HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNING & DEVELOPMENTFUNCTIONS OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT Learning Objectives yHuman Resource Development-Functions yRoles of an HRD Professional Today we·ll study the functions of management and the role of an HRD professional Human Resource Development Functions Human resource development, as we discussed, can be a standalone function, or it can be one of the primary functions within the HRM department. The structure of the HRD function and its scope have been shaped by the needs faced by organ-izations. An ASTD-sponsored study by Pat McLagan sought to identify the HRD. Roles and competencies needed for an effective HRD function. The study identi-fied four trends affecting modern HRD: 1. Greater diversity in the workforce. 2. More people involved in knowledge work, which requires judgment, flexi-bility, and personal commitment rather than submission to procedures. 3. Greater expectations of meaningful work and employee involvement. 4. A shift in the nature of the contract between organizations and their employees. The ASTD study documented a shift from the more traditional training and de-velopment topics to a function that included career development and organiza-tion development issues as well. The study depicted the relationship between HRM and HRD functions as a ´human resource wheelµ (see Figure 1-2). The HR wheel identifies three primary HRD functions: 1) training and development, 2) or-ganization development, and 3) career development. We will now discuss these functions in greater detail. Training and Development (T&D) Training and development (T&D) focuses on changing or improving the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of individuals. Training typically involves providing employ-ees the knowledge and skills needed to do a particular task or job, though attitude change may also be attempted (e.g., in sexual harassment training). Developmen-tal activities, in contrast, have a longerterm focus on preparing for future work responsibilities, while also increasing the capacities of employees to perform their current jobs. T&D activities begin when a new employee enters the organization, usually in the form of employee orientation and skills training. Employee orientation is the: process by which new employees learn important organizational values· and norms, establish working relationships, and learn how to function within their jobs.The HRD staff and the hiring supervisor generally share the responsibility for designing the orientation process, conducting general orientation sessions, and beginning the initial skills training. Skills and technical training programs then narrow in scope to teach the new employee a particular skill or area of knowledge. HRD Activities should focus more on developmental activitiesspecifically. and teams. Facilitating change often requires consulting with and advising line managers on strategies that can be used to effect the desired change. coaching and coun-seling. Counseling techniques are used to help employees deal with personal problems-that may interfere with the achievement of these goals. Career Development Career development is ´an ongoing process by which individuals progress through a series of stages. nutrition. to address any work-related problems. oneday seminars. Training and Development Journal. through an . whereas micro changes are directed at individuals. Career management involves taking the necessary steps to achieve that plan. Counseling programs may address such Issues as sub-stance abuse. Coaching involves treating employees as partners in achieving both personal and organizational goals. In the coaching process. 41:53. themes. Career plans can be implemented. stress management.18 00 emphasizes both macro and micro organizational changes: macro changes are intended to ultimately improve the effectiveness of the organization. to assess his or her skills and abilities in order to establish a realistic career plan. These programs may include supervisory training. individuals are encouraged to accept responsibil-ity for their actions. many organizations have sought to improve organizational effectiveness by introducing employee involvement programs that require fundamental changes in work expectations. HRD professionals are also responsible for coordinating management training and development programs to ensure that managers and supervisors have the knowledge and skills necessary to be effective in their positions. A. For example. such as facilitating a meeting of the employees responsible for planning and implementing the actual change process. and to achieve and to sustain superior performance. Career development involves two distinct processes: career planning and career management. The HRD professional may also become directly involved in carrying out the intervention strategy. The role of the HRO professional involved in an 00 intervention is to function as a change agent. and generally focuses more on what the organization can do to foster employee career development. Human Resource Wheel SOURCE: From P. There is a strong relationship between career development and T&O activities. reward systems. and weight control. small groups. or college and university courses HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT Organization Development Organization development (OD) is defined as the process of enhancing the effectiveness of an organization and the wellbeing of its members through planned in-terventions that apply behavioral science concepts. often with the assistance of counselors and others. each of which is characterized by a relatively unique set of issues. and tasks. job rotation. or fitness. at least in part. Me Lagan (1989)_ Models for HRD practice.Once new employees have become proficient in their jobs. smoking cessation. Career planning involves activities performed by an individual. and reporting procedures. Then. flexibility. and values that characterize the organization. and so on (e.23 As one example. workforce. two types of fit or alignment are necessary. appraised. That is. Strategic Management and HRD Strategic management involves a set of managerial decisions and actions that are intended to provide a competitively superior fit with the external environment and enhance the long-run performance of the organization. beliefs. goals. The past decade has seen increasing interest. as just described. mission. and action concerning strategic human resource management. 