Bonus Assignment

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Human Resource Planning A process which anticipates and maps out the consequences of business strategy on an organization's human resources. This is reflected in planning of skill and competence needs as well as total headcounts. Effective and efficient managing of staff requires a broad process called known as Human Resource Planning. It constitute one of the major strategies to enhance and improve work performances, this it does by removing deficiencies and prevent deficiencies from occurring. Human Resource Planning helps the organization to tap efficiently talents which will help to integrate both the individual and organizational goal. This will consequently minimize some of the problem associated with low productivity absenteeism and labor turn over. These reasons have made Human Resource Planning to become a major objective in organizations. 1. The process of Human Resource Planning include analysis of level of skill in the organization (skill inventory) analysis of current and expected vacancies due to retirement, discharges, transfers, promotions; sick leaves, leaves of absence or other reasons and analysis of current and expected expansions as pointed out by 2. This also indicates that plan has to be made internally by the Human Resources for training and development of present employee, for advertising job opening recruiting and hiring new people. 3. A good Human Resource Planning must respond appropriately to the rapid changing in the society and must go beyond forecasting to all aspect of Personnel Management. Focus of Human Resource Planning
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The process of matching future organizational requirement with the supply of properly qualified, committed and experience staff in the right place at the right time. These staff can be drawn from both the internal and external labor market This requires a focus on the following: An assessment of future product market trends and requirement. A specification of the type and numbers of staff required to satisfy these product market trends and requirement. An estimate of the type and number of staff likely to be employed by the organization in five years. A specification of the number/type of staff to be recruited or made redundant. A development plan for restraining and re-focusing existing staff and, if appropriate, for recruiting additional staff from the external analysis. A re-examination of broader business strategies in the light of this analysis. The Process of Human Resource Planning
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Diagram: The process of Human Resource Planning by Michael Armstrong Practical Benefits When it concerns human resources, there are the more specific criticisms that it is over-quantitative and neglects the qualitative aspects of contribution. The issue has become not how many people should be employed, but ensuring that all members of staff are making an effective contribution. And for the future, the questions are what are the skills that will be required, and how will they be acquired. There are others, though, that still regard the quantitative planning of resources as important. They do not see its value in trying to predict events, be they wars or takeovers. Rather, they believe there is a benefit from using planning to challenge assumptions about the future, to stimulate thinking. For some there is, moreover, an implicit or explicit wish to get better integration of decision making and resourcing across the whole organization, or greater influence by the centre over devolved operating units. Cynics would say this is all very well, but the assertion of corporate control has been tried and rejected. And is it not the talk of the process benefits to be derived self indulgent nonsense? Can we really afford this kind of intellectual dilettantism? Whether these criticisms are fair or not, supporters of human resource planning point to its practical benefits in optimizing the use of resources and identifying ways of making them more flexible. For some Organizations, the need to acquire and grow skills which take time to develop is paramount. If they fail to identify the business demand, both numerically and in the skills required, and secure the appropriate supply, then the capacity of the organization to fulfill its function will be endangered. Why human resource planning? Human Resource Planning: an Introduction was written to draw these issues to the attention of HR or line managers. We address such questions as:
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What is human resource planning? How do Organizations undertake this sort of exercise? What specific uses does it have? In dealing with the last point we need to be able to say to hard pressed managers: why spend time on this activity rather than the other issues bulging your in tray? The report tries to meet this need by illustrating how human resource planning techniques can be applied to four key problems. It then concludes by considering the circumstances are which human resourcing can be used. 1. Determining the numbers to be employed at a new location If Organizations overdo the size of their workforce it will carry surplus or underutilized staff. Alternatively, if the opposite misjudgment is made, staff may be overstretched, making it hard or impossible to meet production or service deadlines at the quality level expected. So the questions we ask are: How can output be improved your through understanding the interrelation between productivity, work organization and technological development? What does this mean for staff numbers? What techniques can be used to establish workforce requirements? Have more flexible work arrangements been considered? How are the staffs you need to be acquired?
The principles can be applied to any exercise to define workforce requirements, whether it be a business start-up, a relocation, or the opening of new factory or office. 2. Retaining your highly skilled staff Issues about retention may not have been to the fore in recent years, but all it needs is for Organizations to lose key staff to realize that an understanding of the pattern of resignation is needed. Thus Organizations should:
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- monitor the extent of resignation - discover the reasons for it - establish what it is costing the organization - compare loss rates with other similar organizations Without this understanding, management may be unaware of how many good quality staff is being lost. This will cost the organization directly through the bill for separation, recruitment and induction, but also through a loss of long-term capability. Having understood the nature and extent of resignation steps can be taken to rectify the situation. These may be relatively cheap and simple solutions once the reasons for the departure of employees have been identified. But it will depend on whether the problem is peculiar to your own organization, and whether it is concentrated in particular groups (e.g. by age, gender, grade or skill). 3. Managing an effective downsizing program This is an all too common issue for managers. How is the workforce to be cut painlessly, while at the same time protecting the long-term interests of the organization? A question made all the harder by the time pressures management is under, both because of business necessities and employee anxieties. HRP helps by considering: the sort of workforce envisaged at the end of the exercise the pros and cons of the different routes to get there how the nature and extent of wastage will change during the run-down the utility of retraining, redeployment and transfers What the appropriate recruitment levels might be.
