The Importance of Human Resource Planning

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The Importance of Human Resource Planning

The Human Resource Department of a business has responsibility for many aspects, including Recruitment & Selection, Training and Wage Bargaining, however within all organisations one of the most important tasks performed, which encompasses all of the above issues, is that of Human Resource Planning, also known as Workforce Planning or Manpower Planning. All three titles refer to the process by which a business seeks to ensure that it has 'the right people, in the right numbers, with the right skills now and in the future'.

It has been argued that Human Resource Planning is broader in its strategic perspective than the operational emphasis of Workforce or Manpower Planning, rather like the comparison drawn between a Human Resource Department and a Personnel Department, however for the purposes of this article we shall not differentiate.

Human Resource Planning is vital to the success of businesses in today's rapidly changing business environment, here are just a few of the reasons why no business can ignore the need to strategically plan their use of what is the most important and valuable resource of any business, namely its staff.
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The Changing Nature of Jobs

Jobs are becoming increasingly complex, particularly those which are technologically orientated, to replace a vacant position within an organisation takes time as it is vital to ensure that an individual has the correct combination of skills, experience and competency to fill the post.

Employment Protection

Due to recent legislation, it has become increasingly more difficult for businesses to shed their staff, whilst groups representing employees, such as trade unions, argue this is rightly so, the fact remains that the sometimes necessary task of reducing staff levels is becoming more expensive, ...

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