Define and discuss the objectives of Human Resource Planning at the organizational level. How does it help in determining and evaluating future...

The objectives of human resource planning within the organization are to assess and plan for the organization's human resource needs, to create strategies to meet those needs through recruitment, hiring, and training, to set human resources policy within the requirements of relevant law and regulation, to create mechanisms to administer benefits, and to set policies on separation from employment.

Not only does HR help to determine and evaluate an organization's capabilities, future needs, and potential problems, planning for capabilities, needs, problems is in fact a crucial part of the HR department's work, allowing it to administer to all employees competently and efficiently and to keep the organization properly staffed at all times.

If the organization is not operating up to its potential capability, this is something that can be addressed by human resources planning.  For example, is the organization planning to expand?  Human resources must plan for this before the organization begins its expansion or there will be no employees to work in a new or larger facility.  Are there many people who are getting ready to retire?  This must be planned for, so there is no down time for replacements. 

What also must be planned for is the nature, skills, qualities of the employees who might need to be hired.  There may not be a good pool of local candidates.  There might be training needs.  If there is high turnover within the organization, human resources planning needs to account for that, as well as needing to assess why there is such high turnover to begin with.  Recruitment and hiring criteria must be planned for, to assure the highest quality of candidate and selection.  Once employees are hired, there should be policies in place for operating successfully within the corporate structure. For example, there should be a clear sexual harassment policy that dictates a complaint process, an investigation procedure, and clear consequences.  The administration of benefits must be planned for in compliance with local, state, and federal law.  All termination proceedings should be a function of clear policy and procedure in accordance with laws, since termination may put the organization at risk for lawsuits. 

Human resources planning is central to the success of any organization, and is required to:

achieve the objectives of estimating potential human resources requirements; to cope with changing requirements of the organisation taking into consideration the changing technology; to make full utilization of the existing and potential workforce of the organisation; and [to facilitate] career planning of employees. (whatishumanresource.com)

In light of these departmental HR objectives, HR objectives at the organizational level include:

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  cost reduction by having the right people in the right numbers at the right places ant the right times.


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  labor costs reduction through optimization of human resources.


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  managing costs on foreseeable human resources problems.


• ensuring smooth cost-saving transitions by training employees and preparing managers for "succession" through promotion.