HRD challenges

(a) Culture or attitude: Different countries have different culture and as the world has become a global village HRD Professionals have to face the cultural challenges in different countries or with the employees belonging to the different countries. (b) Technology or skills: The pace of technological development is very high and the new technologies are replacing the older ones quickly. Same is the case with techniques and technologies use for training. An HR professional has to upgrade his skills and knowledge to meet the requirements of the new generation. (c) Values of behaviour: The HRD professionals have to adjust themselves to the emerging new values as principle centric leadership is becoming trend in the corporate world. Values like trust credibility timeliness and the simpler rules are becoming the corners stone of many businesses. (d) Knowledge or information: Enhancement of knowledge is also a big challenge for HRD professional as they have to understand the different philosophies demonstrated at different places in the world. For example the philosophy related to leadership changes dramatically in organizations from different parts of the world (e) Life style or habits: The life style of an employee is also important for HRD professionals because they have to understand the habits of the employees and then decide the training that needs to be imparted for bringing a change in the habits of the employees. (f) Knowledge of new practices: An HRD professional has to be aware of the new practices adopted by the organization around globe. An HRD professional should know about the practices like dignity of individual, retention of employees, leadership by examples, clear conscience relationship with employees share holder, vendors, suppliers, customers and society at large. (g) Environment:

An open environment is required for the success of an organization. The organizational environment should have meritocracy, fearless, justice, speed imagination and accountability. It is the job of the HRD professional to inspire the employee to perform better ones this environment is created in the organization. The field of HRD or Human Resource Development encompasses several aspects of enabling and empowering human resources in organization. Whereas earlier HRD was denoted as managing people in organizations with emphasis on payroll, training and other functions that were designed to keep employees happy, the current line of management thought focuses on empowering and enabling them to become employees capable of fulfilling their aspirations and actualizing their potential. This shift in the way human resources are treated has come about due to the prevailing notion that human resources are sources of competitive advantage and not merely employees fulfilling their job responsibilities. The point here is that the current paradigm in HRD treats employees as value creators and assets based on the RBV or the Resource Based View of the firm that has emerged in the SHRD (Strategic Human resource development) field. The field of HRD spans several functions across the organization starting with employee recruitment and training, appraisals and payroll and extending to the recreational and motivational aspects of employee development. Indeed, one reason for the emergence of the paradigm is that with the advent of the service sector and the greater proportion of companies in the service sector, employees are not merely a factor of production like land, labor and capital but in fact, they are sources of competitive advantage. This is characterized by many CEOs calling employees their chief assets and valuing their contribution accordingly. As a matter of fact, many IT and Financial Services companies routinely refer to employees as the value creators and value enhancers rather than just resources doing their job.

What this has meant is that the field of HRD has become prominent and important for organizations and has morphed into a function that takes its place among other support functions in organizations and indeed, it is the main driver of competitive advantage. Further, the field of HRD now has taken on a role that goes beyond employee satisfaction and instead, the focus now is on ensuring that employees are delighted with the working conditions and perform their jobs according to their latent potential which is brought to the fore. This has resulted in the HRD manager and the employees of the HRD department becoming partners in the organizations progress instead of just yet another line function. Further, the HR managers now routinely interact with the functional managers and the people managers to ensure high levels of job satisfaction and fulfillment. The category of people managers is a role that has been created in many multinational companies like Fidelity and IBM to specifically look into the personality related aspects of employees and to ensure that they bring the best to the table. Finally, HRD is no longer just about payroll or timekeeping and leave tracking. On the other hand, directors of HRD in companies like Infosys are much sought after for their inputs into the whole range of activities spanning the function and they are expected to add value rather than just consume resources. With this introduction, we will be moving into the module covering HRD with each aspect of the HRD function and the associated topics being covered here. It is hoped that the readers would gain an overall perspective about HRD after going through the HRD module. Human resource development used to be considered as other conventional administrative jobs. But over a period of time, it has evolved as a strategic function to improve working environment, plan out human resources needs and strike a balance between the organization and employers in order to increase organizational productivity and meet organizational goals. Not to exaggerate but in todays highly competitive world it has gradually become one of the most important functions of an organization.

