Important definitions of human resource planning are discussed here to understand the concept in right perspective:
According to E.W. Vetter, human resource planning is “the process by which a management determines how an organisation should make from its current manpower position to its desired manpower position.
Through planning a management strives to have the right number and the right kind of people at the right places, at the right time to do things which result in both the organisation and the individual receiving the maximum long range benefit.”
Dale S. Beach has defined it as “a process of determining and assuring that the organisation will have an adequate number of qualified persons available at the proper times, performing jobs which meet the needs of the enterprise and which provide satisfaction for the individuals involved.”
In the words of Leon C. Megginson, human resource planning is “an integration approach to performing the planning aspects of the personnel function in order to have a sufficient supply of adequately developed and motivated people to perform the duties and tasks required to meet organisational objectives and satisfy the individual’s needs and goals of organisational members.”
On the analysis of above definitions, human resource planning may be viewed as foreseeing the human resource requirements of an organisation and the future supply of human resources and making necessary adjustments between these two and organisation plans, and foreseeing the possibility of developing the supply of human resources in order to match it with requirements by introducing necessary changes in the functions of human resource management.
Here, human resource means skill, knowledge, values, ability, commitment, motivation etc., in addition to the number of employees. Though accomplishment of organisational objectives and goals is the primary concern of the human resource planning, concern for the aspirations of the people and their well-being has equal importance in it. In fact, the human resources planning must result in humanisation of work environment.