Workforce Planning: Analysis & Strategies in Business Law

This project provides a detailed analysis of workforce planning, covering aspects such as forecasting and assessment, succession planning, and recruitment strategies. It discusses the importance of understanding labor demand and supply, industrial relations, and the factors affecting workforce planning, including external and internal influences. The project also explores strategies for attracting and retaining skilled labor, the significance of contingency plans, and their impact on industrial relations. The analysis incorporates various workforce planning models and highlights the role of gap analysis in identifying and addressing workforce needs. Desklib offers this document as a resource for students studying workforce management and business law, providing insights and solved assignments for enhanced learning.

Running Head: BUSINESS AND CORPORATION LAW 0
Manage Workforce Planning
2/26/2019
Student’s Name

MANAGE WORKFORCE PLANNING
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Contents
Question 1........................................................................................................................................2
Question 2........................................................................................................................................2
Question 3........................................................................................................................................3
Question 4........................................................................................................................................3
Project 1...........................................................................................................................................4
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Aspects of Workforce Planning.......................................................................................................5
Factors affecting Workforce Planning...........................................................................................12
External factors 12
Internal factors 12
Strategies for retaining and attracting skilled labor.......................................................................13
Contingency plans.........................................................................................................................14
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................15
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................17
Books/Journals 17
Other sources 17

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Question 1
An organization can gather information about industrially labor supply in many ways. Following
are the list of such ways
 Reading online sources
 Reviewing workload data
 Evaluation of competency assessment
 Monitoring the labor market
 Reviewing government report
 Analysis of workplace profile data
 Analysis research report
 Joining industrial group
 Study of Demographic data
 Study of higher education placement figures.
By using and adopting above-mentioned ways, an organization can get subjective information in
addition to qualification, the area of interest and experiences of related workforces. Further, the
mentioned ways also help an organization to do the workforce planning and to determine the
gaps between demand and supply of labor in a particular industry.
Question 2
The industrial relationship can be understood as the management of work-related entitlements
and obligations between an employer and his/her employees. For the creation and development
of an ethical and positive working environment, industrial relations need to be smooth in

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between the parties. In other words, this is to state that these relations play a very vital role in
maintaining a positive working environment. It helps to prevent skilled labor in an organization.
When an employee gets a good working environment with all the social and economic benefits,
he/she do not think to leave that organization. In addition to this, when an employee develops a
positive industrial relationship with the employment, he/she feel motivate and do not think to
change the employer. It increases employee satisfaction level. In this manner, industrial relation
helps an organization to retain skilled labor.
Question 3
Labor demand forecasting is a process to predict the number, characteristics, and type of future
employees required by a business to achieve the determined goals and objectives. Further, labor
supply analysis is a process to identify the best suitable labor market from where the employer
should arrange labor.
Question 4
Workforce planning is one of the tools using which an organization can analysis the potential
labor demand and supply for the future. Three lead models to identify and analyze future staffing
requirements are mentioned below:-
 Trend analysis methods: - As the name implies, this method calculates the demand of
workers in the future with the help of past trends. In this method, the manager identifies
the trends, which have affected labor demands in past over particular periods. They use
this study to determine continuous trends in the industry in order to forecast labor
demand in future.

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 Delphi method: - In this method, a group of experts plays an important role. In this
method, all the experts collect data related to labor demand, collect various responses,
and draft a report on labor demand. This process goes on until all the experts become
agrees on the same level of estimation of labor demands.
 Scenario planning method: - In this method, the manager develop the scenarios in the
form of stories along with characters in order to illustrate the possible futures in a
compelling manner. This encourages the manager and decision makers to imagine the
potential events that can happen in the environment in coming future. In other words, in
this method, managers develop a strategic plan for the organization.
In addition to the above three, human resource, managers of an organization can also adopt
different methods but the discussed there are most common. These other methods include
judgment forecasting and ration analysis. These methods provide an estimation of future
workforce demand and make the managers enable to manage excess or shortage of labor in the
future.
Project 1
Introduction
Workforce planning can be understood as the strategy adopted by employers to calculate labor
demands in the future and to plan an appointment and retrenchment of the workers/employees
accordingly1. Workforce management is a wider term and workforce planning is a part of such
management. Having good technology is not enough, but an organization also must have
managers to manage tasks such as workforce planning. In order to discuss the importance of
1 Hrzone, What is Workforce Planning? < https://www.hrzone.com/hr-glossary/what-is-workforce-planning>.

