Manpower Planning in Business Administration
Manpower planning, also called personnel management, deals with the exploitation of manpower resources for the effective implementation of the production plans. It involves recruiting people with the right skill set, ensuring promotion of existing staff, and also coordinating, motivating and monitoring them so that the business runs smoothly. The manpower management also takes into account the future needs and expansion plans so as to increase the profit margins of the business.
The business administration involves the management of the manpower keeping in view the company’s objectives, policies and cost performances. All this requires a lot of intelligence, imagination, foresight not to mention a sound judgment. It also involves taking decisions for short term achievements and long term planning to develop new products while improving the existing ones.
How to plan the manpower in your company?
Here are some steps that you can follow:
- Define the nature of job and its requirements.
- Find adequate financial resources for recruitment of qualified and intelligent manpower.
- Promote young and fresh talent to higher posts with greater responsibilities and matching incentives.
- Educate your employees to fill up the vacuum created by those who retire, leave or are dismissed or promoted.
Factors affecting manpower management
Manpower management is affected by certain external factors such as inherited physical and mental abilities and genetic differences of the employees. The climate of the region also impacts the general health and efficiency of the workers. Hours of work, general levels of technical education and wages are important factors in determining the general efficiency of the workforce.
There are several advantages of manpower planning and management. It optimizes the use of available manpower resources and also increases the profitability of the industry.
Manpower management also includes devising and implementing steps to upgrade the skills of its employees. This becomes all the more important when you consider the fact that there are a lot of technical advances taking place and if the employees do not upgrade their skills accordingly, they will lag behind in the race.
One of the most common reason people leave existing jobs and search for greener pastures is because they feel that their talent is not being tapped to the full potential. Manpower management therefore also involves taking into consideration all such factors and ensuring that there is adequate scope for growth for the employee.