Manpower Planning in HSBC

3.1. Introduction of Manpower Planning:

Manpower planning is the process (including forecasting, developing, implementing, and controlling) by which a firm ensures that it has the right number of people and the right. kind of people, at the right places, at right time, doing things for which they are economically most useful.

To be effective, manpower planning must focus not only on the people involved but on the working conditions and relationship ill which they work.

3.2. Importance of Manpower Planning in Banks:

Manpower Planning has become so much importance in banks because of the following reasons: Nature of Manpower Resources: The nature of human resources necessitates manpower planning. Manpower resources have four critical features; (a) for higher levels of skills a very long time is required for employees to achieve full productivity, (b) a person generally achieves higher productivity, the longer he is on the job, (c) a persons mental satisfaction affects his productivity. (d) Investment in human beings belongs to the individual who may take his skills where he goes. Given the mobility of employee and the fact that the employees productivity is largely in his own control, the employer has a stake in the employees job satisfaction.

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Supply of skilled manpower: Talented and skilled manpower has become a scarce resource and are always in short supply and manpower planning has become a necessary for the long run survival of a business organization. Underdeveloped countries like our are finding that skill shortages are a major obstacle to progress towards industrialization. Rapid change in jobs: Jobs and job requirements are changing faster than in earlier period. This rapid change in jobs has increased demand for new skill. This change in the nature of jobs makes re-training a must for many existing jobholders. Increased Mobility: Increased mobility of manpower resources has created a problem for management to retain qualified employees. In a free society human beings enjoy unrestricted geographic mobility within the country. There is nothing to keep the manpower resources from moving on when another job appears attractive, as a result, individual employers face greater difficulties in holding preferred employees. Proper manpower planning helps a bank to get its desired goal.

3.3. Techniques of analysis used in HSBC:

Following techniques are used in HSBC for its manpower plan designing.

3.3.1.

Simple Aggregation Technique:

This is purely a non-analytical method or forecasting manpower requirement on a bank. Enquires may be made to all the individual branch managers or the bank calling for their forecasts of manpower of the branches for a selected time period. These forecasts for individual branches made by the branch managers may be aggregated to produce a forecast of the total demand of the bank. The main advantage of this technique is the active participation of the branch managers in the exercise of manpower forecast. But on the other hand, there are some difficulties Doubt regarding competency of the branch managers to forecast their branches manpower requirement on the basis of uniform scientific method.

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It is unreasonable to expect that all branch managers of HSBC able to foresee the personnel requirement very far in the future. If they do not send their forecasts timely, the aggregation of branches forecasts to prepare manpower demand plan for the entire bank will be held up. Apart from these data, information on the staff itself at each branch is also collected. Forecasts for demand of manpower in each branch made in this way may be aggregated to arrive at demand forecast for the bank. This technique is an improvement over the first, here non-uniformity and lack of scientific ness in the formulation of individual branches forecast is removed. The main difficulty of this technique is, it is based on one time data regarding business and personnel complex and does not take into account the development of the branch in terms of business as well as manpower. It is also difficult to transform the host of data on all possible work load measure into department wise manpower requirements of a branch. Another problem, such as work allocation in case of branches which are not large enough to have distinct personnel working in separate department

3.3.2. Technique Based on Branch Expansion Program:

The conception of this technique has its roots in the bank plans to spend rapidly. To explain this technique mathematically let us calls: Sn1 = Staff Strength at time n Gn1 n = Growth in the Staff during the period (n1 n) at activity centers existing at time n1. Bn1 n = Staff required at new branches to be opened during the period (n1 n) An activity center in this bank is either a branch or the office of a regional/ zonal/Head Office of the bank. The following relationship holds good among the variables defined above. Sn = Sn1 + Gn1 n + Bn1 n

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It can be noted that the definition of G is flexible enough to take care of the wastage occurring during the period under consideration. Observing the three variables over a sufficiently long period one can construct a series of G for growth in manpower at existing activity centers. It will be then possible to obtain some more terms of these series which pertain to the plan period under consideration. If practice and rigid branch expansion program together with the initial staffing pattern at new branches are provided by the authorities concerned, estimates of total manpower requirement can be obtained by the help of the above relationship. This technique is quite an improvement over the second technique, as it makes use of the evolutionary pattern of employment at anyone point of time. On the other hand, it is a step backward from the second technique as it does not consider the business structure at all is a serious drawback.

3.3.3. Technique Based on the Total Business Plan:

The principle on which this technique is based is that changes in manpower requirement of HSBC are influenced by its business. This demands a comprehensive study of changes in factors affecting the relationship between business and manpower. A thorough insight into the inter-relationship and interdependence of various business variables and a sound knowledge of the degree' of their predictability and influence over the manpower requirement are essential elements for fruitful adoption of this technique. There are several factors that can claim to represent the business of the banking industry. They are total deposits, total credit, total number of branches, total number of deposit accounts, total number of advances accounts, total investments, net profit and so on. The manpower planner will have to make a careful selection of one or a group of these factors in such a way that the total business is adequately represented.

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