Soft HR planning

The assessment of four categories

or areas:
- Defining where the organisation is
now
- Defining where it wants to be in
the future
Analysing
its
external
environment, influences and trends
(over which it has
no control)
- Formulating plans to implement
necessary changes.
These four categories are important
stages in the strategic planning
process.
Soft
workforce
planning
is
concerned with the formulation of
the mission,
goals, objectives and strategy of
the organisation and how variables
such as
growth,
product,
life
cycle,
competitive advantage and HR
development will
impact on its human resources

things that theorganisation wants

people to learn whether they want
to or not
Development
The (UK) Manpower Services
Commission has defined
development as the growth or
realisation of a persons ability,
through conscious or unconscious
learning and
development programmes, usually
including elements of planned
study and experience,
and frequently supported by a
coaching and counselling facility.
Essentially, development helps
people (a) to prepare for future job
roles, (b) to prepare
for career advancement, especially
into managerial positions, (c) to
prepare for expected
changes in the current job role, or
(d) to promote employability, i.e., a
range of
competencies that could be
valuable in the future

Hard HR planning

Training
Training is a specific way in which
learning can take place within the
organisation.
Training can be viewed as a
bounded activity focused on
equipping employees with the
knowledge and skills necessary to
perform work roles and
responsibilities to satisfactory
standards.
The Manpower Services
Commission has defined training
as A planned process to
modify attitude, knowledge or skill
behaviour through learning
experiences to achieve
effective performance in an activity
or range of activities. Its purpose, in
the work
situation, is to develop the abilities
of the individual and to satisfy the
current and future
needs of the organisation.

Finding the appropriate level of

human
resource.Hard
workforce planning activities
include:Forecasting:
the
number of employees required
in the future to support
thedemand
for
the
organisations products and
services.
It
also
includes
theassessment of the internal
and external supply of human
resources.Analysis:
of
how
current employees are being
utilised
throughout
theorganisation and how this
impacts on demand.Monitoring
and
review:
reconciling
workforce plans with actual
practiceand facilitating any
amendments needed to plans
Learning
Buchanan and Huczynski (2004)
define learning as the process of
acquiring knowledge
through experience which leads to
an enduring change in behaviour.
Learning is a fundamental aspect of
our psychological make-up and a
vital part of each
persons physical, social and
psychological development.
Learning occurs through formal,
systematic and structured activities
at school, college,
training centres and in the
workplace it also occurs through
informal interactions with
other people. However, a great deal
of learning is self-managed, i.e., it
is initiated bythe individual because
the individual wants to learn. This is
quite different from training,which is
typically initiated by the
organisation because there are

Education
The Manpower Services
Commission has defined
education as activities which aim
to
develop the knowledge, skills,
moral values and understanding
required in all aspects of
life rather than a knowledge and
skill relating to only a limited field of
activity.
Education is concentrated on
personal growth rather than
occupational advancement,
and may be associated with selfactualisation

Outline and justify the steps an

employer can take to reduce
employee absence.
Based upon CIPD model:
Formalise processes: Publish an
absence management policy and
procedure.
Set targets: Set an absence rate
as a target for teams, departments
and theorganisation as a whole.
Monitor absence: Gather absence
data that is accurate, consistent
and sufficientlydetailed to allow
proper analysis. Distinguish
between factors that push the
employeeaway from coming to
work (e.g. stress, harassment, lack
of job satisfaction, jobinsecurity,
long hours, poor organisational
culture) and the pull factors e.g.
domesticcommitments and travel
difficulties). (There is usually more
that can be done to address
the push factors than the pull
factors.)
Review: Carry out a meaningful
analysis of absence data.
Concentrate on short-term
absences: e.g. using the Bradford
points system and
trigger points for initiating action
Publish data: Provide line
managers with local absence data
about individuals
Publish analyses by unit so that
comparisons can be made, but
without allowing any
individual to be identified
Create the right culture: Carry out
return to work interviews (where the
line manager is
required to speak to the employee
on their return to work).
Act against poor attendance:
Take decisive action.
Restrict sick pay: As long as that
does not encourage people who
are genuinely sick
from coming to work
Provide alternatives: Short notice
leave and other flexibilities for
domestic crises
Provide professional
occupational health support:
Improve occupational health to
prevent absence (e.g. the provision
of counselling and anti-stress
initiatives)
Help staff to return to work: e.g.
by allowing them to return gradually
e.g. on reduced
hours or on light duties

