Introduction

Human Resource Management Day to Day: The Value of Planning

James stumbled into his position as the human resource (HR) manager. He had been working for Techno, Inc. for three years, and when the company grew, James moved from a management position into a human resource management (HRM) position. Techno, Inc. is a technology and software consulting company for the music industry.

James didn’t have a good handle on how to effectively run a HR department, so for much of the time he tried to figure it out as he went. When Techno started seeing rapid growth, he hired 30 people within a one-month period to meet the demand. Proud of his ability to accomplish his task of meeting the business’s current needs, James was rather pleased with himself. He had spent numerous hours mulling over recruitment strategies, putting together excellent compensation plans, and then eventually sifting through résumés. Now the organization had the right number of people needed to carry out its projects.

Fast forward five months, however, and it turns out that the rapid growth was only temporary. James met with the executives of the business who told him the contracts they had acquired were finished, and there wasn’t enough new work coming in to make payroll next month if they didn’t let some people go. James felt frustrated because he had gone through so much effort to hire people, and now they would be laid off—never mind the costs of hiring and training his department had taken on to make this happen. As James sat with the executives to determine who should be laid off, he felt sad for the people who had given up other jobs just five months before, only to be laid off.

After the meeting, James reflected on this situation and realized that if he had spoken with the executives of the company sooner, they would have shared information on the duration of the contracts. If he had, he likely would have hired people differently, perhaps on a contract basis rather than on a full-time basis. He also considered the fact that the organization could have hired an out-sourcing company to recruit workers for him. As Jason mulled this over, he realized that he needed a strategic plan to make sure his department was meeting the needs of the organization. He vowed to work with the company executives to find out more about the company’s strategic plan and then develop a HRM strategic plan to make sure Techno, Inc. has the right number of workers, with the right skills, at the right time in the future.