Essential Human Resource Planning Interview Questions & Answers:

1. What is the difference between job description and job specification?

Job description comprises of the job title, location, job summary, duties & responsibilities, tools that will be used to perform the job and the working conditions. It is a written statement which includes the above information. A proper job description helps in advertising the vacancy effectively and attracting the right talent while Job specification comprises of the qualification that a particular job seeks in the candidate. It includes educational qualifications, work experience, personal qualities etc.

2. What are the various methods used to perform Job Analysis?

Various methods to perform Job Analysis are:

1. Observation: This means observing the employees while they perform their job and taking the notes.
2. Individual interview: Asking questions to individuals performing a role and summing up the various answers you get.
3. Group interview: Interviewing many candidates performing the same role in a group and recording the answers.
4. Questionnaire: Developing a structured questionnaire and asking the employees to fill it up.
5. Diary: This method requires asking the employees to record their daily activities as they perform them.

3. What factors can affect HRP?

HRP depends upon following factors:

1. Type of organization, its culture and strategies.
2. Social, political and economic environment in which the organizations operate. 3. Time period for which HRP plans are to be implemented decide whether short term pr long term plans should be made.
4. Type of openings to be filled which arise on account of retirement, promotion, retrenchment, switching over etc.
5. Outsourcing-If company plans to outsource a particular assignment, HRP is not required for it.

4. What is job analysis?

Job analysis is the process of studying and collecting information relating to the operations and responsibilities of a specific job. It comprises of job description and job specification.

5. What would happen in absence of HRP?

In absence of HRP, estimation of an organizations human resources need is reduced to a guess work.
1. You will not be able to ascertain future manpower requirements without HRP
2. Adjusting to environmental changes and competition would become difficult.
3. Developing talented human resources internally would be difficult.
4. Your won't have the required information to perform personnel functions.
5. There will be much resistance to change.
6. HRP helps in developing managers to handle the organizational needs. Without HRP it would be difficult to anticipate such requirements.
7. HRP helps in working on the global strategies and meeting the staffing requirements.

6. What is Human Resource Planning?

HRP-Human Resource Planning is the subsystem of HRM. It is planning for the future personnel needs of an organization taking into consideration the internal activities and factors in the external environment.