Provide a peer response to your classmate, Kelli's post below. provide in-text citations and references in an APA format. Make sure to only use "Llorens, J. J., Klingner, D. E., & Nalbandian, J. (2017).Public Personnel Management(7th ed.). Taylor and Francis.https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315271255" for the in-text citation and reference.

"Hello class,

Public Personnel Management and Workforce Planning in Public Agencies

Introduction

It is an imperative of human resource management in public organizations as talent integration must be managed to secure the right people to accomplish the organization's mission effectively, at acceptable cost (Berman et al., 2016). Traditional public personnel systems are based on principles designed to ensure stability and equity in the public workforce, while workforce planning represents a long-range strategic framework for ensuring that human capital supports organizational needs (Cascio & Aguinis, 2019). Human resource planning (HRP) and forecasting also link to the budgeting process to facilitate resourcing allocation and control (Noe et al., 2021). This article examines: the assumed premises of traditional public personnel management systems, workforce planning elements with a description and audit of progress in a mid-sized local health department, and HRP's relationship to forecasting and budgeting within public agencies.

Assumptions That Underpin Traditional Public Personnel Management Systems

Traditional public personnel management systems are based on a set of principles designed to create stability, equity and effectiveness in government operations (Mosher, 1982). These systems are based on the presumption that public sector work is primarily related to the service delivery function of government, which results in services provided to citizens under cost recovery arrangements rather than for-profit motives (Perry & Hondeghem, 2008). One such basic element is the concept of the merit principle, which holds that recruitment, advancement and other personnel actions should be based on ability and performance rather than political leanings or personal relationships (Wilson, 1887). A third is around permanent employment, the latter serving to ensure consistency and expert representation in public service (Berman et al., 2016). These systems also assume a centralized and top-down organization in which decisions are cascaded down to ensure control and accountability (Rainey, 2014). Moreover, one must be politically neutral, with public servants expected to serve in a non-partisan capacity without any political preference (Wilson 1887). And, finally, these systems operate as problem-solving organizations which serve public interests by means of formalized procedures (Noe et al., 2021).

Key Elements in Workforce Planning

Workforce planning is a systemic method that links organizational human capital with its strategic objectives, comprising several essential components of understanding the organization's current situation, analyzing future and present employee levels against future requirements, identifying personnel shortages, formulating action plans and tracking results (Cascio & Aguinis, 2019). It involves understanding the organization and its environment, where this includes knowledge of business strategies, external forces such as the state of economy, plus internal goals to provide a framework for planning (Armstrong & Taylor, 2020). In my public health agency, a mid-sized local health department, net progress has been achieved through yearly environmental scans with limited overlaps with larger governmental agendas. The second step comprises evaluation of the existing workforce, where skills, demographics and performance data are examined to identify employee strengths and weaknesses (Noe et al., 2021). My agency has made substantial progress in this area with strong data analytics tools that have been in use for the three years, which allows us to accurately track employee turnover and our skills inventories.'

The third phase is forecasting future workforce requirements, based on predicted workload and strategic plans (Berman et al., 2016). The agency where I work is on the low-end for progress, some simple projections are made but there's no real analytical scenario planning resulting in this year us being short staffed during our busiest parts of the year. The fourth is identifying shortfalls or surpluses in demand vs. supply (in terms of skills, for example) (Jackson et al., 2014). My agency has made several inroads in using gap analysis frameworks but there is unpredictable follow-through on addressing problems because we just don't have the resources.

The fifth element is to build action plans, cover staff recruitment, training and retention strategies over the gaps in plan (Dessler, 2020). My agency is making some good changes with focused training being introduced lately, though the budget for all agencies prevents full rollout.

Last in the process is plan execution and control, implementing plans and following up strategies and activities Not only is this step about performing what was planned but also measuring results (Armstrong & Taylor, 2020). Here, there has been little for my firm to do aside from ad hoc rather than continuous heath checks with the response getting adjusted after some time. For instance, during a recent reorganization at my agency in response to a public health crisis, I led a team to assess the expertise of our current workforce relative to digital health and uncover gaps. Those lessons learned through this practiced experience indicate PR shortage planning and lack of a fence around staffing needs created mid crisis hiring, and the importance of understanding all these elements need to be combined to avoid customer care disruptions (Noe et al., 2021).

Relationship Between HRP and Forecasting in Public Agencies and the Budgetary Process

Human resource planning (HRP) and forecasting in public organizations is closely directly associated with the budgetary process because they provide the information that supports and appropriates financial resources for staffs (Berman et al., 2016). HRP is concerned with effective evaluation of present and future manpower requirements, forecasting involves anticipation of workforce needs based on changing demographics or legislations (Cascio & Aguinis, 2019). These streams create budget requests based on salary, medical benefits, training and recruitment costs that meet fiscal constraints of legislated appropriations (Jackson et al., 2014). Public agency budgets tend to be zero-based or incremental, forcing HRP to show how its investments in people contribute to organizational objectives and efficiency (Dessler, 2020). Conversely, budget constraints impact HRP through hiring freezes or redeploying people, which highlights the importance of forecasting so that scenario planning can identify a situation where funding required positions will not suffer (Armstrong & Taylor, 2020). This nexus enhances fiscal responsibility, as faulty predictions can lead to budget over expenditure or inadequate service provision (Noe et al., 2021).

Reference:

"Llorens, J. J., Klingner, D. E., & Nalbandian, J. (2017).Public Personnel Management(7th ed.). Taylor and Francis.https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315271255"