It is really a huge challenge to understand the psychology of workforce, retain the best talents of the industry, motivate them to perform better and handle diversity while maintaining unity simultaneously, especially in countries like India, where it is still evolving. Globalization has resulted in many positive developments but it has left many concerns for HR managers. In todays tough world and tight job market, coordinating a multicultural or diverse workforce is a real challenge for HR department. Human resource managers are on their toes to strike a balance between employer and employees keeping in mind the recent trends in the market. They may find themselves in dire consequences if they are not able to handle the human resource challenges efficiently. To remain in business, human resource managers need to efficiently address following human resource challenges:

Handling Multicultural / Diverse Workforce: Dealing with people from different age, gender, race, ethnicity, educational background, location, income, parental status, religious beliefs, marital status and ancestry and work experience can be a challenging task for HR managers. With this, managing people with different set of ideologies, views, lifestyles and psychology can be very risky. Effective communication, adaptability, agility and positive attitude of HR managers can bind the diverse workforce and retain talents in the organization.

Managing Change: Who wants to change their ideology or way of working? Neither you nor I. How can we expect others to change then? Bringing change in organizational processes and procedures, implementing it and then managing it is one of the biggest concerns of HR managers. Business environment is so volatile. Technology keeps changing every now and then. All thanks to globalization. Upgrading the existing technology and training people for them is a real headache for HR department. The success rate of

technology change depends how well HRD can handle the change and manage people issues in the process.

Retaining

the

Talents: Globalization

has

given

freedom

to

working

professionals to work anywhere in the world. Now that they have endless lucrative opportunities to work, hiring and retaining the best industry talent is no joke. Maintaining harmonious relations with them, providing excellent work environment and offering more remuneration and perks than your competitors can retain and motivate them.

Conflict Management: HR managers should know how to handle employeeemployer and employee-employee conflicts without hurting their feelings. Although it is almost impossible to avoid conflicts among people still handling them tactfully can help HR managers to resolve the issues. They should be able to listen to each party, decide and communicate to them in a convincing manner in order to avoid future conflicts.

HR professional must be proactive with all strategies and action plans in order to meet the changing needs of the organization. They must be thorough with the basic functions of HR including planning, organizing, leading and controlling human resources.

The Strategic Roles of Human Resource Development Human resource development (HRD) has served the needs of organizations to provide employees with up-to-date expertise. Advances in HRD models and processes have kept pace with the increasingly sophisticated information and production technologies that continue to diffuse throughout our nation's most vital industries. During this period of rapid technological development, the HRD function could be relied upon to support a broad range of business initiatives that required a competent workforce. Critical business issues, from new marketing strategies to innovations in production technology, were based on, among other factors, the performance capabilities of those expected to use these new work systems. As a factor integral to business success, employee expertise itself has been expanded through effective programs of employee

development. Expertise is defined as the optimal level at which a person is able and/or expected to perform within a specialized realm of human activity (Swanson, 1994). In short, the development of workplace expertise through HRD has been vital to optimal business performance. Yet today's business environment requires that HRD not only support the business strategies of organizations, but that it assume a pivotal role in the shaping of business strategy. Business success increasingly hinges on an organization's ability to use employee expertise as a factor in the shaping of business strategy. This article examines the strategic roles of HRD. As a primary means of sustaining an organization's competitive edge, HRD serves a strategic role by assuring the competence of employees to meet the organization's present performance demands. Along with meeting present organizational needs, HRD also serves a vital role in shaping strategy and enabling organizations to take full advantage of emergent business strategies. Both the strategy supporting and strategy shaping roles of HRD have distinctive features that are evident in the business practices of successful companies. This article examines the origins and distinctive features of the strategic roles of HRD, and illustrates these roles with examples from today's most innovative organizations. HRD to Support Business Objectives The HRD function has long been relied upon to support a broad range of business objectives that require competent employees. Business objectives themselves are almost as diverse in nature as the wide range of organizations that articulate them. Business objectives can span long- and short-term time frames, and can focus on broad business issues (e.g., diversification in the defense industry in the post-cold war era) and more specific issues (e.g., reduction of employee turnover in company field offices). The rationale for using HRD interventions to support business objectives is quite straightforward: Enhancing employee expertise through HRD increases the likelihood that business objectives will be achieved (Jacobs and Jones, 1995; Swanson, 1994).

There are numerous examples of how HRD is used to support business objectives. Indeed, most HRD programs referred to as somehow having "strategic" value assume roles that are supportive of a given business strategy. The education and training used to support business objectives at Motorola is typical of the challenges and opportunities faced by many organizations in today's business environment. What Motorola discovered earlier than most organizations that began introducing new sophisticated technologies into the workplace was that their employees did not have the skills to make full use of the technologies. Companies that compete in the fast-paced communications market where customers are particularly innovation-conscious must deliver high-quality, reliable products despite short product development cycles. Motorola sought production advantages through both the integration of new technology and the development of employee expertise. Motorola offers on- and off-site classroom education and training, laboratory training, and structured training in the workplace for employees at all levels of the organization. In addition to supporting Motorola's successful pursuit of its business objectives, many of its education and training initiatives serve as examples of best practices against which other organizations' HRD functions benchmark their performance. Thus, Motorola provides an early and influential example of HRD used to support business objectives. Many additional cases in which HRD supports the implementation of business strategy can be cited. Training and other initiatives associated with total quality management have been critical in transforming marginal manufacturing plants into successful facilitie. HRD continues to be a primary vehicle for assuring mandated levels of employee competence and public safety in highly regulated sectors like the nuclear power industry. Several leading corporations consider the value added through state-of-the-art employee expertise so important to their operations that they have created extensive internal systems for providing education and training.

