Introduction of human resource development process

Human resource Management is, perhaps, the oldest and most widely researched subject in management. Yet, as technologies change, cultural diversities occur and people’s expectations undergo fundamental shifts towards newer and newer dimensions.

In this rapid revolutionary changing environment, human resource development, a part of human resource management plays an important factor in determine an organization’s success.

Human Resource Development is important to any growing business organization because it helps to improve business performance through the development of personnel, and, directing and enhancing talents and skills through planned activities design to improve organizational learning. Ronald R. Sims (2007) described Human Resource Development as “strategically-driven activities designed to improved current and future learning, performance, and change” (p 2). Sims pointed out that in the early 1980s; the field of personnel management shifted its emphasis as personnel departments renamed themselves ‘human resource department.’ Although this change in some instances was a scheme, Sims pointed out that in many cases, “The change in language marked a subtle shift, from a function that essentially handled staffing and related administrative activities to a function that focused on the development of people as a resource to the organization (2007, p. 2).

2) The Human Resource Development Process

In the information base economy, human capital can be an organization’s greatest asset or it can also be its greatest liability. However not being the physical assets but the intellecture assets within employees. A company’s human capital asset is the collective sum of the attributes, life experience, knowledge, inventiveness, energy, and enthusiasm that its people choose to invest in their work and that are the reasons human resources development is so crucial to a company’s success.

The human resource development process has traditionally focused on improving the skills, knowledge, and attitudes of the individuals. Due to this, confirmation of success has primarily been made by measuring individuals’ satisfaction with events and, to lesser extent, to the learning that has occurred. Although at some point HRD activities has been viewed as an optional and sometimes wasteful activity by decision makers but according to Jack Phillips and Elwood Holton (1997), majority of this business decision makers view HRD as a “value added activity; something that is potentially worth doing ; and HRD as a major business process; something an organization do to succeed” (p. 1).

As the worlds economy contentiously dominated by instability and change, while the disturbance and corporate transformations in the vast industry, the growth and productivity afforded through information technology, and the increasing turnover among successful and failed business ventures as well as the political, economic and social turmoil confounded business development planners, the HRD plays an important role to examine business opportunities, and determine the key performance requirements of new business objectives, and position highly competent people within state-of the-art work system to achieve those objectives. Phillips and Holton contend, “Strategic development and utilization of employee expertise is now imperative for organizations trying to create new opportunities for growth” (1997, p. 2) Phillips and Holton emphasized that the process of development and deployment of employee expertise are important components of HRD function. They stated that as organization conditions compel the reshaping of approach, workforce competence and flexibility at all levels of the organization, become vital to business success, in the midst of strategy formulation, planners and decision makers, HRD understanding and expertise are in a critical position to examine and determine business opportunities and performance requirements.

The HRD process then is the HRD function of training, enhancing employees’ skills, deploying competent workforce towards the company’s competitive advantage, and positioning of company strategy towards competitive advantage through appraising performance and aligning company strategy towards this objective. It is also included in this process the critical examination of the business opportunities and determining key performance of new business objectives. In other words, the HRD process are also the company strategy towards its competitive advantage and this involve the training or career development, to organize skills enhancement and development training, the organizational development, to conduct research new business opportunities and orientation on performance requirements, and performance appraisers, for the evaluation of employee performance. This performance evaluation is important in

creating motivation and instilling loyalty among the employee towards the company.

A systematic training and development approach is a methodology for managing training programs to ensure a comprehensive training process in 3 typical phrases;

Assessment phrase where the training objectives are identify and decision makers to determine when training will occur and who will be involve. Activity phrase is the phrase of designing and implementing training package upon the establishment of the training objective. Evaluation phrase where employees are evaluate if the training are being value-adding. It is only essential to the organization if employees are being value-adding to them after training and have a more positive turnover. If the entire process is not value-adding at all to the organization and have little or non return of investment to the organization, it is being regard as an excess overhead that will be axed off in no time.

Through the use of the systematic approach to training, practitioners ensure that relevant skills are identified, proper learning methods are used, and that employees can perform work as expected when they are assigned to work.

3) The importance of Human resource development and its Process

HRD and its process are important because they are in powerful position to assist in and measure strategic organization results such as performance outcomes and return on investment. Phillips and Holton noted that HRD practitioners also provide strategic capability by “assisting in the translation of strategies into more consistent behaviours and the realignment of work process” (1997, p. 3). HRD professional are expert at facilitating and directing process level organization change, allowing for the translation of strategic direction into new and improved ways of accomplishing the organization’s work. Because of this expertise, HRD has become important in the positioning of the companies strategy towards competitive advantage not only of the business strategy but also the employees’ competitiveness. HRD is also involved in the strategy formation, which requires that organization value human capital as an ingredient for the organization’s long-term success. According to Monica Lee (2003), HRD as a process “has the potential of harmonizing, supporting, and shaping the larger systems (p. 27). Monica Lee pointed out Swanson’s (2001) systems theory to HRD which argues that the system worldview model of HRD as a process with in the organization. Leonard David Goodstein, Timothy Nolan, and J. William Pferffer (1993) stressed that in addition to serving as a champion for strategic planning HRD professional play the stakeholder in the planning process. They pointed out “as stake holder, the HRD professional has the important responsibility of linking the organization’s over all strategic plans to its human resources” (1993, p. 76). This job according to them requires the HRD professional to understand the nature of the overall strategic planning and should be aware that strategic planning is the process through which the senior management of the organization clarifies what it intends the organization to become and what its goals are, both financial and non-financial matters. This process requires a high degree of problem solving skills and the HRD professional are expected to be a model for such skills.

