3.3 Reading Manpower Planning and Recruitment
Basic factors The company must ensure that it is able to meet its future objectives by having available the correct mix of human resources. This requires planning, based on an awareness of two basic factors:
The external environment of the firm (economic, social and political as well as demographic).
Current strengths and weaknesses of the organization and the strategy based on that position.
The principal elements in the process of generating a corporate manpower plan may be shown diagrammatically as in Fig. 1.
eOrganisation
Its strengths and weaknesses
conomic
influences
political influences
s
ocial
influences
technological influences
CORPORATE
PLAN
MANPOWER
PLAN
demand supply
forecast forecast
shortages surplus
Managers, professionally qualified supervisors, clerical, skilled manual, semi-skilled, unskilled workers
WORKFORCE
REQUIRED
recruitment natural wastage
t
raining
manpower
redeployment
redundancy policy
redundancy
pay structure
Fig. 1 Generating a corporate manpower plan
The firm’s ability to meet its manpower requirements will depend on the demand and supply side factors in the labor market. If the firm has been prudent in predicting these conditions and has also predicted correctly other important factors set out below, it will be able to maintain an adequate staffing position.
Manpower planning information The sources of such information can be:
retirement rates over next few years
percentage of new workers who can be retained
percentage loss of workers to other jobs
need for new highly qualified staff
new needs dictated by change of product or technology expansion
It is therefore possible to reduce a forecast as to where within the company shortages and surpluses are likely to occur. A manpower plan may then be drawn up in order to avoid the problems created by those shortages and surpluses. It should be possible to meet the requirements of the organization within minimum cost to the company and friction amongst employees by suitable policies of recruitment, training, redeployment and redundancy.
Labor turnover This is a very important element in manpower planning. A certain amount of turnover is good for an organization for various reasons: a stagnant workforce becomes complacent; new blood is essential; it is the only way to avoid an aging workforce. There are three groups of reasons why workers leave an organization:
management action, i.e. redundancy or dismissal for poor performance or disciplinary reasons,
involuntary departure, i.e. due to death, illness, pregnancy, marriage, partner’s career,
voluntary departure, i.e. leaving for another job as a result of dissatisfaction with pay, conditions of service, nature of the job or alternatively career advancement purposes.
Dissatisfaction amongst employees should be of great concern to management, since it suggests that something is seriously wrong with the company if this occurs too frequently. It may indicate poor morale or possibly that a competitor is offering more attractive terms. The role of the personnel manager is to identify trends in labor turnover and to seek to adopt policies which will reduce the rate to an acceptable level. It may be achieved by using such strategies as improving the selection and induction process and working conditions, providing an internal promotion ladder, reviewing the pay structure and job enrichment.
Recruitment Since the organization depends on a flow of new recruits to replace those lost through departures, recruitment is central to the work of the personnel function. It must through its own activities, possibly supplemented by the use of outside agencies, seek to identify the company’s needs exactly and find appropriate recruits. The first task it must undertake is job analysis.
Job analysis and job description All relevant facts relating to the vacant job must be identified. A job description may then be written up outlining the content of the job. The items included should be:
Basic details: title and grade of the job and the department concerned.
Job summary: outlining the purpose of the job, identifying main, secondary and occasional tasks and the standards to be maintained. Information on social and work environment.
Responsibilities: clarifying the position in the organizational structure. Identify subordinates for whom the new employee will be responsible and seniors to whom he or she will report.
Conditions of employment: salary, holiday entitlement, hours of work, pension scheme, welfare and social facilities, trade union membership arrangements.
Training: indicating training arrangements to induct the recruit and bring him up to the required standard.
Promotion: career structure and opportunities for advancement within the organization.
This job description will form the basis of the recruitment advertising and training programs. It may also be used in wage and salary administration.
Job specification Job descriptions are also used as the basis for job specifications. A job specification sets out the characteristics sought in candidates for the job. These include:
Physical characteristics: age, health, appearance
Attainments: academic standards, professional qualifications, training
Experience/knowledge: positions held, knowledge gained
Aptitudes: mechanical, verbal, ability to work under pressure
Domestic circumstances: ability to work away from home, ability to relocate, etc.
A job specification also identifies the qualities of the person most likely to fit into the organization.
Recruitment process The process may be carried out entirely in house or may be partly or wholly delegated to an outside recruitment agency.
The process may be represented diagrammatically as in Fig. 2
VACANCY
job analysis
job
specification
identify identify
internal external
s
ources
sources
choose route
ROUTE 1 ROUTE 2 ROUTE 3
internal external appoint
advertisement advertisement external
or in press or recruitment
m
emo
to line trade press
agency
m
anagers
agency or ‘search’
advertises by
headhunters
sift applications short list
presented to
employer
s hort list short list
