Free Custom «Human Resource Development» Essay Paper

This report explores Human Resource Development (HRD) aspects of Global Industries and the role the HRD plays within the company. Moreover, the report evaluates the contribution of HRD to Global Industries. Finally, the report examines HRD related issues that are likely to confront the company in the near future and the main areas that the company’s HRD should focus its effort.

Introduction

Human Resource Development (HRD) is a very important aspect of any given organization, regardless of the industry within which the organization operates (Hassan 2007). Companies achieve their objectives by manipulating factors of production, which include labor. The human resource department provides organizations with labor. Among all other resources, human resources are the most valuable because they utilize other resources to meet the set targets. Therefore, their tapping and development is indispensable. Global industries, being a manufacturer and distributor of products can benefit immensely from its internal Human Resource Development.

Discussion and Analysis

The reason why HRD is indispensable, especially by Global Industries is its role in the performance of the company’s core businesses. Since the company deals with manufactured products, their quality determines how well they are accepted by the customers. Moreover, there are many competitors who are fighting for the same market share as the global industries. All the companies competing in the same industry as Global Industries use relatively the same materials and processes. Therefore, the only aspect of Global Industries that can differentiate it from competitors is how well its human resources are developed. HRD is not a luxury, but a necessity in both times of recession and good economic performance (Bell 2012). The main role played by HRD in Global industries is developing competitive advantage. The advantage stems from competences that are only specific to Global Industries, developed by the Human Resource Development department. Such competences cannot be outsourced because corporations providing outsourcing services do so to all organizations in a similar manner (Smith 2006). As such, no organization can derive competitive advantage from the outsourcing practice. The importance of having a Human Resource Development department has constantly competed with the availability of outsourcing opportunities, especially during hard economic times. However, the role of outsourcing cannot downplay that of having an in-house HRD. Those who favor outsourcing argue that it is cheaper. However, the cost benefits are short term because competencies are lost in the long run due to reduced staff morale. In the case of Global industries, the morale will be lost because the established culture of learning will be abolished, forcing employees to adjust to new methods and people during training. Reduced employee morale increases chances of employee turnover. Therefore, an internal HRD for Global Industries plays the role of employee development and retention. Training and development carried out within the organization provide employees with a rare opportunity of learning through experience, in a familiar setting. Moreover, internal employee development considers individual employees’ needs and is, therefore, able to train them to perfection by devising customized programs (Brooks and Nafukho 2006). On the contrary, outsourced staff development programs are general and may not serve the specific needs of an organization.

The value of HRD should not be evaluated on the basis of the money that directly accrues from it, but rather from a general perspective (Raidén and Dainty 2006). Training and developing employees internally can add value to an organization. During the recession, the benefits of developing and training employees internally may not be realized due to the hardship the company experiences. However, an organization that is able to develop its employees during a recession is able to maintain their motivation. Consequently, when economic conditions become favorable, the organization will perform better than its competitors who may have a lowly motivated staff. Customer satisfaction is a value that many organizations yearn for because it is a source of profitability and sustainability. For an organization to satisfy customers, it must provide them with quality products and services. To produce quality products and services, employees must have the latest skills and knowledge (Foster and Akdere 2007). These skills and knowledge can only be ensured by having a HRD within an organization. Global industries can, therefore, benefit by taking the lead in performance after the recession by currently maintaining its HRD. The team building activities that seem valueless at the moment hold the organization together by enhancing its teamwork.  This teamwork gives employees a sense of belonging even in hard economic times. When employees in other organizations are lowly motivated, employees in Global industries can remain focused to their work due to the presence of HRD that binds them together. Increased performance is likely to be achieved in such an environment, which may lead to profitability that has eluded the organization currently.

Following the current consideration to eliminate the Global Industries’   HRD, there are issues that might potentially arise in the future. First, outsourcing training and development gives the service providers access to the company’s confidential information such as pay structure, competency levels and aspects that make the company competitive (Tomé 2011). This information may be transferred to competitors, which may lead to Global Industries losing competitive advantage. Moreover, relying on outsourcing for training and development puts the company at a high risk. If the company providing the training collapse of cedes to provide them, Global Industries will take long before getting an alternative means of developing and training its employees. At this time, performance will reduce, and profitability will decline. The rate of employee turnover is likely to go up since employees are detached from the organization due to a disintegrated culture (Hassan, Hashim and Ismail, 2006). Consequently, the organization is likely to lose talent to competitors, which will be costly to replace. The critical areas that HRD should focus on in the next 3-5 years include building employee competencies, safeguarding information regarding the key competencies and maintaining the morale of the employees. This focus will ensure that once the recession is over, employees are in their best form of performance.

Conclusion

In summary, the HRD is a necessity that Global Industries cannot afford to lose despite the hard economic conditions. HRD plays a very important role in Global industries such as improving product quality, gaining competitive advantage and increasing the morale of employees. HRD adds value in the form of skills and customer satisfaction to the organization. Issues such as losing confidential information, collapsing of outsourcing providers and low profitability are likely to confront the Company in the near future. Focus should be on dealing with these issues.