THE IMPACT OF HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT PLANNING ON ORGANIZATION PERFORMANCE IN ACCESS BANK, LAGOS STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Organizations are formed by people and the same people are the most important strategic resource in the organization, there is no organization that can achieve its objectives without people and are seeking to create much competition between them, taking more market, more customers, more sales, etc. Rapid changes stems from globalization, advancement of information systems and other factors have caused higher competition. Most organizations are driven by the market to set their goals such as cost reduction, achieving sales levels, increasing the number of customers, increasing the market percentage, improving productivity and quality, innovative products in their performance. The realization of these goals will be achieved through the human resources management in organizations. Workforce, as the key to success, will enable the achievement of organizational performance (Luftim, 2014). Human resources are regarded as one of the most important resources of today's firms. Human resources management is more important than other competitive resources because these people use other assets in organization, create competitiveness and realize objectives. Thus firstly, organizations must understand the expectations of their workforce in order to achieve the desired performance. The realization of the expectations of employees will enable the desired behaviour of employees in the organization. Some of the desired outcomes of the organization in managing their workforce are: competence, cooperation of employees with managers, cooperation of employees between them, showing the capabilities of employees; motivation, commitment and satisfaction; attitude and presence; employee behaviours (Luftim, 2014). Human resources of a company is said to be one of the important capital is playing such an important role in the operation of an organization. Pfeffer (2010) argued that human capital has long been held to be a critical resource in most firms. Organizations are now trying to add value to their human resources and (HR) department which has been set up in order to manage their human capital, whereas organization in last decade, managed their human capital through personnel department which is only a small division of the company. Human Resource Planning may be seen in its entirety as an effort to anticipate the future of the organization and to provide personnel to fulfil that organization and to satisfy customer’s demands. According to Bulla and Scott (2010) Human resource planning is “the process of ensuring that human resource requirements of an organization are identified and plans are made for satisfying those requirements”. This view suggests several specific, interrelations activities that constitute HRP together with personnel inventory, human resource process, action plan, control and evaluation. Human Resource Planning is also the personnel process that attempt to provide adequate HR to achieve future organizational objectives which also includes forecasting future needs for employees of various types, thereby comparing these needs with the present workforce and determining the numbers and types of employees to be recruited or fazed out of the organization’s employment group (Harvey & Bowin, 2009). In order to gain competitive advantage over the competitors, Gould (2008) explained that different advantageous ways are found out using strategic human resource functions, thus showing that these functions play a critical role in making a company competitive. Biles (2011) elaborated that organization’s ability to achieve strategic objectives is discriminated by its human resource in following three ways: cost economics, capacity for effective operations, ability to take new enterprise and change the operations. The total goal of performance appraisal is to create a culture as high performance in which individuals and teams to take responsibility for the continuous improvement of business processes and their skills and contribute in achieving the targets set by managers. The organizational performance variables included features such as product quality, customer satisfaction, new product development, ability to attract employees, ability to retain employees, and relationship between management and employees. The ultimate goal of a business organization is higher financial performance or maximization of wealth for stake holders (Becker & Huselid, 2009). Organizational performance is indicated by effectiveness generally (whether an organization can achieve its objectives), efficiency (whether an organization uses resources properly), satisfaction of employees and customers, innovation, quality of products or services, and ability to maintain a unique human pool (Delaney & Huselid, 2009; Katou & Budhwar, 2007). It is further opined that there are three key directions that have been identified to assist government in managing the workforce changes. The directions are building the organization’s potential, strengthening its competitiveness, and renewing its workforce. It is averred that, when workforce and strategic objectives are aligned, they guarantee the delivery of quality programs and services to the public since the planning would essentially assist in positioning the public service for the future. Though most of the studies have been conducted in the western world, it is now well established that HR practices have significant impact on productivity, corporate financial performance, and employee turnover (Huselid, 2014). Pollitt (2016) in his research found that the human resources management  practices of Nokia played vital role in helping the company in reaching its 40% percent share of the global handset market, and industry leading profit margins of 20% - 25% at a time of unmatched change and competition. Singh (2016) in a study on 82 Indian firms observed that HR practices such as training and compensation had significant impact on perceived organizational performance. Therefore, this study is intended to examine the impact of human resource planning on organizational performance in Access Bank Nigeria.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

