Page 223 - Introduction to Business

CHAPTER 6 Human Resources Management 197

resources function in organizations and have clearly helped human resources man-
agers shed their role as paper pushers for a more strategic one in the companies
they serve. 4
reality What is the role of the human resources managers at the place you’ve
CH ECK most recently worked?

Human Resources Planning

LEARNING OBJECTIVE 2
Explain how human resources managers engage in planning and forecasting.

Organizations need to plan their human resources function. What kind of people are
they going to need in the future, and to what extent are these types of people going
to be available? The first step in this process involves figuring out exactly what type
of person is needed to perform a particular job. This is called job analysis. job analysis A systematic evaluation
of the elements and requirements
needed for a job
Job Analysis

An accounting department of a college’s business school has recently been faced job description A list of the duties of
the job, working conditions,
with a sharp increase in the number of students wishing to major in accounting. responsibilities, people to be
The problem is that almost all these new students are primarily interested in inter- supervised, and so on
national accounting. The department knows it needs to hire more accounting fac- job specification A detailed listing of
ulty, but hiring just any accounting faculty is not likely to fill the demand. The the individual qualifications needed
for a job
department needs to do a job analysis, or a systematic evaluation of the elements
required for the job and the qualities required to perform it.
After doing such an analysis, the department determines that it
needs international accounting professors. The department
then writes up a formal job description, which is a list of the
duties of the job, working conditions, responsibilities, people to
be supervised, and so on. The department also will write up a
job specification, which describes in detail the skills, educa-
tion, experience, and other credentials required for the job. This
job description and specification, which make up the job analy-
sis, will play an important role in recruiting and selecting an
individual to fill the job. They will also likely be used later in
evaluating job performance, determining equitable compensa-
tion, and other aspects of HRM.

Forecasting Human Resources Demand
Forecasting human resources (HR) demand is, of course, a
tricky business. In the accounting department example, it
appears right now that there is strong demand at the school for
an international accounting professor, but before hiring or even
redirecting existing faculty, attempts need to be made to look
into the future and forecast future demand. What are the gen-
eral demographic trends with respect to new college students?
Personal trainer Sal Fichera helps Peg Warren during a
Will the accounting profession continue to have a high or 2004 workout at a gym in New York City. Government statis-
increasing international demand? Are there any possible ex- tics forecast that the demand for health and fitness workers
ternal events that could radically change this situation? (For will grow by nearly 50 percent during the coming decade.

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