Strategic Human Resource Development

The human resources department of a company must be well versed in current management trends,
and stay up to date in terms of emergent strategic orientations. The process of human resource
development is based on which executives, managers, or employees conduct daily activities and
maintain a level of enthusiasm among the workforce.

A strategy is the long-term planning that is developed and implemented by top management. These
plans are used to seize opportunities and allocate resources. It includes plans to create new products, to
acquire other companies, to sell unprofitable aspects of the business, to make shares available, and to
enter international markets.

A strategic training process is also used to train executives, managers, and employees. Training prepares
personnel for the dynamics of performance that arise in human behavior. It is done through training
seminars, events, and programs.

Strategic human resource development has multiple benefits, including:

 Increasing extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction
 Boosted customer satisfaction
 Effective and efficient use of resources
 Development of a working environment
 Making human resource development activities proactive and impactful
 Equipping human resources to apply theoretical knowledge practically
 Increasing productivity

How to Develop Your own Effective Strategy

Step 1: Know your company inside and out
Before crafting your strategy, know your organization thoroughly. Understand the organization’s
goals, current positions, current workforce, and workforce strengths. Ask yourself: “Can your
organization’s internal capabilities deliver on its business goals?” To understand the
organizational hierarchy and structure, talk to your employees and find out if they are motivated
and/or if they have challenges.
Step 2: Craft your HR strategy
Once you have identified potential threats and opportunities, it is time to develop a strategy. The
strategy should be simple, yet include all aspects of human resources development. It should also
be communicated to individuals from other departments who must be involved in implementing
the strategy.
Step 3: Resource analysis
Implementation of most HR strategies require a considerate amount of resources. It is important
that you evaluate the company’s current and required monetary and logistic resources. Match the
two and check for deviations. If there is a lack of resources, analyze ways to obtain funding.
Step 4: Implementation
Having the resources and having a perfect strategy would not be worth it if action is not taken.
Implementation is the most important part of a developing a human resources strategy. Putting
your plans into action and seeing the process through to completion is essential.
Step 5: Follow up
Once you start putting your strategy into action, keep track of the progress. Check for changes to
be made along the way. Once you notice any change in performance, or deviation from the plan,
identify the root cause of the issue and ensure it gets correctly in a timely fashion.
Step 6: Corrective Action
Identifying the cause is not enough; you need to take corrective action. Create a backup plan to
ensure that performance results are back on track with the original strategy. In some cases, a
modified strategy may be necessary to reach the desired goal.
Employee orientation is the process of introducing new hires to their jobs, co-workers,
responsibilities, and workplace. It allows employees the chance to feel comfortable within their new
teams, departments, and roles within the company.

Orientation Meeting

New hires will be scheduled to attend an orientation meeting within the first week of employment. The
meeting will be conducted in one full day and will include the following:

Human Resources

 Introduction to the company, its mission, functions and culture.

 Review of company organizational chart.
 Employee handbook review.
 Benefits plan information, discussion and preliminary enrollment.

Safety

Safety and health policies reviews—safety, fire, emergency evacuation, job-related safety issues.

Key Administrative Policies

Anti-harassment policy review and discussion.

Policy reviews—pay periods, travel, personal vehicle use, training requests.

Administrative procedures—security, computer systems and logins, telephone systems, supplies and
equipment.

Department Overviews

 An overview provided by a management representative from each [Company Name]

department about the purpose of and functions within his or her department.
 A discussion led by a management representative from each [Company Name] department
focusing on frequently asked questions as well as individual questions from participating new
hires.
Induction

Induction can be defined as a process of introducing the employee who is newly

elected to the organization. When an employee is given a letter of appointment he
joins the company on duty. The very first thing that the company does is,
introduces the new employee to the organization and people working there.

An induction program may be conducted at a particular center for all employees or

at different places (branches of the company) for different employees. Normally
the new employee is called together to the staff training college for the induction
program.

The induction starts with an introduction secession about the company, number of
branches, a brief history of the company, number of products, number of countries
operating in, organizational structure, culture, values, beliefs, the names of top
management personnel etc.

