Employee resourcing as innovation in people management
Employee resourcing is a phrase in human resource management that has been in con-
tinuous development since the 1990s within human resource management. It is a phi-
losophical shift from manpower planning, which actually had more to do with quantita-
tive aspects of manpower and qualitative concerns of employees as scarce resources,
rather than just power to be acquired and utilised. In this regard, McKennan & Beach
(2002: 116) looks at employee resourcing as the process of acquiring and utilising hu-
man resources in the organisation which involves a number of activities to ensure that
there is sufficient quantity and quality of human resources available to meet organisa-
tional objectives. Developing the same argument, Price (2007) has raised some impor-
tant points about employee resourcing in saying that resourcing is a strategic approach
to managing people by minimising costs, maximising employee value and obtaining the
correct combination of behavioural attributes for the job and the organisation.
There are two main theories that provide the understanding of employee resourcing.
The first is the resource dependency theory. The thesis of this theory is that employees
are a scarce resource that should be carefully acquired, developed and retained. The
second is the human capital theory that considers employees as capital because of their
individual, group, and organisational knowledge they possess and is a strong base for
competitive advantage. The two theories cement the argument that rational administra-
tors and managers cannot overestimate the importance of strategic acquisition, utilisa-
tion, development and retention of valuable scarce resource/capital. Strategic human
resource management in people management is the process of acquiring employees and
starts with human resource planning. Therefore, the following section will cover some
critical issues in human resource planning process.
What is human resource planning?
Armstrong (2003) defines human resource planning (HRP) as a ‘both quantitative and
qualitative process of ensuring that the organisation has the right people at the right time
doing the right job’. The emphasis is on employee competencies and their stability ra-
ther than the precision of the numbers obtained through rigorous forecasting techniques.
Furthermore, Pattanayak (2006) considers HRP as a process of analysing an organisa-
tion’s human resource needs under changing conditions, and developing the solutions
necessary for satisfying those needs. Therefore, an organisational mission, goals, objec-
tives, strategies and policies must guide HRP.
The focus of HRP is on the following:
- To have the right skills and jobs at the right time,
- To forecast the types of human resources needed,
- To ensure replacements will be available and be prepared to fill vacant posts,
- To ensure recruitment policies meet the present and future number of jobs and quali-
ties, - To ensure that there is effective utilisation of human resources,
- Facilitate personnel procedures for the present and future jobs e.g. recruitment,
placement, training, career planning etc.