Definition of Human Resource Planning

Human resource planning can be viewed as the attempt to foresee the organization’s future and provide the required workforces to accomplish the set goals and to meet the demands of the customers.  This perception implies that human resource planning constitutes several activities that are associated such as employees’ inventory, human resource practice, action plan and assessment.

Human Resource Planning (HRP) is defined by Daley (2012) as the process that tries to supply sufficient HR to accomplishing the projected objectives of the organization. Thus it comprises of the future estimation of the various types of employee’s needs, relating the needs with the current personnel and determining the size of the workforce to be added or eliminated from the organization.

According to Scullion and Collings (2011), Human resource Planning is the systematic assessment of the needs of the human resource with the aim of ensuring that the right size of employees equipped with appropriate skills is available on demand.  

According to Armstrong (2011), human resource planning is the development of strategies aimed at comparing the number of workers with the needs of the organization. The HRP functions to recruit, retain, and maximize the allocation of a sufficient workforce to meet business goals and to respond to variations in the external business environment promptly. HRP process also involves skills analysis of the current personnel, human resources forecasting, and an action plan to ensure supply meet demands.

The business environment is very dynamic, and this further causes the variation in the needs of the human resource. The management aims to have bridged this gap through the human resource planning by ensuring that it has the right employees at the right time and place undertaking the right tasks that will benefit both the employees and the company (Bratton and Gold, 2012).

The business environment is ever varying, and thus any business needs to align itself with the dynamic environment for it to remain competitive. The department of IT and Communications is not exempted because it also competes for the same human resources in the job market. Furthermore, Highsmith (2013) asserts that the complexity of an organization makes it more prone to human error which will result in low employee motivation and high turnover. Therefore, effective human resource planning is at the center of the success of the Department of IT and Communications.

Some researchers have found out that Almost all organizations consider the workforce as the greatest determinant of the competitive advantage (Campbell, and Kryscynski, 2012; Macey, Schneider, Barbera, and Young, 2011; and Crook et al., 2011). Big and successful organizations continuously identify and implement human resource planning policies to sustain that advantage. The government has in the past implemented performance contracts with the executive officers in the department of IT and Communications with an objective of improving performance in the public service (Heinrich, 2012). Conversely, the human resource function of planning has been given little attention. As a result, the government has scored poorly in the IT and Communications sector due to the absence of a proper analysis of workload and precise communication system between its headquarters and the respective branch offices. It has not also conducted training needs assessment which is a critical aspect of HR planning (Berman et al., 2012).

Importance of Human Resource Planning

Just like other IT and Communication departments in other countries, Australia is facing issues in attracting and retaining expert and prized workforce to meet their performance needs (Hutchings, De Cieri and Shea, 2011). Alongside the rapid technological advancement, these aspects are already affecting service delivery and are have cost implications. This has necessitated the need for effective planning of the primary valuable assets of the department.

To underscore further the impacts of the Human resource planning on the organizational performance, this study will analyze the efficiency of the human resource planning policies and practices in the department of IT and Communications, the effect of the HRP in addressing challenges of the human capital in the IT and communication department.   It’s against this context that this research seeks to determine the impact of the human resource planning on the performance of the IT and communications department.

The primary objective of the research is to determine the impacts of Human Resource Planning on the department of IT and Communication. The specific research questions that will be answered by this study include:

1.    How are the Human Resource Planning Policies and practices effective in the Department of IT and Communications?
2.    How are the Human Resource Planning Policies and procedures effective in the Department of IT and Communications and are they functioning effectively?
3.    What are the challenges deterring the successful implementation of HRP in the Department of IT and Communication?

This project will be of significance to students, companies and other parties of interest who may desire to undertake a study like this one.

First, this project will benefit organizations with an understanding of the close relationship that exists between Human Resource Planning and organizational performance. Recognizing the effect between HRP and the success of the organization and its impact on employee productivity can help reveal the underlying rationale for organizations to emphasize on adopting effective HRP policies and procedures (Buller, and McEvoy, 2012). Furthermore, organizations are after ensuring the team performs, and the employees are productive. If the re-focus and implementation of the various aspects of HRP will increase output, then companies will automatically emphasize more on HRP. Secondly, the recommendations made by this project will deepen the understanding of businesses to move from ad hoc planning to more sophisticated and scientific methods of the planning of their personnel. Lastly, it would allow the IT and Communication Department to appreciate the impact of the Human Resource Planning on the organization.

Additionally, the majority of the previous research on the effects of human resource planning has been carried out in the countries of the USA, which are known to have a workforce that greatly varies with the Australian due to the extremes in the cultural background of the workers. This project proposal will be carried out on the labor force of Australian government using interviews and questionnaires. The feedback from employees will provide valuable information on the impacts of the Human resource planning on the performance of the organization.  The findings can be used by the various agencies and individual business owners to make long-term strategies for sustainable business development.