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Such an analysis can be presented to senior managers so that the cost benefit of various methods of reduction can be assessed, and the time taken to meet targets established. If instead the CEO announces on day one that there will be no compulsory redundancies and voluntary severance is open to all staff, the danger is that an unbalanced workforce will result, reflecting the take-up of the severance offer. It is often difficult and expensive to replace lost quality and experience. 4. Where will the next generation of managers come from? Many senior managers are troubled by this issue. They have seen traditional career paths disappear. They have had to bring in senior staff from elsewhere. But they recognize that while this may have dealt with a short-term skills shortage, it has not solved the longer term question of managerial supply: what sort, how many, and where will they come from? To address these questions you need to understand: The present career system (including patterns of promotion and movement, of recruitment and wastage) The characteristics of those who currently occupy senior positions The organizations future supply of talent.
This then can be compared with future requirements, in number and type. These will of course be affected by internal structural changes and external business or political changes. Comparing your current supply to this revised demand will show surpluses and shortages which will allow you to take corrective action such as: recruiting to meet a shortage of those with senior management potential allowing faster promotion to fill immediate gaps developing cross functional transfers for high fliers hiring on fixed-term contracts to meet short-term skills/experience deficits
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reducing staff numbers to remove blockages or forthcoming surpluses. Thus appropriate recruitment, deployment and severance policies can be pursued to meet business needs. Otherwise processes are likely to be haphazard and inconsistent. The wrong sorts of staff are engaged at the wrong time on the wrong contract. It is expensive and embarrassing to put such matters right. How can HRP be applied? The report details the sort of approach companies might wish to take. Most Organizations are likely to want HRP systems: - Which are responsive to change - Where assumptions can easily be modified - That recognizes organizational fluidity around skills - That allows flexibility in supply to be included - That is simple to understand and use - Which are not too time demanding. To operate such systems organizations need: Appropriate demand models Good monitoring and corrective action processes Comprehensive data about current employees and the external labor market An understanding how resourcing works in the organization.
If HRP techniques are ignored, decisions will still be taken, but without the benefit of understanding their implications. Graduate recruitment numbers will be set in ignorance of demand, or management succession problems will develop unnoticed. As George Bernard Shaw said: to be in hell is to drift; to
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be in heaven is to steer. It is surely better if decision makers follow this maxim in the way they make and execute resourcing plans.
The following model (next page) is to provide you with an overview of the processes involved in HR planning and succession management and also to illustrate how succession management (with all of its tools, processes and programs) flows from the HR planning process and aligns with the departmental and government business plans.
As the diagram illustrates, the governments overall plan along with the Corporate HR and Affirmative Action plans determine the departmental strategies and business plans, and in turn, determines what is needed in the way of roles, skills and competencies. Working through an HR planning process allows you to analyze your demand and supply of human resources and develop the appropriate strategies aimed at filling projected gaps. The HR planning process is illustrated in the following diagram:
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New HR Planning Tools Human Resource Planning is a relatively traditional discipline. However the world of business is changing rapidly and new tools are necessary if we in HR are to meet these new challenges. This is a list of "New Age" HR planning tools that you might consider adding to your HR "toolkit".