Induction is a systematic process of familiarizing the new recruits to the

organization functioning so that they become productive in the least possible time.
Induction is the tool to orient the new recruits to various aspects of the
organization and his /her job. The aim of the induction process is to help new
employees make a smooth, positive adjustment to the workplace. Induction enables
the new employee to gain familiarity with the work environment and to acquire a
sense of belonging that will build a commitment to the organization. Recruitment
is an expensive business. It takes time, money and effort to find the right people to
join your team. What a pity it would be to jeopardize this by forgetting the
importance of treating a new employee really well on joining you. Induction is the
process, formal or informal that introduces newcomers to your organisation.
Ideally it should take place as soon as possible after the new member has arrived.
An effective induction process shortens the time it takes to get the new recruit up
to speed. An induction process is not simply for new employees. The same benefits
can be received by staff who have been promoted or transferred or those who have
returned from a long period of absence. Furthermore you should be careful to
include against long term temporary staff, who are entitled to the same training and
development as permanent staff members.

Types of Induction
Basically there are two types of inductions, Formal induction and Informal
induction.

Formal induction is a planned attempt to introduce new employees to the

organization, job and the working environment. This induction type may consume
more time of the superiors to learn and deliver the new employees needs at the
beginning. But this may create new employees less number of errors at the
working period and good coordination among all the parties. At this type of
program, new employee may get know, who are the most experienced person to
have the solution of the particular problem new employee might has. At the very
beginning new employees are having lots of questions as same as kids at small
ages. That is full normal thing and common thing, because the new employee
needs to get know all the things, he may actually needs or not. CEO, GM,
Section/Department Heads, Senior Managers, and Line Managers may involve in
to the formal induction program. (From top management to bottom line). This will
deliver fundamental things that new employees need to know. Advantage of the
formal induction program is organization will have the better chance to win the
new employees’ loyalty at the very beginning. And also new employee will have
the chance to carry his/her works clearly, with less numbers of errors. Also, new
employee will fit to the organizational culture and the work group easily, and
strongly.

Informal induction is not planned and is ad hock. New employees learn through
trial and error method. They get familiar with the work and work environment by
them selves. This induction type will make the stress on new employee at the very
beginning, because of his/her not knowing things at the operations. So in that case,
new employee may leave the organization at the beginning and then the
organization may need to follow all the process of recruiting and new employee to
the organization. Also this method will create a large number of errors making by
new employee and then it may creates big losses to the organization. Those are the
disadvantages of informal induction program. The advantage of informal induction
is, if the new employee survived, then he/she may know the process by his/her
experience, and the later on errors may minimize. But at the beginning the vice
verse thing of above advantage may creates loses, if the new employee unable to
survive at the organization. At the movements which employees couldn’t survive,
there could be see they are leaving organization at the beginning they have joined
to it. So this will creates high labor turn over too.

Executive Development Programme: Concept, Objectives and Methods!

Concepts and objectives:

While drawing a distinction between training and development, we introduced, in

brief, the concept of development. Based on that concept, we can now elaborate it
in more detail. The term ‘development’ implies overall development in a person.
Accordingly, executive development means not only improvement in job
performance, but also improvement in knowledge, personality, attitude,
behaviourism of an executive, etc.

It means that executive development focuses more on the executive’s personal

growth. Thus, executive development consists of all the means that improve his/her
performance and behaviour. Executive development helps understand cause and
effect relationship, synthesizes from experience, visualizes relationships or thinks
logically. That is why some behavioural scientists suggest that the executive
development is predominantly an educational process rather than a training
process.

Flippo has viewed that “executive/management development includes the process

by which managers and executives acquire not only skills and competency in their
present jobs but also capabilities for future managerial tasks of increasing difficulty
and scope”.

According to S.B. Budhiraja, former Managing Director of Indian Oil Corporation.

“Any activity designed to improve the performance of existing managers and to
provide for a planned growth of managers to meet future organisational
requirements is called management development”. It is now clear from the above
definitions of executive/management development that it is based on certain
assumptions.
We can derive these as follows:

1, Executive development, being a predominantly educational process, is a

continuous and life-long process. It is not like training as a one-shot programme
but an on-going continuous programme throughout the career of an executive or
manager.

2. Like any kind of learning, executive development is based on the assumption

that there always exists a gap between what an executive performs and what he/she
can. Executive development harnesses this untapped potential.

Objectives of Executive Development:

The main objectives of any programme of executive development are to:

1. Improve the performance of managers at all levels.

2. Identify the persons in the organisation with the required potential and prepare
them for higher positions in future.

3. Ensure availability of required number of executives / managers succession who

can take over in case of contingencies as and when these arise in future.

