HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

What is Human Resource Development (HRD) ?

The field of HRD or Human Resource Development encompasses several aspects of enabling and empowering human resources in organization. Whereas earlier HRD was denoted as managing people in organizations with emphasis on payroll, training and other functions that were designed to keep employees happy, the current line of management thought focuses on empowering and enabling them to become employees capable of fulfilling their aspirations and actualizing their potential. This shift in the way human resources are treated has come about due to the prevailing notion that human resources are sources of competitive advantage and not merely employees fulfilling their job responsibilities. The point here is that the current paradigm in HRD treats employees as value creators and assets based on the RBV or the Resource Based View of the firm that has emerged in the SHRM (Strategic Human Resource Management) field.

The field of HRD spans several functions across the organization starting with employee recruitment and training, appraisals and payroll and extending to the recreational and motivational aspects of employee development.

Indeed, one reason for the emergence of the RBV or the SHRM paradigm is that with the advent of the service sector and the greater proportion of companies in the service sector, employees are not merely a factor of production like land, labor and capital but in fact, they are sources of competitive advantage. This is characterized by many CEO’s calling employees their chief assets and valuing their contribution accordingly. As a matter of fact, many IT and Financial Services companies routinely refer to employees as the value creators and value enhancers rather than just resources doing their job.

What this has meant is that the field of HRD has become prominent and important for organizations and has morphed into a function that takes its place among other support functions in organizations and indeed, it is the main driver of competitive advantage. Further, the field of HRD now has taken on a role that goes beyond employee satisfaction and instead, the focus now is on ensuring that employees are delighted with the working conditions and perform their jobs according to their latent potential which is brought to the fore. This has resulted in the HRD manager and the employees of the HRD department becoming partners in the organization’s progress instead of just yet another line function. Further, the HR managers now routinely interact with the functional managers and the people managers to ensure high levels of job satisfaction and fulfillment. The category of people managers is a role that has been created in many multinational companies like Fidelity and IBM to specifically look into the personality related aspects of employees and to ensure that they bring the best to the table.

Finally, HRD is no longer just about payroll or timekeeping and leave tracking. On the other hand, directors of HRD in companies like Infosys are much sought after for their inputs into the whole range of activities spanning the function and they are expected to add value rather than just consume resources. With this introduction, we will be moving into the module covering HRD with each aspect of the HRD function and the associated topics being covered here. It is hoped that the readers would gain an overall perspective about HRD after going through the HRD module.

Role of HRD in Facilitating Learning in the Organization

Learning encompasses a wide variety of terms and concepts. This article looks at the meaning of learning in an organizational context. The key point to note about learning in an organizational context is that unless employees continually learn and pick up skills, they would be left behind as well as eroding organizational competitiveness. Especially in the technology and financial sector, learning is a continuous process that ought to take precedence over other aspects since technology keeps changing every now and then. The point here is that unless employees learn and their learning is facilitated by the HRD function, the organizations would fall behind in the race for competitiveness. Hence, the HRD function has a pivotal role in facilitating learning in the organizational context. Learning can be on the job or through training. On the job learning is mostly from peers and colleagues and is accomplished by the employees doing shared work that would make them pick up new skills and traits in the workplace

Often, many companies encourage teamwork and collaboration so as to foster a culture of learning and cooperation along with collaboration. In the contemporary context, companies like 3M are said to be examples of true learning organizations where the organizational culture is geared towards making employees learn new skills and attributes on the job. The point here is that organizations and the HRD function must enable learning to take place and ensure that employees learn on the job.

The next aspect to learning is that the HRD function must conduct periodic trainings in technical skills as well as soft skills so as to familiarize their employees with the latest technologies and concepts in the management sciences. Further, soft skills trainings need to be imparted as a means of ensuring that employees are at the forefront of leadership challenges and achieve success through fulfillment and actualization. In many multinationals like Fidelity and IBM, each employee is given a certain number of hours as training so as to enable them to do better and be at the cutting edge of technology and soft skills. Further, learning is a process that continues at all levels and hence the HRD function must make use of the knowledge that is available at all levels and impart it to the employees.

This can be done through interactions between the middle management and the senior management where the senior management shares their knowledge and experiences with the managers and helps them grow as individuals and empowers them in an organizational sense. Learning is a process that is a combination of drive within the individual and catalyzed by external agents. Hence, employees must have the urge to learn and this must be encouraged by the managers and the HRD function. The point here is that there should not be any holding back of knowledge and expertise either from the learner or the imparter.

Finally, the best learning happens when employees discover the insights for themselves. Hence, all efforts of the HRD function must be geared towards ensuring that employees ignite the spark of creativity and stimulate their thirst for learning. In conclusion, learning organizations thrive amidst turbulence and uncertainty and hence, all efforts must be made to ensure that employees and the organizations grow together.

Linking Training Programs with Organizational Goals

It is the practice in many organizations to conduct training programs periodically for their employees. Often, these training programs are conducted to enhance on the job skills and to enable the employees to pick up valuable soft skills. Further, the training programs can be technical/job oriented or human resource skills oriented. For instance, it is common in technology companies and especially the big companies to provide a mandatory portion of training measured in hours per quarter for each employee. What these points add up to is the fact that organizational training is taken seriously in many companies. However, an aspect that is often sidelined is the effectiveness of the training programs and their linkage to organizational goals. This aspect makes the training programs lose their purpose and drains precious resources as well as waste of employee time that could have been used productively.

To surmount this, organizations need to link training programs to Specific, Measurable, and Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound goals or the so-called SMART goals that is a proven method for ensuring that organizational goals are met. To explain, training programs have to be aimed at specific goals like training on a particular skill (technical or soft skill).