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workforce planning, this is to state that it helps the organization in smooth operation. It prepares
the employees for coming labor demands in the organization2. In such a manner, the manager can
arrange the required labor in advance and can ignore the last minute rush.
In addition to this, workforce planning does not only ensure labor supply, but it also ensures that
the supplied labor has adequate skills and the same is available at the time of requirement. Many
of the aspects of workforce planning are there. In the presented report, the focus will be made on
such aspects. In addition to this, the report will also summaries the manner in which such aspects
contribute to the overall workforce planning and achievement of an entity. Here this is necessary
to state that workforce planning does not work in isolation and therefore many of the factors
affect the same. Such factors are internal as well as external. These factors will be discussed in
the report given below. At last, the requirement of contingency plans and the impact of the same
on industrial relations will also be detailed.
Aspects of Workforce Planning
As mentioned above, workforce planning has many aspects. These aspects are the elements
which is a part of planning. Five of them are mentioned below:-
1. Forecasting and Assessment: - As the name implies, this aspect helps an organization to
assess the future demand of the workforce. It is one of the most important aspects of
workforce planning3. With the help of this aspect, one can identify the potential issues,
which can be there along with the demand of workers. Forecasting is a process that asses
past trends, review the current situation and predict the future. This aspect place an
2 Workforce.com, Why You Need Workforce Planning < https://www.workforce.com/2002/10/24/why-you-need-
workforce-planning/>.
3 Rob Bascombe, RTT – Strategic Workforce Planning and Forecasting < https://oasishr.com/rtt-workforce-
planning-forecasting/#>.

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important role in the overall success of the organization. If forecasting would not be
there, managers will not be able to arrange additional workforce or to reduce the number
of extra workers in future, which may lead negative impact on the overall profitability of
an organization. However, this is necessary to state for the success of this aspect, the
goals of the organization are required to be decided. In the forecasting as well as the
assessment phase, the organization shall use gap analysis. It helps to identify the gap
between expectations and reality. This aspect has the following four steps:-
Identification of assumptions in the workforce
Validating assumption
Gap Analysis
Scenario Building
During the forecasting phase, the managers of an organization are required to consider three
things namely:-
Where the organization is right now?
To get the answer to this question, managers are required to collect relevant information from
various sources. In this stage, managers will focus on past and present. They can conduct a
workplace audit. Such audits provide many information related to employees such as the size of
the workplace, the location of employees, employment mode of employees and so on.
Where the same want to be?
Organizational goals play an important role here. Managers are required to use various
assumption here in order to estimate future demand. Managers may use various models here
which have been discussed in the above-mentioned section.

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How the organization will fill the gap between demand and supply?
An organization may have various modes to fill the gap between demand and supply in the
future. This will help the organization to meet the forecasted objectives, mission, and goals. This
is the lead phase of forecasting aspect. If this phase would not be there then there will be no use
of the whole forecasting aspect. Gaps are not always necessary to be in terms of the number of
workers also but the same can be in terms of experience or skills. It means it provides the
differences between actual and a wanted situation.
2. Succession Planning:- This aspect ensure that appropriately diverse and competent
workforce will be there to meet anticipated changes. Further, it ensures the smooth
continuation of organizational affairs in leaders or key employees leave4. As such people
are important for every organization hence this aspect is quite crucial when it comes to
the discussion of workforce planning. If to talk about process involves in this aspect, this
is to mention that this involves the identification of suitable replacements within the
organization. This aspect is an open process.
This aspect is the basis to provide required workers on identified positions in the future.
In this process also, gap analysis plays an important role. A Gap emerges when there is a
difference between forecasted demand and projected supply. It shows a shortage of
employees in a different position in the future. The shortage is not required to be there
always but excess can also be detected. It shows that in the future organization will have
an excess of a few employees in comparison to demand. To address such surplus and
deficit situation, human resource managers should expand the scope of their practice.
4 Static1.squarespace.com, BSBHRM513 Manage Workforce Planning <
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56583ff6e4b0702d37f01a18/t/57565229b09f9531fe8e1a8c/1465274931215/
BSBHRM513+eBook.pdf>.

