What is role of HRD Professional?

The roles played by two types of. HRD professionals: the HRD executive/manager and the HRD practitioner. The HRD Executive/Manager The HRD executive/manager has primary responsibility for all HRD activities. This person must integrate the HRD programs with the goals and strategies of the organization, and normally assumes a leadership role in the executive development Program, if one exists. If the organization has both an HRM and an HRD executive, the HRD executive must work closely with the HRM executive. The HRD executive often serves as an adviser to the chief executive officer and other executives. The outputs of this role include long-range plans and strategies, policies, and budget allocation schedules. One of the important tasks of the HRD executive is to promote the value of HRD as a means of ensuring that organizational members have the competencies to meet current and future job demands. If senior managers do not understand the value of HRD, it will be difficult for the HRD executive to get their commitment to HRD efforts and to justify the expenditure of funds during tough times. Historically, during financial difficulties, HRD programs (and HRM, in general) have been a major target of costcutting efforts. Unless the HRD executive establishes a clear relationship between HRD expenditures and organizational effectiveness (including profits), HRD programs will not receive the support they need. But how does an HRD executive who wants to offer a program on stress management, for example, compete with a line manager who wants to purchase a new piece of equipment? With change in the organizational environment the roles played by the HRD professionals has also undergone a change. At present the HRD Professionals are playing the following roles. They Act as Strategic adviser (1) to help the decision makers on issues related with HRD. They also play the role of an HR systems designer (2) and developer by assisting the HR management in designing and developing HR systems in an organization to increase its performance. They also act as organizational change agents (3) by helping the management in designing and implementing change strategies to transform the organization. The result is more efficient work teams, intervention strategies, and quality management and change reports. They also play the role of organization design consultant (4) when they advised the management on work systems design and efficient use of available human resources. HR professionals work as instructional designer or learning programme (5) specialist when they identify the needs of the employees and develop and design the required learning programmes. They also prepare materials and other learning aids for these programmes An HRD professional dons the role of career counselor (6) when he assists individual employees in assessing their knowledge and skills to development realistic career development plan for the employee. They play the role of a coach or a performance

consultant (7) when they advised line managers about the appropriate intervention designed to improve the performance of the group or an individual. HRD Professionals act as researchers (8) when they assess the human resource development practices and programmes with the help of appropriate statistical procedure to find out their effectiveness and then they communicate the results to the top level management

What are the challenges faced by HRD professionals?

The common challenges faced by HRD professionals are: Culture or attitude: Different countries have different cultures 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 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. 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. 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 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 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, and leadership by examples, clear conscience relationship with employees share holder, vendors, suppliers, customers and society at large

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

HRD Functions
Functions of HRD Professionals The process of HRD consists of 4 basic functions: Acquisition of human resources Process of identifying and employing people possessing required level of skills Job Analysis HRP Recruitment Selection

Development of human resources

Process of improving, Moulding and changing the skills, knowledge and ability of an employee Employee Training Management Development Career Development Motivation of human resources

Process of integrating people into a work situation in a way that it encourages them to perform / deliver to the best of their ability Understanding needs Designing motivators

Monitoring Maintenance of human resources

Process of providing employees the working conditions that help maintain their motivation and commitment to the organisation Satisfaction Levels Retention

Developing HR Strategies: Steps to build up HR Strategy

Step 1: Get the big picture Understand the business strategy.

Highlight the key driving forces of the business. What are they? e.g. technology, distribution, competition, the markets. What are the implications of the driving forces for the people side of the business? What is the fundamental people contribution to bottom line business performance?

Step 2: Develop a Mission Statement or Statement of Intent That relates to the people side of the business. Do not be put off by negative reactions to the words or references to idealistic statements it is the actual process of thinking through the issues in a formal and explicit manner that is important.

What do organizational people contribute?

Step 3: Conduct a SWOT analysis of the organization Focus on the internal strengths and weaknesses of the people side of the business.

Consider the current skill and capability issues.

Vigorously research the external business and market environment. Highlight the opportunities and threats relating to the people side of the business.

What impact will/ might they have on business performance? Consider skill shortages?

The impact of new technology on staffing levels?

From this analysis you then need to review the capability of your personnel department. Complete a SWOT analysis of the department consider in detail the departments current areas of operation, the service levels and competences of your personnel staff. Step 4: Conduct a detailed human resources analysis Concentrate on the organizations COPS (culture, organization, people, HR systems)

Consider: Where we are now? Where do we want to be? What gaps exists between the reality of where we are now and where we want to be?

