HR Planning

There are many reasons as to why it is crucial for organisations to have HR plans. For example, if an organisation did not have HR plans, it would recruit anybody just off the street. HR planning is used for recruitment, selection and training. By using HR planning, organisations are able to recruit and select employees that are needed for a certain, specific job role. This saves a lot of time in the long run, as if an employee is recruited and cannot perform a specific job role, then the company will have to recruit again, wasting time and proving to be more costly as well. Effective HR planning is essential for improved organisational performance. In order for businesses to remain competitive, they need to continually be improving. In order for this to happen they need to use HR plans, as without them employees will not be kept up to date with training and this will lead to them underperforming and the company falling behind its competitors. In order for businesses to successfully survive and compete with any competitors, it is vital that all staff are well trained, and this is exactly where HR planning comes in. As well as recruitment, selection and training, HR also helps with reducing conflicts. By doing this it ensures that all employees maintain professional attitudes and can work together peacefully, increasing performance and therefore output. By ensuring that all employees have somebody to talk to if they are feeling troubled, this puts staff at ease when at work, and in turn will increase their motivation so that they want to continue to work for the company in future. Managing and reviewing employees’ performance, behaviour and attitudes is another key component of HR planning. By doing this, it managers are able to know when their staff need to be trained or motivated in order to perform better and help to improve the company’s profits. Overall, all of these reasons, show just how important HR planning is to every company, and how without, it is very unlikely a business will be able to perform to the best of its ability.

Person Specification for a University Lecturer:

A person specification describes the ideal person to fill the job, and is a profile of the personal skills and characteristics you will look for in the recruitment and selection process. Using Rodgers seven point plan, I am going to state the skills and qualities a university lecturer will need.

Physical appearance (health, appearance and speech) – A university lecturers’ appearance will just have to be presentable. They do not have to be stunningly attractive but they cannot be scruffy either. They should be healthy enough to walk around and help students, and they must be able to speak comprehensibly.

Attainments (education, qualifications and experience) – A university lecturer will need to have the proper qualifications in order to teach that particular subject. They will not require any previous teaching experience however this would be useful if they had some.

General intelligence (intellectual capacity) – Their general intelligence would have to be high in the subject that they are teaching, however in other subjects it does not matter as much.

Special aptitudes (manual dexterity, mathematical and IT ability) – Concerning special aptitudes, a university lecturer would need to be able to calculate and speak properly, but he/she would not need to be a mathematician. They would not require any particular amount of skills with their hands either.

Interests (intellectual, practical, social, physically active, artistic, constructional) - The interests of a university lecturer when considering recruiting them, are mostly irrelevant. The only way they would be relevant is if they have something to do with the subject that he/she is going to teach. They are always good to know however, for things outside the workplace, where things become more social and less professional.

Disposition (maturity, self reliance, influence over others, compassion and humour) – The disposition of a university lecturer is hugely important. As a teacher, they need to be able to influence others. Having humour would also be very helpful with this, as people will always learn better if they find something funny and are relaxed. A university lecturer would need to show compassion and patience when teaching, especially as there will be less gifted students than others. No student ever has exactly the same ability. A university lecturer would also need to show maturity when helping students usually a lot younger than themselves. He/she would also need to be self reliant, and not depend on other people.

Circumstances (geographical mobility, hours available to work) – The circumstances required for a university lecturer would definitely need to be taken into deep consideration, however for a university lecturer these circumstances may be much more lenient than for say a high school teacher. This is because university lecturers usually work less hours and not all work full time. This enables more flexibility over the hours that they work, and also enables them to travel from further away as they are not doing this on a regular basis every day. One of the teachers on my friend’s course actually had to travel all the way from Italy to England just to teach a 3 hour lecture! He only had to this once a week however, as the only day he worked was Tuesday. This again shows the flexibility over circumstances that a university lecturer has.

http://bzowy.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/alec-rodgers-seven-point-plan-and-munro-frasers-five-fold-grading-system/
http://www.bola.biz/recruitment/rodger.html
http://www3.open.ac.uk/employment/tutors/sub3_6.shtm#jump2

If Waitrose were considering opening a new store in High Wycombe, these are the labour questions they need to would ask:

1. What is the current unemployment rate in High Wycombe?
2. Who would Waitrose’s main competitors be in High Wycombe?
3. Is there a lot of competition in High Wycombe?
4. Would the potential employees in High Wycombe be skilled enough to work for Waitrose?
5. What is the average disposable income in High Wycombe?
6. What is the infrastructure like in High Wycombe (are there easy transport links)?Would it be easy to secure the relevant planning permission from the Government?