THE IMPACT OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING ON ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE

Abstract

Human resource planning is one of the growing areas of academic research. Organizations regard human resource as their core competency that can give them competitive advantage because it leads to better organizational performance. The objective of this study was to examine the impact of human resource planning on organizational performance. The data was collected from top managers, middle level managers, HR managers and support staff through the use of questionnaires. Data collected was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and interpreted in view of the four specific objectives of the study.

The key findings of the study indicated that there was a significant evidence that effective human Resource Planning was being undertaken at the organisations during the period under review. Literature review did not yield empirical evidence of similar researches carried out before. The study therefore concluded that the impact of human resource planning on organizational performance was to a very small extent.

The study recommends that the organisations should ensure that HRP is mainstreamed in the overall strategic goals and a budget provided for it. This will curb the succession planning challenges and ensure that critical positions are not left vacant and they should ensure that schemes of service are regularly reviewed and emerging issues taken into consideration so as to enhance career progression of staff. This will ultimately boost their morale and productivity leading to improved service delivery

 Chapter one

  Introduction

1.1 Background to the Study

The history of planning is old as man himself planning had started from the ancient era during the primitive period when there were no industries or firms. Planning is a basic function of management thus therefore means that planning pervades all the functional area of management which include personnel, production, research and development, marketing and finance.

Through planning organization goals and objective are determined; the resources available must be strategies to achieve the goals and objectives. Planning provide answers to what? How? When? And their relationship to organization activities.

In personnel management function, human resources panel is a basic function. Human resources planning is sometime referred to as workforce planning, which is defined as the process of the right number of qualified people into the right job at the right time.

To ensure adequate workforce in the organization, management must plan properly, proper planning in this respect involves accurate projection of the future, taking inventory of existing workforce, comparing the force with the existing one and take corrective measure.

Globally, there is now a general realization that effective management of human resources (HR) can enable an organization to gain as well as maintain a competitive advantage (Gupta &Govindarajan, 2001).

Consequently, many organizations have attributed their success to effective Human Resource Management (HRM) (Orbole, 2016). HRM may be understood to refer to strategies or policies, procedures as well as practices related to developing the organization’s human resources (Inyang, 2011).

This is basically a unique way of managing employees and leads to achievement of organizational goals by using skilled and motivated staff.

It incorporates various cultural, organizational and personnel techniques (Huselid,2000). While stressing the significance of HR, Elnaga and Imran (2013) have argued that employees are a critical resource in an organization as they can affect the corporate image and consequently, determine the success or failure of the organization. Effective HRM enables managers to make plans and hire skilled staff, at the same time it helps employees find meaningful work with avenues for career development.

This research is designed to cover Human Resources Planning in relation to Performance in Private Sector. As a Human Resource Manager, HRP isa relevant function of management in an organization for the purpose of actualizing set goals and objectives. Human Resources Planning is a process of analyzing an organization Human Resources needs under changing condition and developing the activities necessary to satisfy this needs, Good human resources planning is responsible for higher productivity in the private section. There should be regular and adequate personnel planning in organization to cater for lapses or inadequacies were they exist.

The key objective of HRM is to increase employee performance and improve organizational performance through investment in HR (Craft, 2000). This is achieved through several key functions of HRM including planning for the quantities and qualities of required employees, acquiring services of employees, developing them, motivating them and making sure that they continue to maintain high performance standards. The human resource planning (HRP) thus becomes a very essential component of human resource practice(Dienemann,2005).

HRP aims to ensure a suitable workforce is accessible to the organization to facilitate and improve organizational performance (Mathias, 2003). Through HRP organizations are able to maintain a desirable human resource position while projecting future needs so as to have the correct quantities and qualities of employees as needed. HRP is therefore a strategy for the organization to acquire, utilize, development and retain its workforce by forecasting prospective work force needs, reviewing current human resource needs and making plans to fill any anticipated manpower gaps (Green &Downes, 2005). Reilly (2003) argues that the HRP function enables an organization to approximate its need for labour, calculate the numbers and supply source that will satisfy the demand.

