Internal planning factors relate to what is happening inside the organization and how the organization is changing to cope with the new methods of working or demand made on it. It is also a way of considering new skills that will be needed in the future and those that existing staff already have.
Furthermore, there are three internal planning factors. The first factor is called organizational needs and under this a business-like M&S, their HR department would need to be aware of the changes that happens with their business as they would need to adapt to the changes. For instance, if M&S are expanding, they would be opening new stores therefore, the HR department would not be hiring employees. Whereas, if customers are getting their products online the HR department would not hire many people therefore, the HR department needs to know when its suitable for the business to increase or reduce as the hiring process is long in which takes time and money.
Secondly, workforce profile is the description and analysis of the current staff that would work for M&S. To determine the workforce profiles the following questions will be asked like: ‘What skills do the staff have and how are they performing?’, ‘How many are about to retire?’, ‘How many are about to retire?’, ‘What is the rate of staff turnover?’, i.e. ‘How often and why do staff leave?’, ‘Is there a balance of full-time, part-time staff, temporary and casual staff?’. This information is available on sector and area basis. To effectively use the information businesses, need to consider their future needs and those of their competitors in order to attract the right people. This means they sometimes offer extra benefits in order to attract the right staff.
Thirdly, skills requirement assesses the skills of the current workforce is an essential part of human resource planning, as it enables M&S to build up a profile for training, experience and qualification that the employees already have. As the nature and the work changing so does the skills requirements that are needed. The organization must measure the skills level of its workplace and plan for any recruitment to maintain its competitiveness.
External planning factors influence the business from outside its direct control, the factors include the type and availability of employees to work for the organization and the amount of money that is needed to pay them.
The role of the HR manager must follow the needs of the changing organization. Successful organizations are becoming more adaptable, resilient, quick to change directions, and customer centred. The primary function of human resources today is to ensure the effective and efficient use of human talent to accomplish an organization goal and objectives. Using human resource as a competitive advantage, means analyzing what factors are necessary for the organization long term success.
Supply of labor is necessary to consider where will labor come from, as if M&S HR plan shows that labor will be recruited from outside of the organization, then accurate labor market information such as employment or unemployment trends, pay rates and the availability of skilled workers will be needed. Where particular skills are in short supply relative to demand then the prices of wages will be high. It takes time to train suitable staff.
Government policy has a big influence on the external factors affecting human resource planning, as there is skills shortage in the UK therefore, the government introduced apprenticeship to help young people to have skills. For the reason of the introduction of policies for education, work and training has implications for the number of potential employees available, as well as their ability and skill levels when they leave education.
All of the policies for human resource management should be in accordance with legal necessities. Firms should behave in the frame of regulations which are the implementation of law or putting it into practice. This affects human resource management that require human resources to ensure the company is in compliance. Regulations can influence how a company goes about hiring, training, compensating and even disciplining its workers.
Labor market competition is when a business plans its workforce needs for the future, so do other businesses within the same industry. As organizations not only compete for a share of the market, they also compete for labor. There may not be enough skilled employees for each business, so M&S would have to offer more money to attract the right staff, however, you need to manage your funds well to make a profit.
M&S will need an effective HR planning to succeed, as this is a continuous procedure used to align the priorities and needs of the organization with its workforce to make sure it can meet its legislative, monitoring and service requirements and organizational objectives.
HR planning processes assists companies to recruit, keep and optimize the employment of the personnel needed to match the organization’s objectives and to meet the changes in the external environment. HR planning assist the organization to manage its staff strategically. The planning assist to direct the actions of HR department, in order to estimate future staffing needs. This procedure helps M&S to be able to increase the productivity of each department the right number of people with the desirable skills, experience and competencies in the right jobs at the right time and costs.
On the other hand, poor planning can be associated with hiring lack of highly skilled talented individuals which leads to produce terrible performance as an outcome for M&S success rate amongst it’s competitors. In return, it can cause implications such as a fall down in profit margin and company shares dropping down in the stock market as a result of poor planning to hire staff. Also, poor planning leads to employee turnover especially if M&S experiences it’s KPI being terrible and lacks staff management and poor training. This would lead to implications for M&S in taking action of firing those underperforming employees and this causes staff shortage for the company in the long term. Also, mean that the company is going to have to spend more money for recruitment, hiring and training of new staff.
HR planning allows the business to have staff available in case employees leave and ensures the business will continue to run correctly even if people leave for holiday, M&S would be able to find people to cover the time of the other employer’s absence. Furthermore, the available workforce is becoming more diversely based; increasingly composed of new people; women, entering or re-entering the workforce; and members of ethnic minorities. Although these individuals bring many skills and abilities with them, the ability to assess and keep track of skills and qualifications; as well as, progress on skills refocusing and upgrading programs, will be an increasingly important HRMS (human resource management system) function. This is important as it will enable M&S to reflect the diversity of its customer base.
For example, it is useful to have employees from different nationalities and backgrounds to communicate with customers that do not speak English as a first language.
Additionally, the HR process allows M&S to recruit multicultural employees in order to create a diversified working environment hence, this environment allows M&S to interact and make business deals with other company’s overseas. By having a diversified HR process will also allow M&S to make business deals with countries worldwide through maintaining cultural connection.
Human resources planning allows companies to plan ahead so they can maintain a steady supply of skilled employees. Plus, this avoids M&S having to deal with skill shortages in key areas like data base specialist, as this is caused by a greater demand for information processing along with the decrease in labor force. Therefore, it makes it increasingly important for M&S to have a flexible HR plan, in order to meet short-term staffing challenges while adapting to changing conditions in the business environment over the longer term.
The constitutes that effective HR planning are getting goals to accomplish, routinely measuring yearly performance through the feedback gathered from employee’s performance. M&S customers are the main stakeholders that contribute to the company’s revenue, so they are involved with the company and information like their Plan A report. Therefore, it is important that staff members of M&S reflect the business in a proficient way when dealing with customers, as it is crucial that consumers are satisfied and that they are able to have a memorable experience with M&S. This would demonstrate the professional qualities competencies and attitudes through an ability to clearly articulate the role and value of human resources in meeting the needs of their customers.