Chapter 3

Human Resource Planning and Strategy

Learning objectives

• Explain the process of human resource planning for future organisational requirements

• Describe the process of job analysis • Outline the key components of job description• Explain different approaches to job design• Describe how effective human resource planning

can enable the strategic achievement of organisational goals

Strategic human resource planning

• the development of policy and procedures to ensure the acquisition, development, retention and effective deployment of a workforce that will allow the sport organisation to meet its mission and goals now and in the future

The HR Plan

• May be component of the sport organization’s general strategic plan or a separate HR strategic plan

• forms the basis for implementation of actions to achieve goals, strategies, and measures for recruitment, retention, employee development, succession etc.

The human resource planning process

Forecast of staffing and HR requirements

Forecast of external environment

External EnvironmentSport industry characteristicsMarket conditionsTechnologyGovernment regulationLabour market

Organisational MissionOrganisation Strategy Objectives

HR Strategy

Internal EnvironmentSizeCultureManagement prioritiesKnowledge, Skills, Abilities and career plans of current staff/volunteers

HRM policies and practices

HR Action Plan Implementation and Evaluation

The internal analysis

• macro level - the organisation’s structure, core values, and culture

• Instruments used to assess culture, such as culture inventories, range from generic questionnaires to diagnostic tools which are custom-designed for the organisation.

• micro level - the number of employees or volunteers, their skills, abilities and knowledge, qualifications, demographics, salaries, entitlements and performance appraisals.

• in-house HR information systems are used for data

External environment analysis

• determine emerging issues and trends significant for the organisation

• Eg government policy, administrative/legal, economy, technology, social and culture and stakeholder environments

• The PEST framework or ‘five-forces’ model can be used in this process

Forecasting

• estimating the size and composition of the workforce required to meet the sport organisation’s objectives

• Demand forecasting techniques - 5 major categories: 1 Direct Managerial Input, 2 Best Guess, 3 Historical Ratios, 4 Other Statistical Methods, 5 Scenario Analysis

Direct Managerial Input

• the number of people in the organisation or the workforce budget adhere to a specific number.

• For example, the budget of a state sport organisation is set at $1.5m per annum for staff and in consequence the organisation either appoints new staff or reduces current staffing levels to meet this ceiling.

• Strategically the weakness of this approach is that analysis of the human resources required to best meet organisational objectives is often not undertaken

Best Guess

• managerial judgment process formalised into a demand forecast.

• Data on the demand for employees and/or skill and knowledge requirements is collected from each section manager and collated for an overall projection.

• Flexible but assumes all managers have the time and ability to produce an accurate forecast

Historical Ratios

• capture historic trends in the organisation’s demand for human resources.

• Overall requirements for staff can usually be strongly correlated with other factors, such as the number of programs delivered, size of membership, or number of games played in a season

• simple and easily developed • requires adjustments in a dynamic sport

environment

Other Statistical Methods

• include regression, linear programming, simulations and demand flow models.

• The simplest is a linear regression model in which time is used as the independent variable and headcount is the dependent variable.

• A common variation is multiple regression techniques in which variables used in the historical ratio approach are used as independent variables

• Statistical approaches have an inherent bias in favour of the past as the assumption underlying such analyses is that past trends will continue into the future

Scenario Analysis

• Development of alternative workforce scenarios through brainstorming

• Includes the Delphi technique - where a group of experts provide individual forecasts, which are in turn collated and then sent back to each individual, usually presented anonymously, for another round of forecasting, the process continues until a consensus is reached by the experts

Scenario planning

• a forward looking process of creating possible future stories and considers the unthinkable – 1. develop credible scenarios– 2. list key success factors and HR requirements for

the organisation to deal with each scenario, – 3. focus resources on initiatives that promote these

requirements.

• Develops an awareness of impending changes and forward planning for changing conditions

Determining HR Supply

• Internal analysis - the likelihood of retirements, turnover, training needs and future staffing requirements.

• Skills inventories are a common method used to collect data on current employees and volunteers.