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Similar to any other aspect of workforce planning, this one also has a huge impact on the
overall success of the organization. Imagine a situation where an organization faces a
surplus of employees on certain positions, which bring additional cost or a situation
where an organization faces lack of proper human resources on some specific
designations, which interrupt operations. Both of such situations will have a negative
impact on the financial status of the organization.
3. Recruitment: - This aspect is so challenging for employers these days. Recruitment of
skilled and appropriate workers is the most typical task to do5. After recruitment,
retention of the same becomes a challenge, which is described under a different heading
in this report. An employer can use many techniques and sources to recruit appropriate
employees6. These sources can be internal as well as external. When an employer recruits
employees from internal sources then it is called internal sources7. These sources are
available within the organization such as job posting, shuffling of an employee from one
position to another, recruitment of ex-employees and so on. If to talk about external
sources, it includes recruitment agencies, job centers, job advertisement, and personal
recommendations8. Both of these sources have certain advantages and disadvantages,
which are mentioned as under:-
Advantages of Internal Sources:-
 Cost-effective9
5 Nikoletta Bika, The most common recruiting challenges and how to overcome them <
https://resources.workable.com/tutorial/common-recruiting-challenges>.
6 Smriti Chand, Sources of Recruitment of Employees: Internal and External Sources | Recruitment <
http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/recruitment/sources-of-recruitment-of-employees-internal-and-external-sources-
recruitment/25954>.
7 R. Satya Raju and A. Parthasarathy, Management: Text And Cases (PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd 2009) 95.
8 Pearson South Africa, Fresh Perspectives: Human Resource Mangement : UJ Custom Publication (Pearson South
Africa 2009).
9 Bernardin, Human Resource Management 4E (Tata McGraw-Hill Education 2007).

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 It motivates employees
 Faster way
The disadvantage of Internal Sources
 Internal fight for promotion
 The heavy burden of training
 Limited choices
Advantages of External Sources:-
 It provides unlimited choices
 Reduce training cost
 Eliminate the conflict of interest among employees
Disadvantages of External Sources:-
 Longer orientation
 It increases the recruitment cost
 It may bring issues to internal candidates
Here this is necessary to state that recruitment is not limited up to attracting employee but is
wider up to screening and selection of employees. Managers use this aspect to fill the deficit gap
between employer and employee10. Successful recruitment begins with the identification of the
actual need for workers. Then after managers prepare job description according to the
requirements and select the workers.
10 Sanjima Adhikari, Need to bridge the "skill gap" (April 11 2018) < http://bwpeople.businessworld.in/article/Need-
to-bridge-the-skill-gap-/11-04-2018-146164/>.

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4. Retention: - As mentioned above, only the recruitment of skilled and appropriate workers
are not enough but in addition to this, the retention of the same is also important.
Minnesota Management and Budget also recognize this aspect in the definition of
workforce planning. However, for the retention of employees, effective recruitment is
important11. In general, this aspect is a challenge for an organization but the same
becomes more crucial when it comes to retention of most desirable workers and
employees. Vertical integration is a good technique to retain the talented people in the
organization as it makes the relations of employer and employee smooth. By using the
top-down approach, HR managers can have a look at the staff and can train them. These
practices improve the morale of employee and in such a manner retention rate increases.
In order to consider real-life examples, the example of Delta Air Lines Inc. is important
to given. This company adopted many measures to retain its employees. The company is
developing a culture of transparency. Further the same is also developing it is focus on
employee involvement and engagement in business decisions. These practices make the
employee motivate and bring a positive impact on the retention rate.
This aspect also has an important role in the overall process of workforce planning. This
ensures that the current employee will not leave employment at the time of need. In
addition to the recruitment of new employee, retention of current employees is equally
important.
5. Retrenchment:- It is not necessary that an organization will always face the lack of
human resources in the future. The forecast can also detect adversely. Sometime after
11 Labourmarketframeworkyukon.com, Recruitment and Employee Retention <
http://www.labourmarketframeworkyukon.com/development-of-the-labour-market-strategies/recruitment-and-
employee-retention.html>.

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reviewing goals of the organization and industrial trend, the forecast says that an
organization will have additional resources in the future. In order to cut the additional
cost, HR managers have to plan retrenchment in such a scenario12. It also includes
redundancy when the office of workers remains no longer of use. This aspect is required
to deal with very carefully as it brings a direct impact on the career of employees and the
lives of their family members. Managers are required to take an ethical decision here.
In the overall success of workforce planning and organization, this aspect contributes in a
manner where the same reduces the unnecessary cost to the company. This is to state that
in the process of workforce planning, managers only check that whether will be a
requirement of retrenchment or not and actual retrenchment is not a part of the planning
process in overall workforce management.
Above-mentioned 5 topics are the most significant aspects of workforce planning.
Factors affecting Workforce Planning
As mentioned above, workforce planning does not work in isolation and many of the factors
affect the same. The factors, which have an impact on workforce planning, can be divided into
two types of factors that are internal and external factors. The same are detailed as below:-
External factors
These are the factors, which are not in the control of the manager and influence the workforce
planning of an organization. Such factors include the available labor pool, government
regulations, industrial trends, and natural disasters mainly13. This is the reason that industries
12 Nhrc.com.my, Retrenchment – Understanding, Process And Procedures <
http://www.nhrc.com.my/rss/-/asset_publisher/hCox5XdI5nGy/blog/id/1982969>.
13 Raj Kumar, Human Resource Management: Strategic Analysis Text and Cases (I. K. International Pvt Ltd 2010).

