P1 Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and resourcing an organization Definition of HRM, Workforce planning Book p.216-217 Workforce planning defined The following definition of workplace planning was produced by the CIPD (2010a: 4): ‘Workforce planning is a core process of human resource management that is shaped by the organizational strategy and ensures the right number of people with the right skills, in the right place at the right time to deliver short- and long-term organizational objectives.’ Workforce planning may be conducted as an overall approach to establishing and satisfying people requirements covering all major employee categories and skills However, it frequently concentrates on key categories of staff, for example, doctors, nurses and other health workers in the National Health Service, skilled operatives in a manufacturing company, sales staff in a retail store or drivers in a transport company Rothwell (1995: 194) distinguished between HR planning in the hard sense – ‘to serve as an indicator of the likely match or mismatch of the supply and demand for the right number of people with appropriate skills’ – and HR planning in the soft sense – ‘to alert the organization to the implications of business strategy for people development, culture and attitudes as well as numbers and skills’ The CIPD (2010a: 4) made a similar distinction between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ workforce planning As the report on their research commented: Hard workforce planning is about numbers In the past this often revolved around using past trends to predict the future, matching supply and demand for labour with the result that plans were often out of date before the ink was dry Now there is more emphasis on management information that can help understand cause and effect of certain phenomena Soft workplace planning focuses on general issues relating to the supply of and demand for people and how they are deployed The precursor to workforce planning – manpower planning as conceived in the 1960s – was almost entirely about numbers in the shape of quantitative demand and supply forecasts It was the failure in many organizations to produce accurate forecasts and therefore prepare meaningful plans that led to its decline if not fall Workforce planning today covers a wider range of activities such as succession planning, smart working, flexible working and talent planning, and is not such a numbers game Slide Lecture Part • HR planning How we know what employee resources we need? • Recruitment How we get them interested in us and the job? • Selection How we choose the best person for the job? HRM defined Slide Lecture Part1 Human resource management (HRM) is a comprehensive and coherent approach to the employment and development of people HRM can be regarded as a philosophy about how people should be managed to improve organizational effectiveness that is equally concerned with the ethical dimension – how people should be treated in accordance with a set of moral values HRM can be defined as a strategic, integrated and coherent approach to the employment, development and well-being of the people working in organizations HRM involves the application of policies and practices in the fields of organization design and development, employee resourcing, learning and development, performance and reward and the provision of services that enhance the well-being of employees Book p.5 Human resource management can be defined as a strategic, integrated and coherent approach to the employment, development and well-being of the people working in organizations It was defined by Boxall and Purcell (2003: 1) as ‘all those activities associated with the management of employment relationships in the firm’ A later comprehensive definition was offered by Watson (2010: 919): HRM is the managerial utilisation of the efforts, knowledge, capabilities and committed behaviours which people contribute to an authoritatively co-ordinated human enterprise as part of an employment exchange (or more temporary contractual arrangement) to carry out work tasks in a way which enables the enterprise to continue into the future https://www.shopify.com/encyclopedia/human-resource-management Human resource management, HRM, is the department of a business organization that looks after the hiring, management and firing of staff HRM focuses on the function of people within the business, ensuring best work practices are in place at all times