Explain the role and relevance of human resource planning in own organisation Human resource planning is the ongoing process through which employers use planning to achieve the optimal use of their human resources.
This basically means having the right number of people with the right training and skills in the right position at the right time to allow them to achieve the organisations short term and long term goals. HRP involves analysing the current conditions of the organisation to distinguish their workforces strengths and weaknesses and deciding whether their current employees skill set and experience is enough to allow the organisation to work towards achieving its short and long term objectives. The organisation will also be required to use forecasting techniques to identify their short and long term employee requirements, this can involve looking at a wide variety of areas e.g technological advancements, demographic changes that affect demand for products, market trends or even forecasting possible retirements. The results from these steps will allow HR to find a balance between supply and demand and decide if they need to employ new people and how they plan on doing so or whether they look at more training for current employees, job redesign or even if new technology can pave the way to achieving the organisational goals. HRP is a crucial part to play in my organisation as we are looking to grow our business.
Using HRP on a regular basis allows us to plan for the future needs of the organisation and ensure that we are utilising our current workforce more effectively and efficiently inline with the changes in the current market, advancements with technology and also any changes in our organisation’s strategy. HRP also allows us to try and control employment costs and develop our current employees. 1.2 Assess the impact of legal requirements on human resource planning in the organisation Employment law covers a vast area of business but complying with this law not only avoids costly, stressful tribunals and jeopardizing your company name it also makes for a happier and more productive workforce. During the HRP process there are various types of legislation that need to be taken in to account to ensure the organisation is operating legally and effectively, however most of this legislation will be linked to the recruitment and selection process. Some examples of this legislation are: The Equality Act, The Data Protection Act, Eligibility to Work in the Uk and also Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. I will go on to assess how I think the Equality Act affects HRP below.
The Equality Act The Equality Act covers a broad legal area and was introduced to simplify the legal framework for preventing discrimination. It also aims to prevent harassment, victimisation, discrimination by association, direct and indirect discrimination and various protected characteristics, such as: age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, also pregnancy and maternity. Having these protected characteristics does make it fair for anyone who is in employment or anyone looking for employment but it can make it a daunting process for HR when recruiting. Discrimination is fundamental in recruitment and selection in a way, to ensure choices can be made as to the suitability of the applicant, providing the criteria used is appropriate and considering such things as skill set, experience and qualifications that are required for the position. This means employers have to have a clear understanding of the legalities and be extremely careful, clear and structured with the way they advertise, interview and recruit.
Employers have to carefully consider the way they word job advertisements, ensuring to explain the job criteria in such a way that doesn’t give preference to a specific gender, race, or even belief. Advertising the job correctly from the start can take away some of the pressure of choosing the correct interview questions, for example, if the position requires someone to be on call 24/7 you should state that in the advert. If this is done at the start of the process it avoids you having to ask questions that could be seen as discriminatory like “do you have someone to pick the kids up from school?”. This sort of question may seem straightforward and harmless but it could easily be taken the wrong way and seen as a form of discrimination if the person was not offered the position, this could lead to them taking an industrial tribunal claim against the organisation. Whereas having this stated clearly in the advertisement leaves a clear message that you need someone who is flexible and can be at your beck and call. The Equality Act also affects an organisations existing workforce and could perticularly cause real problems if not followed where redundancies or redeployment are required.
When redundancies or redeployment are necessary HR need to choose who this will affect fairly, ensuring there is a valid reason in which they can justify their choice, e.g because of their level of experience, lack of skills or if the organisation is going through a restructure and the position is no longer required. Their choices cannot be based on any protected characteristics such as disabilities, age or gender as this would be classed as unfair dismissal and could lead to the organisation being taken to an employment tribunal. Overall I think legal requirements such as the Equality Act play a big part in HRP process and could well be seen to make it somewhat of a tedious task due to the amount of safeguarding that has been introduced over the years for employees, however given the HR team have been given the correct training and support and follow structured methods of recruitment and selection it makes the process as fair as possible for any new candidates and also for current employees. 1.3 Assess the impact of organisational policies and procedures on human resource planning in the organisation There are various policies that can have an effect on human resource planning, these policies are developed to set a clear direction on how the organisation intends to manage its people in various matters such as training and development, recruitment, disciplinary and grievance procedures.
