, and decision making power as would a civilian organization structured this way. As one might imagine with a military unit it has a mechanistic structure with a high use of rules and procedures, with formal relationships between workers. In regards to the degree of delegation of decision making authority and power the organization is primarily centralized; however, some decentralization does exist to allow latitude in day to day business. The organization I have chosen is an organization I was previously attached. Diagnosing this change falls under the Action Research Model, primary because an outside agency comes in to perform audits looking at our processes and procedures to ensure proper adherence to applicable rules and regulations are being followed and to train or advice on changes required. Through their process they discovered our organization’s documentation was incomplete or not correctly annotated. This probably does not seem like a very difficult change to make considering it is just documentation; however, it does go deeper than simply changing how maintenance training is documented. The Chief of Naval Operations has established goals of seventy three percent MC (mission capable and fifty six percent FMC (full mission capable) as the overall material readiness goal (Aircraft Material Condition Readiness, 2012). When qualifications and training are not properly documented the ability and efficiency of the squadron is impaired causing the organization to struggle to me larger goals such as those of the Chief of Naval Operations, not to mention not being able to execute our Marine Corps mission. This change is difficult to determine if it should be referred to as first or second order changes, because it will and has affected the organization as a whole and for most members this will be a radical change. Within aviation squadrons each member is required to complete training syllabi for each of their different Military Occupational Specialty, ground support equipment, and advanced qualifications. Other training requirements such as safety training, NAVOSH (Navy equivalent to OSHA), Military Occupational Specialty classroom training, and on records of on-the-job training are maintained. All of this information is recorded on paper and kept in each members training jackets requiring large amounts of time to keep current. The first of Kotter’s Eight-Step Approach is establish a sense of urgency to have a pressing importance of action towards addressing issues and without this sense of urgency employees will not be motivated to examine markets and competitive realities needed to identify and discuss crises, potential crises, or opportunities the organization may be faced with (Weiss, 2012). In this instance the sense of urgency or the pressing importance of this change intervention on saving time on administrative actions, providing an efficient process for accurately recording training information for auditing purposes, and using that time on aircraft maintenance to enable the organization to better meet the Chief of Naval Operations goals for aircraft readiness. Also, confronting the brutal facts that training, because of the time consuming process now is not being documented accurately or in a timely manner, sometimes not at all. The goal here would be to help others recognize the need for change and generate a need to act immediately at all levels. To help all levels of leadership see the urgency, showing them the advantages to implementing the software would be my immediate action. First demonstrating the reduction of man hours spent maintaining and updating records. The work performed in military aviation is not measured in by a monetary bottom line as is the case in most civilian organizations. Success is measured by maintenance hours versus flight hours and mission readiness of the aircraft we maintain, so the more man hours saved the more can be spent towards the mission. Second advantage is the ability to standardize training and syllabi not only as an aviation community, but for each platform or type aircraft. This will allow easier transfer of personnel and qualifications from one squadron to another again easing the administrative burdens as well as better audit results. Third advantage is the software will link with the maintenance management system used to record all maintenance on the aircraft. This link will transfer on-the-job training for each member from the maintenance document to the on-the-job training section in ASM again saving administrative time of having to physically write each job performed in the training jacket. Second step of Kotter’s Eight-Step Approach is forming a powerful guiding coalition; done by assembling a team of top-level officers or other key influential members from the various levels with enough power and credibility to lead the changes and encourage these members to work as a team (Weiss, 2012). In the military, changes are often implemented simply through adherence to orders given by superiors. Members roger up and get the job done whether they agree or not, but the reason for change should be deeper than this. Sustaining the change under this type of implementation is very difficult and often does not hold. To be able to form a powerful coalition and convince leaders this proactive change is good and get buy-in both the implementation and the sustaining will be easier. In the case of ASM, it seems being able to demonstrate and show leaders at all levels of the management the advantages to implementing the software would be the first step in getting buy-in from them and to begin the coalition. These leaders will not entirely be those with legitimate power, but include those members whose expertise will also lend credibility to the need for this change. An example of this would be those who are responsible for ensuring training is properly conducted and recorded. Furthermore, to demonstrate how the software will save them administrative time, how it will enable better record keeping, show them the data warehousing to enable easier and more accurate reporting of core competencies, and eventually allow them to focus more man hour time on the mission. Third step in Kotter’s approach is developing a vision; meaning to create a vision as a guide to direct the changes along with the strategies that will be needed for achieving the vision (Weiss, 2012). Vision, or common goal, is something for the organization to strive for. This is not likely to be immediately achievable, but gives employees something to believe in and a direction for the company to focus their efforts (Weiss, 2011). The Marine Corps vision states â€Å"The Marine Corps of 2025 will fight and win our Nation’s battles with multicapable MAGTFs, either from the sea or in sustained operations ashore. Our unique role as the Nation’s force in readiness, along with our values, enduring ethos, and core competencies, will ensure we remain highly responsive to the needs of combatant commanders in an uncertain environment and against irregular threats. Our future Corps will be increasingly reliant on naval deployment, preventative in approach, leaner in equipment, versatile in capabilities, and innovative in mindset. In an evolving and complex world, we will excel as the Nation’s expeditionary â€Å"force of choice† (Marine Corps Vision & Strategy 2025, n. . , pg. 6). The Marine Corps vision mentioned, among other things, being â€Å"innovative in mindset†. Part of being innovative is finding ways to be more engaged in the mission and making sure assets are ready whenever and for whatever called upon. Innovation and change normally bring about efficiency and hopefully savings in either money or in this case man hours. The vision for implementing ASM is to create efficiency through innovation; simplifying indirect mission essential tasks allowing more focus on the direct mission goals. Strategy for implementation would be fairly simple and would require to first receive classroom training to learn basic functions of the system. Next phase would include implementing the system at the organization, which would include loading and entering all required qualifications and training from the paper versions of the training jacket. This would include further over the shoulder training from the company who developed the software to help speed the implementation process. This would serve two purposes; first it would allow members to get further training and confidence in the system by learning where information is stored and second they would have experts available to answer questions and issues during the implementation process to help further personal mastery. Fourth step is for the coalition or team formed in step two must communicate the vision by any means possible ensuring employees understand the vision requiring these team members to model the behaviors needed for the vision and strategies to be successful (Weiss, 2012). The vision will be communicated at every opportunity through emails, meetings, flyers, screen savers, texting, and memorandums throughout the squadron to ensure people are aware. Part of communicating the vision would include leaders receiving the training first to help during the implementation process and to show or be visible to the other members by setting the example using the new software with the intent that they will begin to communicate further to members below them. â€Å"A vision is not a vision if people don’t know about it. Repeat the vision, keep it simple, use metaphors and analogies, spread it in many forums and forms. Above all, lead by example. If integrating EH&S into every decision and business process is the vision, make sure you do it, no matter how trivial the decision. This sends a powerful message to everyone you encounter† (Lawrence & Ruth, 1998, para. 7). Step five involves empowering others to act on the vision. At this stage it is important that members become involved in the change and begin to take ownership in determining the success. Members will have received their training and will be operating the system on a day to day basis. This is where those members that have not bought into the change will begin to manifest themselves. They will begin to create barriers and want to revert back to the status quo, because they are comfortable with the old way of conducting business and where short-term wins will be important in showing them how the system is or will benefit them. â€Å"With the urgency established, the vision created, the guiding coalition and communication vehicles established, give employees the chance to take ownership. Eliminate obstacles that impede progress, such as lack of skills, or people who poison the water against change. Facilitate the use of cross-functional teams and allow employees to push the envelope with fresh ideas and renewed energy† (Lawrence & Ruth, 1998, para. 8). Step six is generating short-term wins to solidify the benefits of the change. Short-term wins with the ASM system would include saved time for the administrators maintaining the system and training records. By now there should be noticeable or measurable results available showing the amount of saved man hours or more than likely a measurable increase in man hours spent on the aircraft maintenance mission. As a result, the aircraft readiness should also be increasing allowing the squadron to reach or exceed the CNO goals. Another short-term win will include improved results on audits related to training management with more timely input of information and better accuracy. This in turn should increase the urgency and begin to create or solidify the new culture of using this system. â€Å"To ensure success, short term wins must be both visible and unambiguous. The wins must also be clearly related to the change effort. Such wins provide evidence that the sacrifices that people are making are paying off. This increases the sense of urgency and the optimism of those who are making the effort to change. These wins also serve to reward the change agents by providing positive feedback that boosts morale and motivation. The wines also serve the practical purpose of helping to fine tune the vision and the strategies† (Kotter International, 2012, step 6, para. 3). Step seven requires consolidation of gains and the production of more change. This is done by using increased credibility to change systems, structures and policies and hiring, promoting, and developing members to further implement and reinvigorate the change (Weiss, 2012). Policies such as time limits on completion of syllabi, testing procedures, and access permissions for example would be generated to better control and further enhance the efficiency of the system. Also those members who were causing the barriers for progress of the system would need to be dealt with in order for the change initiative to continue. Unlike many civilian organizations, hiring and firing employees to better position the organization is not an option. Leaders in the upper levels can be relieved, but at lower levels positions are filled by external agencies and you have what you get and make the magic happen with the talent that exists. This often times is very difficult to juggle putting the right people in the right positions to conduct day to day business, much less initiate change and sustain it; so much time is spent trying to develop Marines. During this paper, I discussed implementing the Advanced Skills Management (ASM) software change in an organization by using Kotter’s Eight-Step Approach. It can be a difficult task to implement change, especially when dealing with the various different personalities involved. Having a plan to be able to create urgency for the change, creating coalitions with leaders, and empowering employees with knowledge can make the change process easier by ensuring employees are a part of and take responsibility for the success. In civilian organizations removing those who do not want to be part of the change is an option; however, in the military setting this is not a likely solution making the idea of getting buy-in from members even more important.

