Workforce Planning and Organizational Effectiveness: Perspective from Osun State Civil Servant

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Introduction The workforce is the most important asset in today’s organization. The motive of human resource management is to improve organizational efficiency and effectiveness. The role of the workforce cannot be overlooked in the workplace due to the vital role they play in the organization. The concept of human resource planning or human resources planning is evolving and changing to workforce planning [1]. Workforce planning is critical to effective employee career development as it identifies gaps and surpluses in capabilities and issues of the utilization of talent. During human resource planning, the knowledge, skills, abilities, experience, and characteristics affecting employees’ capabilities for current and future jobs must be identified and prioritized [2]. In the case of Osun State Civil Service, there is a need to articulate and implement a good and strategic human resource planning scheme to bring the best talent out of their employees that can improve organizational effectiveness. Workplace planning may be seen as an effort to anticipate the organization’s future, warrant personnel recruitment to fulfill the organizational objective, and enhance service delivery [3] define workforce planning “as 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 interrelated activities that constitute workforce planning: personnel inventory, human resource process, action plan, control, and evaluation. Workforce planning is also the personnel management practice that provides adequate human talents to achieve future organizational objectives. It includes forecasting future needs for employees of various types, comparing these needs with the present workforce capacity, and determining the numbers and types of employees to be recruited or phased out of the organization’s employment group. Early management thinkers believe that effectiveness is the ultimate measure of managerial and organizational performance [4], that effectiveness is a derivative result of accomplishing the cooperative purpose, which is social and non-personal. He insists that organizations cannot continue to exist without effective workforce planning. Drucker emphasized that society cannot satisfy its desires while barring effectiveness. He posits that “only executive effectiveness can allow this society of ours to harmonize its two needs: the desires of the organization to attain from the individual, the contribution it needs and the need of the character to have corporation serve as his device for accomplishing his purposes” [5]. Workforce planning has had a positive impact on the advancement of many enterprises [6] affirm that decent workforce planning promotes fast talent output towards greater performance results across the diverse departments in an organization. They argued further that human resource practitioners could advise managers on preempted minor problems before they backfire due to the effective implementation of workforce planning. However, one may still wonder why so many organizations are failing even after workforce requirements have been forecasted and recorded. With this question in mind, [7] analyzed human resource planning and its effect on organizational effectiveness. The study’s outcome revealed МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫЙ ОПЫТ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОГО УПРАВЛЕНИЯ 287 Olonade Z.O, Omotoye O.O, Olalemi O.P. RUDN Journal of Public Administration,2023;10(2):286-298 that most staff members of the information services department lack in-depth knowledge of workforce planning; thus, it is not objectively practiced by the senior officers. The study concludes with the organization being proactive in recruiting and retaining employees. The danger of this is what [8] presumes that the more complex organizations become, the more they will be vulnerable to human error. They will not necessarily employ more people but more sophisticated, highly trained managerial and individual workers to occupy staff roles. As a result, the prize of low motivation, turnover, poor productivity, sabotage, and intra-organizational conflict will be higher in such an organization. Therefore, it will become a matter of economic necessity to practice effective workforce planning in the Public sector in Osun state. This paper is organized as follows: the first section of this study focuses on the introduction, problem statement, and hypotheses. The second section deals with a review of related literature, and the third aspect deals with methodology. The fourth section involves results and discussion of findings, while conclusions and recommendations were discussed in the last part of the paper. Statement of the Problem Effectiveness enhances an organization’s service delivery, which can be accomplished through workforce planning. Unfortunately, workforce planning strategies have not been beneficially successful in attaining their predetermined objectives as organizations still experience a lack of effectiveness despite workforce planning practices [9]. Underlining the significance of human resources in the public sector, [10] submit that advanced countries frequently contribute a huge amount of money to plan for their human capital to enhance the effective service delivery of the workers in the public sector. However, governments of developing countries also attach importance to human resources to achieve their