It also works as a guideline for managers and employees on how a vast range of issues should be handled within the organisation, giving them a clear understanding of their rights and responsibilities. Smith and Frater are a great believer of training and developing their workforce, it is the company’s policy to ensure all employees have the skills and knowledge to perform their jobs effectively. The company also aims to develop employees’ ability to achieve their current targets and develop their capacity to handle organisational and personal change as well as any new responsibilities in the future. They will invest in their employees and arrange job-related training utilising outside resources.
Having this policy in place helps with employee retention and can create a positive culture within the workplace, this is due to employees feeling confident in their employer and the organisation creating a clear picture that if they are doing the job right there are opportunities available and their organisation will help them to progress with their career. This policy also helps with the identification of future talent, allowing the organisation to plan and invest in employees who they identify as showing promising signs of progression in to a higher position within the organisation. Smith and Frater also have strict diversity and equal opportunities policies. These policies are set follow the Equality Act and to ensure equality of opportunity and treatment for everyone involved with the company. The overall aim is to achieve an environment where employees treat each other with mutual respect regardless of disability, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation or any other criteria which is irrelevant to a person’s employment or potential employment with the company. Having this policy in place not only ensures employees all treat any colleagues and visitors to the company with respect and dignity, it also creates a culture where diversity is valued and ensures employees are of a strict understanding that under no circumstances will discrimination and victimisation be tolerated.
These policies also set out clear but strict guidelines to employees to ensure any job applicants are treated equally and fairly, that all employees are offered equal opportunities for training and promotions and also that no employees are treated less favourably than others on the grounds of sex, race or nationality etc. Overall I think that Smith and Frater’s policies set a clear picture of how our organisation should be operating, and in fact how it is operating. As a company our employees are valued and they are pushed to respect each other and assist each other to advance their careers, this has a noticeable impact on the morale of our employees and also with staff retention, with many of our employees having worked for the company for 15 years and over. 2.1 Describe the recruitment process in own organisation from the identification of a vacancy through to the appointment of the successful candidate Whenever a new position has been identified within my organisation the relevant manager to the vacancy will perform a job analysis to allow them to identify the main components of the role, such as the job title and purpose, what skills are involved, the level of responsibility and also if any experience is required.
This would then assist them in producing a written job description that can guide them with the selection process. Smith and Frater as a company encourages career progression and will advertise vacancies internally via our intranet site or notice boards. Employees are encouraged to apply for any vacancy which they believe they are suited and the company will, where possible, promote from within to fill the vacancy. However if the positions cannot be filled internally or an external candidate has the strongest skills and experience Smith and Frater will recruit externally. When recruiting externally Smith and Frater manage all of their recruitment in house and do not use external recruitment agencies. We will advertise online on websites like Indeed, Total jobs and also the government’s universal jobmatch, and also in local papers like West Lothian Courier asking applicants to send in an up to date CV and covering letter explaining why they think they would be suitable for the position they have applied for.
This would normally lead to high volumes of applicants registering their interest and applying, however each CV would be looked over by whichever manager the vacancy related to allowing them to use the job description to shortlist the candidates who have the best suited skills or experience. Once these candidates have been shortlisted the commercial manager will look through the selected CV’s and have them invited to the premises for an interview. The interview process within Smith and Frater is pretty basic and usually involves an informal sit down with either the commercial manager on his own or in some occasions he will be accompanied by the sales manager or factory manager depending on the vacancy. This informal sit down will involve them discussing experience, skill set and trying to get an understanding of the person’s abilities. After the interview stages the relevant managers will usually have a meeting to review the interviews and discuss which candidates they think are most suited to the position in hand.
This allows them to whittle the numbers down to one or two people and asking the successful candidates to come in for a second interview to discuss the finer details such as start dates, salaries etc, allowing them to finalise their decision and also allowing them to send letters out to the unsuccessful interviewed candidates to give feedback and explaining why they were unsuccessful. 2.2 Justify a need for recruitment in own area of responsibility There are various areas to consider when replacing employees or recruiting for a new position. If I was in a position where one of my team members had left my department or I was looking at the possibility of opening a new position, I would firstly analyse the position and consider whether there is a specific need to replace/recruit the person to meet the work demand or are there any alternative solutions, such as, retraining or re-assigning of duties to existing employees and restructuring. In doing so I would create a productivity analysis, assessing the current workflow and pinpointing any areas where productivity is delayed or interrupted. This analysis would identify whether another team member would help to improve the productivity of the department.