4) Advantages of HRD to the Organization

Catherine M. Sleezer Tim I Wentling, and Roger L. Cude (2002) noted that HRD “has become strategically integrated in the organization” (p. 11). They pointed out that training has become a cote value for organization, and manager view employee’s education, training, and development as critical to organizational success. The importance of HRD in business organization is reflected by the fact that today, team building activities, and skills enhancing and leadership training and the human resource is viewed as important in the company’s strategy towards competitive advantage. John P. Wilson stressed that today “business environment requires that HRD not only supports the business strategies or organizations, but that assumes a pivotal role in the shaping of business strategy” (1999, p. 12). Wilson pointed out that HRD serves a strategic role by assuring the competence of employees to meet the organization’s present performance demands. Wilson adds, “HRD also serves a vital role in shaping strategy and enabling organizations to take full advantage of emergent business strategies” (1999, p. 12).

6) Advantages of HRD to the employees

The advantage of the HRD to the employees is that HRD provides training through instructor-led classrooms. Catherine M Sleezer, wintling, and Cude noted that HRD is “rooted in training and development, organizational development, and career development to improve individual, group, and organizational effectiveness” (2002, p. 2). Thomas N. Garavan, Pat Costine, and Noreen Heraty (2002), viewed human resource as decision-making employees, and this, they point out, is “increasingly significant factor as the influence of more sophisticated technology is leading to a reduced demand for manual employees and an increase for decision making employees” (p. 17). Thus, there are views that stress on development of people as a company investment. Garavan, Costine, and Heraty contends that “this view suggest that investment in human resource development will automatically lead to improve business performance” (2002, p. 28).

The advantage to the employee of HRD aside from the trainings and development the HRD is providing is that it serves as the agency for promotion and incentive to performance and productivity of the employees’ performance as they are evaluated and appraised for necessary action. The HRD also provides the opportunity for employees to develop their talents and lay down the path for career development.

(7) Problems that affect the human resource development

Human resource development depends upon various factors of standard of living. One of these factors is the social problems. Education, housing, and health care are the top issues in the social problems. These factors According to Qureshi M.U. “affect human resources, natural resources, and technological resources” (p. 221). Qureshi M.U. (2005) emphasized that education develops human resource while better health provisions contribute to his health maintenance. Housing and social services meets the individual’s needs.

Another factor affecting human resource development will be the morality of employees. Perhaps the issue here is the workers’ grievances and injustice they suffered from employers. These grievances maybe caused by inconsistent treatment of workers, discrimination, or salary related matters. Milan Kubr (2002) suggested the need of consultant to “address the mechanics of grievance procedure or other conflict resolution procedures” (p. 402). In this way, the problem of legal changes can be addressed practically.

Laurie Larwood and Urs E. Gattiker (1999) pointed out that “technological change affects the supervisory jobs, staffing and development needs” (p. 19). From the statement, the need of training for current and prospective employees is proven to be essential in order to pace up with the rapid tempo of technological changes today.

8) Improving organizations

Ronald Sims (2007) pointed out that HRD is concerned to support employees within the organization to perform at their highest level so that the entire organization can perform at its highest level. There are two ways that the HRD can help the organization; first, the HRD must support the work done in the organization and provide human resource development at the place it is needed and at the tome it is needed. Second, Support the work to be done in the future by creating learning infrastructure that will help employees and the organization learn and grow and change in line with environmental demands. In other words, HRD professional must, as Sims advice, must identify critical workforce and must design initiatives that help the employees develop their skills to improve their performance. Sims point out that organization needs employees that are multi-skilled/reskilled knowledge workers who can effectively work in teams in as increasingly global world.

9) Conclusion

HRD is important in business organization because they are professional whose expertise is in developing the human resource. Today, more and more companies are recognizing human resource as a human capital in business. They invest on their development and provide corresponding incentives to their efficiency. Indeed despite of the advance of technology, still it cannot be a substitute to human expertise because technology merely depends on the skills of the decision-making employee. Because of the importance of the human resource, I recommend that business organization should look into the welfare of the employee and offer opportunity for social developments such as providing housing loan, educational assistance to immediate family members or any other applicable benefits. All this should be undertaken by the HRD as they are more connected to the employees. I also recommend that business organization empower HRD to handle employees’ grievances & injustice against their superior to verify the matter and submit report to the personnel manager or to the appropriate authority. In this way, the organization can avoid unfair labor treatment at the same time giving solution to social, legal, and changing technological problem that may arise.

The success of any organization is determined by its people, their caliber and their attitude to succeed and out perform. Employees are the only resource, which is capable of self-propulsion and value addition. Unlike any machinery that gets devalued or depreciated with time and age, the human resource i.e. people appreciates with age and experience. So they are very special but this fruitful only if people are developed and kept satisfied. It is unlikely that any improvement can be made in terms of production, productivity, and quality or customer service until people are well developed.