BARRIERS OR LIMITATIONS OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING

The major barriers or limitations to human resource planning are as follows

1. Uncertainties:

Seasonal employment, labour turnover, absenteeism, technological changes, and market up-downs are uncertainties, which are always there while making human resource planning.

2. Inaccurate Forecasting Methods:

Human resource planning involves forecasting the human resource demand and supply. Various forecasting methods are not very much accurate. Hence, such forecasts are also not fully accurate. If the time horizon is very long, there are more chances of inaccuracies. Apart from that, inaccuracy also increases when the forecasts made for various departments or divisions are merely aggregated without critical review and are taken to be the forecast for the whole organisation.

3. Lack of Support from Top Management:

In the absence of support and commitment from the top-level management human resource department finds it difficult to obtain information on various vital inputs in human resource planning such as future growth plans, the introduction of new technology, etc., are generally not available. Hence, it is not always possible to develop effective human resource plans.

4. Inadequate Information System:

In most of the industries in our country 'Human Resources Information System' has not been fully developed, especially due to the low status given to the personnel department and less importance attached to human resource planning. Moreover, reliable data relating labour market, trends in human resources, places etc. are generally not available. Hence, it is not always possible to develop effective human resource plans.

5. Employee Resistance:

Employees and trade unions also resist human resource planning as they think that it increases their workload and regulates them through productivity bargaining. They also believe that human resource planning prepares programmes for securing manpower mostly from outside, generally by ignoring internal manpower supply.

6. Employers' Resistance:

Many employers resist human resource planning because they think that it increases the cost of manpower as trade unions demand employees based on the plan, for more facilities, and for benefits including training and development. Moreover, employers feel that human resource planning is redundant or useless because candidates will be available as and when required especially due to the severe unemployment situation in India.

7. Time-Consuming and High Cost:

Human Resources Planning is a time-consuming, complex, and highly cost-oriented exercise. Hence it is feared to fail at cost-benefit analysis.

8. Lack of Participation and Coordination among Operating Managers:

In many cases, operating managers look at the whole exercise of human resource planning with doubt and mistrust. They do not willingly participate in it and do not properly coordinate with top management and the human resource department.

9. Imbalance between Quantitative and Qualitative focus:

Some firms view human resource planning as a game of numbers designed to ensure the flow of people in and out of the firms, exclusively focus on quantitative aspects such as career planning and development, increase in skill levels through training and retraining, enhancement of morale, and motivation, etc.

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BARRIERS OR LIMITATIONS OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING