Human resource development (HRD) refers to the organization’s plan to help employees develop their abilities, skills, and knowledge. In return, this process enhances the organization’s efficiency.
Generally speaking, human resource development ensures the effectiveness and advancement of individual employees, collective departments, and the organization itself.

HR professionals focus on three primary aspects of human resource development in the HR life cycle:
1. Training and development - improving knowledge and skills necessary for a future role or responsibilities
2. Organization development - improving organizational effectiveness and well-being through macro and micro changes
3. Career development - improving individual career planning and management

In an HR department, there are seven key human resource development functions:

1. Manpower planning, recruitment, and retention
Strategic staffing is the foundation for building a qualified workforce. Manpower planning, recruitment, and retention are top among human resource management concerns and critical to long-term business success.
While HR departments should aim to recruit and retain the best possible candidates, it’s important to remember they may not be the candidate with the most experience.
Employee development will help close any skills gaps, so when you’re forecasting and planning your human resource needs, don’t rely on finding the right person or tapping into the right talent supply. Plan for development that can help you attract and retain them as well, especially in these competitive labor markets.

2. Succession planning and talent management
Development programs can also help future-proof your organization’s productivity through succession planning
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. This talent management strategy involves identifying critical roles across an organization and training employees to take on these positions in the future.
Organizations will always experience turnover. Formal succession training and informal career coaching are effective contingency planning strategies to ensure your workforce will always have someone on hand with the knowledge and skills to perform critical tasks.
These strategies for talent management have the added benefit of engaging employees with their own growth and can help foster relationships between employees.

3. Policy and procedures
HRD requires identifying the needs of your business and developing suitable policies and procedures to meet them. This is achievable through a cycle of creating, launching, monitoring and improving initiatives for development.
HR departments must engage in collecting feedback and reporting on these policies and procedures to be certain their initiatives meet the needs of employees as well as organizations and their own departmental goals.
As part of the information gathering and planning stages, be sure to define these goals and measurements so you can launch your initiatives successfully.

4. Performance management system
A performance management system
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aims primarily to ensure your workforce's alignment with your company’s strategic goals. Such systems combine methodologies and technologies that measure and develop employees' performance.
They are effective tools for continuously monitoring and improving development plans, as well as other aspects of performance management. HR professionals need to understand their system’s capabilities and define procedures for using them for development.

5. Compensation and benefits program
Compensation and benefits refer to two distinct concepts. Compensation refers to the cash return employees receive in the form of salaries or wages. Benefits, or fringe benefits
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, are the various forms of non-cash rewards.
HR teams can use both to provide professional development opportunities through funding for classes, procurement of learning platforms, or the creation of internal training.
On top of their wages, your employees want peer recognition, autonomy, and other perks. Development opportunities are among one of the top perks applicants are seeking.
Therefore, following a solid human resource development plan can lure great talents who seek ongoing learning opportunities. This way, you can attract, maintain, motivate, and support your employees.

6. Employer brand communication and employee engagement
Employer branding is the process of creating a company profile or brand that attracts future employees. Human resource development enables you to let your employees do the branding for you.
Interestingly, you can’t create a powerful employer brand without investing in your current employees. We recommend that you establish a healthy culture of inclusion, trust, engagement, and diversity. This way, your employees can do the branding for you.

What are some examples of human resource development?

Human resource development can be done formally or informally. Here’s a list of formal and informal human resource development ideas:

Formal human resource development examples
* Tuition assistance
* Work-related college courses
* Personalized development plan
* Organizational training sessions
* Internal training with consultants or qualified staff members

Informal human resource development examples
* Mentoring by managers or more experienced employees
* Managerial coaching
* Cross-training with highly trained employees

4 priority topics for formal internal training

1. Sexual harassment and discrimination prevention
There’s an ever-increasing body of legal imperatives related to sexual harassment
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and discrimination
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in the workplace.
In turn, this has caused a sharp increase in the popularity of training for the prevention of such cases.

2. Risk management and safety
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration
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(OSHA) requires every organization to provide its employees, even temporary ones, with safety orientation training.
This ensures the rights and safety of every employee.

3. Supervisor training
Supervisor training provides important development opportunities for both senior and new staff.
It allows your qualified employees to polish their knowledge while delivering the training to the new ones.

4. Equal employment opportunity and diversity training
A solid program to motivate diversity and ensure equal opportunities in the workplace can help your business reach its strategic goals.
In fact, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Committee (EEOC) offers strong training courses in this field that you can benefit from.