Corporate Head count "Fat" Assessment Plan Ever wonder why the decision that we need layoffs seems to come up as a surprise? Why not establish a set of assessment tools that will let you know in advance where head count and overhead costs are excessive. Redeployment / Agility Plans In this changing world it is not uncommon for new markets and products to open (and close) rapidly. Companies need to have a strategy to remain "agile" and to be able to move people, and resources rapidly from areas of low return to areas of a higher return. "Smoke" Detectors (Predictors) If HR is to be proactive it needs to be able to anticipate problems. Developing HR systems and metrics known as "smoke detectors" that indicate potential
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problems might give us sufficient time to develop plans and strategies to either avoid the problem or minimize its impact. Bench Strength (Back Fill) Plan In this time of high turnover, it's increasingly essential to have a strategy of identifying and developing individuals that can take over if an employee leaves. A bench strength plan differs from traditional succession planning in that it only covers replacing key jobs within a single department. It is not a company-wide succession plan. Individual managers are held responsible for developing at least one individual to fill every key job. Employee Challenge Plan One of the primary reasons employees leave their jobs is due to a lack of challenge. HR can dramatically increase retention rates if it gets managers to develop individual "Challenge Plans" for each worker. The plan is reviewed each month to ensure that the individual is constantly growing and feels challenged. Retention Plan A retention plan is a corporate strategy to lower turnover. The first step is to identify key performers and hard to fill positions. Individuals that may be "at risk" are identified. Individuals or position -wide strategies are then developed to increase their retention rates. Additional efforts are made to identify why people stay in their jobs and why people leave. Quality of Labor Supply Forecasts Identifying the "quality" of the future labor supply is a medium term strategy based on the assumption that the available labor force will not have the competencies and skills that our company needs. Accurate forecasting will allow a company to prepare training and development plans to upgrade the available talent. Adequate preparation will give us a competitive talent advantage over our rivals. Horizontal Progression Plan
Because most companies have delayered or eliminated many management positions there are fewer opportunities for promotion to stimulate workers. As a result, companies need to develop horizontal transfer and job rotation plans to ensure the continued development of both technical and managerial skills among our top employees. Work/Life Balance Supply/Demand Forecasts New hires, as well as our current workers are demanding an increasing array of benefits and work life balance options. HR needs to develop strategies to accurately assess what those work life balance demands will be. It must also be able to forecast what percentage of our work force will choose to participate in work life balance programs like job sharing and sabbaticals. This forecast will enable us to be prepared for the decreased amount of hours our employees will be willing to put in. Learning / Knowledge Plan Companies are becoming increasingly aware that a major competitive advantage occurs when a company can rapidly acquire information/solutions and swiftly share them throughout the company. HR can help by assisting managers in developing individual and corporate wide learning plans and strategies to increase our speed of learning and the application of that knowledge within our company. Skills/ Competency Inventories In order to rapidly redeploy resources and fill unexpected vacancies HR must develop computerized skill or competency inventories. Such inventories allow us to "throw" talent at a problem because we are aware of which individuals in our corporation have the needed skill or experience to solve that problem. These inventories do not require people to move between positions as they can also be used as sources for advice and benchmarking. Interest Inventories In order to retain employees it is essential that we have a strategy for identifying and meeting the changing needs of our workers. By asking workers what projects they might like to work on? What skills they would like to
develop? And what individuals or teams would they like to work with? Managers can develop strategies for increasing a worker excitement and productivity levels. Candidate Expectation Forecast The increased number of job openings and the "unique" expectations of the current crop of generation Xer's and college hires make it increasingly more difficult to get candidates to accept an offer. By using focus groups and surveys companies can identify and forecast the unique offer acceptance demands of it's recruits. Accurate forecasts can give the company sufficient time to develop the array of programs and benefits that are increasingly essential to get a candidate to say yes. HR Competitive Analysis As CEOs become increasingly aware of the value of strong HR programs they're demanding that each and every program we offer is superior to that of our direct competitors. This requires a side by side and program by program s assessment on how every HR program we currently have is superior to our competitors. In addition, in order to continually improve, HR must show an improvement each year in our "this year to last years" comparison. Bad Management Identification Program One of the primary reasons that employees quit their jobs are the bad management practices of their direct supervisor. Companies often thrown managers into their jobs with little training or preparation Through the use of surveys, 360 degree assessments and interviews companies can identify "bad managers". The organization can then develop strategies for fixing these managers, transferring them back to more technical jobs or for releasing them. Because managers are responsible for meeting many employee needs that are cited as reasons for employee turnover (communicating with the worker, challenging them, recognizing their efforts etc.) fixing bad managers may be the single most important factor in increasing productivity and decreasing turnover.
Talent Acquisition Through Mergers & Acquisition Plan There are ways to acquire talent beyond traditional recruiting. Acquiring "intact" teams and large numbers of talented people (with similar values) rapidly is possible by having HR "scout out" target firms and then recommending their acquisition just for their employees. Targeted Succession plans Targeted succession plans are narrowly focused strategies for ensuring that individuals are available to fill vacant key positions in project teams. Targeted areas often include major software implementations, year 2000 efforts and product development teams. Most succession plans have often failed because they were too broad. Targeted plans allow the focus and forecasting to be more narrowly applied with the goal of increasing the accuracy of the planning. Turnover / Exit Forecast A strong economy coupled with large swings in the health of world economies makes predicting the supply of labor increasingly difficult. The other side of this issue is identifying where our company is likely to lose key talent through turnover and retirements. This turnover forecast is designed to predict short term vacancies in the next six months in order to prepare the appropriate recruitment or internal promotion strategies.
Inputs to Human Resource Planning The inputs to Human Resource Planning are: 1. Enterprise Environmental Factors The Enterprise Environmental Factors that comprise of individuals of an organization interact and relate with one another is an input into Human Resource Planning. Items to consider about enterprise environmental factors involving organizational culture and structure are: Organizational Which organizations or departments are going to be engaged in the project? Are there existing working arrangements between them? What are the formal and informal relationships between the departments? Technical What are the areas of expertise needed to successfully complete this project? Do these skills need to be transitioned to the supporting organization? Interpersonal What types of formal and informal reporting relationships exist among the team members? What are team members current job descriptions? What are their supervisor-subordinate relationships? What levels of trust and respect currently exist? Logistical Are people in different locations or time zones? What are other types of distances between team members? Political What are the individual goals and agendas of the stakeholders? Where is the informal power base and how can that influence the project? What informal alliances exist? In addition to these factors, there are also constraints. Examples of inflexibility in Human Resource Planning are: Organizational Structure An organization with a weak matrix structure is commonly a constraint.
