Strategic Human Resource Management

(Barry) #1
Section Six

valuable than the forecast itself because managers are forced
to reexamine fundamental operating assumptions.^35 Such
reexamination and resultant communications are often valuable
side effects.


From a quantitative perspective, for companies that have
strong preferences to fill vacancies from internal sources, the
extent to which the organization must hire in the open labor
market, instead of from its internal labor market, may be an
indicator of the effectiveness of the human resource planning
process. To the extent that shortages in certain skill areas are
forecasted and prepared for with the development of
employees, the organization has less need to hire externally.
Companies that hire from the external market only at entry
levels must have effective human resource planning programs.
The failure to plan is probably no more obvious than in
professional sports when a team finds itself with a roster of
aging athletes and then must endure years of rebuilding
because it did not have an effective planning process for
bringing in younger players.


Another standard or criterion of human resource planning
and development effectiveness is provided by the concept of
just-in-time talent, which means that vacancies can be filled
quickly from within the company by a person qualified for
promotion. The promoted individual should have been

Free download pdf