Introduction

Human resource development properly arranges the provision of training and development in organizations. There are many reasons for which organizations provide training including orientation of new hires to the organization or to tell them how to perform in their initial assignment, to improve the present performance of employees not performing as effectively as expected, or to prepare employees for future assignments or for upcoming changes in design, process, or technology in their present job.
Recent changes in the environment of business have caused the HRD function even greater significance in helping organizations keep competitiveness and make ready for the future. Technological innovations require training for affected employees. Competitive pressures are also changing the way organizations operate and the skills that their employees need. For instance, more and more organizations have been providing quality management and training in customer service in order to be in tune with rising expectations of the consumer. Organizational restructuring and downsizing implies that many employees need to be trained to assume higher responsibilities.

Human Resource Development (HRD) Defined

HRD is the process of helping people to acquire competencies. In an organizational context HRD “is a process by which the employees of an organization are helped in a continuous and planned manner:

 Gain or brighten capabilities needed to perform different functions associated with their present or expected future roles.
 Develop employees’ capabilities as individuals and discover their inner potential.
 Develop an organizational culture in which supervisor-subordinate relationships, team work, and act of collaborating among sub-units are vigorous and make contribution to the professional well-being, motivation, and pride of employees.
 HRD process is facilitated by mechanisms (instruments…sub-systems) like performance appraisal, training, organizational development (OD), feedback and counselling, career development, potential development, job rotation and rewards.

Need of Human Resource Development (HRD)

Human Resources Development is needed in an organization for the following reasons:

The need for HRD is shown in Fig.1.

To achieve goals

People need competencies to perform tasks. Higher degree of performance of tasks requires higher degree of skills. Continuous development of competencies in people is essential for an organization for the achievement of goals. Organization’s survival, growth and excellence require competent and motivated employees.

To maintain a level of growth

Over a period of time, an organization may achieve a saturation of its growth. Even to keep at the same level of growth employee competencies need to be brightened or developed as organizations operate in environments that keep changing requiring the employees to have new competencies.

Improve Effectiveness

Any organization that is interested in improving its services and its effectiveness in cost reduction, elimination of delays, increase in customer satisfaction, improvement in quality and prompt services, market image needs to develop the competencies of its employees to perform the tasks needed to bring about such improvements.

Aims of Human Resource Development (HRD)

 The major aims of HRD may be stated as:
 Improve performance of individual on present job
 Improve competence of individual to perform future jobs.
 Improve group dynamism and effectiveness
 Improve individuals attitude
 Integrate goal of individual with the goal of the organization
 Optimize the available human resource in an organization
 Encourage creativity
 Provide opportunities and facilities to individual for full expression of their talent potential
 Improve interpersonal relationship and work culture
 Bring industrial harmony
 Increase productivity

Human Resource Development (HRD) Mechanisms

Various HRD mechanisms aim at the development of the competencies of employees and improvement in the overall organizational climate. The major ones are discussed below:

Performance appraisal

Performance appraisals have become increasingly important organizational tools for management and improvement of the employees’ performance, enabling timely and exact staffing decisions and for improvement of the overall quality of the firm’s products and services. The appraisal process is a formal method of evaluating an employee’s performance and comparing with the established standards based on job-related criteria. Where possible a direct and objective measurement of the actual performance is carried out. Using different techniques, specialists choose an appropriate method to measure employee’s actual performance against the established standards. The process is used to give strength to the effort-performance linkage. Through performance appraisals an organization communicates its expectations about the performance and the linkage between performance and rewards to employees. They increase employee’s confidence when employees receive feedback that their efforts are being adequately rewarded. An evaluation interview provides the feedback. Here the rater attempts to provide both positive and negative feedback. To be purposeful, raters or supervisors should make use of HRD oriented appraisals as a mechanism. This will fulfill a number of important purposes like:

 Uncover difficulties faced by the subordinate while handling assigned tasks and try to remove these hurdles;
 Understand the strengths and weaknesses of subordinates and help then to overcome the obstacles in the way;
 Encourage subordinates to meet problems head-on, accept responsibilities and combat challenges.
 Make a plan for effective use of the subordinates’ talents.

Potential appraisal

Potential appraisal refers to the abilities possessed by an employee but not put to use currently or the abilities to assume challenging responsibilities in future assignments. There is a difference between potential appraisal and performance appraisal. Performance appraisal indicates an employee’s present performance in his existing role. If the employee is required to play completely different set of roles at higher levels, potential appraisal needs to be conducted at periodically. The aim of potential appraisal is to identify the potential of a given employee to occupy upper positions in the hierarchy of the organization and assume greater responsibilities.

• The appraisal is performed on the basis of (me) observations of the supervisor,
• performance data concerning to previous roles an employee played;
• performance on roles in simulated settings relating in a new position.
• A good potential appraisal system helps management to pick up a suitable candidate for a given job and offer additional training, if necessary

Career planning

A career is a sequence of job positions a person held during his life time. Career planning involves a process of integration of the aspirations needs of the employees and with needs of the organization. Career programs and HR programs are linked to the degree that they help each individual meet individual and organizational requirements.

