Need for HRP in Organizations

Major reasons for the emphasis on HRP at the Macro level:

1) Employment-Unemployment Situation: Though in general the number of educated

unemployment is on the rise, there is acute shortage for a variety of skills. This emphasizes on the need for more effective recruitment and employee retention.

2) Technological Change: The changes in production technologies, marketing methods and management techniques have been extensive and rapid. Their effect has been profound on the job contents and job contexts. These changes have caused problems relating to redundancies, retention and redeployment. All these suggest the need to plan manpower needs intensively and systematically.

3) Demographic Change: The changing profile of the work force in terms of age, sex, literacy, technical inputs and social background has implications for HRP.

4) Skill Shortage: Unemployment does not mean that the labour market is a buyer’s market. Organizations generally become more complex and require a wide range of specialist skills that are rare and scare. A problem arises in an organization when employees with such specialized skills leave.

5) Governmental Influences: Government control and changes in legislation with regard to affirmative action for disadvantages groups, working conditions and hours of work, restrictions on women and child employment, causal and contract labour, etc. have stimulated the organizations to be become involved in systematic HRP.

6) Legislative Control: The policies of “hire and fire” have gone. Now the legislation makes it difficult to reduce the size of an organization quickly and cheaply. It is easy to increase but difficult to shed the fat in terms of the numbers employed because of recent changes in labour law relating to lay-offs and closures. Those responsible for managing manpower must look far ahead and thus attempt to foresee manpower problems.

7) Impact of the Pressure Group: Pressure groups such as unions, politicians and persons displaced from land by location of giant enterprises have been raising contradictory pressure on enterprise management such as internal recruitment and promotion, preference to employees’ children, displace person, sons of soil etc.

8) Systems Approach: The spread of system thinking and advent of the macro computer as the part of the on-going revolution in information technology which emphasis planning and newer ways of handling voluminous personnel records.

9) Lead Time: The log lead time is necessary in the selection process and training and deployment of the employee to handle new knowledge and skills successfully.