Small businesses may engage in a number of planning methods to help deal with market challenges and changes, including the HR or human resources planning model. The HR planning model deals specifically with people working in a company, a resource some managers overlook when planning for the company's future.
Changes in Labor Supply
As forces in the economy or culture change, the supply of labor changes as well. The HR planning model seeks to manage these changes proactively. The model helps human resources managers predict whether there will be a shortage or surplus of workers to fill the various positions within the company. Predicting these changes may be done by different departments giving feedback about their own predictions for the future, by top-level managers predicting labor market changes or by computer models making predictions.
Labor Supply in the Company
Not only does the HR planning model take into account changes in the labor supply outside of a company but it also analyzes the labor supply available inside the company. Managers take inventory of current employees' skills, education and abilities as they pertain to the company's operations. Managers use human resources files on employees along with the inventories taken by the employees' managers to determine if some employees could be promoted to higher positions in the company or moved to other positions or departments.
Job analysis involves human resources workers, managers and even employees detailing the duties, responsibilities and functions of different positions within the company. An employee who serves in a position may have the most intimate knowledge of the position and so has valuable feedback for job analysis, while a manager brings a different perspective about how the job integrates with others in his sphere of influence. The different parties work not only to determine the current state of a position but to also determine if the position should change over time, taking on different responsibilities or being combined with similar positions.
Other Job Analysis Benefits
Performing job analysis as part of HR planning provides some other benefits to a company. Having an accurate analysis of a position allows human resources workers to accurately describe the qualifications needed by applicants for a certain position, saving the company from interviewing and even hiring people who are not able to fulfill the position's duties. Analyzing different positions in the company also helps management decide if certain positions should receive greater pay or other benefits, since management has a more accurate picture of what certain positions demand of workers.
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