Microsoft Word - APAM-2 4.1.doc

Human resource planning model

There are various models in HRP although seemingly they aim to achieve the same ob-
jective of ensuring that the organisation has effective means to acquire, utilise, reward,
develop and retain staff. Some models are inclined to traditional manpower planning
(Walker 1980; De Cenzo & Robbins 1998; Pattanayak 2006) while others are more
fashionable in reflecting current thinking in HRM (Ivancevich 2004; Torrington et al.
2005). However, for the purpose of convenience the model by Ivancevich is used here
as pictured in Figure 4.1.

Figure 4.1 Human resource planning model

Source: adapted from Ivancevich (2004).

The model begins with the review of an organisational strategic plan or corporate busi-
ness strategy, which tells about the future of the organisation in terms of vertical or hor-
izontal growth in business or service volume as expected in the mission, goals and ob-
jectives. For example, for the private sector, the future of the business may lie with
growth, survival, mergers, closing down, or diversifying. The business strategy will be
followed with the question on whether human resources will be required and what the
best resourcing strategy is. Price (2007) has proposed three types of resourcing strate-
gies namely, reallocation of tasks among employees, promotions and transfers and last-
ly, recruitment. The success of the first strategy will depend much on the extent to
which the organisation has staff with multiple attributes capable of handling different
tasks. The second strategy is about reallocating available human resources to positions
and places where they are best put to work. That is, vertical and horizontal staff move-
ment. This is common in many organisations and becomes very successful if the organi-
sation has a strong career and succession plan and job rotation systems in place. Re-
cruitment and selection from within and outside the organisation is often used as strat-
egy for filling human resource gaps. This strategy is fully covered in chapter 5. There-
fore, human resource strategy will involve a number of steps in decision making, which
primarily, will aim to close the gap between human resource demand and supply as in-
dicated by the arrows. If there is more demand than supply, then decisions have to be
made regarding resourcing strategies described above. If there is surplus, it means

Organisational

strategic plan

Human

resource

strategy

Human

resource

demand

Human

resource

supply

Variance

Surplus Shortage

Decisions Decisions

End

End

End