The Overview of HR Development

Human resource development is the framework that helps the employees to develop the skills, knowledge and the abilities that helps in accomplishing the objectives of the organization. This framework provides the opportunity to the employees to upgrade their skills and promotes the career development of the employees.  It focuses on implementing superior performance of the workforce to accomplish the organizational and the individual goals of the organization (Werner and Desimone, 2012).

Increase in the competition among the firms develops the need to include learning and development in the organization. It is analyzed that if the firms include the practice of learning and development for its employees they are able to develop higher performers for the company. Implementation of effective learning practices helps in motivating and satisfying the employees. It helps in retention of the employees and the employees are more committed towards the goals of the organization, which in turn helps the company to sustain in the competitive environment and develop its competitive advantage over its competitors. Involvement of learning and development practices promotes the development of innovative methods to solve the problems of the company and delivers higher value services to its customers (Hendry, 2011).

• Creation of learning and development strategy

The development of the strategy will provide the scope of the training, it will include who will deliver it and how it will be delivered and managed. The strategy must be clear so that does not create any confusion and must be aligned to the goals of the organization (Tickell, 2014)

• Enable a culture of continuous learning and development

The company must focus on inbuilt the culture that supports the development of learning practices. It must encourage the employees to learn and grab the opportunity to advance its career. The company must include learning in the hiring process and must make the employees understand the importance of learning (Evoma, 2018). 

• Alignment with the talent management

The company must align with the talent management i.e. it must define the roles and the levels with each role. It must describe the competencies and skills required to achieve the organization goals. It provides the map to the employees regarding the training provided to enhance their individual growth (Evoma, 2018).

• Deploy a learning and development infrastructure

Successful implementation of the learning and development programs depends upon the management and delivery of the training programs. The company must develop the appropriate infrastructure that guides the rules and policies to be adopted during the training program to make the learning and development program successful (Burke and Noumair, 2015). 

• Monitor and measurement of the performance

Steps for Implementing Learning and Development Processes

The company must evaluate that the training programs are inline to their organizational goals and must evaluate the performance of the training participants. It should analyze that the company is achieving benefits from the learning and development program (Kolb, 2014).

The company faces various challenges while implementing the learning and development program, which includes:

• Hectic employee schedules

The employees of the company suffer the imbalance between the work and the personal life and the training programs create the stress because it adds more hours and however resist the employees to participate in the training programs (ELearning Industry, 2018).

• A diverse workforce

With the geographically diverse workforce, it creates the difficulty in understanding and leads to misunderstanding. The culture differences create the problem in the implementation of the training programs (ELearning Industry, 2018).

• The difference in learning habits

The company must consider the learning preferences of all the participants because the training program consists of a number of employees who are of different generations and are not equally comfortable in using technology. Such issues create a problem in the proper implementation of the training program (ELearning Industry, 2018).

• Lack of engagement

It is analyzed that the employees lack engagement in the training programs and are reluctant to change their behavior, which creates a challenge for the company to retain the competencies developed during the training program (ELearning Industry, 2018).

• Financial cost

Effective implementation of the training programs requires the availability of the resources, installment of the equipment, the time of the employees, which creates the challenge for the company (ELearning Industry, 2018).

David Guest developed this model of human resource management in the year 1997. This model states that the HR manager has specific strategies to begin with, which demands certain practices and results in desirable outcomes. It emphasizes the logical sequence of six components HR strategy, HR practices, HR outcomes, financial consequences, performance result, and behavioral outcomes. It depicts that the financial results depend upon the performance of the employees, which is the result of the action-oriented employee behavior. This model states that the HR practices must be linked to the HR strategies so that the behavior of the employees are committed and provide quality results for the organization (Simplynotes, 2018).

FedEx Corporation has the track of being successful and is able to maintain its competitive advantage because the company believes that the success lies in the hands of how efficient the employees perform. The company believes that if the employees will be treated well and best human resource development practices are employed the employees will be more committed towards the organization will lead to the success of the organization. The company conducts the survey to know the feedback of the employees and believe in the concept of people –service- profit (Human Resources, 2015).

Challenges Faced by the Company during Learning and Development

Line managers are the person who has the direct managerial responsibility to the employees of the organization. The managers have the key responsibility to provide continuous reinforcement through a series of communications and activities during and after the conduct of human development programs. They are responsible for changing the behaviors of the employees and develop the best learning’s from the human resource development programs (Bolden, 2016).

• Line managers help in employee retention and promote true learning

The line managers must proactively involve in providing learning’s and delivering experiences to the employees because the learning professionals do not have the bandwidth to make the continuous improvement and do not closely focus on the performance of each individual (Bratton and Gold, 2017).

