Human Resource Management VI Sem (Humanities Elective)

UNIT – 1
INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

Introduction of HRD: Human resource development is the integrated use of training and career
development efforts to improve the performance of the individual or group as well as overall
organizational effectiveness. It develops the competencies that employees need to perform their
current jobs and prepares them for future roles through planned learning activities. HRD focuses on
matching the needs of the individual and the organization.

While choosing the right person for the job and then retaining them has always been the
focus of the HR department, the emphasis of HRD is on motivating and developing employees. This
requires HR departments to create policies and programs that lead to the development of the
workforce and contribute to the development of the organization.

Definitions:
1. According to Leonard Nadler, "Human resource development is a series of organised

activities, conducted within a specialised time and designed to produce behavioural changes."
2. According to M.M. Khan, "Human resource development is the across of increasing

knowledge, capabilities and positive work attitudes of all people working at all levels in a
business undertaking."

Why you need HRD: A human resource development program can improve company productivity
and profitability while increasing employee satisfaction. HRD is actually one of the most significant
opportunities that employees look for when they’re considering taking a new position. It helps
employees feel that their company is invested in them, which creates a more loyal workforce and
also makes them more accepting of change when they’re regularly exposed to new skills,
information and practices.

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Human Resource Management VI Sem (Humanities Elective)

Here are some benefits of HRD:

 Development of new skills and knowledge

 Increased trust and respect
 Greater commitment to jobs
 Increased acceptance of change, as employees find themselves better equipped with problem-
solving capabilities
 Improved team spirit and overall growth of employees
 Greater organizational effectiveness and a culture of efficiency
 Improved employee participation
 Better human resources (HR) planning for collecting useful and objective data on employee
policies and programs

Features of HRD:
1. Systematic approach: HRD is a systematic and planned approach through which the efficiency
of employees is improved. The future goals and objectives are set by the entire organization,
which are well planned at individual and organizational levels.
2. Continuous process: HRD is a continuous process for the development of all types of skills of
employees such as technical, managerial, behavioural, and conceptual. Till the retirement of an
employee sharpening of all these skills is required.
3. Multi-disciplinary subject: HRD is a Multi-disciplinary subject which draws inputs from
behavioural science, engineering, commerce, management, economics, medicine, etc.
4. All-pervasive: HRD is an essential subject everywhere, be it a manufacturing organization or
service sector industry.
5. Techniques: HRD embodies with techniques and processes such as performance appraisal,
training, management development, career planning, counselling, workers’ participation and
quality circles.

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Human Resource Management VI Sem (Humanities Elective)

Significance of Human Resource Development (HRD): Human resource is needed to be

developed as per the change in the external environment of the organization, hence, HRD helps to
adopt such changes through the development of existing human resource in terms of skill and
knowledge.

The purpose of HR development is to provide the ‘coaching’ needed to strengthen and grow
the knowledge, skills, and abilities that an employee already has. The goal of development and
training is to make employees even better at what they do.

The importance or significance of HRD can be explained as follows:

1. HRD expands capable HR: HRD develops the skills and knowledge of individual; hence, it
helps to provide competent and efficient HR as per the job requirement. To develop
employment’s skill and competencies, different training and development programs are
launched.

2. HRD builds prospect for Career Development: HRD helps to grasp the career
development opportunities through the development of human skills and knowledge. Career
development consists of personal development efforts through a proper match between
training and development opportunities with employee’s need.

3. Employ Promise: Trained and efficient employees are committed towards their jobs which
is possible through HRD. If employees are provided with proper training and development
opportunities, they will feel committed to the work and the organization.

4. Job Fulfilment: When people in the organization are well oriented and developed, they
show a higher degree of commitment in an actual workplace. This inspires them for better
performance, which ultimately leads to job satisfaction.

5. Transform Management: HRD facilitates planning and management of change in an

organization. It also manages conflicts through improved labor management relation. It
develops organizational health, culture, and environment which lead to change management.

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Human Resource Management VI Sem (Humanities Elective)

6. Opportunities for Training and Development: Training and development programs are
tools of HRD. They provide an opportunity for employee’s development by matching
training needs with the organizational requirement. Moreover, HRD facilitates integrated
growth of employees through training and development activities.

