Stategic role of human resource planning?

One of HR's many roles is compensation. Without a competitive compensation package, a company will never be able to retain its most valuable workers, which can crimp innovation and performance. Compensation is mainly monetary, but even when budgets are tight, human resources can motivate workers with other rewards, like perks and benefits.

HR is also charged with ensuring the health and safety of employees. Safety refers to avoiding on-the-job hazards and injuries, while health is an umbrella term for physical and emotional wellness. Healthy workers not only are more productive and satisfied, but also reduce a company's medical insurance costs.

Not as many workers belong to unions today as in the past, but businesses still have a legal obligation to work with these organizations in good faith. HR is deeply involved in issues like contract negotiations. HR's role is to keep things running smoothly and have information on hand that can lead to compromise. This keeps animosity to a minimum and ensures good future relations with unions.

HR takes on the role as trainer to new employees, giving them the information they need to be valuable additions to the company. It also works with existing employees to map out long-term career goals. Giving workers the feeling of empowerment and mobility helps them stay motivated and keeps them from looking to rival companies for promotions and other opportunities.

HR must work to ensure that a company always has the right number of employees, deployed in the positions that best utilize their talents. This means grooming employees to take on promotions, as well as actively looking to recruit new talent. The latter, known as human resource planning, is one of its most important functions, as it keeps a company abreast of a competitive job market and ensures that it will not fall behind on its goals due to lack of talent.

Human resource planning consists of pairing workers--both internal candidates and those outside the company--with future job openings. By always anticipating a company's staffing needs, HR can make transitions as quick as possible, so that companies do not fall behind while searching for the right person to fill an opening.

First, HR must forecast a company's requirements: how many employees with what abilities it will need. Then, it must forecast availability: Do these people exist in the job market and how likely are they to join the company? By proactively analyzing a company's future workforce, HR can stay on top of labor trends. For example, if not enough college students are majoring in an area critical to a company's success, it should encourage more young people to consider the career path, while also actively stepping up campus recruiting to beat rivals to the top graduating talent.