Manpower Planning

Leaving Certificate Business

Unit 4 - HRM

Manpower Planning
People are the most valuable resource
available to business and need to be managed
effectively.
The Human Resource (HR) department is
responsible for this important task.

Manpower Planning
Manpower planning involves the Human
Resources (HR) manager ensuring that the
business has enough skilled workers to do all
the jobs needed in the business, so that it can
achieve its goals.
The HR manager does this in three steps.

Step 1 Forecast Future Demand

This involves forecasting future staffing needs
based on the companys strategic goals.
Its important for a business to have the
correct number of staff with appropriate skills
and qualifications.
The HR manager must estimate how many
employees and what the skills the business
will need in the future.

Step 1 Forecast Future Demand

Example
An airline plans to run 100 flights a day from next
July.
Each flight needs two pilots.
Therefore, the airline needs 200 pilots from July.

Step 2 Calculate Existing Supply

The HR manager must conduct an audit of the
existing employees who work in the business
(including numbers, age and skills) to see how
many workers the business has.
Example contd.
At the moment the airline employs 180 pilots.

Step 3 Recruitment/Redundancy
If demand exceeds supply (i.e. if the business
needs more employees than it has), the
strategy is to recruit more employees.
If supply exceeds demand (i.e. if the business
has too many workers), the strategy is to make
some of the existing employees redundant.

Step 3 Recruitment/Redundancy
Example contd.
The airline will have to start recruiting 20 pilots
now to be ready to start work next July.

Benefits of Manpower Planning

It avoids the problem of the business being
understaffed. Too few workers might result in
products not getting made on time, leading to
unhappy customers and lower sales.

Benefits of Manpower Planning

It also avoids the problem of being
overstaffed. If the manager sees that the
business has too many workers, she can make
the excess redundant. This, manpower
planning helps the business reduce its wages
cost.

Homework Questions
Use a ladder graphic organiser to list the
functions of a HR manager, using the Animoto
from class, which is also on the website.
Explain the purpose of Manpower planning
and what it involves.

Referencing
Some information for these slides was taken
from:
Murphy, W. (2015). 21st Century Business:
Business for Leaving Certificate, Revised
Edition. Dublin: CJ Fallon.
Stafford, J. & McGowan, S. (2012). Its the
Business: Business for Leaving Certificate.
Dublin: The Educational Company of Ireland