In Nigeria, the dynamic changes in the Nigerian banking sector have made players in all sectors to re-strategize business organization. The operation of the sector is to meet arising bottle necks of bank consolidation, minimizing operating cost, pay and settlement system etc. it create the need for adequate HRM practices through innovation. Many financial institutions today are locked in a serious battle for market share and market leadership, but firms that are more innovative are likely to lead the way in this fierce competition in the industry.  An increase in the performance of a firm is a competitive advantage over its rivals, and this can be realized through human resource planning. HRP policies however have not been beneficially successful in attaining its predetermined objectives as organizations still experience low performance despite HRP practices. This is because proactive HRP in organizations is a challenge as operating, line, or hiring managers are mostly carried away by planning for financial, material, and other resources leaving HRP to chance (Armstrong, 2006; Baron & Armstrong, 2007; Huselid, 2014). Managers sometimes gamble with it by bringing on board individuals that lack the requisite qualification(s), knowledge, talents, abilities, and skills without actually having a blueprint to develop and enhance these HR for the task and duties ahead. In the light of these realities, to enhance optimum performance of organizations; the uncertainties associated with HRP such as labour turnover, absenteeism, seasonal unemployment, market instabilities, and modifications in technology have to be well thought-out in the course of putting HR plans in motion (Huselid, 2014). These uncertainties pose a major challenge to HRP in general in that it limits the managers’ ability to forecast HR needs in particular as it hinders the organization’s much needed strategic actions, with the resultant effect of ineffectiveness, unproductiveness, and unsuccessful goal attainment. This study is therefore intended to proffer viable solutions to these challenges.

1.3 AIMS OF THE STUDY

The major purpose of this study is to examine the impact of human resources management planning on organizational performance. Other general objectives of the study are:

1. To examine the effective utilization and development of human resource planning.

2. To examine the benefits of human resource planning to an organization.

3. To examine the impact of human resource planning on organizational performance.

4. To examine the challenges hindering the implementation of human resource planning in the organization.

5. To examine the relationship between human resource planning and organizational performance.

6. To proffer solutions to the challenges hindering the implementation of human resource planning in the organization.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. How is the effective utilization and development of human resource planning?

2. What are the benefits of human resource planning to an organization?

3. What are the impacts of human resource planning on organizational performance?

4. What are the challenges hindering the implementation of human resource planning in the organization?

5. What is the relationship between human resource planning and organizational performance?

6. What are the possible solutions to the challenges hindering the implementation of human resource planning in the organization?

1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

Hypothesis 1                                              

H0: There is no significant impact of human resources management planning on organizational performance of access bank.

H1: There is a significant impact of human resources management planning on organizational performance of access bank

Hypothesis 2

H0: There is no significant relationship between human resource planning and organizational performance.

H1: There is a significant relationship between human resource planning and organizational performance.

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

From a practical perspective, the findings of this study will be useful to top management and HR managers and practitioners in showing them to design their Human resource management planning in a suitable manner that would improve organizational performance. For the Banking sector the study will show that the sector can guide against the malaise of employee turnover which is highest in the sector. For the government the finding from this study is also significant in its application to the public sector. In situations whereby workers plan to retire they must be adequately replaced. Therefore this study will show the government how human resource management planning helps solve this problem. For society the study will provide a significant framework upon which further studies on Human Resource management planning can be developed.

1.7    SCOPE OF THE STUDY 

The study is based on the impact of human resources management planning on organizational performance, a case study of Access Bank in Lagos State.

1.8 LIMITATION OF STUDY

Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.

1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Human Resource: Are those inherent and special traits as skills, creative abilities, experience, talents, energy, knowledge competence, belief etc. that a person possesses which are needed and put to use by a person or a group of people to achieve set goals and objectives (Stewart, 2010).

Planning: Is the process managers use to identify and select appropriate goals and courses of action of an organization. They resultant plans that come out of planning process details the goals of the organization and specifies how they are intended to be attained. Like people, organizations can not have it all done, so in a scale of preference, they need to determine their pro-rates and concentrate their time, energy, and other resource to release their aims (Stewart, 2010).

Organization: According to Stewart (2010) “organizations are set up to achieve purposes that individuals to achieve on their own organization they provide a means of working with others to achieve goal….like to determine by whoever is in the best position to influence them… A key characteristic of organization is their complexity”. Individuals in organization, depend on each other’s effort through interactions and which enable them work to words the realization of common goal. Laid down structures however fashion out how they relate to others. It can also be define as a group of people identified with shared interest or purposes, example business or school.

Human Resource Planning: Is defined as a rational approach to the effective recruitment, retention, and deployment of people within an organization including, when necessary, arrangements for dismissing staff. It is therefore concerned with the flow of people through and sometimes out of the organization. It is however not a mere numbers game but rather concerned with the optimum deployment of peoples knowledge, skill creative abilities, etc. and hence qualitative and quantitative. Human resource planning has been defined by Denisi and Griffin (2nd Edition) as „the process of forecasting the supply and demand for human resources within an organization and developing action plans for aligning the two‟.