HRD, Expertise, and Strategy HRD is moving beyond a role that is exclusively supportive of business strategy. Increasingly, HRD is assuming a more influential role at the point of strategy formulation and is becoming one of the key determinants of business strategy. Successful business strategies increasingly turn on the organization's ability to apply state-of-the-art expertise to new and emerging business opportunities. In today's marketplace, organizations that possess or can quickly achieve the levels of employee expertise required to meet emerging business needs will win; those that don't will be left behind. This rapidly changing business environment requires a dynamic strategic planning process and flexible use of resources. As will be demonstrated in this article, HRD has assumed a formative role in both the strategic planning process and in developing innovative, competent human resources. However, present conceptions of the strategic role of HRD, if HRD is even thought of in a strategic context at all, view it in a role that is simply supportive of a given strategy. Strategies for product innovation or cost leadership, for example, are usually conceived and adopted by the organization, and when implementation constraints surface, only then is formal consideration given to employee expertise and the training implications of the strategy. Although the role HRD serves in support of strategy is necessary and important to operational success, HRD can offer an organization even greater strategic value. This section lays the groundwork for demonstrating a more influential role for HRD in becoming an important determinant in the formulation of strategy. First, two factors that have had a major influence on expanding HRD's strategic role are examined. These two forces are: (a) the centrality of information technology to business success; and (b) the sustainable competitive advantage offered by workforce expertise. Although not always obvious, there is a natural fit between initiatives for developing employee expertise and the organization's strategic direction. This "HRD - business strategy linkage" is the basis for HRD's influential role as shaper of strategy.

The main functions of HRD are:What is human resource development? A human resource development is set of planned and systematic activities designed by an organization to provide opportunities to its members to learn skills necessary for the present and future job requirements. The process of HRD involves the development of expertise in the employee through organizational development and training and development. The aim of HRD is to improve the performance of the employees. The three main areas of human resource development are human resource development, quality improvement and career development.

1. Training and development Training and development is aimed at improving or changing the knowledge skills and attitudes of the employees. While training involves providing the knowledge and skills required for doing a particular job to the employees, developmental activities focus on preparing the employees for future job responsibilities by increasing the capabilities of an employee which also helps him perform his present job in a better way. These activities start when an employee joins an organization in the form of orientation and skills training. After the employee becomes proficient, the HR activities focus on the development of the employee through methods like coaching and counseling.

2 Organization development OD is the process of increasing the effectiveness of an organization along with the well being of its members with the help of planned interventions that use the concepts of behavioral science. Both micro and macro changes are implemented to achieve organization development. While the macro changes are intended to improve the overall effectiveness of the organization the micro changes are aimed at individuals of small groups. Employee involvement programmes requiring fundamental changes in work expectation, reporting, procedures and reward systems are aimed at improving the effectiveness of the organization. The human

resource development professional involved in the organization development intervention acts as an agent of change. He often consults and advising the line manager in strategies that can be adopted to implement the required changes and sometimes becomes directly involve in implementing these strategies.

3. Career development It is a continuous process in which an individual progresses through different stages of career each having a relatively unique set of issues and tasks. Career development comprises of two distinct processes. Career Planning and career management. Whereas career planning involves activities to be performed by the employee, often with the help of counselor and others, to assess his capabilities and skills in order to frame realistic career plan. Career management involves the necessary steps that need to be taken to achieve that plan. Career management generally focus more on the steps that an organization that can take to foster the career development of the employees.

Importance of Human Resource Development

Growth of organisation: Growth of organisation is associated with the development of its workforce. In changing situation HRD must be viewed as the total system interrelated and interacting with other systems at work: production, finance, and marketing.

Development of work culture: The need of HRD is felt as it improves the efficiency of employees, checks monotony at work, better communication, development of mutual cooperation and creativity of all the members comes into limelight.

Developing potentialities: The focus of HRD manager essentially is on enabling people to self-actualise through a systematic approach by which their existing talents are further developed.