1 The emphasis has been on more fully -in-tegrating HRM with the strategic needs of the organization. Some areas that need to be addressed include: yManagement practices-how employees are managed and treated (e. they must monitor and assess different external environments that may pose a threat or offer potential opportunities. A performance management system is in place that allows em-ployees to track service performance.22 Further. Finally. as well as increased customer and employee satisfaction and quality of work life. external alignment is nec-essary between the strategic plans of the organization and the external environ· ment that it faces. or organizational performance measures?) yOther work practices and systems (e. and control. trained.g. and other resources. including strategy formulation. top management must first asseS6 the viability of the current mission. At the formulation level. technology. and shorter cycle times. policies. programs. objectives. or product mix) that need to be changed or updated. All of the parts of an organization must work together as a whole to reach the goals of the organization. quality. technology.g..organization·s training programs.. how closely is pay linked to individual..g. compensated. A pay-far-knowledge system has been implemented that rewards employees who have completed the video training and passed job knowledge tests. to what extent is technology or information systems used to facilitate the work process?) The value of this approach lies in looking at the· organization as an entire system. internal alignment is necessary within the organization. in light of these assessments. strategy implementation. how much do employees participate in decision making?) yOrganizational structure³how the organization is structured (e.g. the strategy of the organization must be aligned with the mission. there needs to be aligrunent among the various sub-systems that make up the organization. First. team. how ´flatµ is the organization·s managerial hierarchy?) yHuman resource systems-how employees are selected. Federal Express uses several different practices-that foster high performance. Second. Much of their employee training is conducted via inter-active video instruction. and an elaborate information system is used to monitor the progress of each item in the FedEx . To do trust. Some of the desired outcomes of such a high perform-ance work system are increased productivity.2° It involves several distinct processes.. strategies. management must identify strategic factors (for exam-ple. research. it is not uncommon for the link between training programs and orga-nizational strategy to be far from clear. or merely implied £Tom performance or budg-ets? Are all HRD activities consistent with the organization·s mission. un-fortunately.24 A current challenge (or opportunity) for HRD professionals is to play a more strategic role in the functioning of their organization. policies. ideas. Ac-cording to a 1996 survey of HRD professionals by Training magazine. The HRD strategy should offer answers to the 42 11. Training in strategic management· concepts and methods can help line managers to develop a global perspective that is essential for managing in today·s highly competitive environment. In particular. Progress has been made in moving toward a more ´strategically integrated HRD. states that there have been dramatic changes in the HRD field since 1999. Second. director of worldwide training for Cisco Systems in San Jose. and 3) providing training to all employees that is aligned with the goals and strategies of the organization. 2) providing education and training to line managers in the concepts and methods of strategic management and planning. HRD executives should contribute information. and internal and external environment? How well is the HRD function performing in terms of improving the fit between the individual employee and the job? Are appropriate concepts and techniques being used to evaluate and im-prove corporate performance? Tom Kelly. HRD professionals should provide education and training programs that support effective strategic management. First.system. Increasingly. g Man-agement education efforts also place a heavy emphasis on strategic management issues. Finally. approximately 50 percent of organizations provide training in strategic planning.1 HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT following questions: Are the organization·s HRD objectives. As you can see. ´This is our chance to actually achieve strategic partnerships within the organization. and recommenda-tions during strategy formulation and ensure that the organization s HRD strat-egy is consistent with the overall strategy. a medical products manufacturer. While this may seem obvious. it is the effective synergy of everything working together that defines high performance work systems. These issues are offered as part of the organization·s management development program. and programs clearly stated. HRD professionals must ensure that all training efforts are clearly linked to the goals and strategies of the organization. He adds. As an extreme example.672. HRD executives and professionals should demonstrate the strategic capability of HRD in three primary ways: 1) directly participating in their organization s strategic management process. strategies. poli-cies. . separate courses (or portions of courses) are emphasizing strategic HR issues and how these relate to organizational strategies and outcomes. Becton-Dickinson. All of this is comple-mented by a survey feedback process that allows employees to ´gradeµ their man ager s leadership skills and suggest solutions for any problems they encounter. objectives. California. the training activities.