Collective Bargaining Agreements Contractual agreements with service organizations can require interesting nuances to certain roles and reporting arrangements. Economic Conditions Hiring freezes, little to no training funds, and a lack of traveling budget can place restrictions of staffing options. 2. Organizational Process Assets - As an organization's project management methods evolve, experience gained from past projects are available as organizational process assets. Templates and checklists reduce the planning time required and the likelihood of overlooking key responsibilities. 3. Project Management Plan - The Project Management Plan contains activity resource requirements and project management activity descriptions which assist in identifying the types and quantities of resources required for each schedule activity in a work package. With the proper inputs, the results are going to have a good foundation. Project teams use different tools and techniques to guide the Human Resource Planning process. These three tools and techniques are: Organization Charts and Position Descriptions - Organization charts and position descriptions are used to communicate and clarify team member roles and responsibilities and to ensure that each work package is assigned. Organization charts can have three formats: 1. Hierarchical-type Organization chart, 2. Matrix-Based Responsibility Chart, and 3. The Text-oriented format
Networking Informal interactions among co-workers in the organization is a constructive way to comprehend the political and interpersonal factors which will affect organizational relations. Organizational Theory Organizational theory portrays how people, teams, and organizational units behave. Outputs from Human Resource Planning The three outputs from Human Resource Planning are found below: Roles and Responsibilities - Clarification of roles and responsibilities gives project team members an understanding of their own roles and the roles of others in the project. Clarity is always a key component of project success. Project Organization Charts - A project organization chart is a diagram of the reporting relationships of project team members. Project organization charts should be tailored for their audience, they can give a generalize overview or highly granular. Staffing Management Plan - The Staffing Management Plan is an important output of the Human Resource Planning process which establishes the timing and methods for meeting project human resource requirements. The components of the staffing management plan are: 1. Staff Acquisition Staff Acquisition details how the project will be staffed, where the team will work, and the level of expertise needed with the staff. 2. Timetable The timetable illustrates the necessary time frames for project team to be available. One tool commonly used is a resource histogram.
3. Release Criteria Release criteria lists the method and timing of releasing team member. 4. Training Needs Training needs is a plan on how to train the project resources. 5. Recognition and rewards Recognition and rewards are the criteria for rewarding and promoting desired team behaviors 6. Compliance Compliance details the strategies for complying with regulations, contracts, and other established human resource policies. 7. Safety Safety procedures are listed to protect the team members. Contemporary Human Resource Planning Contemporary human resource planning occurs within the broad context of organizational and strategic business planning. It involves forecasting the organization's future human resource needs and planning for how those needs will be met. It includes establishing objectives and then developing and implementing programs (staffing, appraising, compensating, and training) to ensure that people are available with the appropriate characteristics and skills when and where the organization needs them. It may also involve developing and implementing programs to improve employee performance or to increase employee satisfaction and involvement in order to boost organizational productivity, quality, or innovation. Finally, human resource planning includes gathering data that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of ongoing programs and inform planners when revisions in their forecasts and programs are needed. Because a major objective of planning is facilitating an organization's effectiveness, it must be integrated with the organization's shortterm and longer term business objectives and plans.' Increasingly this is being done in leading organizations, although in the past business needs usually defined personnel needs and human resource planning, which meant that planning became a reactive process. The reactive nature of the process went hand- in-hand with a short-term orientation. Now, major changes in business,
economic, and social environments are creating uncertainties that are forcing organizations to integrate business planning with human resource planning and to adopt a longer term perspective. Short-Term Human Resource Planning Many I/O psychologists work on activities related to de- signing and implementing programs (e.g., recruitment, selection systems, and training programs) to meet short- term organizational needs. Such activities generally involve an element of planning in that they are future-oriented to some extent. Even projects for which objectives are expected to be achieved in as little time as a few months have, ideally, been designed with an understanding of how the short-term objectives are linked to the achievement of longer term objectives. For example, an aeronautics company engaged in a recruitment campaign to hire 100 engineers should have a clear understanding of how this hiring goal will help the company achieve long-term goals such as becoming the world's most innovative company in that industry. This hypothetical company also might have a college recruiting drive designed to find 75 college graduates to enter a training program in recognition of the fact that a growing company needs to prepare for the middle managers it will need 5 to 7 years hence, as well as the top level managers will need in 10 to 15 years. As this hypothetical example highlights, in order for a clear linkage to exist between human resource planning and strategic business planning, it is essential that an organization's top executives have a fully articulated vision for the future, which has been communicated and accepted by managers throughout the organization. Growth Challenges As companies grow, there are a number of challenges that must be faced, especially in the area of Human Resource Planning.