Results and Discussion Sample

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The measurement that were recorded from the experiment focused more on how the orange peel affect the growth of the mung bean plant over the course of the experiment. Table 1. Effect of Orange Peel to the Mung Bean Plant Trial 1| Orange Peel Growth Enhancer| Commercial Growth Enhancer| Pot 1| Week 1| Week 2| Week 1| | The mung bean plant sprouted a little. | The mung bean plant grew faster after putting a large amount of orange peel. | The mung bean plant grew faster. Trial 2| Orange PeelGrowth Enhancer| CommercialGrowth Enhancer| Pot 1| Week 1| Week 2 | Week 1| | The mung bean plant sprouted a little. | The mung bean plant grew faster after putting a large amount of orange peel. | The mung bean plant grew faster. | Table 1 shows the growth of the mung bean plant during a two-week period in two trials. As the table shows, when you put little amount of orange peel to the plant and when you put a large amount of orange peel to the plant. The mung bean plant grows faster using commercial growth enhancer. But using the orange peel as growth enhancer is somehow effective. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS Conclusions Based from the data gathered, the researchers conclude that the orange peel can be a good growth enhancer to mung bean plant. It gives a fast reaction to the plant. It has the same effect with commercial growth enhancers on mung bean plant. Recommendations Based from the drawn conclusions, the researchers recommend the following: 1. Conduct more reliable test using varied plants and test whether the growth enhancer will really help in faster plant growth. 2. Apply different measurement of the materials. Since putting a lot the orange peel to the plant gives faster reaction, try to apply less amount of it and test it. 3. Make one or more of the growth enhancer, and with different measurement of the materials, test whether it is more effective if you apply more orange peel or if it still effective if you put less orange peel to the plant.

Reed Supermarket case Essay

Recommendations for Growth: 1. Stop the dollar special for each week: 1st step is to stop the dollar special promotion immediately. This is not consistent with the brand equity and positioning built over the years. It’s resulting in net operating loss of 76% on each discounted item and overall decreased the net operating profit for 2010 to 0.4% only (details in justification). Moreover, this promotional activity is polluting the message for regular consumers, considering that some of the dollar stores are located nearby. 2. Increase Sales Target: To increase the current market share to 16%, sales target is set to775Mn for 2011. It’s an increase of 95Mn. from 2010, on the assumption that total marketsize (4.74Bn) remains same. 3. Focus and Maintain current Target Segment and Increase the Wallet Share: Continue focusing on the current target segment of affluent and older customers with smaller household size. Their wallet share is 8.93% only as compared to average supermarket customer’s walle t share of 10.0% (details in justification). Wallet share of Reed customers will be increased by at least 1% which will result in additional revenue of 79Mn/year. 4. Maintain current Brand Positioning: Maintain current brand positioning by serving to highend of customers with good and specialised quality of products (like sea food and organic).Continue leveraging on better customer experience by providing attentive staff, shortercheck out times, and opening stores for long hours, with clean and better lit lay outs. This will able to defend the competition from Delfina, Whole Foods Market and Galaxy and Top Val. 5. Improve Product Mix: Improve the product mix by introducing more private labels. Increase the private labels to 25% of total products on offer while maintaining the same Gross Marginand SG&A. Offer 2 types of product in each category, one with different brands (total 75% ofthat category) as a premium product and second with private label with lower prices as compared to branded ones. This increase in private labels will send a signal to stores like Aldi to  not to enter their territory of high end market with private labels. Roll out the bundled products containing food and beverages. Increase the organic andprepared food (high margin) in a product category where feasible and continue the organicpets food for its customer (comprises 20% of existing customer). 6. Increase Customer Base: Reed will grab at least 1% of market share of Galaxy storesresulting in additional sales of $47.15 Mn (details in justification). 7. Price: There will be no change in pricing policy for all the products (dollar sp. is scrapped). 8. Promotion: Leverage the integrated marketing channel of online, print and ad to promotenew addition of more private labels, organic food and prepared food. Promote the message healthy food adds to betters quality of life and for this no compromises should be madeesp. in later part of the life (for older affluent population). This will help in tackling theperception of consumers that prices are high. Promote the excellence in customer service,clean stores and convenient locations. These promotions will drive the increase in customerloyalty, awareness, choice and will increase the trips to store. 9. Maintain Current Locations: As far as distribution is concerned don’t add new stores oracquire any new store this year. Lot of dollar stores have come up at convenient locations toconsumers but it has made only a marginal impact (increase of 0.05%) on their habit ofregularly shopping at supermarkets, so don’t react to it. Additionally there are no plans forany capital expenditure for next 2 years as market conditions are quite tough. Why These Recommendations To understand how these recommendations were made, let’s first explore the current Industry situation, followed by Industry player and competition analysis and finally thejustification of why these recommendations are made for Meredith Collins. Porters – Industry Analysis Industry Players & Competition Players in this industry make money by applying high volume and low margin strategy. Theonus here is to leverage the economies of scale driven by operational efficiency to reducethe cost. They buy large number of products across various categories in bulk from  different suppliers and sell them at lower prices as compared to a smaller store which have limited shell space, product range and category. Net Operating Margins are quite thin, 1.5% – 2.5%,room for error or slag is nearly negligible in operations. There are 5 types of player in theindustry competing in 3 segments, from high end to low end of market. They are differentiating with each other on the following parameters: Pricing as a strategy (shown below in perceptual map) is used by retailers to differentiate. Some are positioning their price low (Dollar stores) and some at premium like Reed, someuse discounted pricing or everyday low prices (TopVal). Product specialisation and variety is another way of differentiation being employed. Someretailers are offering specialised products, like Reed specialises in organic and fresh seafoods and some differentiate on packaging. Some retailers are selling various products in a category by different manufactures and some retailers like Aldi sell only 1 product exclusively (private label) in a category. Quality is another way of differentiating the product, higher the quality, higher the price. Reed and Whole Foods are leading the pack when it comes to quality. Customer Experience driven by customer service and presentation plays a bigger role inattracting customers. For customer service, stores like Reed open for long hours, have morestaff on check outs to reduce the servicing time, have runners for shuttling the baggage.Some stores (like Dollar stores) have less/minimal staff (reduced cost) for help and checkout. For presentation stores are leveraging cleanliness, bright and better lighting (Aldi, Reed)and a better layout of shelves and stores Perceptual Map: Justification for Recommendations Focus on current Customer Segment and Increase Wallet Share: Reed’s current customer segment is composed of affluent and older customers with, smaller householdsize. Their annual income is 12% higher ($58,200) then state’s median household income of$52,000. On Average Annual spend by customers in US is $5,200. Hence on average wallet share of Reed’s customer is 8.93% (refer Appendix) as compared to 10% wallet share of anaverage customer. Additionally, on average customer in US spends $47.62/trip to a supermarket and currently Reeds Average Sales Value is $31.42/transaction. This must be  leveraged to increase the average sales value and wallet share. Having said that, it seems that current downturn has impacted the spending habits of Reeds customer segment. Competition and Brand Positioning: Reeds main competitor is Delfina, Whole FoodsMarket, Galaxy and TopVal. These players together comprise 45.10% of total market and Reed is leading overall. Since they are in same segment of market (except Top Val), its vital Reed maintain its current brand equity and position (defending the territory) which has beenbuilt over the years. Whole Foods which is competing with Reed on same positioning insame segment, but it has only 3 stores and has 1.2 % of market share. Reed need not worryabout them at this stage. As far as threat from Galaxy (supervalu) is concerned, they don’thave good locations and only some stores are marginally profitable. They are in trouble andit’s a matter of time when they are up for sale. Reed doesn’t need to react to them, in factthere is a potential for Reed to get some customers from Galaxy.On competition from TopVal it is positioned as low price player in the middle marketsegment. It’s very aggressive and is reacting hard to mai ntain its presence in competitionwith Walmart & Costco, this is not sustainable, and therefore there is no need to react totheir everyday low pricing discount roll out. To further defend against competitors, continueleveraging on better customer experience by providing attentive staff, shorter check outtimes, and opening stores for long hours with clean and better lit layouts. It’s neither attractive and nor possible for Reed to move to middle end of market (in middle ofperceptual map) where bigger players like Costco and Walmart hold the place with totalshare of 13.46%. Any signalling (using Game Theory)/movement in that segment can drivethe price wars leading to a disaster for Reed as they have bigger pockets and globalcapacity to sustain the price war.On the lower end (extreme right on perceptual map) of market it’s evident from perceptualMap that dollar stores doesn’t impose any serious threat