• Line managers help in building strong relations with employees and learners

The line managers must grab the opportunity on the orientation of the new employees and must make them understand the importance of employee development and develop good relationships with the new members. They must involve the learning providers in the development process to engage their interest more on the employees (Chang, 2016).

• Line managers  commit to the opportunities

The line manager must make the employees understand the importance of the training programs and the need to learn the new skills which will help in transforming the performance of the employees. He must develop the program in such a manner that it provides the maximum learning to the employees and must make them realize the importance of the development programs (Bratton and Gold, 2017).

Involvement of the manager helps in reducing the retention loss and improving the efficiency of the training programs that help in the organization in achieving success and maintaining competitive advantage of the organization (Chang, 2016).

It is analyzed that the absence of the line managers creates a negative impact on the performance of the organization as the company suffers from the retention loss and however reducing the efficiency in the operations of the company. The company is not able to build a good relationship with its employees and are not able to efficiently build the skills required, as there is no continuous reinforcement through the line managers. It leads to the wastage of the expenditure done on the training of the employees because the employees are not able to understand the importance of training and develop the required skills, which are necessary for maintaining the competitive advantage. Due to lack of involvement of the line managers in the development programs, the company is not able to get the feedback from the employees and fails in correcting the deviations, which help in maintaining the interest of the employees in the development program (Cummings and Worley, 2014).

The Guest Model of Human Resource Management

Talent management involves a series of activities to motivate, retain and build talented employees for the present and the future actions of the employees. The company can manage the talent by using the exclusive and inclusive approaches of talent management (Cappelli and Keller, 2014).

In the inclusive approach of talent management, it considers all the employees as a part of the target group and does not make any subdivision based on the future performance of the employees. It encompasses a collection of typical human resource practices, activities, and functions such as recruiting, selection and succession management (Al Ariss, Cascio, and Paauwe, 2014).

 The exclusive approach of talent management aims at the specific segment of the employees who are considered talented for the organization. This approach believes that talents are something, which is generic and focuses on high performers. This approach focuses on developing top grading at every level of the organization. It is analyzed that the exclusive approach has more focus on the effectiveness of the organization rather than an inclusive approach (Al Ariss, Cascio, and Paauwe, 2014).

• Implementation of the inclusive approach of talent management creates a pleasant, fair and collegial working environment as the company focuses on adding value to all the employees, which lead to the creation of higher productivity (Bussin,2014).
• Strengthening of the employee engagement because the employees feel that they are valued by the company and builds a strong relationship between employee and employer (Al Ariss, Cascio, and Paauwe, 2014).
• It leads to creative thinking as the employees get the opportunities to explore talents and develop new skills and leads to narrowing of the talent gaps which helps in smooth flow of communication and exchange of talents between colleagues (Bussin, 2014).

Disadvantages

• Implementation of inclusive approach becomes costlier as the company develops the program for the whole workforce (Al Ariss, Cascio, and Paauwe, 2014).
• It creates complexities, as the company has to develop different programs for different job roles (Al Ariss, Cascio, and Paauwe, 2014).

• Implementation of the exclusive approach leads to higher productivity and the higher performers of the company efficiently do profitability as the work (Bussin, 2014).
• Implementation of the exclusive approach of talent management provides the opportunity to the higher performers to further enhance their career opportunities by equipping them with the development of required skills (Bussin, 2014).
• It creates the situation of the continuous tournament among the workforce, which develops the zeal among the workforce to improvise their performance and be more committed towards the organization (Al Ariss, Cascio, and Paauwe, 2014).

Disadvantages

• Creation of hierarchy structures among the key employees creates the discriminatory environment that reduces the morale of the remaining employees and engagement with the companies (Bussin, 2014).
• Investment of the huge resources on the selected group of talents may impair the organization culture and leads to resentment among the peers (Al Ariss, Cascio, and Paauwe, 2014).
• Implementation of exclusive approach leads to loss of the culture of transferring skills and consequently retards the learning and development throughout the organization (Bussin, 2014).

• Dehumanizing

  It is observed that applying the exclusive approach to talent management leads to the suppression of individual identity and authenticity. This creates an ethical problem for the excluded workforce as they are harmed and leads to dehumanizing of the talent management (Swailes, 2013).

• Fairness

It is observed that the company applies development program for the top performers but the selection of the top performers is often done by the bias decisions. Such biases in decision making create an ethical problem in the implementation of talent management (Swailes, 2013).

• Glass ceiling effect

It depicts the artificial behavior of the organization in which it biases with the women to not shift them to higher positions and do not provide the equal salaries to the deserving women’s and minorities which creates an ethical issue in the implementation of talent management (Swailes, 2013).