national goals [11]. While considering this with a narrower scope to the Nigerian clime, [12] revealed that the reverse is the case in Nigeria, especially in Osun State, where minimal measures are put in place to develop the skills and capacity of the civil servant in the government agencies. This underscores their ability to deliver the needed service to the people effectively. Studies on workforce planning and organizational effectiveness largely focus on manufacturing firms and the private sectors. However, there are scanty archives that document information on workforce planning in Nigerian government agencies, especially in the purview of Osun State civil service, where an instance of workforce planning is genuinely needed to enhance effective service delivery [9; 11-13]. Considering the Osun State civil service, during gathering data for this paper, we discovered that not much research had been done on the impact of workforce planning on organizational effectiveness in the state. This is one of the motivations that informed this research, which aimed to fill the gap in knowledge regarding the impact of workforce planning on organizational effectiveness, especially as it could be beneficial to the state. 288 INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION Олонаде З.О. и др. Вестник РУДН. Серия: Государственное и муниципальное управление. 2023. Т. 10. № 2. С. 286-298 Literature review Conceptualization of Concept This section reviews the concept of workforce planning and organizational effectiveness. Workforce Planning Workforce planning is the activities managers adopt to forecast current and future workforce needs [14]. Workforce planning has been a major issue amongst academia and practitioners in human resource management quite apart from managers in other studies. Workforce planning is how the management determines how an organization should move from the present workforce position to its desired position. [15] viewed workforce planning as the procedure that identifies the number of employees an organization requires in high quality and quantity. This implies that workforce planning is an ongoing regular and structured planning. This planning process confirms that workforces are in the right number as required, i.e., there is neither a surplus of workforce nor a shortage. [16] explained the concept of workforce planning as a process carried out by human resource practitioners to ascertain the accurate number of workforces needed. It is also a method of allocating resources to various departments in the workplace. Therefore, organizations need to know how many workforces are needed to meet present and future business necessities in line with complexities resulting from externalities. This is where workforce planning comes in; it helps determine the right numerical strength of the workforce with the right skills in the right places at the right time needed in the organization [9]. Organizational Effectiveness Organizationaleffectivenessisambiguous, withconflictingideasinanextremely competitive environment [17]. This ambiguity has created a barrier to identifying a clear definition of the term, which has also led to difficulties in evaluating the performance of an organization. Generally, effectiveness is often regarded as doing the right thing. Organizations carry out various processes and routine operations to achieve their objectives, and the achievement of such objectives is deemed to be consistent with developing the organization [18]. Therefore, it is imperative to design measurement standards for organizational performance. [19] contend that organizational effectiveness deals with the perspectives and degree to which an organization “scores high” in all operations, including job involvement and satisfaction, independence, and control. [20] identifies that organizational effectiveness stems from establishing organizational goals and controlling operations to ensure their attainment. This view by [20] relates effectiveness closely to efficiency. It further affirms that organizational effectiveness hinges on the actual results of operations. [21] capture organizational МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫЙ ОПЫТ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОГО УПРАВЛЕНИЯ 289 Olonade Z.O, Omotoye O.O, Olalemi O.P. RUDN Journal of Public Administration,2023;10(2):286-298 effectiveness as the ratio reflecting finances, time, and space incurred during the performance while measuring the organizational activities and the number of resources utilized. Theoretical Review The importance of a theoretical framework in research cannot be overemphasized. A theory is a logical deductive statement consisting of interrelated concepts from which testable propositions can be derived. The theory for the research work was based on the Resource-Based View (RBV) theory. Resource-Based View (RBV) Theory The resource-based view theory (RBV) was put forward by Wernerfelt in 1984 and formalized/popularized by Barney in 1991. It suggests that organizations are heterogeneous (having varying parts) in nature. As a result, they possess diverse (human and non-human) resources. The resource-based view of the firm stresses distinctive and unique resources, especially one that exists within the organization. The resource-based view (RBV) regards the organization as a bundle (or complete package) of resources (In various forms of man, money, material, machine, and measure) and proposes that their elements considerably affect the organization’s competitive advantage