Growth of employees: HRD is associated with growth of employees. It helps employees to know their strengths and weaknesses and enable them to improve their performance. The management should provide adequate opportunity for the

development of human resource development for the development of their talents so that their development will benefits the organizational growth.

The effective performance of an organization depends not just on the available resources, but its quality and competence as required by the organization from time to time. The difference between two nations largely depends on the level of quality of human resources. Similarly, the difference in the level of performance of two organizations also depends on utilization value of human resources. Moreover, the efficiency of production process and various areas of management depend to a greater extent on the level of human resources development. The term human resources refers to the knowledge, skills, creative abilities, talents, aptitude, values and beliefs of an organizations work force. The more important aspects of human resources are aptitude, values, attitudes and beliefs. The vitality of HR to a nation and to an industry depends upon the level of its development. For the organization to be dynamic, growthoriented and fast-changing it should develop their HR. Though the positive personnel policies and programs motivate the employees, buy their commitment and loyalty but these efforts cannot keep the organization dynamic. Organization to be dynamic should possess dynamic human resources. Human resources to be dynamic acquire capabilities continuously adopt the values and beliefs and aptitude in accordance with changing requirements of the organization. Similarly, when employees use their initiative, take risks, experiment, innovate and make things, happen, the organization may be said to have an enabling culture. The competent human resources can be dynamic in an enabling culture. Thus, the organization can develop, change and excel, only if it possess developed human resources. Thus, HRD plays significant role in making the human resources vital, useful and purposeful.

Ten Reasons Why the Human Resources Department Is Important For small businesses and large conglomerates alike, the human resources or personnel function can be helpful for much more than simply processing payroll or handling the open enrollment season once a year. Human resources plays an essential role in developing a company's strategy as well as handling the employee-centered activities of an organization.

Human Capital Value Having an in-house human resources function is important. An in-house human resources staff or a human resources expert on staff can increase the understanding of how important human capital is to the company's bottom line. For small businesses, in particular, human capital is critical because so many smaller firms have employees who perform cross-functional duties. With a smaller workforce, if just one person leaves, it leaves the company with a huge gap to fill and a potential threat to the company's profitability.

Budget Control Human resources curbs excessive spending through developing methods for trimming workforce management costs, which includes negotiating better rates for benefits such as health care coverage. In addition, human resources ensures competitive and realistic wage-setting based on studying the labor market, employment trends and salary analysis based on job functions. As some small businesses have budget constraints, this human resources function is especially helpful.

Conflict Resolution Workplace conflict is inevitable, given the diversity of personalities, work styles, backgrounds and levels of experience among employees. A human resources manager or a staff person specially trained to handle employee relations matters can identify and resolve conflict between two employees or a manager and employee and restore positive working relationships.

Training and Development Human resources conducts needs assessments for the organization's current workforce to determine the type of skills training and employee development necessary for improving skills and qualifications. Companies in the beginning or growth phases can benefit from identifying training needs for existing staff. It's much less expensive than the cost to hire additional staff or more qualified candidates. In addition, it's a strategy that also can reduce turnover and improve employee retention.

Employee Satisfaction Human resources specialists usually are charged with the responsibility of determining the level of employee satisfaction -- often an ambiguous measurement at best. With carefully designed employee surveys, focus groups and an exit interview strategy, human resources determines what underlies employee dissatisfaction and addresses those issues to motivate employees.

Cost Savings The cost to hire new or replacement workers, including training and ramp-up time, can be exorbitant for employers, especially small businesses. With a well-constructed recruitment and selection process, the human resources function can minimize expenses regarding advertising job postings, training new employees and enrolling new employees in benefits plans.

Performance Improvement Human resources develops performance management systems. Without a human resources staff person to construct a plan that measures performance, employees can wind in jobs that aren't suitable for their skills and expertise. Additionally, employees whose performance falls below the employer's expectations can continue on the payroll, thereby creating wasted money on low-performing employees.

Sustaining Business Through succession planning that human resources develops, the company identifies employees with the promise and requisite capabilities to eventually transition into leadership roles with the company. This is an important function as it can guarantee the organization's stability and future success.

Corporate Image Businesses want to be known as the "employer of choice." Employers of choice are the companies that receive recognition for the way they treat employees; they are the companies for whom people want to work. Becoming an employer of choice means human resources balances recruiting the most qualified applicants, selecting the most suitable candidates and retaining the most talented employees.

Steadfast Principles Human resources ensures the workforce embraces the company's philosophy and business principles. From the perspective of a small business, creating a cohesive work environment is imperative. The first opportunity human resources has to accomplish this is through wise hiring decisions that identify desirable professional traits, as well as orientation and on-boarding programs.