Application of both approaches of talent management leaves the positive and the negative impact on the organization performance as the implementation of inclusive approach leads to the development of skills, which further inculcates creative thinking and enhances the operational efficiency. Application of the exclusive approach of talent management leads to a decrease in the morale of the excluded employees and thus creates resentment among the peers, which affects the organization performance (Collings, Scullion and Vaiman, 2015).

The success of the enterprise is directly related to the performance and the competencies of the manager. It depends upon the capabilities the manager has to influence the action of the employees towards the goal of the organization (CMC partnerships, 2017).

• Motivational leadership

Example of Learning and Development Implementation in FedEx Corporation

It refers to the ability of the manager to encourage and support the individuals and the team and motivating them to achieve the goals of the organization (CMC partnerships, 2017).

• Planning

It is the ability of the manager to forecast future changes and make the maximum utilization of the available resources to integrate the efforts of the team and achieve the efficiency in the operations (CMC partnerships, 2017).

• Active management

It refers to the ability of the manager to continuously manage the set disciplines of the management and ensures that the performance of the team and the individuals are improved (CMC partnerships, 2017).

• Team working

The manager aims at managing the team ethos and fostering collaboration to work as a team rather than as individuals (CMC partnerships, 2017).

• Communication

The manager must have the ability to listen, communicate and articulate effectively.

• Performance management

It is the ability of the managers to continuously support and guide the action of the employees to improve their performance. It also defines the set standards that are to be achieved by the employees (CIPD, 2018).

• Resilience

It defines the ability of the manager to sustain, focus and make the continuous efforts especially at the face of setback (CIPD, 2018).

• Result focus and customer service

The manager must focus on achieving the result in an efficient manner with maximum utilization of the available resources and must be able to fulfill the expectations of the customer (CIPD, 2018).

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it is concluded that human resource development programs help in retention of the employees and the company must focus on effectively managing the talent by using the appropriate approaches of talent management to maximize the productivity and helps the company in maintaining its competitive advantage. 

References 

Al Ariss, A., Cascio, W.F. and Paauwe, J. (2014) Talent management: Current theories and future research directions. Journal of world business, 49(2), pp.173-179

Bolden, R., (2016) Gower handbook of leadership and management development. London:  Routledge

Bratton, J., and Gold, J. (2017) Human resource management: theory and practice. United Kingdom: Palgrave

Burke, W.W., and Noumair, D.A. (2015) Organization Development (Paperback): A Process of Learning and Changing. United States of America: Pearson Education

Bussin, M. (2014) Remuneration and talent management. South Africa: Knowres publishing

Cappelli, P. and Keller, J.R., (2014) Talent management: Conceptual approaches and practical challenges. Annual. review of organizational psychology and organization behaviour, 1(1), pp.305-331.

Chang, J.F. (2016) Business process management systems: strategy and implementation. Newyork: Auerbach Publications

CIPD. (2018) The role of line managers in HR and L&D [Online]. Available from: https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/people/hr/line-managers-factsheet [Accessed 29/12/18]

CMC partnerships. (2017) 3 must have competencies for line managers [Online]. Available from: https://www.cmcpartnership.sg/blog/three-essential-competencies-for-line-managers [Accessed 29/12/18]

Collings, D.G., Scullion, H. and Vaiman, V. (2015) Talent management: Progress and prospects. Human resource management review, 25(3), pp.233-235

Cummings, T.G., and Worley, C.G. (2014) Organization development and change.  Australia: Cengage Learning

ELearning Industry. (2018) Top learning and development challenges faced by the enterprises [Online]. Available from: https://elearningindustry.com/learning-and-development-challenges-faced-enterprises [Accessed 29/12/18]

Evoma. (2018) 7 steps to create successful training and development program [Online]. Available from: https://evoma.com/business-centre/7-steps-to-create-successful-training-and-development-programs/ [Accessed 29/12/18]

Hendry, C. (2011) Human resource management: A strategic approach to employment. Newyork: Routledge

Human Resources. (2015) The world’s 30 most innovative corporate human resources departments [Online]. Available from: https://www.humanresourcesmba.net/worlds-30-innovative-corporate-human-resources-departments/ [Accessed 29/12/18]

Kolb, A.D. (2014) Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. United States of America: Pearson Education

Simplynotes. (2018) HRM models [Online]. Available from: https://www.simplinotes.com/hrm-models/ [Accessed 29/12/18]

Swailes, S. (2013) The ethics of talent management. Business ethics: A European review, 22(1), pp.32-46

Tickell, P.R. (2014) Learning and development. United States of America: Kogan page

Werner, M. J., and Desimone, L.R. (2012) Human resource development. 6^th ed.  Australia. Cengage Learning