as they have combined marketshare of 1.2% and can reach up to maximum of 3%. They have a different customersegment and market positioning. Similarly Aldi/Trader Joe has 1.62% of market share todayand can reach up to maximum of 5%. Store like Aldi rely heavily on lean operating modeland efficiency. It leverages private labels  (95%) and limited products (14,000 only) comparedto 50,000 in a supermarket) by Reed. Aldi targets niche customers w ith low and medium endof price market. In short term it doesn’t pose any threat to Reed, in longer term they canpose some threat as they have the expertise to compete and can grow aggressively byintroducing private labels for high end of market. Improve Product Mix: Currently 17% of sale is attributed by private labels in food andbeverage and has grown since 2005. Private labels aren’t perceived a low quality product anymore because of aggressive campaigning over the years in industry. These are beingused successfully at lower and middle end of price market by Aldi/Joe Traders. It will bewise for Reed to increase its product mix by increasing their intake of private labels in highend of products (high price and quality). This will add more choice for consumers along withbranded ones. Negotiate with the bigger suppliers and tell them that they need toincrease/add private label offerings as consumer doesn’t perceive them low value anymore.If they don’t come to the party then look for new suppliers in private label category.Bundling of food and beverages must be done as they complement each other and goeswell with target customer base. This will help in driving the sales and margin. Organic andprepared food is high margin as a product category and goes well with the health consciousand affluent people (less time for cooking). So these products need more attractive shelfspace and intake by Reed and it will help in driving the increase wallet share. Organic petfood is a good way of retaining (loyalty) affluent segment and increasing the trips to store asthey take their pets when they go out for shopping. Increase Customer Base: Reed need to target to grab at least 1% of market share($47.15MN) of Galaxy. These stores are poorly located & are in trouble as they can’t sustainthese promotions. Addition of more private labels, more prepared food, good customerservice & convenient locations will help in driving the customers to Reed. Scrap Dollar Special Promotions: Since June 2010, 250 items have been offered on adollar special on weekly  basis where prices have been reduced by 44% (refer Appendix).This sale constitutes 4% (12.69 Mn.) of total sales in a week, which is 0.51 Mn/week ofsales. This has increased the traffic in some stores by 3% but each sale is registering a netoperating loss of 76% on these discounted items and decreasing the overall net profit ofReed for 2010 to 0.4% only (refer Appendix). This is not sustainable from economic point ofview, if this is run for 12 months Reed will make a loss. Secondly from brand equity point ofview it is destroying the equity built over the years. It is sending mixed signals to targetcustomer segment as dollar stores are nearby. The 3% increase in traffic at some stores isdriven by bargain hunters, which is opposite to Reeds Positioning. Price: There is no need for change in pricing policy for all products as COGS and Expensesare built in using economies of scale. It’s already a very low margin business (NPM of 1.5%to 2.5%); further reduction of price (only and having same GM and S&A) will impact the economic model and the bottom line of Reed. This is also evident from the Dollar SpecialPromotions Conclusion: These points above provide the justification for recommendations. Reed muststay the course on what it has done successfully over the years. This current cycle ofdownturn and increasing competition must be used to focus on target segment & defend theterritory and grow on what Reed does well. Reaction like weekly Dollar Special without athorough analysis and plan can be detrimental to business. Soon there will be moreopportunities as some players will burn themselves by employing unsustainable practices.So Reed must stay the course with sharp focus.

Human Resource Planning

HR Planning: * The process for ensuring that the HR requirements of an organization are identified and plans are made for satisfying those requirements. * Planning for the personnel needs of an organization based on internal activities and external environment * How many people? What sort of people? Definitions: * HRP determines the human resources required by the organization to achieve its goals. It is â€Å"the process of ensuring that the human resource requirements of an organization are identified and plans are made for satisfying those requirements† – Bulla & Scott. It is the process, â€Å"including forecasting, developing and controlling, by which a firm ensures that it has the right number of people and the right kind of people at the right places at the right time doing the work for which they are economically most useful† – E. B. Geisler. * It is a strategy for the acquisition, utilization, improvement and preservation of the human resources of an enterprise. It is the activity of the management to coordinate the requirements for and the availability of different types of employees.This involves ensuring that the firm has enough of the right kind of people at the right time and also adjusting the requirements to the available supply. Objectives of HR Planning: * To ensure quality and quantity of HR at the right time and the right place * To ensure optimum utilization of human resources * To avoid understaffing and overstaffing Importance: * Reservoir of Talent * Expansion/ Contraction * Cutting costs * Succession Planning MANPOWER PLANNING MAKES FOR DIFFERENT PURPOSES AT DIFFERENT LEVELS: MACRO-LEVEL NATIONAL SECTOR – WISE INDUSTRY – WISE MICRO- LEVEL ORGANISATION LEVELOrganizational Objectives & Policies: * Downsizing / Expansion * Acquisition / Merger / Sell-out * Technology up gradation / Automation * New Markets & New Products * External Vs Internal hiring * Training & Re-training * Union Constraints HRP includes four factors: * Quantity- How many people do we need? * Quality- Which skills, knowledge and abilities do we need? * Space-Where do we need the employees? * Time-When do we need the employees and for how long do we need them? Steps in HRP: * Forecasting future people needs * Forecasting the future availability of people * Drawing up plans to match supply with demandHR Demand Forecast: Process of estimating future quantity and quality of manpower required for an organization. * External factors – competition, laws & regulation, economic climate, changes in technology and social factors. * Internal factors – budget constraints, production levels, new products & services, organizational structure & workforce factors. Forecasting Techniques: * Expert forecasts * Trend Analysis * Workforce Analysis * Workload Analysis * Job Analysis Supply Forecasting: * Internal Supply ( Skill Inventory) * Age, gender, education, experience, training, job assignments, past perfor mance, future potential. External Supply Important barometers of Labor Supply: * Net migration into and out of the area * Education Levels of the workforce * Demographic Changes in the population * Technological developments and shifts * National and regional employment rates * Actions of competing employers * Govt. policies, regulations and measures * Economic forecasts for the next few years * Attractiveness of the area/ industry THE PROCESS OF HUMAN RESOUCE PLANNIG GENERAL OVERVIEW: BUSINESS STRATEGIC PLANS RESOURCING STRATEGY PLANNING DEMAND / SUPPLY FORECASTING MANPOWER TURNOVER ANALYSIS WORK ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS HUMAN RESOURCE PLANSOPERATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS RESOURCING RETENTION FLEXIBILITY PRODUCTIVITY WORK ENVIRONMENT THE MANPOWER PLANNING PROCESS–FROM THE ORGANISATIONAL VIEW POINT: COMPANY OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIC PLANS MARKET FORECASTS PRODUCTION OBJECTIVES / CAPITAL PROCESS FINANCE PLAN MANPOWER ANALYSIS INVENTORY EMPLOYMENT PRODUCTIVITY ORGANISATION MANPO WER FORECASTS (FUTURE SITUATION) OVERALL UNIT BUDGET MANAGEMENT MANPOWER MANPOWER APPROVAL MANPOWERFORECAST FORECAST ESTIMATES TOP MANAGEMENT APPROVAL MANPOWER OBJECTIVES AND POLICIES MANPOWER PLANS AND PROGRAMMES RECRUITMENT & SELECTION, CARER PLANNING, PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT, TRAINING, RETIREMENT ANALYSIS, REDUNDANCIES etc. Formulating HR Plans: * Recruitment Plans * Redeployment Plans * Redundancy Plans * Training Plan * Productivity Plan * Retention Plan Example of the Basic Human Resources Planning Model: Organizational Objectives Human Resource Requirements Human Resource Programs Feasibility Analysis 1 2 3 4 5 Example of the Basic Human Resource Planning Model: Open new product lineOpen new factory and distribution system Develop staffing for new installation Production workers Supervisors Technical staff Other managers Recruiting and training programs feasible Transfers infeasible because of lack of managers with right skills Recruit skilled workers Develop technical trainin g programs Transfer managers from other facilities Develop new objectives and plans Recruit managers from outside Too costly to hire from outside 1 2 3 4 3 5 Forecasting as a Part of Human Resource Planning: DEMAND FORECASTING SUPPLY FORECASTING Determine organizational objectives Demand forecast for each objective Aggregate demand forecastDoes aggregate supply meet aggregate demand? Go to feasibility analysis steps Choose human resource programs External programs Recruiting External selection Executive exchange Internal programs Promotion Transfer Career planning Training Turnover control Internal supply forecast External supply forecast Aggregate supply forecast No Yes Manpower flow in an organization: Inflow Outflow Job Transfers Job recruits Job Relocations Job Hopping Transfers(out) Retirement VRS Scheme Discharge/ Dismissal Termination of service Resignations HR Pool in the Organization Internal Labor Supply: * Analysis of Manning/ Staffing Tables. Replacement Charts- Present incumbents, potential replacements. * Skills Inventory-education, interests, experience, skills, etc. * Succession Planning. * Turnover Analysis. * Wastage Analysis- Retirements, resignation, deaths, dismissals- Labor turnover Index, Stability Index, etc. Trend Analysis: * Projections-Basing it on Organizational Sales * Workforce Analysis- last 5 years * Workload Analysis * Job Analysis Job Analysis: * A systematic process by which information is collected and analyzed with respect to tasks, duties and responsibilities of the jobs within the organization * Job Analysis: What