This could be achieved by also looking at the positions affected by this candidate leaving or the positions that could benefit from introducing this new role and obtaining feedback from current employees on whether they think they could take on any new responsibilities, or if there are any areas where they find it difficult to complete tasks and why. Using this feedback you could decide whether another position could be opened to take any unnecessary strain from other employees and allow them to focus on specific tasks, for example could a trainee or general administrator take any less challenging but time consuming tasks like maintaining files or handling correspondence away from skilled sales workers to allow them to focus on higher priority tasks. Using this feedback would also enable you to outline the tasks and duties of the new position if required. Other significant areas I would have to consider would be what the cost effects and benefits are of recruiting another person. Using my previous example I would look at the average time taken from the sales team each day with tasks that could be passed on to another less skilled position, for example if 20% of four sales workers days were taken up with general administrative tasks and they were on an average salary of £60,000. This would men these duties cost the organisation overall £48,000 a year, whereas we could pay a less skilled worker £25,000 per year, saving £23,000 each year on salaries alone.
Besides from this annual saving you would also free up 20% of the sales teams time to allow them to follow up on more leads and increase sales. I would also have to consider whether recruiting this person could reduce overtime outlay and how would paying this new hourly rate or salary compare to any current overtime rates being paid by the organisation. 2.3 Implement the recruitment process in own area of responsibility, ensuring all procedures are followed and necessary records are kept in line with legal and organisational requirements Within my organisation I am not currently at a level were I am involved with recruitment however if I was in the given the authority to do so, I would aim to take the following steps to ensure the recruitment process was effective and efficient. The first step of this process for me is performing a job analysis or profiling the position, this would involve getting to know the position and getting an in depth understanding of why the position is required, also what responsibilities the position will demand. Establishing these responsibilities would give you the opportunity to determine if you were restricted to recruiting someone new or if you could look to restructure current positions within the organisation to pass on more responsibilities, or whether you could consider training and developing any existing employees to take on more challenging roles. Additionally it would enable you to understand what competencies the ideal candidate would need to succeed within the role and where this position would fit in with the overall strategy and structure of the business.
Performing job analysis’ can be done through various methods, you could collect data through interviewing and observing employees currently in the position or even handing out questionnaires, you could otherwise look at web based job analysis programs. The results of this job analysis is a job description. The job description should include the following in some way, shape or form: Job title Department the job is in Location of the job Purpose of the job Responsibilities of the position Organisational chart (who reports to the person and who do they report to) Using the results from the job analysis and job description would enable you to define the competencies required for the position and also create a person specification. This must be specific as it will form the foundation for your recruitment process and will be used to direct your decisions when shortlisting and selecting candidates for interviews.
The person specification will also be used inline with the job description to create the advertisement for the position. Creating a specific person spec helps to ensure the candidates applying know exactly what experience and skills they are expected to have and can avoid any confusion at the application stages. The person specification should include the following: Skills required for the position Experience required for the position Any necessary qualifications Competences such as personality and behavioural traits (e.g self motivated, the ability to use initiative and be proactive etc) When writing your person spec and job advertisement using the above criteria you have to be honest and factual, only including points which directly relate to the position. You must not make any requests or use any statements that could be seen as discriminatory e.g you could not specify the candidate must be a specific nationality, race, age or gender. Specifying any of these things or making statements regarding them is likely to be seen as discriminatory by an employment tribunal and can be damaging for any organisation, not only financially but also on their reputation. Once you have created the job description and person specification you have to decide which methods of advertisement you will use or if you would rather outsource and use recruitment agencies.
