4 Human Resources Planning

The organizational environment in the 21st century is not what it was in the 20th Century. It metamorphosed with bulk outsourcing and computer-based decision support tools, and easily coupled with low-cost PC hardware which has created improvements in the productivity of the people, resulting in the reduced numbers. Managers of today manage the results expected of the position rather than managing to get things done as it was expected. In the physical sciences, academia leads the industry whilst in social sciences like management, marketing and economics, industry leads academia. To bridge the knowledge gap that exists between theory and practice, two practitioners from the industry have authored Managing People at Work – A New Paradigm for the 21st Century. Specific new concepts discussed in this book include: • Organizational framework for effective management of people • Capacity planning to optimize the numbers and the costs • Acquisition of Human Resources to take advantage of outsourcing and freelancers • Managing people at work or work management • Employee relations of geographically spread workforce • Motivation and morale detailing only the effective models and a model developed and used effectively by the authors • Performance management supplanting the performance appraisals • Skill retention and development • Attrition management rather than employee retention • Roles and responsibilities of different agencies in the organization to ensure effective human resources management • Tools used in HRM