is to be done? How is it to be done? * Under what conditions is the job to be done? * What skills, knowledge and competencies are required to perform the job? * Job Content: Duties, responsibilities, job demands, machines, tools, equipment, performance standard * Job Context: Physical, organizational ad social context, working conditions, work schedule * Human Requirement: Job related knowledge, skills, educatio n, experience, personal attributes Components of Job Analysis: Job Description: written summary of the content and context of the job * Job Specification: Written statement of the knowledge, skills and abilities and other human requirements Questions in Job Analysis Interviews: * What is your job? * What are the major duties of your job? * What are the responsibilities of your job? * What physical locations do you work in? * Under what environmental conditions do you perform your job? * What are the skills, knowledge and experience requirements of your job? * What are the physical and emotional demands that the job makes on you? * What is the performance standards expected on your job? Human Resource Planning Human Resource (HR) Planning is the practice of determining and analysing the requirement for and supply of workforce in order to achieve the organisation’s goals and objectives, fulfil its mission and reach its vision (Mathis & Jackson, 2000). HR planning predicts forces that will affect the availability and requirement of employees in the future. This process will result in top executives having superior analysis of human resource measurement for its decision making; HR expenditure being decreased due to the fact that management can forecast imbalances prior to them becoming costly; additional time will be available to place skills since requirements are predicted and analysed before staffing is done; excellent opportunities are present to comprise female and ethnic groups in upcoming developments; training of new managers can be improved. The outcomes of these can be calculated and can be used for the evaluation of the accomplishments of HR planning (Mathis & Jackson, 2000). Human resource planning is a course of action that will aim to facilitate the organisation’s plan in recruiting, improvement and training, substitution, cross-functional development and management of programs for benefits and rewards. Subsequently to guarantee in building the best valuable human resource plan, the organisation should analyse the necessity of a strategic business plan, work proficiency plan, workforce planning, training and improvement planning, career development planning and planning for right-sizing (Macaleer & Shannon, 2003). Undeniably because of this analysis in HR planning, it is essential to have a sufficient Human Resource Information System (HRIS). The purpose of this is providing accurate, balance and on time information for the process. Now a computer-based system should provide a form of information about human resources necessary for strategic business decision making. This system reflects the relationship between work requirements, employee’s individual skills and levels of performance. In this instance, the information system serves as simple reflections of reality which will help develop better and effective business decisions which are known results in the codification of knowledge (Liff, 1997). In HR planning, external environmental forces should be considered such as present technology, political climate, economic situation, legal issues, social responsibility and cultural differences. Besides these external considerations are extremely important to HR activities especially, if HR planning is globally implemented. The serious pressures that are involve in a business are scarcity of talents, fast shifting technology, government regulations, environment, health, safety and changes in the market. In this situation, the human resource planning innovations of the company are affected. This will make sure that the organisation has the right work force with the right skills in the right jobs at the right moment. There is no argument that human resource planning should be associated with the strategic goals of the company. Hence, human resource planning is an important factor in managing an organisation competently and successfully. Accordingly, HR planning positively improves organisation performance if the HR plan is strategy-based and human resource is a convincing strategic collaborator (Macaleer & Shannon, 2003). Most parts of the world may be in recession and economies are in disorder will result in worldwide effects on organisations and businesses. Any type of HR planning is presented with a surmountable differences of opinion connected with unpredictable and uncertain times. In this case, if the planning is done by HR professionals who have superior knowledge of magnitude and quality of essential resources needed for revitalization, there is optimism of future positive outcomes. According to Robert A. Simpkins (2009), an organisational adviser and educator, there are two types of plans. One is designed to guarantee ‘business continuity’ in the appearance of manmade or natural catastrophe. Second is a plan that is framed for the ‘uncertainty’ of the business environment. HR planning is the most critical part of the organisation’s strategic plans for the reason that observing and adjusting for environmental changes will make the success of the process. All the drivers of the company’s internal and external environment are altering at an accelerating speed including advancements in technology with respect to hardware, software and connectivity, globalization, shifting of sources and consumers, changing competition, changes in markets, the alteration of demographics, change of population lifestyle, the macro and micro changes in economics and the progressively more bewildering government and international regulations (Simpkins 2009). Businesses have the desire to stay significant in the face of consumers and stakeholders. Mostly, the organisations that maintained their importance have built remarkable HR plans that are continually reviewed and modernized. Regrettably, other businesses build better folders that compose overall strategic human resources plans that are short of any back-up planning, and these stay behind on the shelf gathering dust for years, inappropriate to a present shifting business climate. Finally, Simpkins (2009) concludes that an organisation needs to design a communicable HR plan that is not detailed enough to slow down operation. Since HR professionals are with higher-level of understanding, the group will have the elasticity to adjust what will take place in the future. The solution to a positive result is to keep HR plan flexible (Simpkins, 2009). Human resources issues have been the first among all business issues to affect the outcome of a business organisation. Human resources have risks and these risks are the challenges that resulted from managing your employees, processes and procedures. Therefore by dealing with these risks in HR and finance, one can make positive organisational outcomes. On the other hand, if these issues are not addressed appropriately these possibly will cause major harm to the business (Steffee, 2008). Public personnel management research and practices increasingly focus on creative human resource management (HRM) strategies for recruiting individuals with Information Technology (IT) expertise and retaining employees with institutional knowledge, particularly in light of impending retirements. Some agencies face unique workforce demographic challenges, while others face shifts in missions or technologies. For these reasons, the U. S. Office of Personnel Management relaxed some regulations to allow federal agencies to meet their staffing needs (Mastracci, 2009, p. 19). With regards to staffing needs, workforce planning is the course of action that companies utilize to recognize and deal with the staffing implications of their strategic human resources plans or change of business plans. Workforce planning has a sole objective, to develop a long term perspective within which short term workforce decisions can be achieved efficiently. Staffing strategy is a long term plan that makes sure that availability of employees matches its requirement for employees. Staffing plans illustrate short term plans which an organisation will make in the immediate future to deal with staffing gaps and excesses. By implementing this procedure, the businesses can make certain it has the accurate quantity of people, with the appropriate skill, in position at the right moment. Workforce planning can facilitate the execution of business changes and innovations. The growth in organisations is anticipated overtime during the workforce planning phases. This process is essential in determining the staffing that would be required for growth that will make sure the needed skills will be obtainable to accomplish those development goals. It also allows a business company to construct and implement downsizing plans in the best efficient method. The absence of this strategy makes it hard to identify staffing reductions that have a positive effect on the future of the organisation (Bechet, 2008). Rightsizing or downsizing or organisational decimation is a persistent strategic human resource practice for the last thirty years (Gandolfi, 2008). This refers to the planned removal of big quantity of workforce intended to improve organisational efficiency. In fact, this process is a commonly accepted company solution in times of financial difficulties of the organisation. Although studies show enough indication that rightsizing companies is not generally a successful method of reaching goals of optimum output and maximum profit. However, rightsizing sometimes cannot be avoided; workforce reduction ought to be a management means of last resort rather than first option. For the duration of an economic recession, an organisation should think of all its options and examine the viability and applicability of cost-reduction alternatives before considering rightsizing. In fact predicting a business decline can be very hard, therefore, organisations have the immediate reaction rather than forecasting economic downturns (Gandolfi, 2008). Take the case of IBM, although the company planned to steer clear of downsizing its workforce however, the company declared plans of workforce reduction and by the early 1990’s IBM right sized its organisation by decreasing its employment by 40,000 at that time alone. However, IBM made an effort to become reactive by changing products and attempted to acquire the promptness and responsibility edges of fast reacting manufacturers (Greer, 2001). On the other hand, back in the 1980’s a small