B. Read the text and take notes of the recommendations the author makes about manpower planning. Fill in the table. Write a 100-word summary of the text.

Area	Advice
1. compensation management
2. motivation
3. recruitment
4. replacement
5. training and development

 

The Imperative of Integrating Corporate Business Plan with Manpower Planning ^[37]

Since the beginning of the 21st century, there have been increasing claims that the route to competitive advantage is achieved through people. A crucial element in this assertion is the degree to which a link exists between HR practices with manpower planning inclusive and performance of the business. According to the resource-based view of the firm, an organization can derive competitive advantage from its resources through the development of human resource systems and routines which are unique to the organization.

Since the 2000s, there has been a growing evidence that progressive HR practices can enhance a company's sustainable growth and profitability if there is integration with business purpose; although there is also evidence of a failure by many senior managers to recognize this. Business plans and strategy find their expression in measurable financial, marketing and production targets with an implicit or explicit demand for people. The manpower plan represents a response to ensure that the necessary supply of people is handy to allow targets to be achieved. Furthermore, manpower plan is expressed to fit the overall business strategy and plan by showing how the demand for people and their skills within an organization can be balanced with the supply side. By revealing complex factors, manpower planning becomes integrated into the whole process of management of employment relationship which plays a proactive part and affects organization's strategy, structure and practices.

Manpower plans are established against a predetermined strategy and they seek to make links between strategy, structure and people more explicitly. Integrating the manpower planning function with business plans means aligning decisions about people with decisions about business projection. The scenario creates room for the deployment of human resources activities that truly support organizational goals and objectives. As Quinn (1983) observes, manpower planning is a decision making process that combines three activities: identifying and acquiring the right number of people with the proper skills; motivating them to achieve high performance; and creating, interactive links between business objectives and of people planning activities.

In a nutshell, it is essential to blend manpower planning either at national or corporate level with business planning for the following reasons:

1)__: This concept is related to manpower and skills inventory which gives a clear analysis of those engaged in terms of number and skills employed by the organization in relation to the approved budget and dictates of the business plan.

2) __: This entails predicting what action will be necessary to ensure that the manpower need is available when required by business planners.

3)__: This involves communicating plans so as to obtain support/adherence to them, linking HR plans to business plans so as to influence each other, regaining corporate control over operating units, and coordinating and integrating organizational decision making and actions.

4)__: In today's turbulent economic environment characterized by the fear of change and uncertainty, strategic planning in terms of manpower is a must. Such changes will generate changes in skills, job content, surplus or shortage of manpower etc.

5)__: State is said to be a necessary evil and hence has influence in the affairs of organizations due to some of its programmes targeted at correcting the ills of the past regarding working conditions, child and women labour, problem of unorganized, formal and informal sectors.

There are areas of priority for effective integration between manpower and business planning:

· How many and what types of people are required? Should recruitment or internal development and transfer be preferred? And why? What problems exist with recruiting, and how might these be mitigated?

· Given the number and types of people required, how desirable is it that they should be trained from within, and what is the capacity of the training and development system to deliver them? Where will trainees come from - from among existing employees, through those already in the pipeline, or new recruits who will first have to be recruited? How will trainees be selected? What kind of training programme is required, what are the implications of taking people off-the-job, who will run it, how will it be resourced, what will it cost? What are the requirements for developing people, such as managers, over the longer term?

· In case of redundancy / deaths / discharges / resignations / promotions / transfers and retirements, for the business plan not to suffer, it is imperative for the manpower planners to forecast how best to replace manpower needs.

· This area refers to financial and non-financial rewards that an employee receives in return for his labour or services to an organization.

· The business planners must give close attention to how the individuals in the organization can be motivated through incentive rewards, the work and its environment, leadership, mode of supervision etc.

c. Complete the gaps with headings:

a. Government Influence

b. Work Supply

c. Organizational Change

d. Planning for Organizational Reasons

e. Work Demand

D. Match synonyms.