The Power of Human Resource Planning

Good human resource planning is vital to the health of your business. It will help with employee morale and ultimately help to increase your bottom line.

It's not an easy time to be in business. Many companies are struggling to provide benefits to their employees along with competitive wages.

And it's not an easy time to be an employee. With more and more college educated workers, employees are finding that they have to work harder to maintain their jobs - because they know that they can easily be replaced with another skilled person. This situation creates stressed-out employers and employees.

I do consultant work for companies that are struggling with morale issues. I work with the human resource planning offices of some big corporations to help trouble shoot issues before they become problems - or to solve problems that have developed.

Many times, I discover, the core of the problem lies within the human resource planning department. It's sometimes difficult to get employers to understand this. However, if the human resource planning department is doing their job, personnel issues should not arise.

The duty of the human resource planning department is to project employment needs for the company’s future. This department requires a working knowledge of where the company is headed and what personnel will be needed to carry out the mission. This could mean down sizing, or it could mean adding staff members.

Members of the human resource planning departments frequently complain of being kept in the dark about future projects that the company is planning. My role in these situations is to help the planners get included in the mission development of the company.

If the human resource planning department is aware that personnel with certain skills are going to be needed at a future date they can prepare for it. Candidates can be researched in advance so that when positions become available they will have personnel to fill the slots.

And if they are involved in the formation of future projects they can also create a pool of candidates with specific skills that may be needed for certain portions of projects.

There are criticisms regarding the use of contracted workers. I have found that the use of contractors can be a win-win situation for the employer as well as the contractor. The employer does not have to pay for expensive benefits and the contractor can charge more for their services.

This works especially well for married couples, as they can usually cover the contracted worker under the employed spouse’s benefits package.

The human resource planning department can compile a list of individual contractors in a variety of areas and specialties. This way, when certain skills are needed for a project, the person can be hired and working within a short period of time.

Effective human resource planning is worth pursuing. It will cut down on the stress levels of employers and employees and has the potential to greatly increase your bottom line.