Employer branding
Definition
Employer branding is concerned
with the image of the organisation
and how attractive itis to work for.
This will have a significant impact
on the type of candidates who
apply forjobs. Whilst all
organisations have an employer
brand, some have a very poor
employerbrand image as a result of
their treatment of existing staff,
potential staff and theirgenerally
poor reputation in the community.To
improve its brand image, an
organisation should establish the
current image, identifythe unique
selling points of its employment
offering and then emphasise these
points in advertisements and the
recruitment process. The aim is to
differentiate the organisationfrom
its competitors in the labour
market.Organisations have both an
internal and an external brand. The
internal brand is thatwhich is
perceived by employees. The
external brand is that which is
perceived by the
general public.
Value
Organisations wish to position
themselves as an employer of
choice to become more
attractive to certain sorts of
candidates. This should increase
the number and quality of
applications. If it increases the
number of unsolicited applications,
a good brand may reduce
recruitment costs.It also allows the
organisation to maintain a low cost
base e.g. an employeremphasising
its ethical values and the care it
shows to its employees, may find
thatsufficient suitable people apply
without needing to offer large
salaries.The employer brand will
also affect, positively or negatively,
the more general brand
image of the company in its product
markets.
HR business partnering is a process
whereby HR professionals work
closely with business leaders and/or
line managers to achieve shared
organisational objectives, in particular
designing and implementing HR
systems and processes that support
strategic business aims. This process
may involve the formal designation of
HR business partners, that is HR
professionals who are embedded
within the business, sometimes as part
of a wider process of restructuring of
the HR function.However, it is
important to note that many varying
definitions of HR business partnering

exist and, where HR business partners

operate, there are wide variations in
their role.The concept of HR business
partnering, or strategic partnering,
emerged during the mid-late 1990s,
around the time that US business
academic Dave Ulrich set out his initial
theories for the optimum delivery of
HR. Subsequently, certain aspects of
the Ulrich model have come to be
depicted as a three-legged stool or
three-box model for HR, although
there is an ongoing debate over how
his theories should be interpreted and
put into practice. Ulrich has also
reviewed and further developed his
own theories on this issue in
subsequent work.

(i) Equal Opportunities (EO) is an

organisational response to the
growth in discrimination legislation.
The coverage of legislation will vary
between countries, but can include:
sex and gender; race and ethnicity;
disability; age; religion; and sexual
orientation.EO initiatives typically
have a concern with avoiding legal
claims of discrimination. They tend
to focus on disadvantaged groups,
on target-setting, on positive action
(for example, to deal with underrepresentation in certain jobs) and
on seeking to remedy past
discrimination.
(ii) The CIPD (2008) defines
diversity as valuing everyone as an
individual, as opposed to the group
focus of EO, and see managing
diversity as central to good people
management.Diversitymanagement
recognises that the workforce is
comprised of a diverse population
of people consisting of both visible
and non-visible differences. This
includes not only differences
covered by employment law, but
others such as personality, social
background and work style. If the
organisation is able to harness
these differences and create a
culture where diverse talent is
valued and can flourish that will
enable organisations to maximise
their human resources and
enhance their competitive
advantage. While there is some
evidence to support this claim, it is
recognised that more work is
needed to prove the case
The individual employee
The individual employee is
expected to fulfil the terms of their
contract of employment in terms of
performance and conduct in order
that the organisation is successful.
They should cooperate with the
employer, obey reasonable

instructions and take responsibility

for their and others safety.
Where appropriate, they should
take some responsibility for their
own development
Line manager
Line managers typically have the
day-to-day HR responsibility for
their staff which includes motivating
employees to perform and behave
in a way that will meet
departmental and organisational
objectives. Depending upon the
organisation they may have
involvement in a range of HR
activities, including: the recruitment
and selection process; participating
in induction programmes;
conducting grievance and
disciplinary interviews (perhaps
with the assistance of HR);
monitoring absences; managing
performance and conducting
appraisal interviews. Line mangers
need to assess the training and
development needs of their staff.
They also liaise with HR on many
of these activities
The Human Resource specialist
The HR specialist is responsible for
the design of policies and
procedures which will help the
organisation meet its business
objectives.
They need to assess the human
resource requirements of the
business and plan for any future
changes.
HR specialists should provide
advice to, and support, line
managers in the management of
their staff, including staff training
and management development.
HR may also provide a range of
specialist services, for example,
occupational health and safety,
retirement planning
On-the-job methods most relevant
to the role identified in the question
are: Demonstration (or sitting with
Nelly) and One-to-One instruction.
The former would involve the
learner observing a more
experienced person carry out the
tasks required on the assumption
that they will gain knowledge of the
skills and techniques required,
although the learner may not
understand why something is
being done. To be successful,
Nelly would need to have some
skills as a trainer, and there is the
danger that the learner will pick up
any bad habits. One-to-one
instruction can improve
understanding and speed-up
learning through effective guidance
by an experienced instructor who
can provide explanations and
feedback.

Relevant off-the-job methods

include: Lectures; Role Plays;
tailored In-Tray Exercises; and
Programmed Instruction, including
on-line packages. Lectures may be
relevant where the need is to
provide basic information. Similarly,
the growth in on-line learning
allows information to be made
available to learners and the
packages can be accessed by
employees at their time of

choosing. While there may be

limited feedback available to the
learners both methods can be
valuable, for example, to update
learners knowledge of new
procedures. Role plays and In-Tray
methods are valuable since skills
can be applied in an environment
where mistakes can be made
without any damage to customer
relations, particularly for example,
where learners are asked to deal

with an aggressive customer.

Candidates who identify coaching
and mentoring methods will need to
justify how the cost and time
involved is relevant to
comparatively low level positions,
and to recognise the problem that it
is unlikely that such resources can
be allocated to all customer service
staff.