Objective: Successfully scale the company to a multiple of its current size with growth synched to operational requirements and preservation/establishment of desired cultural attributes. Recruitment & Selection The critical factor here is the timing within the growth curve, especially the irregular pattern of growth that may exist as different operating units come online. This will require close alignment of project schedules and the recruiting pipeline along with clear competencies that will be required of new employees when hired or developed shortly thereafter. The hiring process also presents the opportunity to craft cultural movement through the types of employees hired while also trying to keep desired cultural attributes from being overrun by a critical mass of large numbers of new hires overwhelming the current employee base. Compensation & Benefits Closely associated with significant external hiring is the possibility of compensation compression as the local labor market is stretched. As this situation possibly arises, it may require careful benchmarking of compensation/benefits and review of labor contracts to prevent short-term market imbalances from being instituted in long-term contracts. Retention may also become an issue if new hires are seen as getting preferential treatment as a hiring inducement or special attention during on-boarding. On-boarding new employees Two challenges exist here. First is gaining full productivity as soon as possible, which involves both the hiring process and internal development relative to core competencies required for each position. Second is acculturation of new hires into the organization which will be a mix of the existing culture and potential unknown attributes being transplanted through the significant number of new hires.
Development of 1st line supervisors This is likely to be a critical element in successfully on-boarding a significant number of new employees. The vision and desired culture will be enabled to the extent this group of new supervisors can be identified among existing employees. However, promotion to supervisor is a significant change in roles that often has little or no advance preparation of the employee promoted. This opportunity can be addressed in a number of ways from empowerment and self-leadership through changed work processes that give all employees small tests of their leadership abilities. Once identified for advancement, further development will be necessary along with coaching and/or mentoring. A Supervisors Forum can also be used as a vehicle for peer-learning and as a communication vehicle for building a shared vision and aligning work activity with new strategies. Safety Adding a significant number of new employees greatly increases safety and environmental risk in three ways. The first challenge is the baseline safety training that will be required of new employees. Second, there is some danger in the safety culture being diluted by new hires not having a similar level of safety consciousness, creating a risk to themselves and others. Finally, there is the risk of safety lapse with the general disruptions associated with change and onboarding a significant number of new employees employee focus will be on adapting to growth and not necessarily on safety. Labor Relations To the extent labor relations are good; the existing union representatives can be an ally in the growth process. In any event, communicating the vision for the future and the role existing employees will play in helping through the transition will be essential. Growth may also bring new challenges in how best to approach the work, which may conflict with existing work rules embedded in the contract and/or culture of the unionized workforce.
Overhead control Economies of scale are not equal across the organization and care must be taken to limit growth to those areas identified in the personnel plan. Otherwise empire building will occur while organizational focus is on overall growth. To the extent there is little operating slack, many line positions will grow nearly proportional to the growth in the business. However, sales may gain some economies of scale through leveraging sales expertise toward growth markets and changing work processes relative to customer segmentation. Of course, there will still be some lowering of productivity as new salesmen are recruited and brought up to full productivity. Further economies of scale should be possible from overhead departments where there are significant fixed costs tied to stair step levels in system and structural growth. Yet there will be a tendency to grow these areas as well since the general attitude will be more accepting of headcount growth. Process Improvement Work processes may not be scalable as the business grows significantly, which would put additional stress on some employees at the same time they are working to integrate new hires into the company. High Performance Culture Building a high performance culture requires a performance management system in harmony with the organization culture. This requires feedback processes that are constructive, avoiding inherent conflict that is often enabled in many employee development systems. Care will also be required in building a community among all employees which will require shared vision, socialization, knowledge sharing, and supporting work features. This will require tracking employee attitudes through surveys of employee engagement (loyalty & extra effort) and an on-going organizational assessment of strategic alignment (goal awareness, competencies, leadership, and succession plan permitting growth).
