STRATEGY FOR IMPROVING MANPOWER PLANNING AND UTILIZATION
ABSTRACT
Manpower planning and utilization is very important for effectiveness of the civil service commission and economic growth of Anambra state in particular. Manpower planning and utilization was designed to restructure organizations with incapacitated staff, incompetent human resources and lack of executive capacity etc. The researcher also gave a conceptual framework and review of some related literature that is in line with manpower planning and utilization. Most importantly its objective to the governmental agencies and organizations. In pursuit of the above goals of this study. The researcher distributed and administered questionnaires to the employees of Anambra state civil service commission. The responses from the questionnaires were analyzed using simple percentage and tables for proper clarification. From the analysis and interpretation of the hypotheses, the researcher found out that many problems affected the manpower planning and utilization in civil service of Anambra state. Such as poor coordination among the agencies charged with the responsibility of manpower planning, incompetent professionals and others. Based on these findings, the researcher has made serious recommendation on the best way to restructure the civil service commission for effectiveness and efficiency in their productivity and performance, particularly in Anambra state.
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Given the increasing volatile and complex socio-economic structure of our business organization in Nigeria, two basic factors are crucial for business success: capital and human resources. Capital whether acquired through loans or from private sources, it by far easier to mange, control only when there is qualified and quality human resources. Organizations whether public or private are prone to jeopardy when there is no adequate human resource/manpower planning. It is from the forging premise that the compelling need arises for manpower planning and development as a sine-qua-non for enhanced productivity. Despite the available human/manpower, organizations in Nigeria have not been properly managed nor do the available human resources manage adequately. This calls for strategic ways for improving human resource/manpower planning and its utilization to improving our economy. When organizations are properly managed and are not productive, the economy of the country will be badly affected.
According to 1974 Udoji report and quoted by Oshioneno (2001) the public service must be changed and strengthened to respond effectively to demand of development. They need qualified and skilled and motivated people at the right place and at the right to achieve objectives, to transfer paper plan into actual achievement of all aspect of personnel management, perhaps the most important for us here in Nigeria today is training. It is good to note that civil service has continued to accord appreciable attention to proper strategies for improving manpower planning and staff development. In the wake of the professionalism introduced or reinforced by 188 Civil Service Reform, it was imperative for every job incumbent to possess requisite knowledge, skills and attitudinal tendencies in specific job activity in government service. Accordingly, we are told that in order to improve economy and efficiency and raise the performance standard of employer's to the minimum possible level of proficiency Ministry is to establish, operate and maintain programmes or plans for the training or employees in or under the ministry (FRN,1988). Even government in experiencing serious revenue shortfalls to meet its development objectives, staff rationalization and other downsizing measures, have the consequence of the revenue shortfalls in both the public and private sectors as well as across economic sub-sectors.
Human resource planning, according to Banjiko (1996) can therefore be seen an the overall organization planning process by which the organization tries to ensure that, it has right number of persons and the right kind of people and at the right time, at the right places performing functions which are economically useful and which satisfy the needs of the organization and provide satisfaction for the individual involved. To have the right number and quality of people requires effective strategies for human resource planning and serious managerial and commitment. It is important for the following reasons: First, for any organization to achieve a reasonable degree of success, it is important neither to planned with excess or inadequate manpower. Human resources are always costly to acquire and retain therefore making it economically difficult to justify keeping excess manpower. When we have excess employees, it can cause serious problems for and organization. Also the organization cannot keep or afford to keep too few employees as over-work by the few available employees may retard work progress and lead to a lot of dysfunctional behaviour in the part of employees. Effective strategic manpower planning and its utilization that takes into account the whole arrange of potential planning factor can help to determine the right quality and kind of employees to keep. Second, effective strategies for improving human resource planning can be useful for stabilizing employment level.
Third, the need to cope with possible future changes and competitive forces in both the product and labour markets, in technology and government regulatory requirement call for a realistic and effective human resource planning. The Nigeria public service is the greatest employer of labour in Nigeria. The Civil Service Commission, both at federal and at state level have the responsibility of manpower recruitment, selection and employment. Government programmes and projects are becoming more complex and difficult, thus necessity to plan manpower in order to meet challenges. In order to undertake good strategy for improving manpower planning and utilization in Anambra state, government should through its personnel mangers analyze from time to time to various positions available, anticipate expansion of service and take cognizance of some factors that influence employment in the public sector. Such factors as quota system, political and fiscal policies of government.