and by inference, its increased performance [22; 23]. The most noticeable among these resources are valuable, rare, and difficult for competitors to mimic, such as intellectual capabilities, organization-wide specific knowledge, experiences, skills and aptitudes, abilities, entrepreneurial and market orientation, etc. [22]. In essence, organizations can accumulate core managerial resources, such as knowledge and experiences, entrepreneurial and market orientation, and other intangible assets, and these resources could enable the operating, line, or hiring manager to realize greater operational capability to serve its intended purpose if applied prolifically [23]. The relevance of this theory to the study is explained how workforce planning can impact organizational effectiveness. Thus, the theory addressed and supported the variable workforce plaining. Empirical Review [24] investigated the effect of human resource planning on the organizational performance among the selected hotels in Nigeran. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey research design to collect data from managers, supervisors, and front desk officers in the 15 selected hotels in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. The study found that human resource planning dimensions positively affect organizational performance. A study carried out by [11] examined the impact of human resources planning on organizational effectiveness using the federal public bureau. The study adopted human capital theory as a framework of analysis. The study revealed a significant positive relationship between human resources planning and organizational effectiveness in the public bureau within the study period. 290 INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION Олонаде З.О. и др. Вестник РУДН. Серия: Государственное и муниципальное управление. 2023. Т. 10. № 2. С. 286-298 [25] dogged the influence of workforce planning on firms in the Nairobi Securities Exchange in Kenya. The study underpinned human capital theory and shareholder value maximization theory. A cross-sectional survey and the targeted population of the study constituted all the 68 listed firms. One hundred thirty-six respondents were used as the sample size, and data were collected through a structured questionnaire. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that the nexus between workforce planning and firm performance was positively and statistically significant and rejected the null hypothesis. It was concluded that the type and strategy of the firm, matching skills, and succession planning are the indicators for workforce planning that influence performance of the Nairobi Securities Exchange firms. The study recommended that the organization carry on and sustain workforce planning as it plays a fundamental role in achieving its objectives. [25] examined the influence of human resource planning on the organizational performance of fast food companies in Port Harcourt. Eight-two copies of the questionnaire were distributed to the managers of the ten (10) fastfood restaurants, and only sixty-three (63) questionnaires were returned and analyzed. The study espoused census study techniques, and Product Moment Correlation was used to analyze the hypotheses. The conclusion was drawn from the findings and the discussion. The study recommended that companies introduce human resource planning policies and institutionalize active workforce plans to proactively forecast the actual numerical strength of human resources needs of the organization if the intention is to increase productivity and organizational performance. [7] examines human resource planning and organizational effectiveness analyses. The study results indicated that the staff in the information service department did not have adequate knowledge of human resource planning, and the senior officer did not practice it well. However, it was concluded that the organization actively recruits and retains employees. [25] researched human resource planning practice in managing human resources. The study revealed that HRP is important to the business environment since the increase in the general price of the commodity, weak financial conditions, and effective human resource planning enhance the performance and effectiveness of the organization without excess and with a minimum number workforce in other to save cost. [24] determines the contribution of human resources planning to public institutions’ performance. The major findings show that poor forecasting of HR impacts organization performance as the response from the respondents shows insufficient priority for HRP; there exist many problems during the process of HRP as insufficient top management support, insufficient funds, and a shortage of expertise. The study concluded that Human Resource Planning has a strong relationship with the performance of a particular Institution. Thus effective HRP leads to good performance, and ineffective HRP leads to the poor performance of a particular Institution. МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫЙ ОПЫТ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОГО УПРАВЛЕНИЯ 291 Olonade Z.O, Omotoye O.O, Olalemi O.P. RUDN Journal of Public Administration,2023;10(2):286-298 [25] studied determinants of formal human resource planning that contribute to performance in the telecom sector. The data was collected from top managers, middle-level managers, and the first line HR managers of 50 offices, including head offices and regional offices, of 160 questionnaires, including