• External analysis - the demographic, occupational qualifications, eligibility and skill availability of the potential workforce

• Environmental factors include the aging of labour force, immigration patterns, occupation related supply, and economic conditions

Identifying gaps

• match the demand analysis forecasts with the supply analysis

• gaps indicate either a projected unmet need or a surplus

• action plans are used to close the demand-supply gap, outlining objectives, specific activities, recruitment and selection, training and development, performance indicators, rewards and evaluation methods

Job Analysis and Design

• Job analysis is a systematic analysis of the tasks and responsibilities of a given job, along with the skills, knowledge and experience needed to perform the job

• job design is the allocation of tasks to jobs

Job analysis

• produces a job description and a job specification

• provides data for performance appraisal that can be used to compare an individual’s actual performance with the specified job expectations.

• Is the basis for wage and salary determination• forms a component of legal requirements for

hiring, promotional, wage and salary etc

Job analysis data obtained via

• an interview with the employee who is performing the job or the their manager.

• Structured questionnaires completed by the employee or manager and others who have some relationship to the job

• Direct observation of the individual performing a job

• Diaries or logs of daily activities and tasks Combinations of the 4 methods will usually provide

better results than just using 1 method

Job descriptions & specifications

• the job description outlines the duties and responsibilities attached to a position

• the specification delineates the qualifications and skills required

• the job specification and description act as a guide for recruiting the right person

• the description provides the basis of remuneration and for performance management

Job design

• the process of outlining the way work is performance and the required tasks using job analysis

• takes into account the needs of both the work group and the organisation in the design of the job.

• 4 basic approaches: 1. motivational, 2.mechanistic, 3. biological 4. perceptual-motor

motivational approach

• acknowledges the psychological needs of employees and how the fulfilment of these, when built into job design, can lead to increased job satisfaction, motivation, performance and involvement.

• Typical motivational components considered are:– Autonomy – Intrinsic job feedback– Extrinsic job feedback

– Social interaction– Task / goal clarity– Task variety– Task identity– Ability / skill level requirements– Ability / skill variety– Task significance– Growth / learning– Promotion – Communication– Recognition

The mechanistic approach

• underpinned by principles scientific management, time and motion studies, and work simplification

• assumes there is one best way to do a job, and by analysing workers movements the most effective way to perform a job can be designed

The key components considered in this approach are:

• Job specialisation• Specialisation of tools

and procedures • Single activities • Skill simplification • Repetition • Spare time (decrease) • Automation

biological approach

• based on the human factors related to work design, and is also referred to as the ergonomic approach

• concerned with the design of jobs and physical environments to match the physiological capabilities and limitations of people

This approach analyses the physiological needs and physical conditions considering elements such as:

• Physical size• Strength • Agility

perceptual-motor approach

• focus is on human mental capabilities and limitations

• jobs are designed to ensure that they do not exceed the mental capabilities primarily by striving to reduce the attention and concentration requirements of jobs, while improving reliability, safety, and user reactions

• This approach emphasises:

• Facilities • Equipment • Materials • Information

Which approach?

• On the one hand are the potential organisational costs associated with high mental ability requirements (motivational approach) such as increased training and development, error likelihoods, and compensation requirements. On the other hand, are the potential individual costs of low mental ability requirements (mechanistic and perceptual/motor approaches) of decreased satisfaction, motivation, and compensation

Is it easier to outsource HR?

• Outsourcing - contractual arrangements with external service providers to deliver a product or service to the organisation

• can provide a central product or extensive service across a range of organisations

• service level agreement (SLAs) are contracts between service providers and sport organisation that define the services provided, the metrics associated with these services, acceptable and unacceptable service levels, liabilities on the part of the service provider and the customer, and actions to be taken in specific circumstances

Summary

• SHRM planning provides a framework for organisations to assess where they are, where they want to go, and how they plan to get there

• HR planning involves efforts to anticipate and take actions to ensure that the organisation will have the requisite human resources in place to meet its goals

• Job analysis and design are key activities in the planning process