Conclusion Because the purpose of human resource planning is to ensure that the right people are in the right place at the right time, it must be linked with the plans of the total organization. Traditionally, there has been a weak one-way linkage between business planning and human resource planning. Business plans, where they exist, have defined human resource needs, thereby making human resource planning a reactive exercise. It seems clear that human resource management general and human resource planning in particular become more closely tied to the needs and strategies organizations. As this occurs, human resource planning is the thread that ties together all other human source activities and integrates these with the rest organization. With the growing recognition that different of organizations require different human resource practices, human resource planners are being longed to develop packages of practices that fit the of their organizations and contribute to effective- Research that will assist planners in the development implementation of integrated human resource is urgently needed. HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT The authors of this series of articles are part of a rapidly growing profession called HRD. It's actually been around for some time under many different names. It's a broad field, encompassing many subject areas. But it's never been more important, more necessary. A definition of HRD is "organized learning activities arranged within an organization in order to improve performance and/or personal growth for the purpose of improving the job, the individual, and/or the organization". HRD includes the areas of training and development, career development, and organization development. This is related to Human Resource Management -- a field that includes HR research and information systems, union/labor relations,
employee
assistance,
compensation/benefits,
selection
and
staffing,
performance management systems, HR planning, and organization/job design. "THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANG'IN." Are they ever! And our organizations and jobs will never be the same. Changes are based on the global economy, on changing technology, on our changing work force, on cultural and demographic changes, and on the changing nature of work itself. The changes are different this time. They are permanent, and will permanently affect the way our work and our lives are structured. We need to learn new skills and develop new abilities, to respond to these changes in our lives, our careers, and our organizations. We can deal with these constructively, using change for our competitive advantage and as opportunities for personal and organizational growth, or they can overwhelm us. Who is affected by change -- you are! With all the downsizing, outsourcing and team building, responsibility and accountability are being downloaded to individuals. So everyone is now a manager. Everyone will need to acquire and/or increase their skills, knowledge and abilities to perform their jobs (and now, to perform other people's jobs too!) The goal of HRD is to improve the performance of our organizations by maximizing the efficiency and performance of our people. We are going to develop our knowledge and skills, our actions and standards, our motivation, incentives, attitudes and work environment. Is training the answer? Yes, partly, sometimes, but certainly not always. In the paper industry, training has been big with capital projects but often is not continued into operational improvement. We have often thought training was what was needed (or not needed). But there are other answers too -- the solution may lie with organization development, career development, or a combination of these or other strategies.
We plan a series of articles to address the broad scope of HRD, to introduce methods to address the development of individuals and organizations. Here's what we will discuss in future issues: ASSESSMENT OF NEEDS: This sounds simple, but we are often in too much of a hurry. We implement a solution, sometimes the correct intervention but not always. But we plan, very carefully and cautiously, before making most other investments in process changes and in capital and operating expenditures. We need to do the same for HRD -- implement the appropriate planning. This needs assessment and planning will lead to several possible ways to improve performance. (Of course, one of these is to do nothing! -- we may decide to focus on other activities with greater impact and greater value.) PROGRAM DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT & EVALUATION: We need to consider the benefits of any HRD intervention before we just go and do it: What learning will be accomplished? What changes in behavior and performance are expected? Will we get them? And of prime importance -- what is the expected economic cost/benefit of any projected solutions? TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT: acquiring knowledge, developing competencies and skills, and adopting behaviors that improve performance in current jobs, including: adult learning theory and applications, instructional systems design, train-the-trainer programs, and instructional strategies and methods. ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT: The diagnosis and design of systems to assist an organization with planning change. OD activities include: change objectives, management, strategic team building, and learning organizations, management. management development, quality of work life, and management by planning, participative Organizational restructuring, job redesign, job enrichment, centralization vs. decentralization, changes in the organization's reward structure,
process consultation, executive development, action research, third party interventions, and more. We will discuss these in future articles. CAREER DEVELOPMENT: Activities and processes for mutual career planning and management between employees and organizations. Changes in our organizations (including downsizing, restructuring, and outsourcing) are resulting in more empowerment for employees. The responsibility for our own career development is downloaded to us. (Translation: career ladders are gone; career development is now the responsibility of the individual.) Later in this series we will explore strategies and tactics to survive and prosper in this new workplace environment. ORGANIZATION RESEARCH & PROGRAM EVALUATION: An exploration of methods to evaluate, justify, and improve on HRD offerings. THE HRD PROFESSION(S) AND PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS: We plan to list and briefly describe the principal HRD organizations, their missions and goals, and their addresses and contacts. HRD can give you the tools you need to manage and operate your organizations. Everything production, management, marketing, sales, research & development, you-name-it -- everything may be more productive IF your people are sufficiently motivated, trained, informed, managed, utilized and empowered. In future articles in this series, we're going to tell you how to do it. Stay tuned. FOUR STEPS TO CONDUCTING A NEEDS ASSESSMENT: Step1. PERFORM A "GAP" ANALYSIS. The first step is to check the actual performance of our organizations and our people against existing standards, or to set new standards. There are two parts to this: Current situation: We must determine the current state of skills, knowledge, and abilities of our current and/or future employees. This analysis also should
examine our organizational goals, climate, and internal and external constraints. Desired or necessary situation: We must identify the desired or necessary conditions for organizational and personal success. This analysis focuses on the necessary job tasks/standards, as well as the skills, knowledge, and abilities needed to accomplish these successfully. It is important that we identify the critical tasks necessary, and not just observe our current practices. We also must distinguish our actual needs from our perceived needs, our wants. The difference the "gap" between the current and the necessary will identify our needs, purposes, and objectives. What are we looking for? Here are some questions to ask, to determine where HRD may be useful in providing solutions: (3) Problems or deficits: Are there problems in the organization, which might be solved by training or other HRD activities? Impending change: Are there problems, which do not currently exist but are foreseen due to changes, such as new processes and equipment, outside competition, and/or changes in staffing? Opportunities: Could we gain a competitive edge by taking advantage of new technologies, training programs, consultants or suppliers? Strength: How can we take advantage of our organizational strengths, as opposed to reacting to our weaknesses? Are there opportunities to apply HRD to these areas? New directions: Could we take a proactive approach, applying HRD to move our organizations to new levels of performance? For example, could team building and related activities help improve our productivity? Mandated training Are there internal or external forces dictating that training and/or organization development will take place? Are there policies or management decisions, which might dictate the implementation of some program? Are there governmental mandates to which we must comply?
