What is Human Resource Development?
Human Resource Development (HRD) by definition is both a field of discipline and a professional field of practice. In practice, it is a process within the organization that encompasses Training and Development (TD) and Organization Development (OD). Training and Development refers to the harnessing of human expertise in order to improve performance, and Organization Development refers to the empowering of the organization so that it can take advantage of its human capital. TD when alone, can result in untapped human knowledge and skills. OD alone, on the other hand, can result in an oppressed and frustrated workforce. Thus, it is the aim of HRD to make TD and OD fit together with each other in order to provide a strong foundation for the workforce. As such, it seeks to improve or develop and deliver expertise to enhance the performance of individuals in their jobs, team and organizational process in a given organization. To accomplish this, there are three areas on which Human Resource Development training is focused, namely; the improvement of human relations within the workplace, improvement of work processes, and systematic performance-based training. These three areas correspond to the core beliefs of HRD as a discipline which will be discussed below.
The Core Beliefs of Human Resources Development
As a discipline, Human Resources Development has some core beliefs that serve as the nucleus by which all its efforts revolve and take its bearing. They are in the center of HRD:
- Organizations, no matter the size, are all human created entities that are dependent upon human expertise to institute and accomplish goals. This means that humans are assets that need to be taken care of and their expertise harnessed and not just things to be exploited. How they accomplish their goals in the organization is dependent on how their expertise is maximized during their career.
- HRD processes can and will develop and maximize human expertise to benefit both the sponsoring organization and the individual involved both for the short and long duration. The maximization of human expertise is geared not only to benefit the organization but for the person him/herself. It should seek to improve his/her value as a human being.
- HRD professionals are persons supporting the idea of individual, groups and work processes, and organizational integrity. From the previous core beliefs, it can be said that those who are working as HRD professionals are persons who believe and have a strong sense of integrity.
Human Resource Training and Development – The Key to Employee Retention
As an application of the core beliefs that is in the centre of HRD, a practical guide is herein provided to tackle a problem that plagues almost every company in the world today; and that is how to retain employees.
One of the many problems in an organization is the fact that they seem to have a hard time retaining employees. The reason behind this is varied, but the core of the matter is employees cease to experience growth in a given organization. Today, organizations have to find a way to solve this problem because it is expensive to train an employee and just lose him/her before they are able to get a return on investment (ROI). Through training and development, organizations can keep their employees motivated because the employees will sense that they are growing as individuals in the organization. Here’s how:
- Provide higher responsibilities by expanding the job. This way, the employee will learn new things and will experience growth. This is a very effective way to ditch boredom because the job will cease to be a routine.
- Be mindful of people’s strength and weaknesses. If you can sense that an employee is not effective with the current job description, reassign it to someone else and let that employee do what he/she does best instead.
- Allow the employee to self-manage and make independent decisions. You can do this by giving more authority. This will give the employee a sense that he/she is being trusted and valued and this is a very good self-esteem booster.
- Invite the employee to contribute inputs when planning and making a company-wide council. This will give the employee a sense of importance because you are sending the message that their ideas matter to you.
- Another way to make an employee feel important is to provide him/her with a bank of information. You can do this by making him/her join specific mailing lists geared towards a certain aspect in the organization. As your confidence in the person grows, you can even let him join in some company briefings.
- Let the employee establish some goals or milestones and ask him/her to create a report of his/her accomplishment. This will give him/her the idea that you are interested in his/her productivity.
- To keep the employee growing, let him/her train with other roles and responsibilities within the organization. You can allow him/her to train others so that he/she can impart the skills that he/she has acquired.
Training and Development is key in the core beliefs of HRD and is the key to employee retention. If an organization does not have good retention, then it is wasting its own resources in initially developing its employees while risking losing them without getting a return on investment.
Human Resource Management and Education – How to Get a Steady Supply of Human Resource
International organizations and even local ones are in need of a steady supply of qualified workforce. With the changing times, the mode of productions also changes. This means that there is a need for a new breed of workers. If the need is not met, organizations will be crippled. Now comes the question; are those who supply human resources, that is, those who are educating the workforce, also receiving excellent education so that they are qualified for the task?
It is difficult, in fact its impossible, to separate education from Human Resource Development because without it, what you get is a workforce that’s inept for the demands of the new economy. So in order to meet the demands of globalization, Human Resource Management must work hand in hand with education in a two-pronged endeavor:
1. Ensure that the supplier of the workforce are qualified
Since there is a demand for a qualified workforce, those who will train them must be qualified as well. You cannot expect to produce a good product if those who will train them are not good themselves. To accomplish this, those who are in the education sector, i.e., the teachers, ideally, must have the highest level of preparation.
