The term ‘inventory‘ is often used in relation to counting of tangible objects like raw materials, goods in progress, or finished products, etc. In manpower inventory, the items are intangible.
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It involves cataloguing the characteristics of personnel in the organisation, besides counting their number. Both present and future characteristics of personnel are recorded in the manpower inventory. It involves the following steps:
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1. The first step in manpower inventory is to decide who should form a part of it. Generally, inventory is prepared for persons working on important posts—the executives and some persons from the operative staff are covered in it. From operative staff only those persons are included in inventory who have the potential of taking up higher responsibility posts.
2. After determining the persons to be included in manpower inventory, the second step is to collect information about them. Some information may be collected from records while some may be collected through interview or talks with the concerned persons.
The factual information such as age, experience, education, health, appraisal reports, attitude, etc. will be noted from the records. The brief interviews with persons will help in understanding his caliber, attitude, aspirations, motives, etc.
A summary statement of information is prepared about each person and is kept ready for consultation. The information will help management to find out the suitable persons in the organisation for taking up senior positions in future. This will also enable management to determine whether persons from outside will be required in future or not.
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3. The next step in manpower inventory is to appraise the talent catalogue. The present and future capabilities of persons are assessed. Some scale is prepared for appraising the persons.
Besides appraisal tests, remarks about persons are also given. The remarks may relate to their talent, decision-taking ability, training required, specific limitations, etc. Besides appraisal tests, specific remarks are useful in picking up persons for future positions.
The manpower inventory will enable manager to know the present and future potentialities of all individuals and their suitability for various jobs.