Over recent years, in the context of the global financial crisis and economic recession, the demand for and supply of labour have changed. The labour market has moved from being described as 'tight' to being described as 'loose'. A tight labour market is a seller's or jobseeker's market, where organizations find it more difficult to source employees due to high overall national employment levels. On the other hand, a loose labour market is a buyer's or employer's market, where organizations have a large pool of potential and available employees to hire for positions, since jobs are scarce, with jobseekers competing with many others for the same position. A loose labour market, with high unemployment rates, has significant effects on the recruitment of staff, which include: • a significant number of people applying for each vacant position • wages can be reduced • many of the people applying for scarce vacant positions are overqualified. With this context in mind, in this chapter we look at human resource planning (HRP) in organizations and how an organization's human resource plans link in with its overall business strategy and corresponding recruitment strategy. First, we look at the key concepts of the chapter, namely HRP, recruitment and labour flexibility. Next, you will learn more about the different stages in the HRP process. Then we focus on the recruitment aspect. We go on to look at flexible work practices and the different types of labour/workforce flexibility. Finally, we consider legislation in the area of recruitment and flexibility of which you should be aware.