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where trends are much fluctuated; workforce planning is an easy task. Further, an organization
where the government has much involvement faces many issues during workforce planning and
there are very few chances of success of such planning. Similarly, on the other side, natural
disaster or other uncertain events can lead to a negative impact on workforce planning. It disturbs
all the plans of HR managers.
Internal factors
Moving the discussion towards internal factors, the same includes the use of technology, level of
growth, Employee movement, organization policies, change in management and so on14. These
factors affect workforce planning. If there would be a lack of resources and technology then an
organization will not be able to evaluate the past trends and to conduct forecasting. Further, if
organizational policies are not integrated then also workforce planning becomes a hurdle.
While developing the workforce planning, managers should consider these factors as the same
can reduce the effectiveness and chances of success of such planning.
Strategies for retaining and attracting skilled labor
The different organizations have different strategies for attracting and retaining skilled labor15.
Starting from the very beginning, the forecast has an important role in attracting skilled labor.
When managers are aware of their needs, they make the focus to bring that kind of workers. It
reduces confusion. Further, researching of the market is another useful technique in recruitment
14 Pearson Education India, Human Resource Management (Pearson Education India 2009).
15 Lory Mitchell Wingate, Project Management for Research and Development: Guiding Innovation for Positive
R&D Outcomes (CRC Press 2014).

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and retention of skilled labor16. Following are some of the other effective ways, using which an
organization can attract and retain skilled labor.
 Development of transparent culture
 Knowing the competition
 Creation of potential networks
 By Getting feedback on employee attraction policy
 Development of loyalty-inducing culture
 Creation of mutually beneficial contracts17.
By using above-mentioned methods, an organization cannot only attract good talent but can also
retain the same. Workforce planning is often successful in those organizations where managers
adopt the above-mentioned practices.
Contingency plans
A contingency is a situation that occurs outside the normal events of operations. Contingency
plan is a plan for an emergency. In business, many times situations are there where key
operations are disturbed or some sudden circumstances emerge. To deal with such emergencies,
contingency plans are there. If to talk about the need of such program, this is to state that the
same helps the organization in returning to its daily operations after an unforeseen event18. These
16 Brian E. Cronin, Strategies to Attract and Retain a Capable Transportation Workforce (Transportation Research
Board 2011).
17 Christina Lattimer, 13 Key Strategies to Attract and Retain Highly Talented People in 2016
<https://www.inc.com/christina-lattimer/13-key-strategies-to-attract-and-retain-highly-talented-people-in-
2016.html>.
18 Diane Chinn, The Purpose of Contingency Planning (January 11, 2019)
<https://smallbusiness.chron.com/purpose-contingenc y-planning-24864.html>.

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programs minimize consumer inconvenience and protect resources. One of the most common
types of a contingency plan is the hiring of additional employees.
A contingency plan can be understood as a blueprint of a manner to deal with unusual events19.
Such plans can be for the whole organization and can be a department specific. In a summarized
way, this is to state that the subjective plan is all about being prepared. If such plans would not
be there then an organization cannot expect to return on normal operations after a situation of
contingency. Therefore, the same proves a remedy for the organization in cases of contingencies.
These plans are essential for every organization despite the size of the same20.
Industrial relation has an impact on the need for contingency planning21. The organization, which
has a smooth industrial relation, do not require a contingency plan much. The reason behind the
same is that disputed industrial relationship often develops the situation of contingency. In
organizations with the disputed relationship, employees often leave their job even without giving
prior notice. Such a situation affects the production of the organization. Further, many times,
employers dismiss the employees for their behavior or any issues. In such situation too,
organization faces lack of human resources. Such problems do not exist in the organizations
where employer and employee have positive and healthy relationship in mutual.
Although as a good practice, managers of every organization develop these plans but for the
entities with poor industrial relation, the same is more crucial and required. In this manner, the
quality of industrial relation has an impact on the need for contingency plans.
19 Whatis.techtarget.com, contingency plan < https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/contingency-plan>.
20 Sonya Weiland, Do You have a contingency plan? (May 29 2015) < https://yourpartnerinhr.com/archives/blog/do-
you-have-a-contingency-plan/>.
21 CTI Reviews, Corporate Risk Management: Business (Cram101 Textbook Reviews 2016).

