Process to Analyze Changes Needed in HRD Procedures, Policies, and Practices

Introduction

A company is defined by its human resource. In this case, King Company should consider evaluating its HRD procedures, policies, and practices to ensure that its employees develop. Doing this, the company will witness improved workmanship, which will be mutually beneficial to the organization as recorded by Borate et al. (2014) who asserted that employee development is mutually beneficial to the organization and to the employee. This paper will develop a design process that is feasible in the analysis of the changes that are needed in the HRD procedures, policies, and practices.

The Process

To have a functional process, it is important collaborate with the training director Karmen Scholl, to develop a plan that will deliver a functional system capable of handling the budgetary deficit and deliver the intended results. The process will be stepwise and will start with the clarification of the intended output or making a case for the HRD rejuvenation effort. Next, it will be the assessment of conditions in the organization as at now (internal assessment). In the third step, it will be the external environmental scan exercise. Fourth, there will be a comparison of the present strengths and weaknesses to the possible future opportunities and threats. Additionally, possible alternatives will be assessed leading to the last step. Finally, the exercise will culminate in the selection of the right changes to the HRD process. Each of the mentioned steps will be discussed here below.

Step 1: Making a Case for HRD Rejuvenation Effort

            Past mistakes that have shaped the organization and lesson learnt right from the times of Margo Honduras will be reflected upon to ensure that the same mistakes are not replicated. The case must be consistent with the strategic plan of the organization as reflected on the organization’s mission and purpose. Hughes & Byrd (2015) argue that HRD should align with the objectives of the organization even with changing employee behavior. In this case, what the HRD should achieve, how, and why should be included and elaborated in this step. This step will act as a compass to the entire human resource department as well as King Company employees who will find important guidance here. To put it into perspective, sufficient clarification should be made on the following areas of priority;

1. The ‘what’ question. What does HRD want to achieve?
2. In this achievement, what are the roles of different stakeholders, that is employees, human resource department, supervisors, hand senior management.
3. What is known about the current roles of the stakeholders, and how are they performing in their roles?
4. What is the current philosophy and approach of the organization towards HRD. Are the employees contented about it?

Step 2: Internal Assessment

            This step intends to discover the existing gap.. The present conditions of the organization will be assessed comprehensively through a systematic evaluation of the existing conditions. Differences between what members of staff should know concerning HRD and what they actually know will be mapped. Gap training might be necessary to help the HR department in identification of talents, competencies, and skills, harnessed and spread or distributed across the organization using social capital as expressed by Hollenbeck, & Jamieson (2015). Scholl is deeply worried about return on investment, which can be improved using what the firm already has. A plan on how to incorporate the strengths that the firm has should be developed to ensure that everything is leveraged. To properly map the current HRD wealth that Kings Company has, it is important to have a detailed record of the same. The record should capture the employees’ contacts, work position, location, capabilities, and motivation.

            At the same time, there should be an assessment of HRD needs in the company. The assessment of needs should come down to an individual level, which necessitates the development of a tool that will identify these needs from the employees. The assessment of needs should be done at a level where macro (beyond the organization), micro (operational level), and meso (organizational) level are captured.

            With these assessments, it will be possible to identify what capabilities, skills, and competencies an employee holding a specific position should possess and what they are actually possessing. With the identification of this gap, Scholl can therefore make recommendations that have the needed accuracy. As a result, ROI will be great since solutions will be tailor made. The gap identification exercise will also be instrumental in the development of adaptive plans in the future if there will be any changes requiring a response in terms of HRD.

Step 3: Scanning the External Environment

King Company should assess the external environment and establish how the external environment affects its HRD as asserted by Muduli (2015). King Company needs to orient itself with the flow of future HRD practices so that it can retain talent and attract more. Any change that comes with the external environment presents unique opportunities and threats and it is upon the company to get ready. The company needs to identify potential deficiencies that can be expected in future. For instance, being an IT company, the company needs to understand the role of machine learning and automation. This concept when it gains sufficient momentum, the company might be exposed to some problems due to lack of skills required to manage such developments. In this case, it should scan the environment and determine what it needs to do to ensure that it is optimally ready for disruption in the industry.

