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MANPOWER PLANNING: THE CONCEPT AND IMPORTANCE FOR BUSINESS
Care Real Jaunis, Roslinah Mahmud*& Noor Fzlinda Fabeil Faculty of Business, Economy and Accountancy
Universiti Malaysia Sabah
*Correspondings Author: [email protected]
Abstract
The manpower planning process consist of reviewing the organizational goals, analyse current and future needs, develop and implement plan, and finally monitor, evaluate and adjust plan. The study reveals that there is much importance of manpower planning for business world today especially in an organisation. Several evidence from different business industries and countries which shown the relationship and benefits of manpower planning implementation has been demonstrated.
Keywords: Manpower Planning, Business
Manpower Planning
Manpower planning is also referred with several other terms such as human resource planning, personnel planning, and workforce planning. The main component of the manpower planning is human. Thus naturally, a concern regarding a suitable quality and quantity of human resources to meet its shorter and longer-term needs surfaced. While other resources are important to an organization, the human resource must especially be planned carefully in achieving organizational goals. Abiodun (1999) stated that the most important company resource is people as without its labour force, other factors of production such as machinery, tools and equipment are meaningless.
Subsequently, the manpower planning must ensure that the HR requirements of an organization are identified, and plans are made accordingly with the requirements (Scott, 1994). This indicates how important manpower planning are in determining and ensuring continuous success of an organization.
According to Armstrong (2010), manpower planning is so important in contributing to the organization’s effectiveness. Not only that, but it is also important for a company’s overall efficiency and profitability (Adeniyi, 1994). Every organization must develop effective manpower practice to achieve its goals and objectives. This paper will provide an overview of the manpower planning method as well as the importance of implementing the method in an organization.
The Concept
Manpower planning is the process where management could move from its current manpower position to its desired manpower position by putting the right number of people, right type, right places, and right time by doing the right thing in achieving the organization’s benefits (Vetter, 1964).
Since there are different types of skills, abilities, and knowledge that exist within a workplace, the human resource planning ensures that people equipped with certain skills landed on the right job and
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thing to do. Another study defined manpower planning as the process of evaluating and calculating the number of people suitable for a job or adequate number of people to complete a job within a fixed time (Bhrommool, 2020). Similarly, Koltnerova et al., (2012) views personnel planning as the key to goals achievement by making development prediction, setting the targets, and realizing arrangements for current and future labour needs with sufficient manpower.
The Importance
It is undeniable that manpower planning has a huge importance on an organization and businesses.
In line with the concept of manpower planning, it aims to attract and retain people who possess appropriate skills, expertise, and competencies. Besides that, it aims to anticipate the problem of potential surplus or shortage, develop a well-trained and flexible workforce, and improve the utilization of people (Prashanthi, 2013).
Ibojo (2012) suggests that human resource planning is a method in which the correct number of people with appropriate skills are hired in the correct position. Such method helps the organization to attain the most desired level of efficiency. This implies that an organization will become more efficient with the implementation of manpower planning.
Armstrong (2009) also stated that an organization that centre on manpower development can achieve goals and increase success rate. In a study by Fagerstrom (2014), the implementation of a demand model to manage the workforce needs keeps the employees’ interest and competencies.
From past studies we can observe the evidence on how manpower or workforce planning has improved the management of an organization. In a study by Segal and Bolton (2009), the approach to
‘health workforce planning’ through workforce demand model in Australia is important to determine the level of workers that could meet the needs of its community. The workforce demand model they used has prevented mismatch between the health workforce supply and demand due to factors such as changing age distribution.
Bhrommool (2020) argued that manpower planning has significantly impacted an organizational effectiveness. The research was carried out on several logistics companies in Thailand, which showed that development and training as well as demand and supply forecasting has contributed to organizational effectiveness.
Koltnerova et al. (2012) stated that manpower plan is the core of all planning process in an enterprise, thereby, it should meet the required company objectives. Internally, it ensures that an enterprise hires and develop qualified staffs to manage the company. To achieve an exceptional performance, an enterprise must adopt personnel plan as it could increase the efficiency in managing the human resources and increase competitiveness of enterprises in the labour market.
Etim et al., (2020) stated that the most suitable personnel can be attained by an organization which leads to the improvement of productivity and effectiveness on an organization because of manpower planning.
Conclusion
The study can conclude that manpower planning is the most important component to ensure the needs of an organization is met as no organization would achieve success without a proper manpower
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plan. Nonetheless, the manpower planning would not be effective without a proper plan and recognition of problems. The workforce plan should consist of attracting the right number and skills of people in the right jobs at the right time in order to meet a firm’s goals. Hence, a successful implementation of manpower planning within an organization depend to the competence of managers in analysing different data of the organization as well as internal and external factors.
References
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Scott, A. (1994). Willing Slaves? British Workers Under Human Resource Management. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F030981689505700109
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