Step2. IDENTIFY PRIORITIES AND IMPORTANCE. The first step should have produced a large list of needs for training and development, career development, organization development, and/or other interventions. Now we must examine these in view of their importance to our organizational goals, realities, and constraints. We must determine if the identified needs are real, if they are worth addressing, and specify their importance and urgency in view of our organizational needs and requirements (4). For example (5): Cost-effectiveness: How does the cost of the problem compare to the cost of implementing a solution? In other words, we perform a cost-benefit analysis. Legal mandates: Are there laws requiring a solution? (For example, safety or regulatory compliance.) Executive pressure: Does top management expect a solution? Population: Are many people or key people involved? Customers: What influence is generated by customer specifications and expectations? If some of our needs were of relatively low importance, we would do better to devote our energies to addressing other human performance problems with greater impact and greater value. Step3. IDENTIFY CAUSES OF PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS AND/OR OPPORTUNITIES. Now that we have prioritized and focused on critical organizational and personal needs, we will next identify specific problem areas and opportunities in our organization. We must know what our performance requirements are, if appropriate solutions are to be applied. We should ask two questions for every identified need: (6)
Are our people doing their jobs effectively? Do they know how to do their jobs? This will require detailed investigation and analysis of our people, their jobs, and our organizations -- both for the current situation and in preparation for the future. Step 4. IDENTIFY POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS AND GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES. If people are doing their jobs effectively, perhaps we should leave well enough alone. ("If it ain't broke, don't fix it.") However, some training and/or other interventions might be called for if sufficient importance is attached to moving our people and their performance into new directions. But if our people ARE NOT doing their jobs effectively: Training may be the solution, IF there is a knowledge problem. Organization development activities may provide solutions when the problem is not based on a lack of knowledge and is primarily associated with systematic change. These interventions might include strategic planning, organization restructuring, performance management and/or effective team building. We will look at these solutions including training & development and organization development, in future articles in this series. TECHNIQUES FOR INVESTIGATING ORGANIZATIONAL AND PERSONAL NEEDS: Use multiple methods of Needs Assessment. To get a true picture, don't rely on one method. It is important to get a complete picture from many sources and viewpoints. Don't take some manager's word for what is needed.
There are several basic Needs Assessment techniques. Use a combination of some of these, as appropriate: Direct observation Questionnaires Consultation with persons in key positions, and/or with specific knowledge Review of relevant literature Interviews Focus groups Tests Records & report studies Work samples An excellent comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of each of these methods can be found in the Training and Development Journal. (7) Remember that actual needs are not always the same as perceived needs, or "wants". Look for what the organization and people really need they may not know what they need, but may have strong opinions about what they want. Use your collected data in proposing HRD solutions: Use your data to make your points. This avoids confronting management since your conclusions will follow from your Needs Assessment activities. Everybody should share the data collected. It is important to provide feedback to everyone who was solicited for information. This is necessary if everyone is to "buy into" any proposed training or organization development plan. Having identified the problems and performance deficiencies, we must lay out the difference between the costs of any proposed solutions against the cost of not implementing the solution. Here's an economic "gap analysis": What are the costs if no solution is applied? What are the costs of conducting programs to change the situation?
The difference determines if intervention activities will be cost-effective, and therefore if it makes sense to design, develop, and implement the proposed HRD solutions. SUMMARY STEPS IN A NEEDS ANALYSIS: Perform a "gap" analysis to identify the current skills, knowledge, and abilities of your people, and the organizational and personal needs for HRD activities Identify your priorities and importance of possible activities Identify the causes of your performance problems and/or opportunities Identify possible solutions and growth opportunities.