Step 5: Determine critical people issues Go back to the business strategy and examine it against your SWOT and COPS Analysis

Identify the critical people issues namely those people issues that you must address. Those, which have a key impact on the delivery of the business strategy. Prioritize the critical people issues. What will happen if you fail to address them?

Step 6: Develop consequences and solutions For each critical issue highlight the options for managerial action generate, elaborate and create dont go for the obvious. This is an important step as frequently people jump for the known rather than challenge existing assumptions about the way things have been done in the past. Think about the consequences of taking various courses of action. Consider the mix of HR systems needed to address the issues. Do you need to improve communications, training or pay? What are the implications for the business and the personnel function? Once you have worked through the process it should then be possible to translate the action plan into broad objectives. These will need to be broken down into the specialist HR Systems areas of:

Employee training and development Management development Organization development Performance appraisal Employee reward Employee selection and recruitment Manpower planning Communication

Develop your action plan around the critical issues. Set targets and dates for the accomplishment of the key objectives. Step 7: Implementation and evaluation of the action plans The ultimate purpose of developing a human resource strategy is to ensure that the objectives set are mutually supportive so that the reward and payment systems are integrated with employee training and career development plans

HRD Climate and HRD Culture

The organizational climate consists of Organisational Structure An organizations structure is actually a snapshot of a work process, frozen in time so that it can be viewed. The structure enables the peoples energy to be focused towards process achievement and goal achievement. Employee must have a clear definition of not only the work structure but also the role used to organize the work. If the structure and the role is not clear, people will not know what the work process is, who is responsible for what, whom to go for help and decision, and who can Assist in solving problems that may arise. Organisational culture It is the pattern of beliefs, knowledge, attitudes, and customs that exists within an organisation. Organizational culture may result in part from senior management beliefs or from the beliefs of employees. Organizational culture can be supportive or unsupportive, positive or negative. It can affect the ability or willingness of employees to adapt or perform well within the organisation The most effective work culture is one that supports the organizations HR strategies by aligning behaviors, processes and methods with the desired results. It is not just achieving results but the methods through which they are achieved that are critical to long-term success. Before any HR strategy is designed there must be a clear understanding of the organisation, its current values, its structure, its people as well as its goals and vision for the future HR Processes: The HR system of an organisation should be comprehensive enough to take care of employees from the time they join till the time they leave HR. Their demands must not be ignored, but a feeling of belongingness be created. Process should be very clear and impartial, so that employees faith in organisation. From recruitment to retirement whole process should be according to employees expectation and ability of employee

The HRD Culture Have The Following Characteristics

It should be a learning culture. It should facilitate the identification of new competencies of people (individual, dyads, and teams) on the continuous basis. It should facilitate bringing out the hidden potential and new talents of people. It should help in developing new competencies. It should have in-built motivational values in other words, it should have a selfsustaining motivational quality. People are committed to what they do and they need not be told to act. They act It should enable people to take initiative and experiment. Initiative and experimentation are the corner stones for development. They enable individuals, teams and organizations to discover new potential in them. It should bring joy and satisfaction in work. Work should not become drudgery. It is made enjoyable by a good work culture. Relationship matter and have an enabling capability. It should enhance creativity and problem-solving capabilities of people. It should create team spirit and morale. It should enhance the action orientation of individual, dyads and teams.

The HRD Culture Have the Following elements:

Openness Collaboration Trust and trust worthiness Authenticity Proactive Autonomy Confrontation Experimentation

Measuring HRD Climate Economic condition An organizations economic condition influences its culture in several ways. The more prosperous an organisation is the more it can afford to spend on research and the more it can afford to risk and be adventurous. Leadership Style:

An organisation leadership style plays a profound role in determining several aspects of its culture. An authoritarian style may make the organizations culture characterized by high position structure, low individual autonomy, low reward orientation, low warmth and support and so on, or it may be opposite, like goal directed leadership. Managerial assumption about human nature: Every act on the part of the management that involves human beings is predicated upon assumptions, generalizations and hypotheses relating to human behaviour. There are two theories of behaviour (Theory X and Theory Y). Managerial values and ethos: The feeling of managers about norms and values what is good and what is poor as management practice. There are few dimensions on which it can be checked. They are self-awareness, risk-taking, participation, bureaucracy, equity, employees security and growth. Organisation size: A small organizations there are few levels of management, these are generally more amenable to democratic and participative functioning than big organisations. More open communication system in small organisations. Hence these organisations have a different type of climate than what are in big organization