Manpower refers to the people who are employed to do or complete a task or a job. Hence it is the people employed for a service or work. They consist of both women and man labours. Depending on the need and work manpower can be classified into 1)Surplus: if the number of people are greater than the available job and 2)Deficit: number of jobs greater than the available workforce. The trend varies among different sectors i.e. generally in an IT field, surplus workers are kept as a reserve because they have a chance to get a project at any point of time. Hence at that time there must not be a shortage of manpower whereas in a production sector the surplus resource must be limited so as to reduce the expense on one side and unemployment/payscale on the other.
Hence in a case of surplus and deficit availability, manpower planning is absolutely necessary. So for any task, the factors that has to be kept in mind are a)number of people and b)time. The introduction of manpower training pulls in terms like no of personnel’s, skills and time period. It is a never ending task also called as human resource planning. An organisation has to always keep it in check for the optimised output which can be disturbed by the effect of outgoing employees. This has effect on both current and future projects which in turn has an effect on the organisational goal. This also tells the company how and when more resource has to be acquired. The process involved in manpower planning include
1. Identifying pros and cons of existing workforce
2. Predicting the future
3. Recruitment and selection
4. Training
So now we know the importance of manpower planning, which brings us to a question, “where do we get manpower?” the answer is “from manpower supply agencies.” These are organisation, service or person indulged in providing recruits for any other organisation.
Study has to be conducted by the organisation to understand the capability of the existing workforce. This includes the type and performance of the existing resources. The human resource department has to take the capability of the workforce for predicting the future. By predicting the future, the company tends to expand its base to any domain and in some cases might takeup new projects. In such case if the work force incapable of doing it might end up in big loss and the project gets dropped eventually or might turn ineffective. Thus, after careful valuation schemes the human resource decides whether to takeup new recruits or to improvise on the existing labour. This is dependent on number of workers, technology and other labour factors.
So now the company has decided to take up new employees as it found that the current workforce is not sufficient. Hence most of the company plan their move get an appropriate candidate for recruit. They might conduct this recruit either by themselves or with the manpower supply organisation. Example for the prior method is job fairs, placement and paid internships. On the other hand they have people registered to an organisation for a particular job. So when one pops up, they push their candidate through. The company might absorb either fresh or experienced candidate basing the requirement, available time and organisational goals.
So now the companies have the required number of workforce. The next hurdle is to make sure they do the job. Since some of them might be experiencing such an environment for the first time, certain steps has to be taken to ensure efficient output is obtained from the recruits. One method to ensure the efficiency is by training/ developing the manpower. This also includes enhancing the capability of the experienced work force. This helps to optimize the output of the entire workforce. This is also called as Human resource development. A lot of factors can affect the optimised output of workforce. A multi-dimensional approach is necessary to understand the different aspects ranging from technical enhancement, inter-personnel skill, creative thinking and leadership. Manpower development is the within an organisation charged with overall responsibility for implementing strategies and policies relating to the management of individuals.
The purpose of such an approach is to maximise return on the investment and the organisational capital and minimise the risk in any finance. This is done by maintaining the current workforce parallel to the newly recruited in terms of knowledge and capabilities. Thus it helps the organisation to shed light on organisational goal and future business plans thereby helping to maximise the returns in terms of profit thereby increasing the chance of survival and success. The human resource development is closely associated with practices and laws that support the employees thereby increasing the motivation towards the relative goal of the company.
So for effective planning in the development of human resource the following steps have to be taken into account:
1) As in any case, the first step towards anything is proper planning. During the planning phase, the organisation must be aware of different roles in any project and the people who can fill them. Areas where certain skilled expertise required must identified and the person that suits the seats too. Plans has to be made so that certain people who can fill the space after developing their skills are accounted. This include mentor-ships and regular valuation of their technical knowledge is evaluated so they can focus more on their area of weakness
2) Training the newly recruited is another big step towards the development of manpower. Give them necessary classes that includes seminars, discussion and other things that provide them with exposure to the organisational content. Advices, suggestions and appreciation for their efforts might point them to the right directions. Installing them as a part of team helps them a lot in terms of understanding the big picture.
3) Identifying the excelling member is another step. This is because not everyone is capable of excelling into a managerial pole. Focus and invest more on such personnel’s. To identify them we only have to look through the qualities like leadership, discipline and the desire. Make sure they know what they are doing by simply brushing through their previous work records.
4) Encourage from the manager can do a big deal. Although they are known to be hot-headed and irritating, a positive nudge can help an employee a lot. This must be mixed up with other activities like training, meetings and evaluations
5) Maintain a positive attitude to the employees including scope for continuing education, sending them to seminars or offering them help in terms learning. Greater the emphasis in helping, greater can be expected in return in terms of loyalty and collective interest towards companies goals.