number of organisations marked workforce planning and marked as part of their human resource strategy. AT&T and some large oil firms were the models of this. Due to the fact that having a large volume of employees, these organisations called for some forms of workforce planning. AT&T made recognition for its succession planning, evaluation and career advancement programs. Rightsizing and reorganising achieved momentum for this time period. Strategic human resource was beginning to expand and become increasingly strategic because of the fast growing economy and globalisation at the end of the decade (Gubman, 2004). In another case, similar to any big organisations, Eastman Kodak has tried with a variety of human resource planning programs for the past decades. One of the successful programs centred on workforce requirements. HR planning by that time was perceived as a method to make certain that the right number and right kind of employees were at the right position at the right moments. Skills assessments were believed to be the suitable base for HR planning. Similar to any firm, Kodak discovered that there were no general definitions of HR planning. The company realised that they ‘borrowed, adapted, discovered and created’ their way to an approach to HR planning that was aligned to the market situation at that time and be reactive to its changes (Bennet & Brush, 2007). We have developed a framework and process for thinking about and doing HR planning, which I’ve labelled: â€Å"HR planning in â€Å"3D. † The three dimensional environment at Eastman Kodak – diversity, decentralisation, and dynamism – has significantly affected the character and objectives of the HR planning process (Bennet & Brush, 2007, p. 46). In this concept, the human resource function at Eastman Kodak Company was restricted with the goals on magnifying the strategic dimensions of human resource management. In this situation, HR is reshaped as a foundation of market competitive edge and new HR planning procedures were built to strengthen this edge. In the 1990’s, the implementation of this procedures required new HR abilities. The company’s made efforts to utilize HR planning to create a tougher and more aggressive corporation (Bennet & Brush, 2007). We have found several key integrative elements which, from an HR standpoint, seem to make sense in a â€Å"3D† environment. These elements are: corporate management themes; HR planning processes; and HR competencies. Working together, in an ensemble of influence and activity, these elements help to create, sustains, and reinforces strategic business unity (Bennet & Brush, 2007, pp. 48-49). Corporate management themes facilitate in building a focus for a united business environment to achieve its objectives. As of HR planning processes, planning is staged at the corporate and business points. In this process, Eastman Kodak Company is creating efficient HR staff and on this level, this will make the company’s HR planning a ‘competitive weapon in our business arsenal’ (Bennet & Brush, 2007). In the belief that the existing process of uniting and sharpening the corporation’s HR goals will result in considerable outcomes over the decades by concentrating our efforts and finances and giving to the corporation’s evolution. In HR competencies, HR planning is designed to support the Kodak Company by developing its ability to face the future and having the objective for improvement of Corporate Relations. An efficient production HR team, a competent HR planning process and the corporate themes put together will create unity of goals and objectives and create production’s capability to implement strategy. On the whole, the Kodak Company started to distinguish the advancement and positive results as the outcome of knowledge acquired on this process. As Kodak Company has started to achieve its goals, there is an opportunity for transformation of HR functions. The corporation anticipate that successful HR planning, in a ‘3D environment’, will be Kodak’s ‘vehicle for landing safely in the 21’st century’ (Boroski, 1990). The point of view on the Annual HR Strategic Planning Process of Corning Incorporated is that the HR staff employs to make HR investments and services the main concern in support with business needs. Overtime, this procedure has contributions from Human Capital Planning process, HR objectives and other organisation innovations. To efficiently attached HR strategy with business strategy a Human Capital Planning process was created in Corning Incorporated. The outcome gave managers tools and skills for ability development and gave HR a method of determining requirements over the organisation. To allow the determination of the skill that will affect the positive outcome of business strategy, HR planning should find out the quantity of employees needed and determine talent gaps. Incorporating both the workforce planning and operating plan process have facilitated to create a more aligned global HR function for Corning Incorporated. Important components of a good HR planning process are composed of different methods for collecting information; corporate strategy input from top executives; direction from top managers and business participation from each business facilitated by HR function. Furthermore, placement of the HR planning process with the business strategy procedures enhances HR’s capacity to support the functions it presents with the requirements for its market Bennet & Brush, 2007). In the early 1990’s, in order to meet Colgate-Palmolive Company’s objective of ‘becoming the best truly global consumer products company’ (Khanna & Randolph, n. d. ) it human resources made the building of its human resources strategy. The corporation is continually dedicated to developing the human resources for sustainable competitive edge in the global market. The HR strategy team was grouped into Geographic Excellence, Category Excellence and Functional Excellence. The Global Human Resources Business Plans is nothing until it is put into action. Colgate should consider consumer’s needs in order to accomplish the innovations of HR planning. HR plays an important part to assist Colgate employees to continually improve. HR makes an effort with management to build training, career planning, performance development, communications and reward systems. The process will make sure that Colgate employees have the chance for advancement, empowerment and continually improve its abilities (Smith, Boroski & Davis, 1992). On other respects, the organisation that is considering outsourcing, HR planning staff should be active partners of workforce planning processes. In the present economic situation, active human resource planning processes integrating flexible workforce preparations are adapted to a much greater degree. Outsourcing is not only part of workforce planning besides it is also a tool in human resource planning. HR planners should be part of the organisational change: evaluation, contract negotiation, transition and stabilisation as these control decisions of the process. HR planning should have the control of the decisions and as the effect of its absence of this practices may result in failures (Khanna & Randolph, 2005). The social responsibility of business encompasses the economic, legal, ethical and discretionary expectations that society has of organisations at a given point in time. The social responsibilities of a business include to produce goods or services, to make a profit, to obey the laws and regulations, to act ethically, to consider the public good in every decision that is made and to place ethics above personal gains. To be socially responsible a person or business must consider all aspects of society when making a decision. (Clark & Seward, 2000, p. 2) In human resource planning the process should incorporate the highest level of social responsibility. As Milton Friedman maintains that a business organisation has no social responsibilities other than to get the highest possible profits (Ramlall, 2009). In spite of this belief, now there is a general awareness among business organisations that sustainable achievement and stockholders share value cannot be materialised by maximising pr oduction but rather by having social responsible attitude (Ramlall, 2009). In another case, human resource should consider employee participation for good governance and corporate social responsibility. As an evidence of its importance is that, it is the basis as a legal tool in composing international institutions to regulate global corporations. In spite of this, business corporations make a general view in making HR procedures regarding the implementation of corporate social responsibility policies and personal views on employee relations that will affect the overall view of labour relations (Daugareilh, 2008). For multinational corporations like Enron, WorldCom and Citigroup, ethics are the most important aspect as an organisation. Everyday all kinds of organisations have to face some kind of moral issue that has the making of a scandal that sometimes will end up in the multimedia business sections. In today’s era, it is a challenge to confront moral dilemmas such as workforce retention, attracting people, promotion, pay, sexual harassment and other HR practices. How a business corporation will respond to these moral issues will affect organisational environment and will also incite legal actions and will result a negative perception from investors and consumers. Human resource planning practises call for not only reaching organisational objectives besides it will also institute and sustain these processes around ethical grounds (Kubal, Baker & Coleman, 2006). HR staff should have the foresight and the character to incorporate in its practises the various value systems in a business corporation. Although this is not just idealism, global competitions compel HR orientation to focus on profit. HR planning practices must consider decisions that are driven by the business or driven for the business. HR should lead as the guardians of the organisation’s strategic ability. Likewise HR practises must also be the guardians of the whole organisation’s ethical and moral integrity (Wright & Snell, 2005). Unquestionably, in having human resource management program it must recognize laws and regulations in dealing with its people. This will make the legal environment of human resources. Due to the fact that this is a complicated aspect of the organisation, this increasingly involves Human Resource Management. Persistent labour laws must be taken into consideration in overall Human Resource Planning formulation because in practising legal compliance is usually the source of strategic edge in the human resource management point of view (Greer, 2001). Human resource