Manpower Planning

Personnel management is productive exploitation of manpower resources. This is also termed as

‘Manpower Management’. Manpower Management is choosing the proper type of people as and when
required. It also takes into account the upgrading in existing people. Manpower Management starts with
manpower planning. Every manager in an organization is a personnel man, dealing with people.
Definition and importance of manpower Planning:
Planning is nothing but using the available assets for the effective implementation of the
production plans. After the preparing the plans, people are grouped together to achieve
organizational objectives.
Planning is concerned with coordinating, motivating and controlling of the various activities within
the organization. Time required for acquiring the material, capital and machinery should be taken
into account. Manager has to reasonably predict future events and plan out the production. The
basic purpose of the management is to increase the production, so that the profit margin can be
increased. Manager has to guess the future business and to take timely and correct decisions in
respect of company objectives, policies and cost performances. The plans need to be supported
by all the members of the organization. Planning is making a decision in advance what is to be
done. It is the willpower of course of action to achieve the desired results. It is a kind of future
picture where events are sketched. It can be defined as a mental process requiring the use of
intellectual faculty, imagination, foresight and sound judgment.
It involves problem solving and decision making. Management has to prepare for short term
strategy and measure the achievements, while the long term plans are prepared to develop the
better and new products, services, expansion to keep the interest of the owners.

Advantages of manpower planning:

Manpower planning ensures optimum use of available human resources.
1. It is useful both for organization and nation.
2. It generates facilities to educate people in the organization.
3. It brings about fast economic developments.
4. It boosts the geographical mobility of labor.
5. It provides smooth working even after expansion of the organization.
6. It opens possibility for workers for future promotions, thus providing incentive.
7. It creates healthy atmosphere of encouragement and motivation in the
organization.
8. Training becomes effective.
9. It provides help for career development of the employees.

Steps in Manpower planning

1. Predict manpower plans
2. Design job description and the job requirements
3. Find adequate sources of recruitment.
4. Give boost to youngsters by appointment to higher posts.
5. Best motivation for internal promotion.
6. Look after the expected losses due to retirement, transfer and other issues.
7. See for replacement due to accident, death, dismissals and promotion.

Factors which affect the efficiency of labor:

1. Inheritance: Persons from good collection are bound to work professionally. The quality and
rate of physical as well as mental development, which is dissimilar in case of different individuals
is the result of genetic differences.
2. Climate: Climatic location has a definite effect on the efficiency of the workers.
3. Health of worker: worker’s physical condition plays a very important part in performing the
work. Good health means the sound mind, in the sound body.
4. General and technical education: education provides a definite impact n the working ability and
efficiency of the worker.
5. Personal qualities: persons with dissimilar personal qualities bound to have definite differences
in their behaviour and methods of working. The personal qualities influence the quality of work.
6. Wages: proper wages guarantees certain reasons in standard of living, such as cheerfulness,
discipline etc. and keep workers satisfy. This provides incentive to work.
7. Hours of work: long and tiring hours of work exercise have bad effect on the competence of the
workers.

Downsizing of manpower:
Downsizing of manpower gives the correct picture about the number of people to be employed to
complete given task in the predetermined period. It is used for achieving fundamental growth in
the concern. It can work out the correct price by the resource building or capacity building. It aims
at correct place, correct man on a correct job.
Thus manpower planning is must to make the optimum utilization of the greatest resource
available i.e. manpower for the success of any organization.

Example for Hospital Industry:

Planning manpower, outsourcing key to boost profitability

Soumya Viswanathan - Mumbai

In a typical hospital set up, expenditure on salary amounts to roughly 25-30 per cent
of total income or 30-35 per cent of total expenditure. This is not healthy statistics,
say experts. Most hospitals are believed to operate with excess manpower. As
competition increases and margins come under pressure, hospitals tomorrow will
have no option but to rationalise manpower, which, in other words, would mean
downsizing.

Most times, downsizing has led to further chaos, mainly because of improper
manpower planning. Health-care consultants stress on a multi-skilled workforce to
carry multiple tasks in order to maintain optimum employee per bed ratio, a key to
boost and sustain profits.

To achieve this, manpower planning becomes crucial. But, such tasks are rarely
undertaken in hospitals, say experts. Most hospitals operate on excess man power,
says Dr K C Ojha, managing director, Hospic, Mumbai-based Hospital Consultancy
Firm. “Ideally, employee to bed ratio should be 3 per bed,” he says. Three persons
per bed could be a little stingy, say some, who find 4-5 persons per bed more
acceptable.

Factors affecting Manpower

The type of hospital, the set-up and even the structure of the building counts when it
comes to manpower allocation.

Specialty: The number of employees depends not on the size of hospital but more
on its speciality, say experts. “Ideally for multi-speciality and super speciality
hospitals the ratio of bed to employee should be around 1:6. This is an ideal situation
and is practiced in developed countries as mandatory requisition,” says Dr C P
Kamle, international associate ofAmerican Institute of Medicine and Hans Finne
International.
Setup: More classes of wards means more staff. For instance, a deluxe room may
have one staff for just 2 beds since the patients are charged higher and consequently
demand better care. In median class, one employee can look after 6 patients.

Structure: Hinduja Hospi-tal has more staff than other hospitals in Mumbai because
the building is designed to have four separate wings.

A ward boy in one wing may not be able to give his best to all the wings on the same
floor. So the staff increases. Says
Col Rampal, director, HR, Hinduja Hospital, “The solution is to economise without
effecting patient care. For eg, non-core sector like support staff, house keeping can
be outsourced. We have outsourced security and are thinking of outsourcing food
service too.”

Measures to be taken
Audit: Manpower audit, which must be carried out regularly is seldom done.
According to Dr Vivek Desai, MD of Hosmac Consultancy, Mumbai, knowledge among
healthcare professionals on manpower audits is not satisfactory.

Multi-skilling and multi-tasking: Employee per bed ratio can be kept optimum,
provided effective utilisation of manpower is done by creating multi-skilled and multi-
tasked personnel. Explains Dr Ojha, “In any hospital, an ECG technician does the job
of just taking the ECG. And if it is a male technician, he can see only male patients.
Most of the times therefore he is left without work.” The right way he says is to
employ female employees or train nurses to carry out the same for full utilisation of
man power.

Giving an example of multi-skilled employee, Dr Ojha says that a peon must have
knowledge of computers, lift operation, vehicle driving and handling patients. He
emphasises that even class IV staff be given training and apprenticeship. Full
orientation for computer application must be given. This will reduced manpower
requirement, say experts.

Outsource: Consultants advice that hospitals must explore services which can be
outsourced. Dr Desai says that contracting some services can bring down man power
to 4 persons per bed.