Chapter 3
Human Resource Planning and
Strategy
Learning objectives
• Explain the process of human resource planning
for future organisational requirements
• Describe the process of job analysis
• Outline the key components of job description
• Explain different approaches to job design
• Describe how effective human resource planning
can enable the strategic achievement of
organisational goals
Strategic human resource
planning
• the development of policy and procedures
to ensure the acquisition, development,
retention and effective deployment of a
workforce that will allow the sport
organisation to meet its mission and goals
now and in the future
The HR Plan
• May be component of the sport
organization’s general strategic plan or a
separate HR strategic plan
• forms the basis for implementation of
actions to achieve goals, strategies, and
measures for recruitment, retention,
employee development, succession etc.
The human resource planning
process
Organisational Mission
Organisation Strategy
Objectives
HR Strategy
Internal
Environment
Size
Culture
Management
priorities
Knowledge,
Skills, Abilities
and career plans
of current
staff/volunteers
Forecast of
staffing and HR
requirements
External
Environment
Sport industry
characteristics
Market
conditions
Technology
Government
regulation
Labour market
HRM policies
and practices
Forecast of
external
environment
HR Action Plan
Implementation and
Evaluation
The internal analysis
• macro level - the organisation’s structure, core
values, and culture
• Instruments used to assess culture, such as
culture inventories, range from generic
questionnaires to diagnostic tools which are
custom-designed for the organisation.
• micro level - the number of employees or
volunteers, their skills, abilities and knowledge,
qualifications, demographics, salaries,
entitlements and performance appraisals.
• in-house HR information systems are used for
data
External environment analysis
• determine emerging issues and trends
significant for the organisation
• Eg government policy, administrative/legal,
economy, technology, social and culture
and stakeholder environments
• The PEST framework or ‘five-forces’
model can be used in this process
Forecasting
• estimating the size and composition of the
workforce required to meet the sport
organisation’s objectives
• Demand forecasting techniques - 5 major
categories: 1 Direct Managerial Input, 2
Best Guess, 3 Historical Ratios, 4 Other
Statistical Methods, 5 Scenario Analysis
Direct Managerial Input
• the number of people in the organisation or the
workforce budget adhere to a specific number.
• For example, the budget of a state sport
organisation is set at $1.5m per annum for staff
and in consequence the organisation either
appoints new staff or reduces current staffing
levels to meet this ceiling.
• Strategically the weakness of this approach is
that analysis of the human resources required to
best meet organisational objectives is often not
undertaken
Best Guess
• managerial judgment process formalised
into a demand forecast.
• Data on the demand for employees and/or
skill and knowledge requirements is
collected from each section manager and
collated for an overall projection.
• Flexible but assumes all managers have
the time and ability to produce an accurate
forecast
Historical Ratios
• capture historic trends in the organisation’s
demand for human resources.
• Overall requirements for staff can usually be
strongly correlated with other factors, such as
the number of programs delivered, size of
membership, or number of games played in a
season
• simple and easily developed
• requires adjustments in a dynamic sport
environment
Other Statistical Methods
• include regression, linear programming, simulations and
demand flow models.
• The simplest is a linear regression model in which time is
used as the independent variable and headcount is the
dependent variable.
• A common variation is multiple regression techniques in
which variables used in the historical ratio approach are
used as independent variables
• Statistical approaches have an inherent bias in favour of
the past as the assumption underlying such analyses is
that past trends will continue into the future
Scenario Analysis
• Development of alternative workforce
scenarios through brainstorming
• Includes the Delphi technique - where a
group of experts provide individual
forecasts, which are in turn collated and
then sent back to each individual, usually
presented anonymously, for another round
of forecasting, the process continues until
a consensus is reached by the experts
Scenario planning
• a forward looking process of creating possible
future stories and considers the unthinkable
– 1. develop credible scenarios
– 2. list key success factors and HR requirements for
the organisation to deal with each scenario,
– 3. focus resources on initiatives that promote these
requirements.
• Develops an awareness of impending changes
and forward planning for changing conditions
Determining HR Supply
• Internal analysis - the likelihood of retirements,
turnover, training needs and future staffing
requirements.
• Skills inventories are a common method used to
collect data on current employees and
volunteers.