7. Performance development: HRD develops necessary skills and abilities required to perform
organizational activities. As a result of which, employees can contribute to better
performance in an organization. This leads to greater organizational effectiveness.

Objectives of Human Resource Development:

1. Manpower Planning: As a prerequisite to human resources development, it is important that

an organization initiates steps to take proper stock of their human resources, both at the
present point in time and for future through manpower planning, based on business forecast
in terms of parameters of business growth and levels of personnel productivity, of workload
norms, both of which will have to be reviewed from time to time.

2. Training: Among the various instruments of human resources development, training

involving structured learning with faculty assistance is perhaps the most commonly used.
However, a great deal of investment on training goes down the drain because of factors like
irrelevance of training to the needs of the organization and staff, ad hoc and ‘distress’
nominations in the training programmes and vague and generalized contents not clearly
aimed at the development of specific skills.

3. Performance Appraisal: Another potent instrument of human resources development is

performance appraisal. Traditionally, many organizations have the syste m of Annual
Confidential reports modelled on the lines of the system used in the go vernment. (Even the
government is abandoning it now!) In effect, these reports serve hardly any useful purposes
because even withholding of an increment on the basis of poor performance amounts to a
punishment which can be given only after proper departmental inquiry.
4. Reward Systems: The Reward and Punishment System (or Reinforcement System) holds the
key to employee behaviour and development. The banking industry has realised that
pecuniary rewards have a limited utility for employee motivation. Even otherwise,

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Human Resource Management VI Sem (Humanities Elective)

management has hardly any leeway left in the matter of granting pecuniary rewards to, or
inflicting financial penalties on employees.

5. Organization Development: The human resources in any organization develop best in a

climate of mutual trust and confidence, which allows every individual the freedom and the
opportunity to learn skills and grow in maturity. From this point of view, organization
development involving steps aimed at the personal growth of individuals, role effectiveness
for the personnel in key roles and team-building and collaboration for accomplishment of
corporate goals and objectives can be considered to be an integral part of the human
resources development effort.

6. Development of Knowledge Resources: Considering the change in the profile of workers and
managers in the new industries employing relatively modern and sophisticate technologies,
special attention needs to be paid to the management and development of professionals,
managers, technicians, engineers, scientists, etc. To get the best out of such high-value
human resources, all the instruments of HRD have to be pressed into service to ensure that
they can continually update their professional knowledge, perspective and skills and that
their professional commitment is maintained and supported even as they work towards
organizational goals.

Importance of Human Resource Development:

1. Develops Competent Workforce: Human resource development helps in developing a superior

workforce for the organization by educating and training them. It imparts all knowledge and skills
to employees necessary for carrying out their roles and duties.
2. Improve Relations with Employees: Human resource development develops a better
understanding among employers and employees. Employers guides and cooperates its workforce
in performing their roles. It leads to better trust and respect among them which strengthens their
relations with one another.
3. Provides Opportunity for Career Development: It works towards developing the career of all

peoples working in an organization. Employees are personally provided various training and

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Human Resource Management VI Sem (Humanities Elective)

development opportunities as per their requirements. It improves people’s knowledge, skills,

talent, creative abilities, values and beliefs from time to time according to changing demands.
4. Enhance Productivity: Human resources development has an effective role in increasing

organizational productivity. It imparts abilities and skills to employees which are necessary for
performing organizational activities. All people working are able to perform well and contribute
more to an organization which enhances the overall productivity.
5. Improves Job Satisfaction: Human resource development focuses on inspiring people for

performing better. It works on the good orientation of employees and provides them with a better
atmosphere for working. All this leads to high commitment towards roles among employees and
results in job satisfaction.
6. Clarify the Roles: It develops a proper communication network between employers and

employees. Employers are able to explain clearly all roles and duties to their workforce.
Employees can easily clarify all their doubts or problems with their superiors.