In the HRD system, the long term growth plans of a company are made known to the employees. Drastic changes are discussed at different level to encourage understanding and commitment among employees. The immediate concern of employees would be to identify their position in such a road map. Since managers have information about the growth plans of the company, they need to transmit the information to their subordinates. They should be assisted in planning their careers with the company. It is, however, not necessary that each one of them would scale new heights every year but at least they know the opportunities and get prepared for greater challenges in future. Career planning does not guarantee success. But without it, employees are rarely prepared to capitalize the opportunities that come their way.

Training and development

Training is a learning experience aimed to achieve a permanent change in a person resulting in the improvement of the ability to perform on the job. Employee development, on the other side, is a process of training with future-orientation, concentrating on the personal growth of the employee. For example, a bank officer can receive training to improve skills on a latest computer, whereas development may come from a workshop in ‘Effective Interpersonal skills’ Training and development both focus on learning. Training should be planned to meet the particular needs of the employees and the organization. It should be seen as an uninterrupted learning need designed to help employees and managers to stay update and to anticipate future needs. In order to survive and grow in a competitive environment, organizations have to motivate their employees to get ready for all sorts of challenges.

Organization development

Organization development is a change effort planned and focused on an entire organization managed from the top, aimed at enhancing organizational health and effectiveness based on planned interventions made with the help of a change agent well versed in the behavioral sciences.

Rewards

People do the work in order to satisfy needs and behave in ways which maximize their rewards. Pay is the most evident reward, but other rewards are also there. Intrinsic rewards come from the job itself, such as feelings of achievement, pride in a job etc. Extrinsic rewards flow from a source outside the job including pay, promotions and benefits management offers. There can be a linkage between the reward and the performance. Nowadays, organizations also use team-based rewards to motivate empowered work teams to exceed established targets.

Employee welfare and quality of work life

The efforts aimed at making the life worth living for workmen means the employee welfare. These efforts include rendering of services, providing facilities and giving benefits to employees by the employers, unions and government. The purpose is to improve the living standards of workers and they improve the quality of work life. Employers voluntarily extend benefits to employees in the expectation that these indirect compensation plans would encourage employees to perform at higher levels. Over a period of time, the benefits offered have been increasing as the competitive pressures are rising, trends job market are changing, employee expectations, rising union demands and legislative requirements
Quality of work life involves systematic efforts by organizations to offer workers more opportunities to impact the way they do jobs and the contributions made to the organizations overall effectiveness. Employees are empowered if they are given a more say in decision making. Quality of work life means having good working conditions, good wages and benefits, good leadership and interesting, challenging jobs.

Human resource information system

Human Resource Information System is a method by which an organization collects, maintains and reports information on people and jobs. The information is usually kept in a HR data bank, preferably in a computer having the personal, recruitment, experience, appraisal, training and miscellaneous data. The information is made use of whenever there is a requirement to identify employees for certain specific assignments.
Each of these subsystems contributes the achievement of overall HRD goals. Performance and potential appraisals help an employee develop his role capabilities and prepare for future changes. Training brings up his learning abilities. Feedback and performance counseling helps him rectify mistakes and improve interpersonal relationship. OD promotes collaboration and self-renewing skills. Rewards and welfare amenities make the life of employees better and help them carry out the assigned tasks with zeal and enthusiasm.

Role of HRD in Organizations

HRD acts as a catalyst in several organizational processes aimed towards keeping the organization profitable and alive. It is an attempt to develop the entire human resource available within the organization to its full potential. The level and nature of human
resources directly indicates the level of commitment and the seriousness with which the issues of HRD is looked at in that organization. Besides, investment in human resources should be viewed as a long-term investment.
HRD should play an effective role in:
 Optimizing employees to grow with the organization,
 Enabling employees to grow with the organization,
 Help in the achievement of aspirations and expectations of the organization,
 Development of collaboration and promotion of team spirit by creating a climate of trust, openness mutuality and inter-dependence

Benefits of Human Resource Development (HRD)

HRD not only develops the competence of the individuals but also develops his latent potential for the total organizational effectiveness. There are various benefits of HRD.
 HRD assists employee to diagnose his own strengths and weaknesses.
 It develops creativity in employees.
 It helps employees to develop him in a given organizational climate to improve not only his performance but that of the organizations.
 Developing trust and confidence amongst employees and enrich interpersonal relations.
 It develops environment for feedback and guidance from superiors.
 It provides long term and short term development opportunities.
 Helps organizations to utilize available human resources

Summary

o Human resource development coordinates the provision of training and development experiences in organizations.
o HRD is the process of helping people to acquire competencies.
o Human Resources Development is needed in an organization for the achieving goals, to maintain a level of growth and improve effectiveness.
o The process of development had been different from time to time. The major aims of HRD include the improvement of performance of individual on the job, improve group dynamism and effectiveness, improve individual’s attitude, Integrate goal of individual with the goal of the organization, optimize the available human resource in an organization, improve interpersonal relationship and work culture.
o One of the important processes of HRD is to bind together the organizational values and beliefs that contributed to the organizational stability over the years.
o Many HRD mechanisms are at the disposal of managers for the development of the competencies of employees and improvement of the overall climate of the organization.
o HRD acts as a catalyst in several organizational processes aimed towards keeping the organization profitable and alive. HRD not only develops the competence of the individuals but also develops his latent potential for the total effectiveness of the organization.