interviews and open-ended questions based on performance measures and Human Resource Planning. The results from the factor analysis on HRP measures selection, training, and incentives, and the organizational performance measures: job satisfaction, efficiency, employee motivation, and technology constituted significantly and a positive relationship. The study concluded that as modern HR practices are implemented in the telecom sector and companies spend more on human resources, it would lead to high-performance achievement. Hypotheses For the study, the following hypotheses were generated: There is a significant relationship between workforce planning and organizational effectiveness. There is a significant impact of workforce planning on organizational effectiveness. Methodology The research design adopted for this study was a descriptive survey design. The Independent variable was Workforce Planning, while the Dependent variable was Organizational Effectiveness. The target population was all the civil servants working in different Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) in Osun State Civil Service. The report from the office of the Accountable-General of Osun State showed 12 Ministries in the state having Departments and Agencies under them. The population of the civil servants at the time of the study was 11,243. The study adopted a two-stage sampling technique to collect data. Firstly, the purposive sampling technique selected five MDAs with the most workers. These are the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education, Immigration Service, State Universal Basic Education (SUBEB), and Bureau of Planning and Budgeting. They have a total number of 4812 staff representing 42.8 % of the civil servants in the state. Therefore, 5 % of the workforce of the selected MDAs was used to determine the sample size of 246. Secondly, a random sampling technique was used to select the 246 respondents that participated in the study. A total of 240 questionnaires were completely retrieved and utilized for the study. Finally, the researchers developed the instrument used for the study. It was dived into 3 sections. Section A consists of Demographic Information. Section B tagged Workforce Planning Scale, was used to measure the independent variable. It has 20 items. Section C, labeled Organizational Effectiveness Scale, has 15 items. Sections B and C were measured on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from Strongly Agree (5) to Strongly Disagree (1). The tool was validated by Face and Content validity, and the coefficient of Cronbach’s Alpha is 0.86, signifying good reliability. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze the data generated. While 292 INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION Олонаде З.О. и др. Вестник РУДН. Серия: Государственное и муниципальное управление. 2023. Т. 10. № 2. С. 286-298 the demographic information was analyzed using percentages and frequency counts, the hypotheses were tested with Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Linear Regression Analysis. Results and Discussion Socio-demographic Characteristics of the Respondents Table 1 Variable Classification Frequency Percentage % Gender Male 125 52.1 Female 115 47.9 Total 240 100.0 Age Below 30 70 29.2 31-40 65 27.1 41-50 68 28.3 51-60 37 15.4 Total 240 100.0 Marital status Single 80 33.3 Married 154 64.2 Others 6 2.5 Total 240 100.0 Education Qualification Primary Six 21 8.8 GCE/SSCE/NABTEEB 18 7.5 NCE/OND 56 23.3 HND/B.SC/BA 85 35.4 M.SC/MA 58 24.2 PhD 2 0.8 Total 240 100.0 Work experience 0-10 years 132 55.0 11-20 years 89 37.1 31-35 19 7.9 Total 240 100.0 Table 1 above revealed the case summary of the frequency of the respondent’s gender with the valid percentages of their responses. It showed that 240 questionnaires were responded to and retrieved from males with 52.1 %, and 115 questionnaires were МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫЙ ОПЫТ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОГО УПРАВЛЕНИЯ 293 Olonade Z.O, Omotoye O.O, Olalemi O.P. RUDN Journal of Public Administration,2023;10(2):286-298 retrieved from female respondents (representing 47.9 %). This study has 70 (29.2 %) respondents aged 30 years or below. Sixty-five respondents (representing 27.1 %) have ages between 31 and 40 years, 68 respondents (representing 28.3 %) have ages between 41 and 50 years, and the remaining 37 respondents (15.4 %) have ages between 51 and 60 years. According to the table above, the marital status of the respondents and their frequencies are Single 80 (33.3 %), Married 154 (64.2 %), and Divorced 6 (2.5 %). It also revealed that, 21 (8.8 %) respondents have Primary Six Leaving Certificate, 18 (7.5 %) respondents have GCE/SSCE/NABTEB Certificate, 56 (23.3 %) have NCE/ OND, 85 (35.4 %) have HND/BSc/BA, 58 (24.2 %) have MSc/MA degrees and the remaining 2 respondent (0.8 %) has PhD degree. The above table shows that 132 (55.0 %) respondents have 0-10 years of work experience. 