How Organizations Determine Future Human Resource Needs

Upon determination of organization’s goal/mission, managers begin HR planning. The first step is to take inventory of the current employees. After reviewing the job analysis, HR managers take a query from the company planning program (PeopleMatch for example) and determine whether the company has enough qualified candidates to fill the open positions. If the company is understaffed, new employees will need to be recruited.

Demand for employees results from demand for the organization’s products or services. Let’s think of a supply store that is planning to open a furniture department. In order to fulfill its goal, the store will probably need to buy or rent delivery trucks and hire truck drivers. When demand for products or services dynamically changes in an organization, more job opportunities are created. This will cause more job rotation within the organization and more hiring.

Managers must predict the future needs of the organization and assess current capabilities in order to estimate HR needs. They can then estimate areas in which the organization will be understaffed or overstaffed. For example an organization may realize the need to work on its information system infrastructure. The managers may have to assess the IS department and see if it is capable of doing the planned infrastructure. There might be a need to work with an outside contractor, beside the organization may need to hire new employees who are expert in utilizing the new system. 

            Businesses are becoming more and more dynamic with the force of competition, and with the development of information/communication technologies. Few businesses can afford to resist today’s dynamic market and stick with their old routines. Successful businesses would try to lead the comparative advantage by predicting the future, strengthening the research and development department, creating new jobs, and attracting talents after determining future human resource needs.

Resource:

Robbins Stephen P, Coulter Mary; Management. Pearson prentice hall .Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: 10^th Edition.