In this day and age there are various methods which you can use to manage your own recruitment, such as online recruitment websites (indeed, total jobs etc), networking at job fairs or outside of the office, newspapers or social media. If I was recruiting my preference would be to use online websites such as indeed, as they have such a wide following you are more likely to find the candidate suited for your position. The downside of this can be that you are likely to receive high volumes of applications for the vacancy, making the screening process very time consuming, this is where recruitment agencies can be a benefit as they will shortlist the most suited applicants for you. However, there are various ways to filter out the best suited candidates at the application stages, for example you could incorporate competency based questionnaires into the application. Otherwise, you can invite applicants to attend assessment centres, perform telephone interviews or even refer back to your person spec and job description.
Each of these techniques will enable you to review the applications and cherry-pick the candidates who you think have the best suited experience and competencies. When you have whittled the applicants down candidates who are most suited to your person specification and job description, you would need to contact them to invite them for an interview to decide whether you think they are suitable for the job and will fit into the organisation. It is vital to ensure the candidates have all of the information they need, such as, the job description, location, time, date and any further requirements, doing so can avoid any unnecessary stress. Considering this, I would initially call the candidate to invite them for the interview and then follow up with an email including all of the relevant information. The interview process can often lead to poor choices of hire if the interviews are not well structured and prepared, this can be due to the interviewers not seeking or processing quality information needed to support their decision and asking questions of limited value. When planning it is crucial to choose the correct panel for the interview, people who have good communication and interpersonal skills and that are relevant to the position e.g HR hiring manager, supervisor to the position or even the person who will be working alongside the candidate if need be.
You should also make sure they know exactly what the expectations of the candidate are. Knowing what these expectations are allows you to have specific and structured questions set out for the interviews and also an evaluation form or some sort of scoring system. This ensures the interviews are consistent and that candidates are evaluated equally, avoiding any case for discrimination and just as importantly, it can allow you to make an overview of the candidates skills and experience which will assist with making your final decision. When the time comes for the interview you should make the candidate feel welcome and comfortable, introducing yourself and introducing them to other relevant people, encouraging two way conversation if they are reserved, having a quiet room arranged for the interview and even offering the interviewee a glass of water. All of these simple steps can relax and reassure them, allowing you to see more of their true personality. When performing the interview as well as asking your preplanned questions it is important that you listen carefully giving your full attention to the candidate and showing your interest.
Whilst using your evaluation form or scoring system to record the candidates skills and personality traits you should take as much notes as possible and observe their body language and how their attitude is towards the interview and position, simple things like the tone of their voice, posture or even eye contact can tell you if the person is genuinely eager and if they are being truthful in their answers. These notes and observations can be useful when it comes to making your decision and also when it comes to giving feedback to candidates. You should also be prepared to answer the candidates questions in detail, they may want to know the organisations visions and needs, the culture of the organisation, rates of pay that could be offered for the position or any other benefits of working for your organisation. Additionally, you should be clear with the candidate, explaining what the next steps of the process will be, for example when you aim to have made a decision by or even if there are any further stages like second interviews.
After the interviews have been completed it is now time to refer back to all of the information gathered by you and your colleagues to make your final decision, check any references and give any feedback to the successful and unsuccessful candidates. It is crucial to check candidates references, as you cannot as much as you would like to, solely believe everything they have told you. Checking references with past and current superiors can validate what they have told you in the interview and also give you further insight in how they are to work with and what skills and experience they are going to bring to your organisation. Once you have checked the references it is time to make your offer to the candidate who you find suits the position best, giving them feedback on how their skills will fit in to the organisation and if their are any areas where you would like to help them progress.
Giving feedback to unsuccessful candidates is where it can be tricky as you can have disgruntled candidates who don’t take being let down well and threaten with discrimination claims. However, feedback should always be provided especially to candidates who have been interviewed. Being turned down for a position can be disheartening but it is important to understand where you can improve for future interviews, being honest with candidates and giving them this constructive feedback would make them more likely to apply for future positions and more likely to promote your organisation rather than not following up at all. It is important that you take clear notes to refer back to and support your feedback as this can make candidates feel as though you have taken their interview seriously and can also help if you are unfortunate enough to have a discrimination case taken out against you.
When giving feedback it is also important that you give the candidate useful facts, e.g if they are lacking certain skills or experience or even if they didn’t answer some of the questions very well, give them examples and explain how they can improve.