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Conclusion
In a conclusive way, this is to state that workforce planning is one of the significant steps of
workforce management. Planning plays important role in the management process as it provides
structure to the coming activities. Every organization depends on the human capital for the
production of goods and performance of services. Therefore, HR managers should maintain a
good balance of human capital. The lead objective of workforce planning is to ensure the
availability of appropriate employees at the time of requirement. In the above-mentioned
discussion, the meaning and purpose of workforce planning have been given. Further, various
aspects of subjective planning have also been discussed. All these aspects have their unique
importance and are very significant.
In addition to the meaning, objective and aspects, internal and external factors that influence
workforce planning have also been discussed. Different organizations use different methods to
attract and retain employees. Contingency plans are emergency plans, which prevent
organizations to face lack of human capital at the time of unforeseen events. In this manner, this
would not be wrongful to state that HR managers are required to be careful while workforce
planning as it influences many other factors. This is necessary to known that workforce planning
is not a narrow concept and the same includes performance management, workload projection,
training/development, and many other factors.
In order to conclude the report presented herewith, this is to state that managers should not
ignore the importance of workforce planning. If such planning would not be there, an
organization will not be able to fill the gap between demand and supply of labor.

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Bibliography
Books/Journals
Bernardin, Human Resource Management 4E (Tata McGraw-Hill Education 2007).
Cronin Brian E., Strategies to Attract and Retain a Capable Transportation Workforce
(Transportation Research Board 2011).
CTI Reviews, Corporate Risk Management: Business (Cram101 Textbook Reviews 2016)
Kumar Raj, Human Resource Management: Strategic Analysis Text and Cases (I. K.
International Pvt Ltd 2010).
Pearson Education India, Human Resource Management (Pearson Education India 2009).
Pearson South Africa, Fresh Perspectives: Human Resource Mangement : UJ Custom
Publication (Pearson South Africa 2009).
Raju R. Satya and A. Parthasarathy, Management: Text And Cases (PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd 2009)
95.
Wingate Lory Mitchell, Project Management for Research and Development: Guiding
Innovation for Positive R&D Outcomes (CRC Press 2014).
Other sources
Christina Lattimer, 13 Key Strategies to Attract and Retain Highly Talented People in 2016
<https://www.inc.com/christina-lattimer/13-key-strategies-to-attract-and-retain-highly-talented-
people-in-2016.html>.

MANAGE WORKFORCE PLANNING
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Diane Chinn, The Purpose of Contingency Planning (January 11, 2019)
<https://smallbusiness.chron.com/purpose-contingenc y-planning-24864.html>.
Hrzone, What is Workforce Planning? < https://www.hrzone.com/hr-glossary/what-is-
workforce-planning>.
Labourmarketframeworkyukon.com, Recruitment and Employee Retention <
http://www.labourmarketframeworkyukon.com/development-of-the-labour-market-strategies/
recruitment-and-employee-retention.html>.
Nhrc.com.my, Retrenchment – Understanding, Process And Procedures <
http://www.nhrc.com.my/rss/-/asset_publisher/hCox5XdI5nGy/blog/id/1982969>.
Nikoletta Bika, The most common recruiting challenges and how to overcome them <
https://resources.workable.com/tutorial/common-recruiting-challenges>.
Rob Bascombe, RTT – Strategic Workforce Planning and Forecasting < https://oasishr.com/rtt-
workforce-planning-forecasting/#>.
Sanjima Adhikari, Need to bridge the "skill gap" (April 11 2018) <
http://bwpeople.businessworld.in/article/Need-to-bridge-the-skill-gap-/11-04-2018-146164/>.
Smriti Chand, Sources of Recruitment of Employees: Internal and External Sources |
Recruitment < http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/recruitment/sources-of-recruitment-of-
employees-internal-and-external-sources-recruitment/25954>.
Sonya Weiland, Do You have a contingency plan? (May 29 2015) <
https://yourpartnerinhr.com/archives/blog/do-you-have-a-contingency-plan/>.

MANAGE WORKFORCE PLANNING
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Static1.squarespace.com, BSBHRM513 Manage Workforce Planning <
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56583ff6e4b0702d37f01a18/t/
57565229b09f9531fe8e1a8c/1465274931215/BSBHRM513+eBook.pdf>.
Whatis.techtarget.com, contingency plan < https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/contingency-
plan>.
Workforce.com, Why You Need Workforce Planning <
https://www.workforce.com/2002/10/24/why-you-need-workforce-planning/>.