Human Resource Development

Human Resource Development

1. ‘Human resource development encompasses activities and processes which are intended to have impact on organisational and individual learning’ (Stewart and McGoldrick, 1996)

2. Hard View:

   • HRD is an organisational requirement and a concrete need to address strategic objectives

3. Soft View:

   • HRD re-conceputalises appropriate behaviour and encourages insitutionalisation development as a potential source of competitive advantage

4. Both refer to competitiveness

5. Purpose of Training and Development

   • Develop competencies
   • Helping people grow within organisations
   • Reduce learning time for new employees
   • Improve collective performance and flexibility

6. Comprises the interface between the individual, group and organisational development

7. Bottom-up Learning

   • Individual learning techniques, from employees rather than management
   • Creates an influential movement in the organisation
   • University as an example: innovative pedagogies

8. Top-down Learning

   • Developed initiatives
   • Management influence
   • Hierarchy

9. Learning Intervention: The Financial Formula

   • Problems occur where Labour Costs and Training Costs add up to MORE than the benefit of the added Value+
     • Justified when benefits are shown in a cost benefit analysis
       • Where the additional added value is greater than a proportion of the labour costs plus the training costs
         • Indirect costs are also taken into consideration: taking people out of the workplace, increasing turnover, decreasing turnover
           • Sometimes easy to quantify- training on a machine will ultimately increase productive rates
             • Training is a strategic decision- an investment
               • Some organisations invest more heavily than others. E.G. Ryanair vs. Virgin

10. Virgin Trains:

    • 'Trickle Down' Effect
      • Management is very relaxed in comparison to BR
    • Customer care and training at the front line for staff
      • Train staff to deal with difficult situations -to support each other in varied roles
        • High standard of customer service training- passengers have an expectiation of Virgin
          • Skills need to be prominent on trains for them to see appreciation
          • Staff are cared for as they do for customers
        • Once customer service has developed- it leads to business development
      • Very little competition in the rail sector
      • Virgin spend between £1.5 million and £2 million a year on training
        • Safety training for drivers is essential '...goes beyond Railtrack Standards' Mitchell

11. Hallmark Cards

    • Programme for personal development
      • Aim to live out their values
      • Staff that leave is seen as a positive
    • Trying to develop diversity-Muslim communities in particular (don't attract due to self focused qualities)
    • Programme of excellence and results
    • “this course helps people balance their competing responsibilities at home and at work- a lot of single mothers work here, for example and helps them to be more effective as a result”