What is Human Resource Developmet?

HRD Deals with development and up gradation of human capital.

HRD is a process for developing and unleashing human expertise through organization development and
personnel training and development for the purpose of improving performance.
HRD tries to bring about qualitative changes in human capital in accordance with the needs of the organization
and corporate objectives. It tries to mould the organization as per requirements.

HRM vs HRD
HRD

HRM/Personnel Management

1. continuous process

1.a routine and administrative function

2. sub-system of a large
system, more organizational oriented

2. Function more independent with separate

roles to play.

3. More proactive; it copes with the

3. Mainly a reactive function responding to the
changing needs of the people as well
demands which may arise.
as anticipate these needs.
4. Developing the whole organization,
e.g. OD.

4. Concerned with people Only.

5. involvement of the entire work

force from top to bottom is more and
a must in most of the cases

5. It is basically the responsibilities of the HR

department.

Definitions of HRD:
1. According to South Pacific Commission human resource development is equipping people with relevant
skills to have a healthy and satisfying life.
2. According to Watkins, human resource development is fostering long-term work related learning capacity
at individual, group and organizational level.
3. The American Society for Training and Development defines HRD as follows: human resource
development is the process of increasing the capacity of the human resource through development. It is thus
the process of adding value to individuals, teams or an organization as a human system.

Scope of HRD:
Human resource management (HRM) deals with procurement, development, compensation, maintenance and
utilization of human resources. HRD deals with efficient utilization of human resources and it is a part of HRM.
Human resource being a systematic process for bringing the desired changes in the behaviour of
employees involves the following areas:
1. Recruitment and selection of employees for meeting the present and future requirements of an organization.
2. Performance appraisal of the employees in order to understand their capabilities and improving them through
additional training.
3. Offering the employees performance counselling and performance interviews from the superiors.
4. Career planning and development programmes for the employees.
5. Development of employees through succession planning.

6. Workers participation and formation of quality circles.

7. Employee learning through group dynamics and empowerment.
8. Learning through job rotation and job enrichment.
9. Learning through social and religious interactions and programmes.
10. Development of employees through managerial and behavioural skills.

Objectives of HRD:
The prime objective of human resource development is to facilitate an organizational environment in which the
people come first. The other objectives of HRD are as follows:
1. Equity:
Recognizing every employee at par irrespective of caste, creed, religion and language, can create a very good
environment in an organization. HRD must ensure that the organization creates a culture and provides equal
opportunities to all employees in matters of career planning, promotion, quality of work life, training and
development.
2. Employability:
Employability means the ability, skills, and competencies of an individual to seek gainful employment
anywhere. So, HRD should aim at improving the skills of employees in order to motivate them to work with
effectiveness.
3. Adaptability:
Continuous training that develops the professional skills of employees plays an important role in HRD. This can
help the employees to adapt themselves to organizational change that takes place on a continuous basis.

AREAS DISCUSSED UNDER HRD

Human Resource Planning

Manpower planning and human resource planning are synonyms. The basic idea of manpower planning is, we
look at the numbers we are likely to need because of growth or contraction, promotion and wastages. In other
words, it simply means ensuring availability of right numbers of men , right kinds [types in terms of skill], at
the right point of time, at the right places for utilizing the most economically and effectively and develop their
potentials in terms of skills, performance and capacity.

Recruitment and Selection

Recruitment is the process of generating of applications or attracting applicants for specific positions through
four common sources, viz. Advertisement, state employment exchange agencies , present employees and
campus recruitment. Having identified the potential applicants the next step is to evaluate their experience and
qualification for ascertaining their suitability for a job and make selection. Selection refers to the process of
offering job to one or more applicants from the applications. Selection is thus a means of selecting the best-fit
for a job by using multiple hurdles such as screening, short listing based on marks, tests, interviewing ,and an
equal opportunity dispenser.

Performance & Potential Appraisal

Performance appraisal also called merit rating or employee rating is a means of helping supervisors to
evaluate the work of employees. It is the name given to the regular formalized and recorded review of the way

in which an individual performs in his or her job. This is normally carried out by the job holders immediate
boss. Performance appraisal focuses of helping the individual to develop his or her present role capabilities and
to assume more responsibility for that role. Potential appraisal focuses primarily identifying the employees
future likely roles within the organization. Potential appraisal is done for placement as well as for development
purposes keeping in mind futuristic requirement of the organization.

Counseling
Counseling is helping the employee to recognize his own strengths, weaknesses and potential and potential and
helping him to prepare action plans for own development. Giving feedback in a threatening way or
correcting the undesirable or unsatisfactory behavior of employees by pointing it out the deficiencies or other
malfunctioning and warning them not to repeat these behaviors are all integral parts of a managers role and are
not the same as counseling.