To effectively determine possible changes, there is need to focus on external events such as exhibitions and also encourage employees to inform the company of the areas they feel will require upgrading of their knowledge as well as those that will be obsolete. It should also be noted that the objectives of the company should be at the heart of such analysis. In the end of this analysis, the firm needs to identify major threats and opportunities posed by the macro environment and might affect career performance, requirements, and progress. Secondly, the analysis should identify what the future status of the company should look like when pitied against the external environment. Companies like Nokia might have missed this step and assumed the impact the environment might have on them, which resulted in the company losing its market share in the telecommunication industry.

Step 4: Compare Present Strengths and Weaknesses to Possible Future Opportunities and Threats

            King Company should be aware that the strengths it possesses are a boost to its probability of being successful if put against competition. The opposite is true; the threats it faces place it at a precarious position when competition is considered. With the knowledge of strengths and weaknesses, the HR department will be capable to know what HRD opportunities to take and which ones to leave. At the end of this comparison, the company should address these two factors. Firstly, what threats and opportunities resulting from environmental changes have a serious effect on important stakeholders, most importantly the employees? Secondly, how does the company want its future to be with respect to important stakeholders?

            By the end of the fourth stage described above, King Company should have the necessary platform to roll out a new HRD, and  the company should come up with the following programs.

1. Curriculum and program for training each specific job class.
2. Curriculum and program for educating employees in readiness for promotion, or to upgrade their skills in readiness for new challenges.
3. A curriculum and program for development, aimed at addressing the areas of concern after comparing strengths and weaknesses to opportunities and threats.
4. Lastly, the organization needs to come up with a curriculum and program for addressing non-employee development. Here, learning experiences that are tailored to correct deficiencies, or develop strengths as far as the company and external stakeholders are concerned.

Step 5: Selecting the Best Alternative for HRD

            With multiple alternatives suitable for consideration when it comes to HRD, the HR department should consider those alternatives that maximize the value to the company. A selection criterion should be developed and followed to deliver the right approach as expressed by Keiffer & Lane (2016). Both long term and short-term strategies should be developed to meet the needs of the organization.

            Once the right alternatives have been settled on, implementation should be conducted in collaboration with everyone including the employees, supervisors and trainers. Periodic evaluation of the adopted strategies should be done to ensure that objectives are being arrived at as expressed by El Mansour & Dean (2016). The plan should feature family members of Don Dean who is the founder and CEO. As such, there will be preservation of motivation to keep the company at its best as advised by Blanco-Mazagatos et al., (2018).

Conclusion

The development of a HRD planning is a serious activity that should be taken seriously. It the primary activity that will affect the motivation of employees, the outlook of the company to the world, the effectiveness, and efficiency that the company will use to arrive to its objectives. As such, King Company needs to follow the above methodology to come up with the most effective HRD programs and practices.

References

Borate, N. S., Gopalkrishna, D., Shiva Prasad, H. C., & Borate, S. L. (2014). A Case Study Approach for Evaluation of Employee Training Effectiveness and Development Program. The International Journal Of Business & Management, 2( 6)

Blanco-Mazagatos, V., de Quevedo-Puente, E., & Delgado-García, J. B. (2018). Human resource practices and organizational human capital in the family firm: The effect of generational stage. Journal of Business Research, 84, 337-348.

El Mansour, B., & Dean, J. C. (2016). Employability skills as perceived by employers and university faculty in the fields of human resource development (HRD) for entry level graduate jobs. Journal of Human Resource and Sustainability Studies, 4(01), 39.

Hollenbeck, J. R., & Jamieson, B. B. (2015). Human capital, social capital, and social network analysis: Implications for strategic human resource management. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 29(3), 370-385.

Hughes, C., & Byrd, M. Y. (2015). Strategic HRD. In Managing Human Resource Development Programs (pp. 75-87). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

Keiffer, G. L., & Lane, F. C. (2016). Propensity score analysis: an alternative statistical approach for HRD researchers. European Journal of Training and Development, 40(8/9), 660-675.

Muduli, A. (2015). High performance work system, HRD climate and organizational performance: An empirical study. European journal of Training and development, 39(3), 239-257.