HRP is influenced by several factors. The most important of the factors that affect human resource planning are:
1.Type and Strategy of the Organization:
Type of the organization determines the production processes involve, number and type of staff needed and the supervisory and managerial personnel required. If the organization has a plan for organic growth, then organization need to hire additional employees. On the other hand, if the organization is going for mergers and acquisition, then organization need to plan for layoffs.
2.Organizational Growth Cycles and Planning:
All organizations pass through different stages of growth from the day of its inception. The stage of growth in which an organization is determines the nature and extends of HRP. Small organizations in the earlier stages of growth may not have well defined personnel planning. But as the organization enters the growth stage they feel the need to plan its human resource. At this stage organization gives emphasis upon employee development. But as the organization reaches the mature stage it experience less flexibility and variability resulting in low growth rate. HR planning becomes more formalized and less flexible and less innovative and problem like retirement and possible retrenchment dominate planning. During the declining stage of the organization HRP takes a different focus like planning to do the layoff, retrenchment and retirement.
3.Environmental Uncertainties:
Political, social and economic changes affect all organizations and the fluctuations that are happening in these environments affect organizations drastically. Personnel planners deal with such environmental uncertainties by carefully formulating recruitment, selection, training and development policies and programmes.
4.Time Horizons:
HR plans can be short term or long term. Short term plans span from six months to one year, while long term plans spread over three to twenty years. The extent of time period depends upon the degree of uncertainty that is prevailing in an organization’s environment.
5.Type and Quality of information:
The quality and accuracy of information depend upon the clarity with which the organizational decision makers have defined their strategy, structure, budgets, production schedule and so on.
6.Nature of Jobs Being Filled:
Personnel planners need to be really careful with respect to the nature of the jobs being filled in the organization. Employees belonging to lower level who need very limited skills can be recruited hastily but, while hiring employees for higher posts, selection and recruitment need to be carried out with high discretion
7.Outsourcing:
Many of the organizations have surplus labour and hence instead of hiring more people they go for outsourcing. Outsourcing determines HRP.