Process of Human Resource Planning

The answers to the presented questions of this project can be treated as one of the potential research results. Additionally, as fundamental studies in the area of Human resource management, this project proposal attempts to understand the concept of organizational performance from the perspective of Human Resource Planning and provides further knowledge on this phenomenon. This research project is expected to deliver a theoretical framework for analyzing corporate performance, which has been the focus of every business, more so in the sector of Information Technology. By analyzing and practicing Human Resource Planning policies and procedures, the organization does not only perform but also ensures its sustainability in the competitive market (Rummler and Brache, 2012). Though the size of the organization being surveyed may be big, it will still offer an understanding of the impacts of Human resource planning on organizational performance to both medium and small-size businesses.

•    Corporate executives can apply the findings of this project on the effect of the human resource planning policies and practices to decide on the best strategy for lowering or raising the size of the workforce with an objective of maintaining a competitive advantage.
•    The expected outcomes of this project will be used by shareholders, scholars, and policymakers for successful recruitment and retention of skilled workforce
•    The findings of this project will be significant to the IT businesses and departments in Australia and beyond as they will be able to understand the existing relationship between organizational performance and HRP. This will assist them to develop much better strategies towards employee satisfaction and consequent performance of the organization.

Theoretical Framework and Research Hypotheses

This section will emphasize on the review of the existing literature on Human Resource Planning and its drawbacks and how this project fits in this scenario (Christensen et al., 2011). The importance of this project will also be by other researchers outcomes. For this reason, it will be necessary to map and examine the general ground (Marler, and Fisher, 2013).  The report will also review both primary and secondary literature, as well as the presentation of a conceptual framework to illustrate the association between the independent and dependent variables. The existing research gaps and critique will as well be addressed in this chapter.

Human Resource Planning 

Human resource planning is a methodological process of finding the required competencies of the personnel to meet the strategic goals of the organization and for creating the strategies to achieve these requirements. This is a systematic process that provides the administration with a framework for developing human resource decision on the premise of the company’s mission, strategic plan, financial projections and specific competencies of the workforce (Hendry, 2012).

Guest, (2011) asserts that there has been an increasing focus on the significance of human resource planning as well as other principal financial resources including equity, materials, and technology.

A study by Jiang et al. (2012) has also defined Human Resource Planning as the process of making sure that the requirements of the human resources are recognized, and strategies are put in place for meeting the demands.

Strategic Human Resource Planning

The strategy for the development of human resource is dynamic and is subject to the organizational structure. However, the model in the figure below is a fitting approach to the creation of a human resource strategy.

Strategy for Development of Human Resource

Source: (Bamberger, Biron, and Meshoulam, 2014)

The first stage is the initiation of the strategic direction. This involves the determination of the objectives, goals, and output that the company visualizes to attain within the definite period.  The next step is the shaping of the human resource management system to establish efficiency in the functions of Human resource functions. The third stage is the planning of the total workforce which comprises of the determination of the number and skills of the employees required by the organization. The generation of the relevant human resources encompasses attraction and retention through recruitment and selection with an objective of attaining the required size. The human resource development and performance emphasizes on examining whether the staff is sufficiently skilled and if not the methods of acquiring relevant skills and competence to attain the company objectives. The last stage is the evaluation and sustaining basic competence and performance. The performance of the organization is assessed to find out its current position about the accomplishment of the anticipated objectives. The existence of any gaps is recognized, and rectification measures are put in place before going back to the initial stage of strategic guidelines (Bamberger, Biron, and Meshoulam, 2014).

Importance of Human Resource Planning

According to the study done by Buller, and McEvoy (2012) some of the significance of Human resource planning includes:

• Planning enables smooth flow of business practices. However, it requires much effort in programming, but the benefits far outweigh the initial strenuous planning
• Planning involves the gathering of information from various sources to enable the management to make informed decisions. The acquired information is also optimized to initiate better actions aimed at attaining organizational objectives. The proper application of HR planning assists in the determination of the number of staff the company needs, the class of employees the organization has from the perspective of skills and competence, ways in which the company can maximally utilize the existing resources, and how to retain the employees (Buller, and McEvoy (2012.
• The program assists the organization and other HR functions such as employee career development which in turn facilitates the achievement of the organization goals. Therefore human resource planning is a critical component of the Management Information System.
• The constant variation in the composition of the workforce tasks the HR department to have a well laid down program to keep up with the changes to ensure that the organization has the right people at the right time. Thus HR planning as an element of human resource management helps to achieve this Storey (2014).

A Conceptual Framework for Human Resource Planning   Methods on the Department of IT and Communications.

According to Mathis and Jackson (2011), the circumstances under which the Human Resourcing can be used include the following.

• Finding out the number of employees to be engaged in a new venture. The department of IT and communications are likely to over employ or under-utilize the staff in case they misjudge on the right size of the workforce. This further becomes almost impossible for the employees to perform and meet the set goals and deadlines.
• Retaining the most skilled and valuable employees. The loss of the valuable staff to the organization is costly, and thus the department of IT and Communications should observe the level of resignation, assess the reasons and establish the cost to the organization. Then necessary steps can be initiated to prevent the repeat
• Undertaking an effective downsizing programme. This is the most challenging task for all managers for they are tied between painlessly cutting the workforce at the same time preserving the long-term objectives of the organization. The HRP aids in considering the advantages and disadvantages of either way to accomplish downsizing, the value of retraining, reorganization, and transferals. Afterwards, an assessment can be presented to the executive management and the cost-benefit of various options discussed before making an informed and balanced decision.
• Planning for the next generation of managers. Most managers of organizational are always troubled with the source of incoming and performing managers which ends up in poaching which is indeed a short-term initiative. However, a long-term initiative requires the management to understand the current career system, the qualifications of those that are in senior positions and the company’s future supply of talent.