Career Planning
Career planning involves identifying the right potential well in time, for development to take over higher
responsibilities. This includes promotion and planned job rotation under various conditions and environments of
challenge. In this process, attention is focused on individuals style of working than his current performance
results. Current results can provide reasonable clues of future potential, but they are not the sole criterion;
current results only, could be misleading in judging ones potential. A persons achievements are invariably
affected by the forces outside his control. Similarly, a person may be highly successful in one situation, but he
may not continue to be a high achiever when transferred to another job or situation.

Succession Planning
Succession planning entails in identifying the key jobs in an organization and ensuring that , if anything,
planned or unplanned were to remove the present job holder from his post, there would be some one ready to
take the place. This benefits the company by ensuring that there are no expensive gaps, or panic measures to fill
them. It benefits the individual by providing him with opportunities for advancement. Three broad steps are
required in this context (I) to decide which are the key jobs in the organisation; (ii) to identify the potential
incumbent who can fit the position; & (iii) to make necessary records in the organization chart. Therefore, a
succession plan to indicate who can succeed whom in the hierarchy.

Training
Training comprises an integral part of HRD process. The purpose of training is to improve the capabilities of the
human resources in order to increase their efficiency and effectiveness on the job. Training is expected to
indicate positive changes in knowledge, skill and attitudes. Training is job oriented and fulfills the current needs
of an individual to overcome job difficulties. Training wont solve all problems, not all problems are training
problems. As we all know Training aims at development of the people in an organization. HR Department
analyses and develops various Training programs

Job Evaluation
Job evaluation is concerned with establishing the relative worth of a job compared to other jobs within an
organization. In job evaluation one attempts to consider and measure the inputs required of employees (knowhow, accountability and problem solving etc.) for minimum job performance and to translate such measures into
specific monetary returns.
Transfer, Promotion & demotion.
Transfer is a lateral movement within the same grade, from one job to another. A transfer may result in
changes in duties and responsibilities, supervisory and working conditions, but not necessarily salary.
Promotion is the advancement of an employee from one job level to a higher one, with increase in
salary.

Demotion is the opposite of promotion. It is a downward movement from one job level to another,
leading to a reduction in rank, status, pay and responsibility

Job Analysis
Job analysis is the process of studying and collecting department information relating to operations and
responsibilities of a specific job. The immediate products of this analysis are job description and job
specification. Job description is an organized factual statement of duties and responsibilities of a specific job,
whereas, job specification is a statement of the minimum acceptable qualities necessary to perform a job
properly.

Rewards
Rewards are the positive reinforcements given by the organization. Rewards act as effective motivators and help
people to increase productivity and efficiency. Rewards include:

Promotion
Incentives
Increments, etc

NEEDS OF HRP (HR FORCASTING)

Major reasons for the emphasis on HRP at the Macro level:
Employment-Unemployment Situation: Though in general the number of educated unemployment is on the
rise, there is acute shortage for a variety of skills. This emphasis is the need for more effective recruitment and
retaining people.
Technological Change: The myriad changes in production technologies, marketing methods and management
techniques have been extensive and rapid. Their effect has been profound on the job contents and job contexts.
These changes cause problems relating to redundancies, retaining and redeployment. All these suggest the need
to plan manpower needs intensively and systematically.
Organizational Change: In the turbulence environment marked by cyclical fluctuations and discontinuities, the
nature and pace of changes in organizational environment, activities and structures affect manpower
requirements and require strategic considerations.
Demographic Change: The changing profile of the work force in terms of age, sex, literacy, technical inputs
and social background has implications for HRP.
Skill Shortage: Unemployment does not mean that the labour market is a buyers market. Organizations
generally become more complex and require a wide range of specialist skills that are rare and scare. Problems
arise when such employees leave.
Governmental Influences: Government control and changes in legislation with regard to affirmative action for
disadvantages groups, working conditions and hours of work, restrictions on women and child employment,
causal and contract labour, etc. have stimulated the organizations to be become involved in systematic HRP.
Legislative Control: The policies of hire and fire have gone. Now the legislation makes it difficult to reduce
the size of an organization quickly and cheaply. It is easy to increase but difficult to shed the fat in terms of the
numbers employed because of recent changes in labour law relating to lay-offs and closures. Those responsible
for managing manpower must look far ahead and thus attempt to foresee manpower problems.
Impact of the Pressure Group: Pressure groups such as unions, politicians and persons displaced from land by
location of giant enterprises have been raising contradictory pressure on enterprise management such as internal
recruitment and promotion, preference to employees children, displace person, sons of soil etc.
Systems Approach: The spread of system thinking and advent of the macro computer as the part of the ongoing revolution in information technology which emphasis planning and newer ways of handling voluminous
personnel records.
Lead Time: The log lead time is necessary in the selection process and training and deployment of the
employee to handle new knowledge and skills successfully.