In the face of decreasing productivity in public sector, the Obasanjo's administration in 2006 set up body to reform the public sector/service, especially in the employment of only qualified graduates. The Bureau of public service, headed by Mallam EI-Rufai is empowered to revive the public service to ensure effectiveness. The reform will lead to retrenchment of about thirty thousand workers unqualified, imcompetent and dead wood) and the employment, training and development of about one thousand five hundred fresh graduates with first class and secondclass University degree. For effective manpower planning in Anambra state, it must consider the following factors: organizational changes, impending business decision and technology innovations.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Manpower and utilization involves long term development of semi-skilled manpower requirement economy and to plan educational positions and investments in human resource development so as to increase employment opportunities in the future. We must admit the fact that there are major defects in Nigeria's manpower development performance. The mismatch between the supply of and the demand for, trained manpower could have been a problem. The fact that this National Manpower Board "rule thumb" guideline that University enrolment should be shared in ratio of 60: 40 between the science and technology group of discipline have remained persistently unachieved.
Human resource planning and its machinery in Anambra State civil service commission have been infested by several problems such as lack of research on manpower planning and utilization, low response from establishments selected for manpower surveys; lack of up to date and detailed information of the stock of skills available in Anambra, inability to evaluate manpower contents of development projects, lack of guideline to educational planners, little or no issues relating to employment and manpower planning; inability to attract and employ and retain competent professional staff. Use of inefficient estimation techniques, lack of co-ordination between manpower planners and the educational system, the lack of coordination among the agencies charged with the responsibility of human planning.
Could it be the faulty implementation of the federal character principle as a disincentive to excellence, diligence and the development of individual abilities because, it is not based on equal opportunity for every individual. In other words, there is inefficient allocation of manpower resources when based almost exclusively on this geographical origin of the appointees without the relative competence of such opportunities. Manpower planning suffers from inaccuracy as it is difficult to prepare long range forecast accurately. Changes in economic conditions, technology, making conditions and labour force condition tend to make long range forecast unreliable (Nwizu, 2002). Inaccuracies may be attributed to when forecasts from several operating divisions are merely totaled together without a critical scrutiny. The above suggest that there are some problems inherent in the planning and utilization dysfunctional are the focus of this research work.
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
a) To investigate differences resulting among the agencies charged with the responsibility of human planning in Anambra state Civil Service.
b) To find out reasons why little attention is given to the human planning unit and inability to retain competent professional staffs in the state Civil Service Commission.
c) To examine the use of research and survey and its impact in manpower planning and utilization of the Anambra Civil Service Commission.
d) To explore ways of ensuring effective manpower planning and utilization in Anambra state Civil Service Commission.
e) Finally, to find out the effect of manpower planning and utilization in the employee of Anambra state Civil Service Commission.
1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The scope of this research work covers the strategies for improving manpower planning and utilization in Anambra state. It will be restricted within the time frame of years 2003 - 2006 in order to wholistically examined the strategies needed for improving manpower planning and utilization in the Anambra Civil Service Commission.
1.5 HYPOTHESIS
From the statement of problem and objectives of study the following hypothesis were formulated:
1. Incompetent professionals charged with the duty of manpower planning affects the utilization of manpower in Anambra state civil service.
2. Poor coordination among the agencies charged with the responsibility of manpower planning affect the manpower utilization in Anambra State Civil Service.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Manpower planning and utilization has been recognized as critical for the improvement of public service administration. It is through manpower that the resources of an organization are harnessed in order to meet the needs of the organization and the society at large. One of the significance of this study will be creation of awareness about importance of manpower planning and utilization in Anambra State Civil Service. The various ministries and parastatals will become more aware of the nature of manpower planning and utilization and will invariably strive to justify the cost involved.
The study will be relevant, as it will bring to light the various reasons organization embarked on training and staff development programmes. It will highlight the process the various ministries and government agencies should adopt to meet up with the training and development needs of their organization, as well the effect of such programmes on the employees in the organization. On the other hand, the study will serve as a band book on strategies for improving manpower planning and utilization to the ministries and government agencies. Thus, the study will serve as a relevant literature of strategies for improving manpower planning and utilization as it concerns Anambra State Civil Service Nigeria. Finally, the study will also be of immense help to the general society since through manpower planning and utilization productivity is improved and the general society benefit because service have improved.