5 benefits of human resource development

1. Attracting only the best
A company’s human resource development plan can be a major attraction to the best employees in the market. Generally speaking, career-oriented employees are always in search of new opportunities to develop and sharpen their skills.
In fact, a 2019 report found 86% of U.S. employees
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said they would leave a position for an organization with development opportunities. And that was before the pandemic changed professional development
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approaches and the Great Resignation made learning and development a priority
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for many organizations.

2. Increasing loyalty and satisfaction
The goal isn’t only to attract but also to retain talents. Job markets are incredibly dynamic. Therefore, you need to keep an edge to keep your ideal employees. This can be done by investing in them through human resource development opportunities.
Encouraging and improving your employees can be crucial to increase their loyalty and job satisfaction
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. As such, they’re more likely to remain with you.
SHRM found 86% of employees
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believed career development was important to their overall job satisfaction.

3. Prepare for the future
Human resource development helps prepare employees for future posts. It allows them to develop new attitudes, skills, and knowledge to take on leadership positions.
On top of that, it helps you identify your employees’ strengths and weaknesses to create effective company succession planning strategies.

4. Raising the bar
Constant training and development can boost the performance level for the entire organization. In other words, a well-trained workforce excels and thus raises the business itself.
That’s mainly because human resource development fosters commitment and alters their attitude towards change with their new enhanced capabilities.

5. Fostering healthy relations
Investing in your human resources can be a great way to foster healthy relationships
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in the workplace. In short, creating an encouraging and ongoing learning environment increases a sense of respect and trust between you and your employees.
Moreover, such development plans promote the employees’ participation. This, in turn, enhances team spirit, allowing for a healthier workplace.

5 tips for effective HRD

1. Consistent check-ins
To foster an ongoing learning environment, we recommend that you arrange consistent sessions with a facilitator or a consultant for internal training, coaching, or simple check-ins on progress and goals.
For informal development, weekly meetings can easily be coordinated between the mentor and employee. When planning a formal or internal training cadence, aim for weekly meetings over a set number of weeks with milestones employees can plan around.
Note that internal training entails a presenter who’s familiar with your workplace spirit, language, and culture.

2. Baby steps
We recommend that you give your employees a reasonable amount of information to process. Don’t overwhelm them with new ideas and skills or you’ll increase their overall workload, risking burnout and limited retention or engagement with the training.
Pace your program and provide employees with different approaches to learning to accommodate schedules, learning styles, and their individual development goals.
Besides, when you provide employees with a manageable amount of data, they can easily implement them, showing you immediate development.

3. Constant feedback
Feedback is a two-way process, meaning, it should be constantly given and received.
Mentors and supervisors need to give employees consistent feedback to help them implement their newly acquired knowledge. They should similarly ask for feedback from employees.
HR teams should also request employee feedback on their programs and procedures. Their honest reflection can help you enhance your human development programs. Consider sending out pulse surveys to regularly collect feedback organization-wide about existing policies and desired development opportunities.

4. People are different
When performing a development plan, you should bear in mind that people learn differently. For instance, some employees may be able to grasp concepts through spoken information or visual aids. However, others need a more hands-on approach to fully understand ideas.
We said it before, but it’s worth repeating. You need to accommodate the different learning styles, which may involve helping employees design their own path for development.

5. Show appreciation
Your employees need to feel appreciated. Thus, we recommend that you use simple gestures of recognition and appreciation such as certificates, badges, or even verbal reaffirmation.
This way, you both encourage progressing employees and entice the rest to work harder. Doing so creates a strong workforce of life-long learners.
When planning learning initiatives, be sure to think about how to incorporate acknowledgment into your plan and communicate that need with key leaders.
Looking for an employee recognition program that not only moves the needle on your HRD metrics but also lifts employees to their full potential?

What’s the difference between HRD and HRM?

* HRM focuses on administrative aspects while HRD focuses on learning and improving performance.
* The goal of HRM aims at improving employees, while HRD aims at the benefit of the entire organization.
* HRM is for the HR department, but HRD is for managers.
* HRM relies on financial motivation, but HRD motivates by appreciation and development.

What are the 4 types of training?

1. Induction Training: the essential introduction given by the supervisor to ease the transition of new employees.
2. Job Training: typically given by a senior employee about the specifics of a certain job.
3. Training for Promotion: targets existing employees to prepare them for higher roles.
4. Refresher Training: short seminars to help employees update their knowledge in their field.

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