µJ! Service representatives are carefully selected. in re-sponse to a downturn in its business.so most HRD effort falls upon supervisors and managers. The growing emphasis on strategic HRD is part of this movement to build a stronger business case for HRD programs and interventions. As we will discuss in the later Chap-ter . However.000 active and retired IBM employees. there may be no ´training departmentµ (or even an HR department). and career development. as well as process certain HR transactions (salary changes. Alternatively. a call tracking system. Fig:1-2 Fig:1-3 HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT Figure 2 depicts how the HRD function might be organized in a multiregional sales organization. Before that they had offered a large number of training and education opportunities. After restruc-turing.went through a major restructuring in 1983. The Supervisor¶s Role in HRD Supervisors play a critical role in implementing many HRD programs and processes. including lectures. This included Lotus Suite. as well as additional training whenever new programs are offered. The goal was to provide information and high quality service to over 500. and then put through three weeks of intensive training. Especially in smaller organiza-tions. Refresher training is provided throughout the employee·s career. address changes. In this example. like HRM. HRD professionals are increasingly expected to demonstrate that their efforts are contributing to the viability and financial success of their organizations. many organizations rely on line supervisors to implement HRD programs and processes such as orienta-tion. Organizational Structure of The HRD Function The HRD function. and partnering with an experienced em-ployee. which employees and managers could use to view and retrieve HRrelated information. According to Bob Gonzales and colleagues. IBM has set up a Human Resource Ser-vice Center in Raleigh. except for manage-ment/executive development. As we will emphasize throughout this book.). Figure 2 further delineates how the HRD function might be organized within an HRM department. North Carolina. Me decentralized. training. and other HRD activities are centralized. the key factor in the success of this effort was training. Using the chart from Figure 1. a shift to a centralized HR Service Center). ´Training Customer Service Representatives well [was} critical to the Center·s suc-cess because they are the initial point of contact with the customer.30 In contrast. Some have argued that the reason training is frequently the first thing to be cut or re-duced in times of financial stress is that top executives fail to see a link between training and the bottom line. should be designed to support the organization·s strategy. these education and training programs were completely eliminated. An array of technology was put in place to assist Service Center employees. This example suggests how training can be linked to the strategic goals and strategies of the organization (in this case. etc. role playing. and an HR Information System. coaching. particularly to their managers. a Web site within the organization·s intranet (called HR INFO). Roles of an HRD Professional . We will briefly discuss the roles played by two types of. If senior managers do not understand the value of HRD. Historically. Outputs include HR strategic . quality im-provement.S. and normally assumes a leadership role in the executive development· Program. Based on the ASTD study results. when HRD executivesµ delve deeply into reengineering. former director of educa-tion for IBM. and budget allocation schedules. If the organization has both an HRM and an HRD ex-ecutive. and company performance and profitability on the other.3 The HR strategic adviser consults strategic decision makers on HRD issues that directly affect the articulation of organization strategies and performance goals. and strategic planning. the roles played by HRD professionals have changed. A 1999 Training magazine survey found that the average salary for U. But how does an HRD executive who wants to offer a program on stress management. The HRD executive often serves as an adviser to the chief executive officer and other execu-tives. The immediate challenge to HRD executives is to redefine a new role for HRD during this period of unprecedented change. during financial difficulties. A func-tional role is a specific set of tasks and expected outputs for a particular job. it will be difficult for the HRD executive to get their commitment to HRD efforts and to justify the expenditure of funds during tough times. HRD executives was $82. According to Jack Bowsher. The outputs of this role include long-range plans and strategies. This person must integrate the HRD programs with the goals and strategies of the organization. the HRD executive must work closely with the HRM executive. in general) have been a major target of cost-cutting efforts. which are described below. The HRD Executive/Manager The HRD executive/manager has primary responsibility for all HRD activities. HRD professionals: the HRD executive/manager and the HRD practitioner. HRD programs (and HRM. Pat McLagan states that contemporary HRD professionals perform nine distinct roles. policies.n33 The HRD executive is in an excellent position to es-tablish the credibility of HRD programs and processes as tools for managing in today·s challenging business environment. Other HRD Roles and Outputs for HRD Professionals As organizations have adjusted to environmental challenges. Unless the HRD executive establishes a clear relationship between HRD expenditures and organizational effectiveness (including profits).An HRD professional must perform a wide variety of functional roles. compete with a line manager who wants to purchase a new piece of equipment? The answer is dear: the executive must demonstrate the benefit the organization receives by offering such a program. One of the important tasks of the HRD executive is to promote the value of HRD as a means of ensuring that organizational members have the competencies to meet current and future job demands. for example. The role of the HRD executive has become more important and visible as or-ganizations make the necessary transition to a global economy. they grasp the link between workforce learn-ing and performance on the one hand.448. if one exists. Evaluation data are vital to the HRD executive when presenting a case. HRD programs will not receive the support