2. Ensure that the product that the suppliers have produced are of good quality
To ensure that the products of those who are teaching must be qualified for the modern workforce, not only should the teachers be qualified, but the products should be tested also for quality. This means that there has to be a standard to test the capability of the human resource.
This two-pronged endeavor will ensure that a steady supply of qualified workers will flow towards the organizations and serve with the necessary skills in order to meet the demands of the modern economy. This will lead us to the next principle which is Skills Development.
The Importance of Human Resources and Skills Development
The success of the organization depends basically on how skillful the human resources are in performing the business processes. This is the reason why in selecting employees, skills are said to be the primary criteria that should be met. Although a college degree may teach a person some basic skills, there are a lot of things that are not taught in the classroom but are learned within the organization. This being the case, bear in mind that skills development is a lifetime endeavor and as such, we have to keep an open mind and learn new tricks, so to speak. Here are some important skills that one needs to develop:
1. Leadership skills
Leadership is the ability to mobilize people and make them accomplish their tasks even when they are not inclined to do so. Humans as we are, we need leaders and managers that can show us how to proceed in a given situation and show the way so that goals are met. Without leaders, the organization will scatter, accomplish nothing, and waste the resources of the organization.
2. Analysis skills
Analysis skills are the ability to gather information and synthesize and analyze it in order to produce a factual view that would be beneficial to the organization. This is a very important skill that one must possess upon joining an organization.
3. Planning skills
In the organization, the ability to develop or conceive and implement the right strategy is very important. This is so because the accomplishment of both short-term and long-term strategic goals is very important in the long-term survival of the organization.
4. The ability to execute
The ability to take the right course of action that is consistent with the plans of the organization is vital for it to become successful. This ability to make things happen is important because the company or organization cannot just afford to be paralyzed in the planning stage.
5. The ability to evaluate and measure
Having the ability to evaluate and measure is very important if the organization is to move in a careful and sure manner. If the organization will just implement any plan that they can get their hands on, it is courting disaster.
6. The ability to create partners
As the saying goes, ‘no man is an island’ is true for individuals, the same can be said to be true for organizations. The ability to create partners is vital because every organization needs what the other can offer. This means that a good Public Relations(PR) is essential in order to reach out to other organizations and individuals.
The success of the organization depends basically on how skillful the human resources are in performing the business processes, and these skill sets that are laid down here are important in the long-term survival of an organization. In terms of skills development, these skills should be present upon the selection of employees and must be imparted during their tenure in the organization. This will benefit not only the organization but the employee as well; a principle that is consistent with HRD.
The Importance of Human Resources Leadership Development
The Importance of Human Resources Leadership Development
As already mentioned above, leadership skills are very important for a person to possess. A few years ago, unsuspecting would-be leaders could afford to learn by trial and error; not so today. Today, with the advent of modern technology that drives the new economy like a roller coaster, would-be leaders must have the necessary skills to get going and must acquire new skills during their tenure in the company.
A company that will invest in a sound leadership development program will definitely experience an enhanced quality of leadership. The direct effect of this is that the commitment and capability of the employees are positively affected. When this happens, the acquisition and retention of customers will also improve. When customer acquisition and retention is improved, this will have a positive impact not only on profit, but also with market shares and shareholder value. There is therefore a case for building a sound leadership development program. This being the case, here are some of the elements of a sound leadership development program:
1. Executive sponsorship
If you want your leadership development program to succeed, you have to have executive sponsorship. The reason behind this is that if you involve top leaders or masters in your organization, the program will have the legitimacy that it needs. If your program has executive backing, it will have the potential to achieve its maximum impact because it will become an organizational priority and the top leaders would want to get involved in crafting it.
2. Identification of talents
Once your leadership development program has attained top leadership backing, you have to spot those who have leadership talents and tap into them. You will be wasting time and resources if you indiscriminately train and include those who have no leadership propensities.
3. Sound development programming
Although there are a host of leadership development options, the company should decide which one should fit their need. They must establish prescriptive choices about the programming of the leadership development that they will offer to the individuals selected.
4. Program tracking
The program that you have developed should be tracked and checked if it is effective or not. There are a host of leadership development options that a company can follow, and you can even devise your own, but if what you have doesn’t work, then you should be ready to ditch it out in favor of something that will. Make sure that you’ve made a good review of the program before making any decision.