management policies and practices are designed to decide employee’s disagreements and make workplace justice. Similarly, an ethical decision to arrive at a solution to this dilemma is the innate character of human resource management practices and has brought about changes to Australian labour laws. Human Resource management role as a ‘strategic partner’ and also the one who will look after employees’ welfare cannot be seen as a neutral overseer of workplace disputes. That is why a development of a code of ethics should be considered when creating human resources planning processes (Van Gramberg &Teicher, 2006). Take the case in workforce resizing under human resource planning processes, there are legal implications in this situation. With regards to employing and terminating people in an organisation, there is training involved that covers different fair employment and antidiscrimination laws. A typical case in this matter was the case of United Steelworkers of America v. Weber (1979). Brian Weber sued Kaiser Aluminum and his union for racial discrimination (Clardy, 2003). On the whole, Human Resource (HR) planning is the process of combining human resource procedural plans with strategic business plans. HR planning is integrated along the whole of the business planning process. After identifying business goals and objectives, HR planning practices deal with building the workforce, capabilities and management needed to implement the strategic plans. HR planning is created to make sure that the organisation has the important ability to compete in the business world considering the unpredictability of today’s economy. External environment considerations such as economic, social, legal, cultural, political, ethics and technology should be taken into account since this will influence HR planning. The concept of HR planning of Eastman Kodak, Corning and Colgate Palmolive is to develop organisational capability that both will facilitate the innovation of human resource management strategy and integrating this with the companies’ business strategy. Human Resource Planning HR Planning: * The process for ensuring that the HR requirements of an organization are identified and plans are made for satisfying those requirements. * Planning for the personnel needs of an organization based on internal activities and external environment * How many people? What sort of people? Definitions: * HRP determines the human resources required by the organization to achieve its goals. It is â€Å"the process of ensuring that the human resource requirements of an organization are identified and plans are made for satisfying those requirements† – Bulla & Scott. It is the process, â€Å"including forecasting, developing and controlling, by which a firm ensures that it has the right number of people and the right kind of people at the right places at the right time doing the work for which they are economically most useful† – E. B. Geisler. * It is a strategy for the acquisition, utilization, improvement and preservation of the human resources of an enterprise. It is the activity of the management to coordinate the requirements for and the availability of different types of employees.This involves ensuring that the firm has enough of the right kind of people at the right time and also adjusting the requirements to the available supply. Objectives of HR Planning: * To ensure quality and quantity of HR at the right time and the right place * To ensure optimum utilization of human resources * To avoid understaffing and overstaffing Importance: * Reservoir of Talent * Expansion/ Contraction * Cutting costs * Succession Planning MANPOWER PLANNING MAKES FOR DIFFERENT PURPOSES AT DIFFERENT LEVELS: MACRO-LEVEL NATIONAL SECTOR – WISE INDUSTRY – WISE MICRO- LEVEL ORGANISATION LEVELOrganizational Objectives & Policies: * Downsizing / Expansion * Acquisition / Merger / Sell-out * Technology up gradation / Automation * New Markets & New Products * External Vs Internal hiring * Training & Re-training * Union Constraints HRP includes four factors: * Quantity- How many people do we need? * Quality- Which skills, knowledge and abilities do we need? * Space-Where do we need the employees? * Time-When do we need the employees and for how long do we need them? Steps in HRP: * Forecasting future people needs * Forecasting the future availability of people * Drawing up plans to match supply with demandHR Demand Forecast: Process of estimating future quantity and quality of manpower required for an organization. * External factors – competition, laws & regulation, economic climate, changes in technology and social factors. * Internal factors – budget constraints, production levels, new products & services, organizational structure & workforce factors. Forecasting Techniques: * Expert forecasts * Trend Analysis * Workforce Analysis * Workload Analysis * Job Analysis Supply Forecasting: * Internal Supply ( Skill Inventory) * Age, gender, education, experience, training, job assignments, past perfor mance, future potential. External Supply Important barometers of Labor Supply: * Net migration into and out of the area * Education Levels of the workforce * Demographic Changes in the population * Technological developments and shifts * National and regional employment rates * Actions of competing employers * Govt. policies, regulations and measures * Economic forecasts for the next few years * Attractiveness of the area/ industry THE PROCESS OF HUMAN RESOUCE PLANNIG GENERAL OVERVIEW: BUSINESS STRATEGIC PLANS RESOURCING STRATEGY PLANNING DEMAND / SUPPLY FORECASTING MANPOWER TURNOVER ANALYSIS WORK ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS HUMAN RESOURCE PLANSOPERATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS RESOURCING RETENTION FLEXIBILITY PRODUCTIVITY WORK ENVIRONMENT THE MANPOWER PLANNING PROCESS–FROM THE ORGANISATIONAL VIEW POINT: COMPANY OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIC PLANS MARKET FORECASTS PRODUCTION OBJECTIVES / CAPITAL PROCESS FINANCE PLAN MANPOWER ANALYSIS INVENTORY EMPLOYMENT PRODUCTIVITY ORGANISATION MANPO WER FORECASTS (FUTURE SITUATION) OVERALL UNIT BUDGET MANAGEMENT MANPOWER MANPOWER APPROVAL MANPOWERFORECAST FORECAST ESTIMATES TOP MANAGEMENT APPROVAL MANPOWER OBJECTIVES AND POLICIES MANPOWER PLANS AND PROGRAMMES RECRUITMENT & SELECTION, CARER PLANNING, PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT, TRAINING, RETIREMENT ANALYSIS, REDUNDANCIES etc. Formulating HR Plans: * Recruitment Plans * Redeployment Plans * Redundancy Plans * Training Plan * Productivity Plan * Retention Plan Example of the Basic Human Resources Planning Model: Organizational Objectives Human Resource Requirements Human Resource Programs Feasibility Analysis 1 2 3 4 5 Example of the Basic Human Resource Planning Model: Open new product lineOpen new factory and distribution system Develop staffing for new installation Production workers Supervisors Technical staff Other managers Recruiting and training programs feasible Transfers infeasible because of lack of managers with right skills Recruit skilled workers Develop technical trainin g programs Transfer managers from other facilities Develop new objectives and plans Recruit managers from outside Too costly to hire from outside 1 2 3 4 3 5 Forecasting as a Part of Human Resource Planning: DEMAND FORECASTING SUPPLY FORECASTING Determine organizational objectives Demand forecast for each objective Aggregate demand forecastDoes aggregate supply meet aggregate demand? Go to feasibility analysis steps Choose human resource programs External programs Recruiting External selection Executive exchange Internal programs Promotion Transfer Career planning Training Turnover control Internal supply forecast External supply forecast Aggregate supply forecast No Yes Manpower flow in an organization: Inflow Outflow Job Transfers Job recruits Job Relocations Job Hopping Transfers(out) Retirement VRS Scheme Discharge/ Dismissal Termination of service Resignations HR Pool in the Organization Internal Labor Supply: * Analysis of Manning/ Staffing Tables. Replacement Charts- Present incumbents, potential replacements. * Skills Inventory-education, interests, experience, skills, etc. * Succession Planning. * Turnover Analysis. * Wastage Analysis- Retirements, resignation, deaths, dismissals- Labor turnover Index, Stability Index, etc. Trend Analysis: * Projections-Basing it on Organizational Sales * Workforce Analysis- last 5 years * Workload Analysis * Job Analysis Job Analysis: * A systematic process by which information is collected and analyzed with respect to tasks, duties and responsibilities of the jobs within the organization * Job Analysis: What is to be done? How is it to be done? * Under what conditions is the job to be done? * What skills, knowledge and competencies are required to perform the job? * Job Content: Duties, responsibilities, job demands, machines, tools, equipment, performance standard * Job Context: Physical, organizational ad social context, working conditions, work schedule * Human Requirement: Job related knowledge, skills, educatio n, experience, personal attributes Components of Job Analysis: Job Description: written summary of the content and context of the job * Job Specification: Written statement of the knowledge, skills and abilities and other human requirements Questions in Job Analysis Interviews: * What is your job? * What are the major duties of your job? * What are the responsibilities of your job? * What physical locations do you work in? * Under what environmental conditions do you perform your job? * What are the skills, knowledge and experience requirements of your job? * What are the physical and emotional demands that the job makes on you? * What is the performance standards expected on your job? Human Resource Planning Human Resource (HR) Planning is the practice of determining and analysing the requirement for and supply of workforce in order to achieve the organisation’s goals and objectives, fulfil its mission and reach its vision (Mathis & Jackson, 2000). HR planning predicts forces that will affect the availability and requirement of employees in the future. This process will result in top executives having superior analysis of human resource measurement for its decision making; HR expenditure being decreased due to the fact that management can forecast imbalances prior to them becoming costly; additional time will be available to place skills since requirements are predicted and analysed before staffing is done; excellent opportunities are present to comprise female and ethnic groups in upcoming developments; training of new managers can be improved. The outcomes of these can be calculated and can be used for the evaluation of the accomplishments of HR planning (Mathis & Jackson, 2000). Human