4. Prevent obsolescence of executives by exposing them to the latest concepts and

techniques in their respective areas of specialisation.

5. Replace elderly executives who have risen from the ranks by highly competent
and academically qualified professionals.

6. Improve the thought processes and analytical abilities.

7. Provide opportunities to executives to fulfill their career aspirations.

8. Understand the problems of human relations and improve human relation skills.

A Dasgupta has given the level-wise objectives of the executive/ management

development as follows:

(a) Top Management:

1. To improve thought processes and analytical ability in order to uncover and
examine problems and take decisions in the best interests of the country and
organisation;

2. To broaden the outlook of the executive in regard to his role, position and
responsibilities in the organisation and outside;

3. To think through problems this may confront die organisation now or in the
future;

4. To understand economic, technical and institutional forces in order to solve

business problems; and

5. To acquire knowledge about the problems of human relations.

(b) Middle Line Management:

1. To establish a clear picture of executive functions and responsibilities;

2. To bring about an awareness of the broad aspects of management problems, and

an acquaintance with and appreciation of interdepartmental relations.

3. To develop the ability to analyse problems and to take appropriate action;

4. To develop familiarity with the managerial use of financial accounting,

psychology, business statistics;

5. To Inculcate knowledge of human motivation and human relationships; and

6. To develop responsible leadership.

(c) Middle Functional Executives and Specialists:

1. To increase knowledge of business fractions and operations in specific fields in

marketing production, finance, personnel;

2. To increase proficiency in management techniques such as work study,

inventory control, operations research, quality control;

3. To stimulate creative thinking in order to improve methods and procedures;

4. To understand the functions performed in a company;

5. To understand industrial relations problems; and

6. To develop the ability to analyse problems in one’s area or functions.

The process:
Like any learning programme, executive development also involves a
process consisting o) certain steps. Though sequencing these various
steps in a chronological order is difficult, behavioural scientists have
tried to list and sequence them in six steps as shown in figure 11.1

These steps, also called the components of the executive development

programme, have been- discussed in the succeeding paragraphs.

Identifying Development Needs:

Once the launching of an executive development programme (EDP) is
decided, its implementation begins with identifying the developmental
needs of the organisation concern. For this, first of all, the present and
future developmental needs for executives/ managers ascertained by
identifying how many and what type of executives will be required in
the organisation at present and in future.

This needs to be seen in the context of organisational as well as

individual, i.e. manager needs. While organisational needs may be
identified by making organisational analysis in terms of organisation’s
growth plan, strategies, competitive environment, etc., individual
needs to be identified by the individual career planning and appraisal.

Appraisal of Present Managerial Talent:

The second step is an appraisal of the present managerial talent for the
organisation. For this purpose, a qualitative assessment of the existing
executives/managers in the organisation is made. Then, the
performance of every executive is compared with the standard
expected of him.

Inventory of Executive Manpower:

Based on information gathered from human resource planning, an
inventory is prepared to have complete information about each
executive in each position. Information on the executive’s age,
education, experience, health record, psychological test results,
performance appraisal data, etc. is collected and the same is
maintained on cards and replacement tables.

An analysis of such inventory shows the strengths and also discloses

the deficiencies and weaknesses of the executives in certain functions
relative to the future needs of the concern organisation. From this
executive inventory, we can begin the fourth step involved in the
executive development process.

Developing Development Programmes:

Having delineated strengths and weaknesses of each executive, the
development programmes are tailored to fill in the deficiencies of
executives. Such tailormade programmes of development focus on
individual needs such as skill development, changing attitudes, and
knowledge acquisition.

Conducting Development Programmes:

At this stage, the manager actually participates in development
programmes. It is worth mentioning that no single development
programme can be adequate for all managers. The reason is that each
manager has a unique set of physical, intellectual and emotional
characteristics.

As such, there can be different development programmes to uniquely

suit to the needs of an executive/ manager. These development
programmes may be on-the-job or off-the-job programmes organised
either by the organisation itself or by some outside agencies.

Evaluating Development Programmes:

Just as with employee training programme, executive development
programme is evaluated to see changes in behaviour and executive
performance. Evaluation of programme enables to appraise
programme’s effectiveness, highlight its weaknesses and aids to
determine whether the development should be continued or how it can
be improved.