“Forecasting - Human Resource Management”

[humanresourcemagazine]

“Forecasting - Human Resource Management”

In the age of competition, companies do not have any other choices than to compete better than their competitors. Human Resource Management has critical role to play in corporate strategic plan. All the HR functions contribute positively to achieving the objective. The main task of HR is to support other departments to have the best people.

Forecasting helps to match the requirements and the availabilities of employees. There are two kinds of forecasting methods: qualitative and quantitative methods. This article discusses how Forecasting are valuable for successful Human Resource Management to function in a company.

Matching human resource requirements and potential human resource availability:

Matching Human resources with planned organizational activities for the present and the future is one of the main problems faced by an organization. Human resources have a certain degree of inflexibility, both in terms of their development and their utilization. It takes several months to recruit, select, place, and train the average employee; in the case of higher-echelon Management personnel in large organizations, the process may take years. Decisions on personnel recruitment and development are strategic and produce long-lasting effects. Therefore, Management must forecast the demand and supply of Human resources as part of the organization’s business and functional planning processes. Long-term business requirements, promotion policies, and recruitment (supply) possibilities have to be matched so that Human resources requirements and availability estimates (from both internal and external sources) correspond sufficiently.

The following factors for the choice of a forecasting technique
1. Organization's environment
2. Organization size.
3. Perceived uncertainty in labor markets and economy
4. Competition.

Conclusion:
Forecasting has an important role in successful Human Resource Management of a company. By predicting the number of employees to be hired and also by estimating and knowing their quality, a company would get the best people for the right places and at the right time. This is necessary if a company wants to compete in the global market.

“The most reliable way to forecast the future is to try to understand the present”
John Naisbitt

By Priti Shah