Functions of Human Resource Development:

1. Training and Development: This concept aims at improving the skills, abilities, and knowledge
of people at work by training and educating them. As soon as a person joins organization several
activities like orientation, skill training, counselling and coaching starts. These are meant for
training and developing the employees as per organizational needs.
2. Career Development: Career planning and development is another important function of human
resource development. It is a continuous process whereby the individual improves and develops
his skills. Career development comprises of two processes: career planning and career
management. Career planning means the activities that employees need to perform. Whereas,
career management means steps that employees need to follow to achieve the plans.
3. Performance Appraisal: The human resource development concept aims at providing rewards
and promotions to employees on the basis of their performance. It keeps a check on the
performance of employees and ensures whether it is at an acceptable level.
4. Employee’s Participation in Management: Participation of peoples working in organization in
decision-making is a must for better understanding and exchange of ideas. Human resource

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Human Resource Management VI Sem (Humanities Elective)

development managers work on encouraging employees to participate in organizational

management. It provides a platform for mutual learning and development.
5. Improves the Working Environment: Human resource development aims at providing a better
atmosphere for people working in an organization. It ensures that all employees get fair
remunerations, proper working hours and various other welfare services.
6. Organizational Change and Development: It facilitates organizational change and development
as per the requirements. It diagnosis process, structure and task force of organizations from time
to time and accordingly design all training and development programs.

Functions of Human Resource Management:

1. Job design and job analysis: One of the foremost functions of HRM is job design and job
analysis. Job design involves the process of describing duties, responsibilities and operations of
the job. To hire the right employees based on rationality and research, it is imperative to identify
the traits of an ideal candidate who would be suitable for the job. This can be accomplished by
describing the skills and character traits of your top-performing employee. Doing so will help you
determine the kind of candidate you want for the job. You will be able to identify your key
minimum requirements in the candidate to qualify for the job.
2. Employee hiring and selection: Recruitment is one of the primary functions of human resource
management. HRM aims to obtain and retain qualified and efficient employees to achieve the
goals and objectives of the company. All this starts with hiring the right employees out of the list
of applicants and favourable candidates. An HRM helps to source and identify the ideal
candidates for interview and selection. The candidates are then subjected to a
comprehensive screening process to filter out the most suitable candidates from the pool of
applicants. The screened candidates are then taken through different interview rounds to test and
analyse their skills, knowledge and work experience required for the job position.
3. Employee training & development: Imparting proper training and ensuring the right
development of the selected candidates is a crucial function of HR. After all, the success of the
organization depends on how well the employees are trained for the job and what are their growth
and development opportunities within the organization. The role of HR should be to ensure that
the new employees acquire the company-specific knowledge and skills to perform their task

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Human Resource Management VI Sem (Humanities Elective)

efficiently. It boosts the overall efficiency and productivity of the workforce, which ultimately
results in better business for the company.
4. Compensation and Benefits: Benefits and compensation form the major crux of the total cost
expenditure of an organization. It is a must to plug the expenses, and at the same time, it is also
necessary to pay the employees well. Therefore, the role of human resource management is to
formulate attractive yet efficient benefits and compensation packages to attract more employees
into the workplace without disturbing the finances of the company.
5. Employee performance management: The next activity on HR functions list is effective
employee performance management. Effective performance management ensures that the output
of the employees meets the goals and objective of the organization. Performance management
doesn’t just focus on the performance of the employee. It also focuses on the performance of the
team, the department, and the organization as a whole.
6. Managerial relations: Relationships in employment are normally divided into two parts —
managerial relations and labour relations. While labour relations is mainly about the relationship
between the workforce and the company, managerial relations deals with the relationship between
the various processes in an organization.
7. Labour relations: Cordial labour relations are essential to maintain harmonious relationships
between employees at the workplace. At the workplace, many employees work together towards a
single objective. However, individually, everyone is different from the other in characteristics.
Hence, it is natural to observe a communication gap between two employees. If left unattended,
such behaviours can spoil labour relations in the company.
8. Employee engagement and communication: Employee engagement is a crucial part of every
organization. Higher levels of engagement guarantee better productivity and greater employee
satisfaction. Efficiently managing employee engagement activities will help in improving the
employee retention rates too. HRM is the right agent who can manage the employee engagement
seamlessly. Proper communication and engagement will do wonders for the employees as well as
the organization.

