Human Resource Development is a series of organized activities, conducted within a specialized time and designed to produce behavioural changes.
Human Resource Development was the most proactive sub-function of the specialization because it began at the level of training need identification, conducting climate surveys and actually conducting training programs.
- Acquire or sharpen capabilities required to perform various functions associated with their present or expected future roles.
- Develop their general capabilities as individuals and discover and exploit their inner potential for their own and/or expected future roles.
- Develop an organizational culture in which supervisor-subordinate relationships, team work, and collaboration among sub-units are strong and contribute to the professional well-being, motivation, and pride of employees.
- HRD process is facilitated by mechanisms like performance appraisal, training, organizational development (OD), feedback and counseling, career development, potential development, job rotation and rewards.
Importance
HRD is the process of helping people to acquire competencies. In an organisational context, HRD is a process by which the employees of an organisation are helped in a continuous and systematic way to:
(a) Acquire or develop capabilities required to perform various functions relating to their present and future roles.
(b) Improve their general capabilities as individuals, discover and exploit their available potential for their own and organisational development purpose.
(c) Improve supervisor-subordinate relationship, teamwork and collaboration among different departments in an organisational culture and to contribute to the welfare, motivation and pride of employees. Human resource development therefore is defined as the total knowledge, skills, creative abilities, talents and aptitudes of an organisation’s workforce as well as the values, attitudes and beliefs of the individuals involved.
Human resource development process is facilitated by mechanisms or sub-systems like performance appraisal, training, organisational development, potential development, job rotation, welfare and reward. People are helped to acquire new competencies through the various systems continuously.
Personnel management has to deal with the inter-active policies, techniques and procedures that together can help to develop the human resource of an organisation. Line managers and staff personnel can cooperate to make sure that all these activities are planned and administered with the aim in mind.
Since every achievement in every activity is related to human resource, it is important that a department is created within the organisation to serve continuously the areas of human resource development.
HRD and Restructuring of Organisations:
In past in most of the companies the organisational structure was very complicated. There were many hierarchy levels from top to bottom. The authority used to flow from boss to the person at lower levels in more time. It used to reduce the effectiveness of the structure. Now due to development of managerial skills the focus is on flat organisation.
Management is interested to increase the span of control and make organisation flat and wide by reducing the number of layers of subordinates. This has proved successful in present time. Further, the departments are formed not on the basis of functional specialization but on the basis of products and services. HRD has made these structural changes possible.
HRD and Global Competition:
Due to liberalisation of world economies many multinational corporations have entered in different countries through export, licensing, consultancy, collaboration, joint venture, merger and acquisition and foreign direct investment. These have increased the level of competition in almost every country. It has become difficult to carry-out the business effectively. It has become a question of bread and butter for everybody in business.
Technological Changes and HRD:
Due to development of science and technology industrialization started. Further improvement in these brought better machines and techniques. Due to globalisation pressure the focus is on cost reduction, short production time, quality of products and services. In this situation unskilled person cannot deliver the goods as per expectations.
HRD and Employee Empowerment:
In present global markets the MNCs are operating a number of foreign subsidiaries located in different countries. For example, a company based in USA, having its foreign subsidiaries in China, India, Brazil and Australia and involves a long distance. It has become very difficult to manage these units from its corporate office located in New York.
It has been felt that such type of business can be managed if company is having motivated, talented and dedicated manpower. This is not possible to get such type of manpower. For this management has to put sincere efforts to procure, develop and motivate employees.
Benefits
- HRD (Human Resource Development) makes people more competent. HRD develops new skill, knowledge, and attitude of the people in the concern organizations.
- An environment of trust and respect can be created with the help of human resource development.
- With appropriate HRD programme, people become more committed to their jobs. People are assessed on the basis of their performance by having an acceptable performance appraisal system.
- Acceptability toward change can be created with the help of HRD. Employees found themselves better equipped with problem-solving capabilities.
- It also helps to create the efficiency culture In the organization. It leads to greater organizational effectiveness. Resources are properly utilized and goals are achieved in a better way.
- It improves the all-round growth of the employees. HRD also improves team spirit in the organization. They become more open in their behavior. Thus, new values can be generated.
- It improves the participation of the worker in the organization. This improves the role of worker and workers feel a sense of pride and achievement while performing their jobs.
- It also helps to collect useful and objective data on employees programmes and policies which further facilitate better human resource planning.