The commitment and performance of employees in an organization is dependent on the leadership that is backing it up. That is why, if you want to improve organizational performance, you have to invest in a systematic program of leadership development.
The Human Resources Development Principles as Applied in Different Organizations
In this section we are going to look at some examples of how HRD principles are applied in different areas of ministry. Let us look at how it is applied in the government sector by looking at The Human Resources Development Canada, a department in the Canadian government. Next we will look at how HRD principles are applied in the non-profit sector like Resources for Human Development. This organization is a kind of behind-the-scene workforce in the area of human resources. Lastly, we are going to look at recent developments in HRD research by looking at a peer-reviewed scholarly journal, Human Resource Development Quarterly. With this we can see that as a field of study, HRD is alive and well.
The Human Resources Development Canada – An Example of HRD in the Government
The government has the strong potential to advance HRD goals. For one thing, they have the resources and the power to impose a policy regarding the advancement of these goals. A good example of how HRD is applied in the government is with the Human Resources Development Canada.
The Human Resources Development Canada is a now dissolved department of the Canadian Government and was created by Prime Minister Kim Campbell in 1993. This was his attempt to downsize the federal cabinet by grouping together those departments with more or less similar responsibilities.
As a result of a government reorganization in December 2003, HRDC was dissolved and was replaced by two departments; namely the Department of Social Development and the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development. In February 2006, the two departments were fused and now operate through its new name, Human Resources and Social Development Canada.
Human Resources and Social Development Canada’s mission is to build a competitive and stronger Canada and to support their citizens in making productive choices that will lead to an improved quality of life. In order to achieve this, they develop policies that encourage Canadians to use their talents and skills and their resources to participate in learning new skills that they can apply in their community. They also create programs that have proved to be helpful in making their citizens smoothly transition through life; from unemployment to employment, from workforce to retirement, and others. For their employees, they strive to create a healthy work environment, create and nurture a culture of teamwork, and build those who are showing leadership capacity.
Human Resources and Social Development Canada is committed to people, a characteristic that is consistent with the goals of any Human Resource initiative. There is a great focus on accountability and delivery of results in this organization.
The Resources for Human Development – The Non-Profit Organization Dedicated to the Empowerment of People
The Resources for Human Development is an example of a non-profit organization that applies HRD principles in empowering people and letting them attain the highest level of independence possible, improving the quality of their lives, their families and the community in which they live. To achieve this, the organization employs a series of innovation in the type and quality of their services and management approach that finds its bearing in HRD principles. This organization is committed to the basic principle of the value of respect and dignity of all persons, a principle that is rooted deeply with HRD itself.
Resources for Human Development is currently located in Philadelphia, PA, United States, with 160 locally managed programs located in 14 States. This organization tends to work behind the scenes by providing quality assistance to people with mental illness, intellectual and developmental disabilities, homeless and others through job training, assisted transportation and crisis intervention.
To carry out their mission, they strive to develop programs that are innovative, effective, flexible, and efficient. With the cooperation of certain government agencies, they provide program planning and implementation expertise, and financial and administrative support to accomplish their goals.
Human Resource Development Quarterly – HRD in the Eyes of the Academe
Human Resource Development Quarterly is a unique journal in the sense that it is the first peer-reviewed journal dedicated in the growing field of Human Resource Development. The quarterly includes a widespread host of authors from the US to India, and it addresses the key issues of the field through research and provides a way to disseminate the results of such researches to the academe. This journal also admits to the fact that Human Resource Development is of interdisciplinary nature and therefore brings together some aspects of sociology, psychology, economics, education, and management to the table. In order to avoid being a very theoretical work, Human Resource Development Quarterly also provides a link between advances in research and theory with HRD practice.
This journal is published by John Wiley and Sons Inc ., a company founded in 1807 during the Jeffersonian era. It used to be that the company published works from literary giants like Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, and Herman Melville, but around the turn of the century, Wiley has established itself as a leading publisher of technical and scientific articles.
Summary
Human Resource Development has plenty of principles like management, education, skills and leadership development and these are applied in various organizations like the Human Resources Development Canada, the non-profit Resources for Human Development, and the scholarly Journal Human Resource Quarterly.
Please feel free to link directly to the Human Resource Development Quarterly Web page:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/%28ISSN%291532-1096
The current issue (Vol. 22 No. 2, Summer 2011) is available as a free online sample copy.
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