89 (37.1 %) have 11-20 years of work experience, and 19 (7.9 %) have 31-35 years of work experience. Test of Hypotheses Research Hypothesis 1: There is a significant relationship between workforce planning and organizational effectiveness. Table 2 Correlation between Workforce Planning and Organizational Effectiveness Workforce Planning Effectiveness Workforce Planning Pearson Correlation 1 .456** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 240 240 Effectiveness Pearson Correlation .456** 1 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 240 240 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). Table 2 above revealed that workforce planning was significantly related to organizational effectiveness [r = 0.456, p<0.05]. This shows a highly significant correlation between workforce planning and organizational effectiveness. Therefore, hypothesis one was supported by the result of the study, and it was subsequently accepted. Thus, it is concluded that workforce planning significantly influences the organizational effectiveness of Osun State Civil Service, Osogbo. Linear Regression Analysis of Workforce Planning on Organizational Effectiveness Table 3 β T R R2 DR2 F df P Variable .465 .216 .213 65.591 1,238 P<.01 Workforce Planning .465 8.099 294 INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION Олонаде З.О. и др. Вестник РУДН. Серия: Государственное и муниципальное управление. 2023. Т. 10. № 2. С. 286-298 Table 3 above revealed a significant contribution of workforce planning to organizational effectiveness in Osun State Civil Service, Osogbo. (β =. 465, t=8.099, p<01, F= 65.591, R2=.216). Therefore, hypothesis two was supported by the result of the study. Thus, the alternative hypothesis, which states a significant impact of workforce planning on organizational effectiveness in Osun State Civil Service, Osogbo, was accepted. Discussion of the Findings The first hypothesis was tested with Pearson Product moment correlation analysis, and the finding showed that workforce planning would significantly influence organizational effectiveness in Osun State Civil Service., Osogbo. Mangwengwende, Chinzara, and Nel in 2011 contended that good workforce planning allows for rapid skills replacement so that departments can continue to function smoothly [6]. Further argued that human resource practitioners can warn managers of minor problems before they turn into major ones due to effective implementation of workforce planning. One may still wonder why so many organizations fail even. However, one workforce requirement has been forecasted and recorded. [22] supported that human resource planning has a strong relationship with the performance of a particular Institution. Thus, effective HRP leads to good performance, and an ineffective HRP leads to the poor performance of a particular institution. It was revealed that workforce planning significantly contributes to organizational effectiveness in Osun State Civil Service, Osogbo. This result agrees with [24], revealing that HRP is important to the business environment. They argue that effective human resource planning enhances performance and effectiveness without excess and saves cost. This result also supports the argument of [25], who found that modern HR practices are implemented in companies that would lead to high-performance achievement. Conclusion and Recommendation Based on the study’s findings, it was concluded that workforce planning would significantly influence the organizational effectiveness of the Civil Servants working in Osun State Civil Service, Osogbo. The study also concluded that Workforce Planning significantly contributes to organizational effectiveness in Osun State Civil Service Osogbo, Osun State. Workforce planning is a major function of HRM, which is measured in terms of the demand and supply of the workforce. Therefore, it can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the workforce of the Osun State Government. The outcome of this research has managerial implications as they inform the directors of government agencies in Osun State of the workforce planning applicable in their agencies and the sustainable ones that may improve the organizational effectiveness and consequently get them listed. Furthermore, the management can use the finding of this study as a reference for policy guidelines on the management МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫЙ ОПЫТ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОГО УПРАВЛЕНИЯ 295 Olonade Z.O, Omotoye O.O, Olalemi O.P. RUDN Journal of Public Administration,2023;10(2):286-298 and control of such agencies or ministries and, therefore, can formulate viable policy documents on workforce planning that effectively address problems faced by the governmental agency Osun State. It is recommended that the Human Resource department of organizations should develop and implement a comprehensive career development training program for the staff. This would make them proactive and resilient and effectively propagate organizational/government policies. The department should have a human resource development plan so that the plans will still be followed no matter the management changes. These plans should be periodically reviewed to adjust to the environmental dynamic. This would overcome the issues of excess staff, which leads to an increase in the cost of labour and the constant changing of directors in the organization.

About the authors

Zaccheaus O. Olonade

Osun State University

Email: zaccheaus.olonade@uniosun.edu.ng
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8815-5677

PhD, Department of Human Resources Development

Oke Bale Street, Area 210001, Osogbo, Nigeria

Oluwatobi O. Omotoye

Teesside University

Author for correspondence.
Email: omotoyetobio95@gmail.com
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6556-8690

International Business School

UK, Campus Heart, Southfield Rd, Middlesbrough TS1 3BX

Oluwatoyin P. Olalemi

Lead City University

Email: olalemitoyin@yahoo.com
PhD Off Oba Otudeko Ave, 200255, Ibadan, Oyo, Nigeria

References