Despite differences in terms of the strategies and practices, HRP is embraced in both the private and public sectors worldwide (Delaney, 2000). According to Seonghee (2005), since the mid-1990s there has been a rise in the use of HRP as a strategic function of HRM. HRP has been generally accepted as a critical function because it enables organizations to attain their goals through the forecast of human resource needs (Jacobson, 2010). Therefore, how to conduct HRP accurately and effectively has gained significant interest in the field of HRM over the years (Campbell, 2000).

In public organizations, the dramatic shift in workforce demographics has necessitated appropriate HRP strategy, policy and practice. In many African countries including Kenya the need for HRP was felt immediately after independence. Governments in African countries put concerted efforts to bring about socio-economic development. Consequently, many of the public sector reform efforts adopted have involved planning, developing and managing the human resource function. Forinstance, in Mozambique, the country realised that despite the efforts of the public sector to adjust to political and economic dynamics through administration, reform was required to ensure that the public sector would become more responsive to the national objectives to improve service delivery to its citizen. Similarly, Kenya and Cameroon in particular has suffered from the impact of a fast growing public sector which grew dramatically from 63,000 employees in 1963 to 158,883 in 1980 and to 271,979 in 1990,which translated to annual growth rates of 9% and 7% respectively well above the growth rate of the economy. The current Civil Service employment is about 354,250 (KNBS, 2016).

Lack of proper HRP resulted in over-employment leading to a bloated Civil service. Consequently, it became imperative to institutionalize HRP in the public sector as part of reforms in the Civil Service, and each Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) was required to develop strategic human resource plans to regulate and rationalize recruitment, eliminate stagnation, link development of staff to their career progression as well as skills requirements in the organizations (Republic of Kenya, 2006).

The HRP process guidelines requires all the government ministries and institutions to develop strategic human resource plans by: gathering and analysing information on established posts; budgeting for payroll costs, forecasting for demand and supply, controlling current staff establishment, developing annual training projections and having a reliable Human Resource Information System (HRIS) (MSPS 2A/ (35, 2010).

Further the Human Resource Development Policy (GOK, 2015) requires that all MDAs develop, update, analyse and maintain skills inventories for all staff. This will assist to establish the available competencies and to check if there are any existing gaps so as to recommend appropriate interventions. This is geared towards improving organizational performance.

According to world health organization, (WHO) the main goal of managing health workers is to ensure that they have the necessary qualifications and are properly deployed.

However, it has not been easy to actualize this noble goal (Bratton and Gold, 2007). According to Kempner (1971), HRH is deemed to be a major building block for an effective and efficient health care system in any country.

Globally there is evidence of a direct relationship between the size of a country’s health workforce and its health care outcomes (Griffins, 2006).

The role of HRP in the Ministry of Health is to ensure that there are optimal staffing levels in the organization (Bratton & Gold,2007).

1.2 Statement of the problem

In this research we will identify those determinants that can improve the organizational performance like selection criteria, hiring, training, and giving benefits and if they would follow those tools of human resource planning it would be easy to manage employees and in return it will increase the organizational performance.

1.3 Research Questions

Generally, the research sought to answer the question on how HRP impacted organizational performance at the DO office Buea. It also sought to answer the following specific questions: 

1. To what extent does aligning HRP to the DO’s office Strategic Goals impacts performance?
2. How does ensuring optimal staffing level impact performance?
3. How employee motivation does impacts performance?

1.4 Objectives of the Study

The basic objective of this study is to measure the Impact of Human Resource Planning on organizational performance in the ‘DO’s Office’. Major focus was first to check the continuation of formal human resource planning and identifying the variables which can increase the organizational performance among the following public sectors of Cameroon: Furthermore it has some sub-objectives which are as follows:

1 To determine the extent to which aligning HRP to the organisation’s strategic goals impact its performance.

• To assess the impact of optimal staffing on performance.
• To establish how employee motivation impacts performance

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