Question

Business Analysis and Human resources planning examples and references not less than five fage

Answer 1

Business analysis

Business analysis defined as a research discipline that helps you to find the business needs and defining solutions to business problems. It also includes a software-systems development component.

Business Analysis process offers concepts and insights into the development of the initial framework for any project. It stores the key to guide stakeholders of a project who performs business modelling in an orderly manner.

Human Resource Planning

Human resources undoubtedly play the most important part in the functioning of an organization. The term ‘resource’ or ‘hu­man resource’ signifies potentials, abilities, capacities, and skills, which can be developed through continuous interaction in an organizational setting.

The interactions, interrelationships, and activities performed all contribute in some way or other to the development of human potential. Organizational productivity, growth of companies, and economic development are to a large extent contingent upon the effective utilization of human capa­cities.

Hence, it is essential for an organization to take steps for effective utilization of these resources. In the various stages in the growth of an organization, effective planning of human resources plays a key role. Matching the requirements of the job with the individual is important at all stages, including the recruitment procedures, in this endeavour.

When organizations contemplate diversification or expansion, or when employees have to be promoted, human resource planning plays an import­ant role. Further, the organizational plans, goals, and strategies also require effective human resource planning.

Benefits using Business analysis methods:

· It helps you to understand the structure and the dynamics of the company

· It allows you to understand current problems in the target organization.

· It helps you to identify improvement potentials and recommending solutions to enable an organization to achieve goals.

· It helps you to identify and articulate the need for change.

· To maximize the value delivered by an organization to its stakeholders.

Steps involved in Business Analysis Process

· Enterprise analysis

· Requirement planning and Management

· Requirement Elicitation

· Requirement analysis and Documentation

· Requirement Communication

· Solution Evolution and Validation.

Ø Step 1) Enterprise Analysis

This area covers a collection of pre-project activities that leads to up to project selection guided by the Business Analyst.

The activities are as follows:

o It helps to maintain Business Architecture

o Allows you to prepare the Business Case

o Preparing for Decision Package

Ø Step 2) Requirement Planning & Management

In this step, you need to define the tasks and resource which are associated with the planning and management of requirements. This helps you to ensure that the set of activities that are undertaken is appropriate according to the specific project. It is also important to capture changes correctly and consistently.

Ø Step 3) Requirement Elicitation

The requirement elicitation phase consists of researching and discovering the requirements of a system from users, customers, and other stakeholders.

Ø Step 4) Requirements Analysis & Documentation

This stage describes how stakeholder needs to analyse, structure, and specify the design and implementation of a solution. Requirements analysis helps you define the methods and tools used to structure the raw data.

Ø Step 5) Requirements Communication

This phase is the collection of activities for expressing the output of the requirement analysis. Moreover, every requirement needs to be packaged, evaluated, and approved before the solution is implemented.

Ø Step 6) Solution Evaluation and Validation

This phase ensures that a solution should able to meets the stakeholder objectives.

Common Business Analysis Techniques

MOST

Most is a short form of Mission, Objectives, Strategies. It allows business analysts to perform thorough internal analysis of what is the aim of an organization to achieve and how to tackles such issues.

PESTLE

Pestle stands for (Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal, and Environmental). This model helps business analysts to evaluate all the external factors which can possibly impression their organization and determine how to address them.

SWOT

SWOT is a full form of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This technique helps you to find areas of both strength and weakness. It also allows for the proper allocation of resources.

MoSCoW

Must or Should, Could or Would process is a long-form of MosCow. This technique allows prioritization of requirements by presenting a framework in which every individual requirement should be evaluated relative to the others.

CATWOE

CATWOE is an acronym for Customers, Actors, Transformation Process, World View, Owner, and Environmental. This technique helps you to recognize processes that may be affected by any action the business undertakes.

The 5 Whys

This technique is a backbone of both Six Sigma and business analysis techniques. It consists of leading questions that allow business analysts to single out the root cause of an issue by asking why such a situation arises.

Six Thinking Hats

This process helps you to consider alternate perspectives and ideas. The 'six hats' in a technique which his categorized as:

· Green (creative thinking)

· Blue talk about big-picture overview.

· White (logical, data-driven thinking)

· Yellow (positive thinking, which mainly focused on pros)

· Red (emotion-based reactions)

· Black (opposing thinking, which is focused on cons)

Human Resource Planning – Prerequisites:

o There should be a proper linkage between HR plan and organizational plan.

o Top management support is essential.

o Proper balance should be kept between the qualitative and quantitative approaches to HRP.

o Involvement of operating managers is necessary.

o Proper alignment between short-term HR plans and long-term HR plans should be there.

o HR plan should have in-built flexibility in order to adopt environmental uncertainties.

o Time period of HR plan should be appropriate to needs and circumstances of the organization.

Human Resource Planning – Responsibility:

Human resource planning is the responsibility of the personnel department. In this task, it is aided by the industrial engineering department, the top management and the team of directors of different departments. It is mostly a staffing or personnel function.

The overall responsibility lies with the Board of Directors because, as the manpower planning scheme of Hindustan Lever indicates, “these members are in a position to direct the future course of business, set appropriate goals for the management concerned in the formulation of personnel policies.”