they need. coaching design. The performance consultant (or coach) advises line management on appropri-ate interventions designed to improve individual and group performance. workshop facilitation. and implementation. change agent (for the city of Carlsbad.500 trainers. and implementation. and intervention strategies. is held by an individual trained in instructional tech-nology and graphic design and involved in designing online learning courses for an information technology firm in Arlington. Outputs include research designs. quality management. Three of those jobs are found in the list above: instructional designer (for consulting firm Arthur Andersen). The learning program specialist (or instructional designer) identifies needs of the learner. The organization design consultant advises management on work systems de-sign and the efficient use of human resources. Outputs include the selection of appropriate instruc-tional methods and techniques and the actual HRD program itself . For human resource management in general. Outputs include HR program designs. and career guidance.µ\ One indication of the growth of the HRD field is the push for professional certifi-cation. This response was probably based on an increasing desire to enhance the credibility of the broadening HRD field. The organization change agent advises management in the design and imple-mentation of change strategies used in transforming organizations. The fourth job. Outputs include intervention strate-gies. see the nearby box. The instructor/facilitator presents materials and leads and facilitates struc-tured learning experiences. intervention strategies.plans and strategic planning education and training programs. The individual development and career counselor assists individual employ-ees in assessing their competencies and goals in order to develop a realistic career plan. develops and designs appropriate learning programs. implementation. and change reports. and prepares materials and other learning aids. two certification exams are of-fered by the Human Resource . intervention strategies. and executive coach (working as a consultant to teach ´softµ skills to executives). multimedia master. According to a survey of over 1. A 1999 article on ´hot jobsµ in HRD focused on employees in four jobs where there was a high demand for HRD professionals. alternative work designs. and implementation of HR programs. Outputs include individual assessment sessions. approximately 60 percent ex-pressed a preference for some form of certification. lesson plans. research findings. The HR systems designer and developer assist HR management in the design and development of HR systems that affect organization performance. Outputs include program objectives. The outputs include more efficient work teams. The researcher assesses HRD practices and programs using appropriate statis-tical procedures to determine their overall effectiveness and communicates the re-sults to the organization. Virginia. and recommendations and reports. For more informa-tion on this particular position and individual. California). Out-puts include intervention strategies.. ´Master of Multimedia. 000 HR professionals have been certified with either the PHR or SPHR designations. an academic research journal focusing on HRD issues. at a biaIU1ual meeting of the ASTD and members of the Bench-marking Forum. individuals must pass the test and have two years of HR exempt-level work experience. curriculum de-velopment. Both exams consist of 225 multiplechoice items that cover various HRM topicS. SUNIL KANDPAL LBS . psychology. The benchmarking procesb involves a questionnaire that ´helps to define the focus. 2) the ASTD changed its governance structure to include a Professors· Net-work and an Academic Relations Committee. The Academy of Human Resource Development lists HRD programs (and links) on its Web site. adult education. The ASTD has established a Benchmarking Forum for the purpose of identifying and learning about the so-called best practices among member organizations S.) that they can be adopted by other organizations. the HRD profession has become better con-nected to and involved with the academic community. and education. schools of education may offer degrees and courses in fields related to HRD. To be certified. the Academy of Human Resource Development. and 12 percent of the SPHR exam covers human resource development. and placed this on the SHRM Web site. and organization development.41 Certain schools of business (or management) offer majors or minors in HRD. Students who pass the test. with courses in training and development. the ASTD has co-published the Human Resource Development Quarterly. HRD programs at colleges and universities are most often found in one of three academic departments: business/ management. They are called the Professional in Human Resources (PHR) and Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) exams. Another way HRD professionals can keep current is to examine the practices of leading organizations.42 Some psychology departments offer degree programs and courses in industrial and organizational psychology and personnel psychology with specific courses in HRD. To date. and 3) a new organization has been formed. and context for practices. Three developments illus-trate this relationship: 1) since 1990. and career development.38 Eleven percent of the PHR. to further advance scholarly research concerning human resource development issues. Over the past decade or more.40 The content and philosophy of these programs tend to reflect the founding professbrs. to adoptiI1g the practices. criteria.Certification Institute (in conjunction with the S0-ciety for Human Resource Management). are certified once they have obtained the relevant work experience. and provides information about the incidents that led. such as educational technology. The SHRM Foundation has recently published a directory of graduate HR programs. over 43. In addition to HRD classes. but lack the work experience. organization devel-opment. These organizations and a description of their practices are published in ASTD reports and highlighted in the professional journal Training & Development.1/43 The best-practices organizations are selected.