resource planning is a course of action that will aim to facilitate the organisation’s plan in recruiting, improvement and training, substitution, cross-functional development and management of programs for benefits and rewards. Subsequently to guarantee in building the best valuable human resource plan, the organisation should analyse the necessity of a strategic business plan, work proficiency plan, workforce planning, training and improvement planning, career development planning and planning for right-sizing (Macaleer & Shannon, 2003). Undeniably because of this analysis in HR planning, it is essential to have a sufficient Human Resource Information System (HRIS). The purpose of this is providing accurate, balance and on time information for the process. Now a computer-based system should provide a form of information about human resources necessary for strategic business decision making. This system reflects the relationship between work requirements, employee’s individual skills and levels of performance. In this instance, the information system serves as simple reflections of reality which will help develop better and effective business decisions which are known results in the codification of knowledge (Liff, 1997). In HR planning, external environmental forces should be considered such as present technology, political climate, economic situation, legal issues, social responsibility and cultural differences. Besides these external considerations are extremely important to HR activities especially, if HR planning is globally implemented. The serious pressures that are involve in a business are scarcity of talents, fast shifting technology, government regulations, environment, health, safety and changes in the market. In this situation, the human resource planning innovations of the company are affected. This will make sure that the organisation has the right work force with the right skills in the right jobs at the right moment. There is no argument that human resource planning should be associated with the strategic goals of the company. Hence, human resource planning is an important factor in managing an organisation competently and successfully. Accordingly, HR planning positively improves organisation performance if the HR plan is strategy-based and human resource is a convincing strategic collaborator (Macaleer & Shannon, 2003). Most parts of the world may be in recession and economies are in disorder will result in worldwide effects on organisations and businesses. Any type of HR planning is presented with a surmountable differences of opinion connected with unpredictable and uncertain times. In this case, if the planning is done by HR professionals who have superior knowledge of magnitude and quality of essential resources needed for revitalization, there is optimism of future positive outcomes. According to Robert A. Simpkins (2009), an organisational adviser and educator, there are two types of plans. One is designed to guarantee ‘business continuity’ in the appearance of manmade or natural catastrophe. Second is a plan that is framed for the ‘uncertainty’ of the business environment. HR planning is the most critical part of the organisation’s strategic plans for the reason that observing and adjusting for environmental changes will make the success of the process. All the drivers of the company’s internal and external environment are altering at an accelerating speed including advancements in technology with respect to hardware, software and connectivity, globalization, shifting of sources and consumers, changing competition, changes in markets, the alteration of demographics, change of population lifestyle, the macro and micro changes in economics and the progressively more bewildering government and international regulations (Simpkins 2009). Businesses have the desire to stay significant in the face of consumers and stakeholders. Mostly, the organisations that maintained their importance have built remarkable HR plans that are continually reviewed and modernized. Regrettably, other businesses build better folders that compose overall strategic human resources plans that are short of any back-up planning, and these stay behind on the shelf gathering dust for years, inappropriate to a present shifting business climate. Finally, Simpkins (2009) concludes that an organisation needs to design a communicable HR plan that is not detailed enough to slow down operation. Since HR professionals are with higher-level of understanding, the group will have the elasticity to adjust what will take place in the future. The solution to a positive result is to keep HR plan flexible (Simpkins, 2009). Human resources issues have been the first among all business issues to affect the outcome of a business organisation. Human resources have risks and these risks are the challenges that resulted from managing your employees, processes and procedures. Therefore by dealing with these risks in HR and finance, one can make positive organisational outcomes. On the other hand, if these issues are not addressed appropriately these possibly will cause major harm to the business (Steffee, 2008). Public personnel management research and practices increasingly focus on creative human resource management (HRM) strategies for recruiting individuals with Information Technology (IT) expertise and retaining employees with institutional knowledge, particularly in light of impending retirements. Some agencies face unique workforce demographic challenges, while others face shifts in missions or technologies. For these reasons, the U. S. Office of Personnel Management relaxed some regulations to allow federal agencies to meet their staffing needs (Mastracci, 2009, p. 19). With regards to staffing needs, workforce planning is the course of action that companies utilize to recognize and deal with the staffing implications of their strategic human resources plans or change of business plans. Workforce planning has a sole objective, to develop a long term perspective within which short term workforce decisions can be achieved efficiently. Staffing strategy is a long term plan that makes sure that availability of employees matches its requirement for employees. Staffing plans illustrate short term plans which an organisation will make in the immediate future to deal with staffing gaps and excesses. By implementing this procedure, the businesses can make certain it has the accurate quantity of people, with the appropriate skill, in position at the right moment. Workforce planning can facilitate the execution of business changes and innovations. The growth in organisations is anticipated overtime during the workforce planning phases. This process is essential in determining the staffing that would be required for growth that will make sure the needed skills will be obtainable to accomplish those development goals. It also allows a business company to construct and implement downsizing plans in the best efficient method. The absence of this strategy makes it hard to identify staffing reductions that have a positive effect on the future of the organisation (Bechet, 2008). Rightsizing or downsizing or organisational decimation is a persistent strategic human resource practice for the last thirty years (Gandolfi, 2008). This refers to the planned removal of big quantity of workforce intended to improve organisational efficiency. In fact, this process is a commonly accepted company solution in times of financial difficulties of the organisation. Although studies show enough indication that rightsizing companies is not generally a successful method of reaching goals of optimum output and maximum profit. However, rightsizing sometimes cannot be avoided; workforce reduction ought to be a management means of last resort rather than first option. For the duration of an economic recession, an organisation should think of all its options and examine the viability and applicability of cost-reduction alternatives before considering rightsizing. In fact predicting a business decline can be very hard, therefore, organisations have the immediate reaction rather than forecasting economic downturns (Gandolfi, 2008). Take the case of IBM, although the company planned to steer clear of downsizing its workforce however, the company declared plans of workforce reduction and by the early 1990’s IBM right sized its organisation by decreasing its employment by 40,000 at that time alone. However, IBM made an effort to become reactive by changing products and attempted to acquire the promptness and responsibility edges of fast reacting manufacturers (Greer, 2001). On the other hand, back in the 1980’s a small number of organisations marked workforce planning and marked as part of their human resource strategy. AT&T and some large oil firms were the models of this. Due to the fact that having a large volume of employees, these organisations called for some forms of workforce planning. AT&T made recognition for its succession planning, evaluation and career advancement programs. Rightsizing and reorganising achieved momentum for this time period. Strategic human resource was beginning to expand and become increasingly strategic because of the fast growing economy and globalisation at the end of the decade (Gubman, 2004). In another case, similar to any big organisations, Eastman Kodak has tried with a variety of human resource planning programs for the past decades. One of the successful programs centred on workforce requirements. HR planning by that time was perceived as a method to make certain that the right number and right kind of employees were at the right position at the right moments. Skills assessments were believed to be the suitable base for HR planning. Similar to any firm, Kodak discovered that there were no general definitions of HR planning. The company realised that they ‘borrowed, adapted, discovered and created’ their way to an approach to HR planning that was aligned to the market situation at that time and be reactive to its changes (Bennet & Brush, 2007). We have developed a framework and process for thinking about and doing HR planning, which I’ve labelled: â€Å"HR planning in â€Å"3D. † The three dimensional environment at Eastman Kodak – diversity, decentralisation, and dynamism – has significantly affected the character and objectives of the HR planning process (Bennet & Brush, 2007, p. 46). In this concept, the human resource function at Eastman Kodak Company was restricted with the goals on magnifying the strategic dimensions of human resource management. In this situation, HR is reshaped as a foundation of market competitive edge and new HR planning procedures were built to strengthen this edge. In the 1990’s, the implementation of this procedures required new HR abilities. The