The personnel department’s responsibility is “to recommend relevant personnel policies in respect of manpower planning, devise methods of procedure, and determine the quantitative aspects of manpower planning.”

The responsibilities of the personnel department in regard to manpower planning have been stated by Geisler in the following words:

o To assist, counsel and pressurise the operating management to plan and establish objectives;

o To collect and summarise data in total organisation terms and to ensure consistency with long- range objectives and other elements of the total business plan;

o To monitor and measure performance against the plan and keep the top management informed about it; and

o To provide the research necessary for effective manpower and organisational planning.

Human Resource Planning – Benefits:

Human Resource Planning (HRP) anticipates not only the required kind and number of employees but also determines the action plan for all the functions of personnel management.

The major benefits of human resource planning are:

o It checks the corporate plan of the organisation.

o HRP offsets uncertainties and changes to the maximum extent possible and enables the organisation to have right men at right time and in right place.

o It provides scope for advancement and development of employees through training, development, etc.

o It helps to anticipate the cost of salary enhancement, better benefits, etc.

o It helps to anticipate the cost of salary, benefits and all the cost of human resources facilitating the formulation of budgets in an organisation.

o To foresee the need for redundancy and plan to check it or to provide alternative employment in consultation with trade unions, other organisations and government through remodeling organisational, industrial and economic plans.

o To foresee the changes in values, aptitude and attitude of human resources and to change the techniques of interpersonal, management, etc.

o To plan for physical facilities, working conditions and the volume of fringe benefits like canteen, schools, hospitals, conveyance, child care centres, quarters, company stores, etc.

o It gives an idea of type of tests to be used and interview techniques in selection based on the level of skills, qualifications, intelligence, values, etc., of future human resource.

o It causes the development of various sources of human resources to meet the organisational needs.

o It helps to take steps to improve human resource contributions in the form of increased productivity, sales, turnover, etc.

o It facilitates the control of all the functions, operations, contribution and cost of human resources.

Human Resource Planning – Problems:

Though HRP is beneficial to the organisation, employees and trade unions, some problems crop up in the process of HRP.

Important among them are:

1. Resistance by Employers and Employees:

Many employers resist HRP as they think that it increases the cost of manpower as trade unions demand for employees based on the plan, more facilities and benefits including training and development. Further, employers feel that HRP is not necessary as candidates are/will be available as and when required in India due to unemployment situation. Employers’ version may be true about unskilled and clerical staff but it is not true in the case of all other categories as there is shortage for certain categories of human resources.

Trade unions and employees also resist HRP as they view that it increases the workload of employees and prepares programme for securing the human resources mostly from outside. The other reason for their resistance is that HRP aims at controlling the employees through productivity maximisation, etc.

2. Uncertainties:

Uncertainties are quite prominent in human resource practices in India due to absenteeism, seasonal employment, labour turnover, etc. Further, the uncertainties in industrial scene like technological change, marketing conditions also cause uncertainties in human resource management. The uncertainties make the HRP less reliable.

3. Inadequacies of Information System:

Information system regarding human resources has not yet fully developed in Indian industries due to low status given to personnel department and less importance attached to HRP. Further, reliable data and information about the economy, other industries, labour market, trends in human resources, etc., are not available.

Example 1: Every year, numerous candidates are head-hunted by a company, say ABC. At the same time, a considerable number are likely to leave their jobs at ABC for better jobs in other companies, and a few may plan for retirement. If the company’s progress is fairly good, then why do some of the employees consider leaving the company at all? Setting aside the possibility of a few employees wanting to carve out a niche some other place, or a few of them wanting study further, HR statistics still fail to explain why potential candidates would leave a firm that promises growth.

The possible reason for this could be lack of data analysis by HR professionals.

Business analytics (BA), at its very base, works around:

· Fact-based data

· Statistics

· Quantitative Analysis

· Business modeling

· Data Investigation

BA, thus, strives to find a reason behind the success or failure of a business, by concentrating on data analysis. It helps derive optimum solutions for future business planning and gives an insight into effective decision-making.
HR managers with a good sense of business analytics will need to use business models and various data interpretation techniques to understand the changing culture of the present-day workforce. At a fundamental level, an organization’s HR oversees the following functions:

The number of departments in the company and their individual functions
The workforce required at the departmental level, for effective performance
The requirement for training modules and related procedures
The total investment – in terms of time and capital, that goes to enhance the workforce and their skill sets.

Example 2: You want to see which employee is likely to have the best performance.

HR can analyze the performance of the employees and gauge which employee(s) should be awarded for their outstanding performances, with the help of various metrics. BA can help them predict on the basis of historical information, which employees are probable to perform better. The above points are suggestive of the statement that an effective HR strategy adds value to the organization; that is to say, it is up to the HR professionals to analyze what kind of workforce will contribute their expertise to the organization and what percentage of the workforce is likely to prohibit the firm’s growth. And undoubtedly, this can be achieved through a combination of business acumen and HR knowledge.
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Thus, an HR professional can make use of the principles and methodologies of business analytics to list down, analyze, verify, investigate, and interpret the data he has in hand. Further investigation is likely to reveal repetitive trends, and a good HR manager must spot it immediately. Once a pattern has been identified, it is easier to spot the underlying problem and then come up with a suitable, optimized solution.