There are various factors affecting Human Resource Planning. Human resource Planning is the process of planning the human resource in the organisation. HRP is forecasting the future human resource requirement in the organisation and planning accordingly. Hence in this process there are various factors which affects the Human Resource Planning. Let us discuss about the factors affecting human resource planning.
a. Organizational Growth Cycle and Planning:
Each organisation will be in a certain place in the organisation life cycle. The organisation growth cycle consist of 5 stages namely Existence, survival, maturity, renewal and decline. The success of HRP is also depending on the stage of growth cycle in which the organisation presently prevails. Hence the Human resource department must understand and consider the growth cycle stage of the organisation which is planning the Human resource planning process.
b. Environmental uncertainties:
There are certain things which are out of control for the management like labor market, economic development of the nation, natural disasters, government policies etc. These things will also affect the HRP of any organisation.
c. Outsourcing:
Now a days it is a trend that many organisation outsource many things to reduce either cost or time or efforts or all together. Few things that are outsourced popularly are security, canteen, office assistance, system supporters, Maintenance employees etc. When the HRP is done many a times there may be fewer clues about the future outsourcing strategy of the organisation. Hence this will also affect the HRP.
d. Nature of Jobs being filled
The success of HRP is also depending on the nature of the jobs being filled. The demand and supply, alternative employees and turnover ratio varies from job to job. The time taken to fill each post is also different. All these also matters a lot and so affect the human resource planning.
e. Type & Quality of Forecasting Information:
As discussed in the beginning HRP is based on the future forecasting of human requirement of the organisation. The data used to estimate the man power requirement is obtained in various ways. The type of data used and method used to collect such data decides the quality and reliability of the information collected.
It is also to be noted that the type of data and collection method must be decided on the basis of the nature of job to be filled, organisation life cycle, previous experiences etc. This is one of the important factors which will have direct impact on HRP.
Time Horizons:
Time horizon includes many things like for how many years you are forecasting, HRP is planned for how many years, how many years data you are using hoe prior you are estimating the Human resource requirement etc. Hence the organisation must go for a perfect time span which should not be so lengthy or too short. Data should not be very old. You should not plan very prior or too late. Much focus must be given to time horizons as it is one of the deciding factor.
Type & Strategy of organization:
Many a times the organisation needs to consider a change in the strategy depending upon the market, products, competitor, government policy etc. The type and strategy of organisation will also affect the HRP in certain cases. Hence HR department must consider all possibilities before going for man power planning