company’s made efforts to utilize HR planning to create a tougher and more aggressive corporation (Bennet & Brush, 2007). We have found several key integrative elements which, from an HR standpoint, seem to make sense in a â€Å"3D† environment. These elements are: corporate management themes; HR planning processes; and HR competencies. Working together, in an ensemble of influence and activity, these elements help to create, sustains, and reinforces strategic business unity (Bennet & Brush, 2007, pp. 48-49). Corporate management themes facilitate in building a focus for a united business environment to achieve its objectives. As of HR planning processes, planning is staged at the corporate and business points. In this process, Eastman Kodak Company is creating efficient HR staff and on this level, this will make the company’s HR planning a ‘competitive weapon in our business arsenal’ (Bennet & Brush, 2007). In the belief that the existing process of uniting and sharpening the corporation’s HR goals will result in considerable outcomes over the decades by concentrating our efforts and finances and giving to the corporation’s evolution. In HR competencies, HR planning is designed to support the Kodak Company by developing its ability to face the future and having the objective for improvement of Corporate Relations. An efficient production HR team, a competent HR planning process and the corporate themes put together will create unity of goals and objectives and create production’s capability to implement strategy. On the whole, the Kodak Company started to distinguish the advancement and positive results as the outcome of knowledge acquired on this process. As Kodak Company has started to achieve its goals, there is an opportunity for transformation of HR functions. The corporation anticipate that successful HR planning, in a ‘3D environment’, will be Kodak’s ‘vehicle for landing safely in the 21’st century’ (Boroski, 1990). The point of view on the Annual HR Strategic Planning Process of Corning Incorporated is that the HR staff employs to make HR investments and services the main concern in support with business needs. Overtime, this procedure has contributions from Human Capital Planning process, HR objectives and other organisation innovations. To efficiently attached HR strategy with business strategy a Human Capital Planning process was created in Corning Incorporated. The outcome gave managers tools and skills for ability development and gave HR a method of determining requirements over the organisation. To allow the determination of the skill that will affect the positive outcome of business strategy, HR planning should find out the quantity of employees needed and determine talent gaps. Incorporating both the workforce planning and operating plan process have facilitated to create a more aligned global HR function for Corning Incorporated. Important components of a good HR planning process are composed of different methods for collecting information; corporate strategy input from top executives; direction from top managers and business participation from each business facilitated by HR function. Furthermore, placement of the HR planning process with the business strategy procedures enhances HR’s capacity to support the functions it presents with the requirements for its market Bennet & Brush, 2007). In the early 1990’s, in order to meet Colgate-Palmolive Company’s objective of ‘becoming the best truly global consumer products company’ (Khanna & Randolph, n. d. ) it human resources made the building of its human resources strategy. The corporation is continually dedicated to developing the human resources for sustainable competitive edge in the global market. The HR strategy team was grouped into Geographic Excellence, Category Excellence and Functional Excellence. The Global Human Resources Business Plans is nothing until it is put into action. Colgate should consider consumer’s needs in order to accomplish the innovations of HR planning. HR plays an important part to assist Colgate employees to continually improve. HR makes an effort with management to build training, career planning, performance development, communications and reward systems. The process will make sure that Colgate employees have the chance for advancement, empowerment and continually improve its abilities (Smith, Boroski & Davis, 1992). On other respects, the organisation that is considering outsourcing, HR planning staff should be active partners of workforce planning processes. In the present economic situation, active human resource planning processes integrating flexible workforce preparations are adapted to a much greater degree. Outsourcing is not only part of workforce planning besides it is also a tool in human resource planning. HR planners should be part of the organisational change: evaluation, contract negotiation, transition and stabilisation as these control decisions of the process. HR planning should have the control of the decisions and as the effect of its absence of this practices may result in failures (Khanna & Randolph, 2005). The social responsibility of business encompasses the economic, legal, ethical and discretionary expectations that society has of organisations at a given point in time. The social responsibilities of a business include to produce goods or services, to make a profit, to obey the laws and regulations, to act ethically, to consider the public good in every decision that is made and to place ethics above personal gains. To be socially responsible a person or business must consider all aspects of society when making a decision. (Clark & Seward, 2000, p. 2) In human resource planning the process should incorporate the highest level of social responsibility. As Milton Friedman maintains that a business organisation has no social responsibilities other than to get the highest possible profits (Ramlall, 2009). In spite of this belief, now there is a general awareness among business organisations that sustainable achievement and stockholders share value cannot be materialised by maximising pr oduction but rather by having social responsible attitude (Ramlall, 2009). In another case, human resource should consider employee participation for good governance and corporate social responsibility. As an evidence of its importance is that, it is the basis as a legal tool in composing international institutions to regulate global corporations. In spite of this, business corporations make a general view in making HR procedures regarding the implementation of corporate social responsibility policies and personal views on employee relations that will affect the overall view of labour relations (Daugareilh, 2008). For multinational corporations like Enron, WorldCom and Citigroup, ethics are the most important aspect as an organisation. Everyday all kinds of organisations have to face some kind of moral issue that has the making of a scandal that sometimes will end up in the multimedia business sections. In today’s era, it is a challenge to confront moral dilemmas such as workforce retention, attracting people, promotion, pay, sexual harassment and other HR practices. How a business corporation will respond to these moral issues will affect organisational environment and will also incite legal actions and will result a negative perception from investors and consumers. Human resource planning practises call for not only reaching organisational objectives besides it will also institute and sustain these processes around ethical grounds (Kubal, Baker & Coleman, 2006). HR staff should have the foresight and the character to incorporate in its practises the various value systems in a business corporation. Although this is not just idealism, global competitions compel HR orientation to focus on profit. HR planning practices must consider decisions that are driven by the business or driven for the business. HR should lead as the guardians of the organisation’s strategic ability. Likewise HR practises must also be the guardians of the whole organisation’s ethical and moral integrity (Wright & Snell, 2005). Unquestionably, in having human resource management program it must recognize laws and regulations in dealing with its people. This will make the legal environment of human resources. Due to the fact that this is a complicated aspect of the organisation, this increasingly involves Human Resource Management. Persistent labour laws must be taken into consideration in overall Human Resource Planning formulation because in practising legal compliance is usually the source of strategic edge in the human resource management point of view (Greer, 2001). Human resource management policies and practices are designed to decide employee’s disagreements and make workplace justice. Similarly, an ethical decision to arrive at a solution to this dilemma is the innate character of human resource management practices and has brought about changes to Australian labour laws. Human Resource management role as a ‘strategic partner’ and also the one who will look after employees’ welfare cannot be seen as a neutral overseer of workplace disputes. That is why a development of a code of ethics should be considered when creating human resources planning processes (Van Gramberg &Teicher, 2006). Take the case in workforce resizing under human resource planning processes, there are legal implications in this situation. With regards to employing and terminating people in an organisation, there is training involved that covers different fair employment and antidiscrimination laws. A typical case in this matter was the case of United Steelworkers of America v. Weber (1979). Brian Weber sued Kaiser Aluminum and his union for racial discrimination (Clardy, 2003). On the whole, Human Resource (HR) planning is the process of combining human resource procedural plans with strategic business plans. HR planning is integrated along the whole of the business planning process. After identifying business goals and objectives, HR planning practices deal with building the workforce, capabilities and management needed to implement the strategic plans. HR planning is created to make sure that the organisation has the important ability to compete in the business world considering the unpredictability of today’s economy. External environment considerations such as economic, social, legal, cultural, political, ethics and technology should be taken into account since this will influence HR planning. The concept of HR planning of Eastman Kodak, Corning and Colgate Palmolive is to develop organisational capability that both will facilitate the innovation of human resource management strategy and integrating this with the companies’ business strategy.

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