HR planning

Human Resource Planning is the assistance provided to organizations in recruiting, retaining and optimizing the deployment of the employees required to meet a set of business goals and in order to better respond to the external changes. The process includes analysing the skill set of the current workforce, manpower forecasting and matching supply with demand. It supports the future direction of the organization The overall objective of the human resource planning process is to firstly attract more candidates to the organisation.
Secondly, it involves creating a pool of candidates that are right for the job and selecting them at a minimal cost. This is also known as recruitment. HRP includes infusing fresh blood at every level of the organization. Additionally, it aims to meet the social and legal obligations concerning the composition of the employees. At the end of the day, human resource planning should increase the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the recruiting techniques used by the organization.
Recruitment, on the other hand, refers to sourcing candidates through advertising or by other means, screening the candidate through a test or interview and finally selecting the right candidate for the right job at an organization. Recruitment can be done by in-house professionals or by utilizing the services of professional recruiters or employment agencies. The primary aim of the recruitment process is to find a large number of quality employees so that the organization can achieve its goals and objectives in a better way.

Creating a large pool of prospective candidates makes it easier for management to select a person who matches the profile of the job description perfectly at the right time. Overall, the recruitment process is a linkage between job seekers and employers. Human resource planning is the most important step of Human resources. Recruitment is an important part of human resource planning. Effective human resource planning leads to better recruitment of employees in an organization. Human resource planning deals with answering questions such as: where the organization is headed? How it will get there and what skills will be needed?
Recruitment answers the second and third questions by providing candidates who can help take the organization where ever it is headed and makes sure that it handpicks the employees with the right skills. Later on, human resource planning takes care of continuously updating the skill set of the employees through training and development. Therefore, both planning and recruitment work in unison and neither can work in isolation. Without a human resource plan, recruitment will be difficult because hiring agencies, in-house or outsourced will not know who to hire and what skills are needed for the successful growth of the organization.
Without recruitment, a human resource plan is ineffective because there will be no employees to carry out the main objective of the human resource plan. With good human resource planning, recruitment is done by means of a structured recruitment approach. With effective planning, recruitment actions are taken prior of a vacancy. Whereas, without planning, recruitment and selection are done in a hurry and on an ad-hoc basis to fill the vacancy. With the latter method, the organization loses out on time and money. Human resource planning is directly related to business improvement and success of an organisation.
Since recruitment and selection are significant parts of human resource planning, therefore, effective recruitment is also directly tied to the success of the organisation. References: • A guide to strategic human resource planning. (2008). In Workinfo. Retrieved 06:29, April 26, 2009, from http://www. workinfo. com/free/Downloads/176. htm • Recruitment. (2009, April 23). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 06:38, April 26, 2009, from http://en. wikipedia. org/w/index. php? title=Recruitment&oldid=285678464