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Human Resource Management VI Sem (Humanities Elective)

9. Health and safety regulations: Every employer should mandatorily follow the health and safety
regulations laid out by the authorities. Our labour laws insist every employer to provide whatever
training, supplies, PPE, and essential information to ensure the safety and health of the
employees. Integrating the health and safety regulations with company procedures or culture is
the right way to ensure the safety of the employees. Making these safety regulations part of the
company activities is one of the important functions of HRM.

10. Personal support for employees: HRM assists employees when they run into personal
problems which may interfere with the workflow. Along with discharging administrative
responsibilities, HR departments also help employees in need. Since the pandemic, the need for
employee support and assistance has substantially increased. For example, many employees
needed extra time off and medical assistance during the peak period of the pandemic. For those
who reached out for help, whether it may be in the form of insurance assistance or extra leaves,
companies provided help through HR teams.

11. Succession Planning: Succession planning is a core function of HRMs. It aims at planning,
monitoring, and managing the growth path of the employees from within the organizations. What
usually happens is that promising and bright employees within the organization who have
excelled in their roles are handpicked by their supervisors and HRs, and their growth paths are
developed.

12. Industrial Relations: It’s usually the production lines and manufacturing units where this HR
function is mostly used. You see, Unions exist in factories and manufacturing units. And their
responsibility is towards the goodwill about the workers — in fact, they’re always vocal and
upfront about. Now, for a company, especially into manufacturing and production, the HRs must
have ongoing Industrial Relations practices. They must also continuously engage with the Unions
in a friendly and positive manner to maintain amicable relations.

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Human Resource Management VI Sem (Humanities Elective)

Challenges of Human Resource Development:

1. Changing Workforce Demographics: Around the world, demographic changes have
already had a major impact on HR departments. The labour forces have become increasingly
diverse, and this has forced organizations to make considerable changes to the way in which
they approach people management because it is very much required to cope with the
dynamics of the market. This has not been a one-off shift as demographics are constantly
changing, and in some parts of the world, they are doing so at a rapid pace, presenting even
greater challenges for HR professionals as they look to hire, train, manage and retain an
entirely new generation of workers.

2. Competing in Global Economy: If we look at the U.S. companies, they prepare to compete
in a global economy; many are introducing new technologies that require more educated and
trained workers. In fact, at present in the United States, over one-half of all jobs require
education beyond high school. Thus, in order to be successful, the organisations must hire
employees with the knowledge to compete in an increasingly sophisticated market. For
competing in the global economy, it will require more than educating and training workers to
meet new challenges. In addition to retraining the workforce, successful companies will
institute quality improvement processes and introduce change efforts.

3. Eliminating Skills Gap: We had already discussed that for companies to compete
successfully in a global economy, they must hire educated workers. If we consider the
statistics, almost 30 per cent of today’s high school students fail to graduate, and employers
must confront the fact that many young adults entering the workforce are unable to meet
current job requirements. This skills gap poses serious consequences for American
companies and for example, how can trainees learn how to operate new equipment if they
cannot read and comprehend operating manuals? Furthermore, for new employees to
manipulate computer-controlled machines, they have to understand basic math. The business
community has a vested interest in education reform and there are some encouraging signs,
however.

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Human Resource Management VI Sem (Humanities Elective)

4. Meeting the Need for Lifelong Individual Learning: With the rapid changes that all
organizations are facing, it is clear that employees must continue the learning process
throughout their careers in order to meet these challenges. To make an ongoing investment in
HRD, this need for lifelong learning will require organizations. The term lifelong learning
can mean different things to different employees. For example, for semiskilled workers, it
may involve more rudimentary skills training to help them to build their competencies. This
learning may mean taking advantage of continuing education opportunities o professional
employees. This is particularly important for certified professionals who are required to
complete a certain number of continuing education courses. This is to maintain their
certificates and to managers, lifelong learning may include attending management seminars
that address new management approaches.

5. Facilitating Organisational Learning: Chris Argyris, Richard Beckhard and more recently
Peter Senge have recognized that if organizations are going to make a fundamental change,
they must be able to learn, adapt, and change.

Senge advocates that a learning organization must embrace the following five principles:

 Systems Thinking
 Person Mastery
 Mental Models
 Building Shared Vision
 Team Learning

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