Conducting trainings on omnibus topics like leadership without focus on specific goals would render them useless. Next, the outputs from the training programs have to be measurable meaning that an exit test must be held at the end of the training program to assess the impact of the training program on employees. Further, the training programs have to have realistic goals like quantum jumps in skills and not aim for drastic improvements to the skill levels of the employee. The point here is that this focused approach to training pays off better than conducting trainings where the employees think more about what to do when they head back to their desks or are distracted by too many concepts being thrown at them.

Finally, training programs are time bound as mentioned earlier. This means that employees have to be trained periodically so that they retain their competitiveness and their edge and not become obtuse or blunted in their job. The reason for alluding to the SMART goals is that this tool has been proved to be effective in ensuring that organizational goals are linked to training programs and that the training programs are not vague or unconnected to the big picture. In some companies, it is common for employees to be trained offsite on experiential and exercise based training which involves physical activity. However, one should not miss the forest for the trees (literally as many of these experiential trainings happen in resorts in wooded and outskirts) and lose track of the larger goals for which the employees are being trained. The point here is that the SMART goals must be applied here as well with emphasis on focused approach to organizational goals to be derived from the training.

In conclusion, trainings that are done without purpose or focus end up wasting the employees’ time as well as drain of organizational resources. Hence, the aim that the HRD must strive for is to maximize the effectiveness of the training programs and increase the gains from such training.

Implementation of Training Programs and Their Evaluation

Many organizations have extensive training programs that cover all aspects of technical and soft skills. These trainings are conducted in such a way that employees get a mandatory number of hours of training every quarter or year. This is done to ensure that employees are enabled to perform their job duties to their potential. However, an aspect that needs elaboration is that more often than not, the training programs need to be implemented according to a rational consideration of training needs and moreover these training programs need to be evaluated for assessing their effectiveness. The point here is that training programs are conducted often without a clear articulation of training needs as well as not being implemented according to a set pattern.

So, there are two aspects to training programs and they are to do with clear plan for implementation as well as potential evaluation of their effectiveness. To take the first aspect, training programs need to be implemented according to a careful consideration of training needs and the right training partners and the vendors have to be selected. This means that training programs are to be based according to the needs of the organization and not simply because there is a need for training to fill the mandatory number of hours.Apart from this, training programs need to be implemented based on a calendar that is drawn up taking into account the availability of participants. It is often the case that training programs are implemented without securing approvals from all the departments and divisions which mean that many potential participants would be unable to attend because they are busy with their work.

The second aspect that needs to be considered is the evaluation of the effectiveness of the training programs that needs to be done based on how well the participants absorb the lessons and improve their skills. This can be done by conducting exit tests and other forms of assessment like presentation of case studies. These would help the trainers as well as the HRD department understand how well the training program succeeded in imparting knowledge and enhancing the skills of the participants. This is one way of ensuring that training is done that is pointed and focused and something which the participants would take seriously as well. There are many instances of training programs where the participants idle away their time and this has to be avoided and curbed as far as possible.

Finally, training programs need to be conducted in organizations with a clear focus on linking them to organizational goals, selecting the right vendors, choosing a time that is convenient to all participants or at least a majority of them, publishing the training calendar in advance and most importantly, evaluating the effectiveness of the training programs by conducting exit tests and presentations to ensure that the lessons have been well received.

In conclusion, it is not enough for HRD personnel to announce training programs and leave the rest to the trainers and participants. Instead, they need to play a proactive role in ensuring the success of the training programs by following these points that have been discussed here.

Personality - As a Key Concept in Human Resource Development (HRD)

Personality and personality development are one of the key concepts in HRD. By personality, we mean the traits and characteristics that make up an individual’s psyche and determine how he or she interacts with their environment. Personality is determined by a number of factors including the traits that one is endowed with as a result of genetic factors and characteristics that have been developed due to his or her interactions with the environment. This is the variation of the so-called nature vs. nurture debate that revolves around whether an individual’s personality is determined because of genes or whether the personality is a product of the environment. Without going into the specifics of the debate, it would suffice to say here that personality is a product of both characteristics that have been acquired as well as some natural abilities. The point here is that all of us are good at something and hence it is up to each one of us to select the profession or calling that suits us best.

Continuing in the same vein, some individuals have higher IQ levels whereas others have higher EQ levels (IQ refers to Intelligence Quotient and EQ refers to Emotional Intelligence Quotient). Further, we usually fare well at some tasks and not that well at other tasks. Hence, the aspect that should determine which profession or role in an organization suits us should be done according to our determination of which role suits us better.The HRD function has a crucial role to play in matching individuals traits with job roles and determining whether an individual’s personality attributes measure up to the requirements of the job that he or she is expected to do. This is the aspect of the skills and job description matrix where at the time of hiring, the HRD function maps the individual’s skills against the traits necessary for the job and then assigns the individual to the role accordingly.

Further, personality is a function of the environment and is determined according to a “social mirror” where each of us are molded and shaped by the environmental influences. In turn, our personality determines how the environment is shaped. So, this symbiotic relationship between an individual’s personality and the environment determines to a great extent whether the relationship between the individual and the environment is smooth or is characterized by friction. In many technology and financial services companies where personality is important for the success of the individual in the chosen role, managers and people managers often spend a great deal of time with the employees to assess the “fit” between the individual and the job. They are assisted by the HRD function in this endeavor where the individual is deemed suitable for some roles and unsuitable for other roles. Only when there is a determination of the strategic fit between the individual and the role can there be job fulfillment and job satisfaction. Indeed, employees are consulted during their appraisals and 1:1 with the managers to determine this fit.

Finally, as discussed elsewhere, there is no point in having the right person for the wrong job and the wrong person for the right job. Hence, there has to be a rational assessment of the fit and then only can organizations achieve the balance that is needed for optimal performance.