Source: Mathis and Jackson (2011)

According to the statement of the problem and the study objectives, the hypotheses that can be proposed include:

Hypothesis 1:

H_O: Null Hypothesis: Human Resource Planning techniques affect the decision on the Number of Employees to be engaged in a new Venture.

H₁: Alternative Hypothesis: Human Resource Planning techniques don’t affect the decision on the Number of Employees to be engaged in a new Venture.

Hypothesis 2:

H_O: Null Hypothesis: Human Resource Planning techniques affect the decision on the retention of the most skilled and valuable employees.

H₁: Alternative Hypothesis: Human Resource Planning techniques do not affect the decision on the retention of the most skilled and valuable employees.

Hypothesis 3:

H_O: Null Hypothesis: Human Resource Planning techniques assist in the management of an efficient downsizing programme.  

H1: Alternative Hypothesis: Human Resource Planning techniques do not assist in the management of an effective downsizing programme.  

Efficiency of HRP Policies and Practices in IT and Communications Department in Australia

Hypothesis 4:

H_O: Null Hypothesis: Human Resource Planning techniques assist in the determining of the next generation managers.

H₁: Null Hypothesis: Human Resource Planning techniques don’t assist in the determining of the next generation managers.

Methodology 

The following methodologies will be undertaken for an effective analysis of the aims and objectives of this project proposal:

•    Literature review

Many kinds of literature will be analyzed to obtain secondary data for this project. The primary source of secondary data will be accessed from scholarly sites such as Google Scholar, journal and peer-reviewed articles (published), and these shall be studied in-depth (Clark, 2013).

•    Population

The target population for this project will be the employees of the Department of IT and Communications. They are used because they are directly affected by HRP.

•    Sample

The project intends to use the systematic and purposive sampling methods because of the large size of the target population. The systematic random sampling method will be employed to define and select the participants from the sample frame for the research. The purposive sampling method will be applied to identify and select important officials of the department bestowed with leadership roles for the HRP and management in the section. The target population is 1,200 employees with a sample size of 350, derived using Krejcie & Morgan table (Zikmund et al., 2013).

Data Collection Method

The primary method of data collection will be literature reviews, questionnaires and interviews and will be analyzed using qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods (Creswell, 2013).

–    Quantitative Data:

Numerical/qualitative data will be acquired from the questionnaires and interviews and will be used to quantify the responses from the employees. Descriptive data analysis method will be used to describe, review and present raw quantitative data in the form of tables, charts, and graphs.

–    Qualitative Data:

Non-numerical data will be obtained through interviews and the literature reviews with the aim of comprehending the underlying opinions. Predictive data analysis methods will be used; these include frequency, ANOVA, etc. (Miles, Huberman, and Saldana, 2013)

This report is organized into the following section:

Chapter one: Covers the research proposal

Chapter two: Defines the case studies of the impacts of Human Resource Planning on the performance of the organization

Chapter three: Contain conceptual framework and hypothesis.

Chapter four:  Comprises of the methodology details used in the project study such as literature review, methods of data analysis and collection.

Chapter five: Comprises of the outcomes of the project research alongside analysis.

Relationship between HRP and Organizational Performance

Chapter six: Shall comprise of the summary of the initial findings and discuss their implications in the organizational performance.

Name of Task	Start Date	End Date	Duration(Days)
Project proposal organization	12/01/2017	21/01/2017	9
Literature review	22/01/2017	24/03/2017	60
Data collection process	25/03/2017	03/05/2017	39
Data analysis process	02/05/2017	10/06/2017	39
Report presentation	11/06/2017	22/06/2017	11

The entire budget up to the deadline which is on 18/08/2017 is approximate $10,100. The following is the rationale for the budget:

• The expected literature review to be undertaken encompasses the use of peer-reviewed and published journals and articles in addition to books. The access to this material is approximated to cost $600.
• The distribution of the questionnaire to the participants requires the HR department of the IT and communications department to be contacted and permission sought for the allocation of the questionnaires to the employees. Due to the size of the target population, some individuals will be contracted to physically distribute the questionnaires to the respective offices within the department of IT and Communications, and this is approximated to cost $ 3000.
• The expenses for the conduction of the interviews are expected to cost $4500.
• Data collection further analysis requires the contracting of a statistician to expert to undertake, and this will approximately cost $2000Summary of expenses

No.	Purpose	Budget approximation($)
1	Literature Review	600
2	Collection of data: questionnaires	3000
3	Collection of data: interview	4500
4	Analysis of data	2000
	Total Approximate budget	10,100

References 

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Berman, E.M., Bowman, J.S., West, J.P. and Van Wart, M.R., 2012. Human resource management in public service: Paradoxes, processes, and problems. Sage.

Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2012. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave Macmillan.

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