HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING IN LIBRARIES Garvita Jhamb Research Scholar University of Delhi

HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING According to Stainer, Human Resource Planning is a strategy for the requisition, utilization, improvement and preservation of an enterprise’s human resource. It relates to establishing job specifications or the quantitative requirements of jobs determining the number of personnel required and developing sources of manpower. All other aspects of the human resource management like recruitment & selection, induction program, performance appraisal, training & development depends upon effective human resource planning which sets the due course of the effective management.

HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING PROCESS Prediction of the kind and number of human resources needed. After deciding how many human resources would be needed next step is planning job analysis and job description. Each job is analyzed to find out duties to be performed and responsibilities involved. Sources like newspaper advertisements, internet, employment exchange etc. are used to post vacancies to reach out to the people and hence help them to apply for the positions. After receiving an adequate number of applications more desirable candidates are sorted and start the procedure for selection.

Scope   SCOPE In this articles I have presented only human resource planning aspect of the human resource management. Also under this study, eight libraries were taken which are categorised as following: a. Special: National Social Science Documentation Centre and National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources b. Technical: Delhi Technological University and Indian Institute of Technology c. Academic: Delhi University Library and Jawaharlal University Library d. Public: Delhi Public Library and Dayal Singh Library

OBJECTIVES 1. To study the awareness level of LIS professionals towards human resource planning. 2. To compare the practice of human resource planning aspect of human resource management in the four categories of libraries under study: special, technical, academic and public. 3. To find out the problems in human resource planning system of these libraries.

HYPOTHESIS For this study following hypothesis were formulated: 1. Majority of the staff is aware about the procedures of human resource planning. 2. Human resource planning is best followed in the special libraries.

METHODOLOGY A Likert scale questionnaire (comprising 8 questions) was used to obtain responses from the professionals working in the eight libraries (categorized into four). These professionals were holding positions equivalent to or greater than assistant librarian. Total 58 questionnaires were distributed out of which 43 were completed and returned with a response rate of 74.1%. The 5-point Likert scale has been scored as follows: SA =5; A = 4; N=3; D=2; SD=1.

MAJOR FINDINGS 1. Maximum respondents are aware about the HR policies and there is open communication to and from the HR head. The staff of special libraries (NASSDOC & NSL) are most aware. 2. 58.1% of the total respondents disagree with the fact that existing man force strength fully commensurate the sanctioned strength. That means there is less manpower as compared to the number approved. Technical libraries (IIT & DTU) showed highest disagreement followed by public libraries (DPL & DSL)

3. Overall, there is no consensus among the staff of all the libraries that the short run manpower planning is better than the long term planning and that the employee turnover is taken into account while HR planning. Technical libraries (IIT & DTU) show strong disagreement to this. 4. Majority of employees agree that in all the libraries care is taken of reducing the chances of mis-utilization of manpower. Academic (DU & JNU) libraries strongly agree with this statement whereas technical libraries (IIT & DTU) have neutral response. 5. About 69.7% of staff agree that technological changes, professional development and training are considered in every library while HR planning. Highly considered in academic libraries (DU & JNU).

6. 74.2% which shows that all the libraries follow combination of external and internal manpower sourcing by generating manpower internally through HR planning or arranging from external sources. 7. Specific techniques are used for job analysis and 53.4% respondents agree with this except the staff of DTU central library. 8. It was also found through one of the questions that five out of eight libraries professionals get the human resource policy either in print or through the website

This graph shows the agreement and disagreement of staff from all the libraries towards human resource planning process followed in their libraries.

HYPOTHESIS TESTING The first hypothesis “Majority of the staff is aware about the procedures of human resource planning” stands supported as the majority of the respondents (53.5%) agreed to the statement with 69.4% and WAM of 3.5. The second hypothesis “Human resource planning is best followed in the special libraries” stands rejected as the total percentage score obtained by special libraries (NASSDOC & NSL) is 69.5 % with WAM of 3.5 which is less than that obtained by academic libraries (DU & JNU) i.e. 71.8% and 3.6 WAM.

CONCLUSION From the study we can observe that aspects of HRP are quite clear among the employees of all the libraries. The practice of human resource planning is best known by the staff of academic libraries (DU & JNU) followed by special libraries (NASSDOC & NSL). Among the libraries, staff of JNU is having most clear picture of HRP of their library while that of DTU has least clear picture.

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