Chapter 4

Question 1

What is HR forecasting?

Answer 1

A way of determining the net requirement for human capital by assessing the demand and supply of Human Resources

Question 2

What are the main advantages of HR forecasting?

Answer 2

-reducing HR costs
- increase organizational flexibility
- ensuring a close linkage to macro business forecasting process

Question 3

What is human capital theory?

Answer 3

It takes time for investments in human capital to produce financial or productivity based returns

Question 4

Generic human capital

Answer 4

Competencies and KSAOs that are held by individual employees and valuable to any company (so they are priced in the labour market)

Question 5

Firm specific human capital

Answer 5

Competencies and KSAOs employees possess through mentorship and/or experience at a company

Question 6

Human capital flow

Answer 6

Change in stock of human capital over time

Question 7

What is strategic forecasting?

Answer 7

Concept: human capital needs flow from how to solve the businesses problem

Question 8

Human capital requirement categories

Answer 8

• specialist/technical/ professional workers
• employment equity (designated group membership)
• managers and executives
• recruits

Question 9

Specialist/ technical/ professional workers

Answer 9

In high demand or require lots of training
-hard to plan for supply and demand of these workers

Question 10

Employment equity - designated group membership

Answer 10

Underrepresented groups

Question 11

Four designated groups for employment equity?

Answer 11

• people of aboriginal descent
• women
• persons with disabilities
• members of visible minorities

Question 12

Managers and executives

Answer 12

Hard to find ones that can make a positive impact on an org

Question 13

Recruits

Answer 13

Important for bringing new ideas and trends to the org

Question 14

Forecasting process

Answer 14

1 determine staffing needs by skills, skill levels, or jobs
2 perform analyses to determine number of required employees
3. create a budget to determine cost for fulfilling stated org requirements
4. Put HR programs into place to meet supply and demand requirements

Question 15

Categories of forecasting methods

Answer 15

• Survey the business line for anticipated needs
• norm based rules
• time series and regression based models
• mathematical and economical models
• qualitative models

Question 16

Types of forecasting horizons

Answer 16

• current forecast: forecast used to meet the immediate needs of an org
• short term forecast: 1-2 years beyond current forecast
• medium run forecast: 2-5 years beyond current forecast
• long run forecast: 5+ years beyond current forecast

Question 17

Forecast horizon predictions

Answer 17

Single numerical estimate of HR requirements for a specific horizon and set of assumptions

Question 18

Forecast horizon projection

Answer 18

Several HR estimates based on a variety of assumptions

Question 19

Forecast Envelope

Answer 19

Range of plausible values of a prediction based on a given set of assumptions

Question 20

Forecast Scenarios

Answer 20

Proposed sequence of events with their own assumptions and program details
- tend to be alternative scenarios as well

Question 21

Contingency planning

Answer 21

Plans to be implemented when severe changes to org or enviro factors render existing HR forecasting moot