Those who fail to plan, plan to fail. This wisdom rings true in the field of human resources particularly in the education landscape. Human resource planning for educational institutions ensures that the right number of people, with the right skills are in the right place and time (Rebore, R. (2012).
Human resource planning also involves assessment of the existing human resource available. It covers human resource inventories, projecting enrolment for five to 10 years, developing and reviewing school objectives and human resource forecast. Issues such as reduction in force, roles of the principal and laws influencing human resources affect human resources planning.
HUMAN RESOURCES INVENTORIES
In the context of human resources, inventory involves not just simply counting of
school personnel but cataloguing each employee and assessing individuals who possess potential for growth.
Human resources inventory also includes profiling of the current human resource. This profile provides complete details about the human resources such as name of employee, age, date employed, gender, job title, department, education and training received, special skills and certifications, if applicable. Administrators can easily get a bird’s eye view of the members of the team through the human resource profile. It also serves as basis for each position’s classification and comes particularly useful in hiring season or staff development. The human resources profile even provides the administration a quick peek into work issues such as employee turnover, job dissatisfaction and could as well futureproof the team about retiring personnel (Rebore 2012).
Personally, I am familiar with inventory as the manual counting of stocks and supplies. It is a pleasant surprise and a welcome learning to know about this human resource planning exercise, especially the human resources profile. Guidelines as regards collecting of the employees’ details, however, must be promoted to ensure that the details are accurately collected especially when filling up of the profile form is done individually. Controlled parameters must be clearly provided to get acceptable answers as categories about the profile are subjective in nature such as special skills and certifications.
Also, it may be a good practice to regularly update the human resource inventory not just annually, but any time there is a movement in the human resource such as resignation, retirement, promotion, participation in seminars, among other things.
Locally, what comes to mind is the National Competency Based Teacher Standards (NCBTS) which not only serve as framework for teachers and pedagogy in whole but lay out criteria for hiring and promotion for Department of Education and other educational institutions. NCBTS essentially aids in teacher human resource planning, recruitment, selection, deployment and recognition system. (Torno, B. 2006, September. Teacher Education and Development Program (TEDP) – National CompetencyBased Teacher Standards (NCBTS) Philippine Education Reform.
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| credit to Escape the City |
ENROLLMENT PREDICTION
Enrollment prediction is another aspect of human resource planning in education.
Since schools rely greatly on enrollment of students, it is of utmost importance to predict enrollment not only for physical preparedness but more so to prevent shortage of teachers. Factors affecting enrollment number include birth rate, retainment average, freshmen and transferees. The reporter provided three formulas to compute for enrollment prediction using the urban design method, excel model and the enrollment funnel.
I agree that being aware of population trends within the vicinity of an educational institution is helpful. Administrators and stakeholders must conduct further investigation every time there is a spike or dip in the actual enrollment number to understand the possible causes of the discrepancy in the number of enrollment versus the predicted number. Another indicator for enrollment prediction is the building of new communities nearby the school (Rebore 2012).
REVIEW OF SCHOOL OBJECTIVES
Due to the changing objectives of a school board, which may include introduction of new educational programs that require additional staffing and building allocation, school objectives must be reviewed as part of human resource planning in education. These objectives serve as the necessary foundation for the human resource planning. Consulting with the board who determines these school’s objectives is a wise move all the time.
The human resources inventories are essential in this point as it gives a clear and quick picture of the overall profile of the school’s human resources.
HUMAN RESOURCE FORECASTING
Simply, human resource forecasting is estimating the number of people and jobs
needed by the organization to meet its objectives.
From personal experience, this has always been the hardest part. Increase of available human resource due to hiring and employees coming back from maternity, sabbatical leaves are easy to control as administrators have knowledge about this. However, what is challenging is the decrease in a school system’s supply of human resources that may be due to death, resignation and dismissal. Especially for schools, this may be disruptive of the quality of service since immediate solution may not be quickly available unless a backup plan has been made in advanced. Issues such as supply of available and high quality labor may not always be favorable to the institution as more job candidates choose more profitable industries, or when good job candidates choose to stay at home with the growing kids since cost of living is easily managed with just one spouse working. The best scenario is to have the right number and mix of recruited individuals (not overstaffing) to meet the school’s objectives (Rebore 2012).
REDUCTION IN FORCE ALTERNATIVES TO REDUCTION IN FORCE
Downsizing, layoff, staff reduction, pay reduction, reduced work schedules, required use of vacation, freezes, voluntary exit incentive, regular parttime or job share are some of alternatives to reduction in force. In times of economic difficulty when enrollment becomes low and budgets are not balanced or changes in the educational objectives, a reduction in force may be implemented.
A common policy observed among institutions is the last in, first out where the newest hire also becomes the first to go when reduction in force is implemented. Some legal alternatives to reduction in force that are observed include early retirement incentive programs or retraining employees for other positions that may be vacant. (Rebore 2012). Locally, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) allows for termination of employees due to due to installation of labor saving devices, redundancy, retrenchment or closing of operation. Affected workers receive separation pay determined by the law (Book VI Post Employment (2009, October 4).
THE ROLE OF THE PRINCIPAL
The principal is the agent of change, keeper and developer of culture. When it
comes to human resources planning, it is important that the principal is first to spot the dwindling down of enrolment figures. Short to say that the principal should always monitor the enrolment statistics of its school, and therefore always knowledgeable about enrolment prediction for each school year. This is important for capital, maintenance and staffing concerns.
In the instance of reduction of force, the principal can also be the one to prepare teachers for possible job loss. Indeed, s/he plays a vital role in the human resources planning process (Rebore 2012).
LAWS INFLUENCES ON HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNING
Local mandated laws applicable to human resources planning include
compensation minimum wage law is implemented for the basic daily 8hour work with DOLE determining the corresponding rate according to office location, sickness and vacation leaves, paternity and maternity leave, as well as the solo parent welfare act (Basic Philippine Labor Laws and Regulations).
These above mentioned local laws along with other government mandated labor laws are being offered to the employees of the De La Salle Araneta University along with other privileges and incentives. Some of these include monetary support to any staff taking graduate studies related to their work, wedding gift, and perfect attendance bonus among others. The school also observes the policy of hiring from within as much as possible (Employees Manual, DLSU Araneta).
I am grateful for this course and for my classmates and professor as through this, I am enlightened about the non classroom related processes of educational institutions.
One big realization I have discovered is that schools are not only teachers and professors. Like a regular office, schools and educational institutions have administrative staff, even cooks, IT staff and other specialists necessary in successfully operating day to day and human resources planning allows a school to be well equipped with meeting its objectives.
References
Basic Philippine Labor Laws and Regulations. R etrieved from
http://toolkit.sme.com.ph/humanresources/?page=humanresourcesht15
Book VI Post Employment (2009, October 4). Retrieved from
http://www.dole.gov.ph/labor_codes/view/7
Employees Manual Dela Salle Araneta University. Retrieved from
http://www.dlsau.edu.ph/pdf/employeesmanual.pdf
Rebore, R. (2012). The essentials of human resources administration in education. Boston, Massachussetts: Pearson.
Torno, B. 2006, September. Teacher Education and Development Program (TEDP) – National CompetencyBased Teacher Standards (NCBTS) Philippine Education Reform. Retrieved from http://www.cfopso.org.ph/pdf/8thconferencepresentation/day2/Overseas_presen tation_NCBTS_and_TSNA.pdf
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