This paper presents a review of human resource planning methods, related techniques, and their effects on cellular manufacturing systems (CMS). In-depth analysis has been conducted through a review of 43 dominant research papers available in the literature. The advantages, limitations, and drawbacks of material transferring methods have been discussed as well. The domains of the examined studies include some of the important problems in staff planning, such as worker assigning, hiring and firing, optimum number of workers, skilled workers, cross-functional experts, worker satisfaction and outsourcing. The results of this study can fill research gaps and clarify many related questions in CMS problems.