Implementing HRD

There are many recommendations to adopt a more strategic approach to HRD and make it more business-driven, there remains the crucial factor of how HRD is implemented. A number of uncertainties and tensions arise here. 'Who, for example, should take responsibility for HRD? Should it be HRD specialists, with their sophisticated repertoire of interventions and techniques? Or should it be line managers, who are close to work performance and are able to influence the way in which people learn and develop, and the environment in which this occurs? How should needs be identified, and whose interests should they serve: those of employees seeking opportunity and reward for the sacrifice of their effort, or those of the organisation in the pursuit of goals and targets? What activities should be used, and do the activities add value? How does HRD relate to business goals? A crucial feature of HRD, given the claims made for its connection with high-performance working and knowledge creation, is the measurement and assessment of learning' (Bratton and Gold, 2012, p.297). In any organisation, a range of factors influence learning, and HRD practitioners may not be the best people to make judgements about its impact (Clarke, 2004).

Overall, there may be still insufficient evidence about what is happening inside organisations when HRD is considered, which is compounded when we consider both formal and informal approaches to learning at work. For example, line managers seem to offer low support for formal training (CIPD, 2005) but play a crucial role in what is learnt informally on an everyday basis. So although it is becoming clearer that the formal aspects of HRD, such as plans, policies and activities, can have a crucial impact, informal features may be of even greater importance.

Formal models of implementation have shown a remarkable tendency to match the conventional wisdom of how organisations should be run (Bratton and Gold, 2012). Depending on the resources committed to their activities, trainers have had to justify the commitment by an adherence to prescriptive approaches. Employees traditionally learnt their jobs by exposure to experienced workers who would show them what to do. Much learning undoubtedly did occur in this way, but as a learning system it was haphazard and lengthy, and bad habits as well as good could be passed on. In some cases, reinforced by employers’ tendencies to deskill work, employees were unwilling to give away their ‘secrets’ for fear of losing their jobs. Most importantly, line managers did not see it as their responsibility to become involved in training, thus adding to the forces that served to prohibit any consideration of valuing employee potential (Bratton and Gold, 2012).


A systematic training model

The preferred routine is to adopt a systematic training model, an approach that emerged during the 1960s under the encouragement of the industrial training boards. The approach was based on a four-stage process, shown in Figure 1.0, and was widely adopted, becoming ingrained in the thinking of most training practitioners. Buckley and Caple (2007, p. 24) suggest it emphasises ‘logical and sequential planning and action’.


Figure 1.0: A four-stage model of training
Source: (Bratton and Gold, 2012, p. 298)

Identify Training Needs

The training process always begins with identifying areas where employees lack skills, knowledge, and ability to perform their jobs. There are various different ways to identify them. Few of the popular ways are:

  • To ask employees – Employee Surveys
  • Using Performance Management System – Performance Appraisals
  • The organisation analysis and work and task analysis
  • Focus Group Discussions
  • Personal Development plans

Plan Training Programs

Planning for a training program includes multiple aspects that are crucial for the entire model. It focuses on deciding the appropriate techniques, content, materials, facilities, locations, and trainers. Techniques are nothing but different methods of training. Training content is more about developing customised, simple and quality training content. Materials not only includes workbooks, manuals but also powerpoint presentations and audio-visual aids, etc. Training facilities and location is all about deciding the place and its mode such as in-house, on-the-job training, etc., that paves way for its implementation.

Implement Training

The implementation of the training program involves important aspects such as the choice of trainers and the physical environment with a focus on meeting the training objective. The choice of trainers can be made either from within the organisation or can be externally invited. On the other hand, a good physical set up will leave a pleasant experience on the minds of the learners who undertake the learnings from a trainer.

Evaluate Training

Training evaluation is the key area for the success of any training program. It is a process to analyse the effectiveness and impact of the program on its employees.



References

Bratton, J. and Gold, J. (2012) Human resource management: Theory and practice. 5th ed. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan.

Buckley, R. and Caple, J. (2007) The Theory and Practice of Training (5th edn). London: Kogan Page.

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (2005) Training and Development. London: CIPD.

Clarke, N. (2004) HRD and the challenges of assessing learning in the workplace. International Journal of Training and Development, 8(2): 140–56.

Comments

  1. Maheshani Priyankara Weerarathne (Maheshi)May 6, 2022 at 12:24 PM

    Hi Mohamed , Agreed with you , Formal implementation models have a surprising ability to mirror conventional understanding about how businesses should be conducted (Bratton and Gold, 2012).
    Trainers have had to defend their commitment to prescriptive approaches depending on the resources invested to their activities (CIPD,2005).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mohamed ShamranMay 15, 2022 at 7:06 AM

      Hi Maheshi, Thank you for your concern and definitely agree with you, I have discussed this in the 3rd paragraph this post.

      Delete
  2. ChulangaPereraMay 7, 2022 at 4:13 AM

    Agreed with you mohommed.The Strategic HR Framework Approach: formulated by Ulrich and Lake
    (1990) aims to leverage and/or align HR practices to build critical organizational capabilities that enable an organization to achieve its goals.This framework offers specific tools and paths to identify how a firm can leverage its HR practices. Business strategy, organizational capabilities, and HR practices are the three important elements in this framework.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mohamed ShamranMay 15, 2022 at 8:57 AM

      Hi ChulangaPerera, valid point, thank you for your comment. As HRD came to prominence in the last decade, other frameworks and models came into existence.
      Some of these are:
      1) The Strategic HR Framework Approach - formulated by Ulrich and Lake (1990)
      2) The Integrative Framework - offered by Yeung and Berman (1997)
      3) Human Capital Appraisal Approach - outlined by Friedman, James, and David (1998)
      4)HRD Score Card Approach - A recent approach formulated by Rao (1999)
      5) P-CMM Approach - Curtis and his team (1995)

      Delete

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