• External analysis - the demographic,
occupational qualifications, eligibility and skill
availability of the potential workforce
• Environmental factors include the aging of
labour force, immigration patterns, occupation
related supply, and economic conditions
Identifying gaps
• match the demand analysis forecasts with the
supply analysis
• gaps indicate either a projected unmet need or a
surplus
• action plans are used to close the demandsupply gap, outlining objectives, specific
activities, recruitment and selection, training and
development, performance indicators, rewards
and evaluation methods
Job Analysis and Design
• Job analysis is a systematic analysis of
the tasks and responsibilities of a given
job, along with the skills, knowledge and
experience needed to perform the job
• job design is the allocation of tasks to jobs
Job analysis
• produces a job description and a job
specification
• provides data for performance appraisal that can
be used to compare an individual’s actual
performance with the specified job expectations.
• Is the basis for wage and salary determination
• forms a component of legal requirements for
hiring, promotional, wage and salary etc
Job analysis data obtained via
• an interview with the employee who is
performing the job or the their manager.
• Structured questionnaires completed by the
employee or manager and others who have
some relationship to the job
• Direct observation of the individual performing a
job
• Diaries or logs of daily activities and tasks
Combinations of the 4 methods will usually provide
better results than just using 1 method
Job descriptions & specifications
• the job description outlines the duties and
responsibilities attached to a position
• the specification delineates the qualifications
and skills required
• the job specification and description act as a
guide for recruiting the right person
• the description provides the basis of
remuneration and for performance management
Job design
• the process of outlining the way work is
performance and the required tasks using
job analysis
• takes into account the needs of both the
work group and the organisation in the
design of the job.
• 4 basic approaches: 1. motivational,
2.mechanistic, 3. biological 4. perceptualmotor
motivational approach
• acknowledges the
psychological needs of
employees and how the
fulfilment of these, when built
into job design, can lead to
increased job satisfaction,
motivation, performance and
involvement.
• Typical motivational
components considered are:
– Autonomy
– Intrinsic job feedback
– Extrinsic job feedback
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Social interaction
Task / goal clarity
Task variety
Task identity
Ability / skill level requirements
Ability / skill variety
Task significance
Growth / learning
Promotion
Communication
Recognition
The mechanistic approach
• underpinned by principles
scientific management,
time and motion studies,
and work simplification
• assumes there is one
best way to do a job, and
by analysing workers
movements the most
effective way to perform a
job can be designed
The key components
considered in this
approach are:
• Job specialisation
• Specialisation of tools
and procedures
• Single activities
• Skill simplification
• Repetition
• Spare time (decrease)
• Automation
biological approach
• based on the human
factors related to work
design, and is also
referred to as the
ergonomic approach
• concerned with the
design of jobs and
physical environments to
match the physiological
capabilities and
limitations of people
This approach analyses the
physiological needs and
physical conditions
considering elements
such as:
• Physical size
• Strength
• Agility
perceptual-motor approach
• focus is on human mental
capabilities and
limitations
• jobs are designed to
ensure that they do not
exceed the mental
capabilities primarily by
striving to reduce the
attention and
concentration
requirements of jobs,
while improving reliability,
safety, and user reactions
• This approach
emphasises:
• Facilities
• Equipment
• Materials
• Information
Which approach?
• On the one hand are the potential organisational
costs associated with high mental ability
requirements (motivational approach) such as
increased training and development, error
likelihoods, and compensation requirements. On
the other hand, are the potential individual costs
of low mental ability requirements (mechanistic
and perceptual/motor approaches) of decreased
satisfaction, motivation, and compensation
Is it easier to outsource HR?
• Outsourcing - contractual arrangements with external
service providers to deliver a product or service to the
organisation
• can provide a central product or extensive service across
a range of organisations
• service level agreement (SLAs) are contracts between
service providers and sport organisation that define the
services provided, the metrics associated with these
services, acceptable and unacceptable service levels,
liabilities on the part of the service provider and the
customer, and actions to be taken in specific
circumstances
Summary
• SHRM planning provides a framework for
organisations to assess where they are, where
they want to go, and how they plan to get there
• HR planning involves efforts to anticipate and
take actions to ensure that the organisation will
have the requisite human resources in place to
meet its goals
• Job analysis and design are key activities in the
planning process