And Finally: Compare the consequences if the program is or is not implemented Generate and communicate your recommendations for training and development, organization development, career development, and/or other interventions LEARNING, EDUCATION, TRAINING Learning is a process of gaining knowledge, skills, or attitudes through formal or informal means. Education is a process involving others as facilitators of learning. These others may be subject matter experts, instructional designers, or deliverers of instruction. Training is a learning process directly tied to specific situational results. In the case of training, the focus is usually based on improving individual and group behavior and performance, and on results to the organization. Beginning with the end in mind, let's examine the results desired from training. Kirkpatrick (1) classifies these outcomes into four categories:
Reaction: Evaluates the training program itself (are the trainees satisfied?). Learning: Focuses on changes in the participants as a result of the training (have skills, knowledge, or attitudes changed as a result of the training?). Behavior or performance: Deals with the transfer of the learning to the job or organization (are the results of the training being applied?). Outcomes or results: Is the impact of the training on the productivity and profitability of the organization. While education tends to focus on the first two of these, training should be evaluated by the last two on the transfer of learning to the success of the organization.
INSTRUCTIONAL SYSTEM DESIGN: To insure that training is delivered effectively and efficiently, a process of instructional systems design (ISD) should be implemented as a planned process for the assessment, design, development, implementation and evaluation of training. ISD starts with an assessment of the needs of the organization, which may include surveying, identifying and prioritizing mill training needs, analyzing the causes of performance problems and opportunities, and identifying possible solutions (2). It is imperative to determine if training is the appropriate solution, and if it will be cost-effective. Developing training should include analyses of the characteristics of the learners, the setting in which the work will be performed, and the tasks and duties which the trainees will be expected to perform. A complete review of the subject matter (and subject matter experts) is also necessary. Goals and performance objectives must be set, and a plan to evaluate the training should be developed. Instructional materials and strategies must be acquired, prepared, and pretested.
The implementation of training includes the preparation of mill workers and others to be trainers and subject matter experts. The training process itself must be managed and evaluated. IMPLEMENTING INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN IN THE ORGANIZATION: There are two approaches to implementing the training function. Most companies and instructional designers use a reactive approach. ISD is used as an intervention to solve problems involving employees, with a focus on performance and organizational results. In this sense training is often applied, like quality control, as corrections to problems. This type of training function usually operates somewhat externally to the organization's manufacturing, management and other processes. A proactive approach is taking place in some pulp and paper companies where training and ISD are part of a continuous improvement process, not viewed as interventions (3). This is more like TQM (total quality management) than QC (quality control), in that the training function is fully integrated with the regular process of organizational improvement. The processes of reactive and proactive training are very similar. The differences are of time-scale, degree of overlap of activities, and distribution of the training function throughout the organization. Performing needs assessments and new technologies, equipment, or people have usually triggered task/duty analyses. Shouldn't these be continuous, on-going functions? HIGH PERFORMANCE WORK TEAMS: We have heard much about the benefits (and problems) with implementing team approaches to improve organizational effectiveness and to empower individuals and teams with the information and authority to make decisions on the front lines. Business success today mandates the use of these high performance work teams throughout our organizations. But making the transition to teams is not
easy. Training can be useful in many ways to help people function more effectively in team environments, including: Communication: People must learn how to communicate effectively in teams and between teams across the entire organization. Employees must use communication to resolve and manage conflicts, and to air and resolve grievances and complaints. Team management and functioning: Managing projects, setting goals, clarifying roles, and solving problems in teams are skills that must be developed. New organizational skills must be developed if teams are to operate effectively and efficiently. Leadership development: Team leaders and upper management need to learn how to act as role models for team operation, and how to promote the active building, leadership and management of teams. Personal development: Employees need help in overcoming fears about the loss of job security and independence, and to learn how to continue to make individual contributions within team structures. Interpersonal skills need to be developed, especially with respect to group problem solving. LET'S START WITH THE TRAINING FUNCTION: As discussed above, training needs to be more fully integrated with, and responsive to, the business of the organization. A recent survey also substantiates this new business focus for human resource development directors (4). Distributed management and team environments are ways for the organization to become more effective. It is logical, then, that the training functions it is a good place to start implementing high performance work teams. Moving from a reactive to a proactive implementation of training will require a restructuring of the training function. (Notice that we did not say "Training Department", as training is everyone's job.) What better opportunity to bring the team concept into practice in the organization? This would give trainers the tools
to be of value to the organization, of being directly connected to the success of the business. Trainers can most successfully understand, teach and promote that which they have experienced and model themselves. By reorganizing the ISD process into cross-organizational teams to improve the success of the business, trainers and instructional designers will become valuable resources to transfer their experiences, knowledge and skills of high performance work teams to others throughout the rest of the organization.
THE RESULT State of the art equipment is being purchased and operated by more and more organizations in the pulp and paper industry. Today, it is the preparation of the workforce for optimum performance that gives the competitive advantage. A more relevant, business-focused training function -- distributed and integrated appropriately throughout the organization -- will not only be more in line with organizational performance and profitability, but will help to bring the rest of the organization along towards reaching the goal of using effective, efficient, and performing teams. WHAT IS OD? Beck hard (1) defines Organization Development (OD) as "an effort, planned, organization-wide, and managed from the top, to increase organization effectiveness and health through planned interventions in the organization's processes, using behavioral-science knowledge." In essence, OD is a planned system of change. Planned: OD takes a long-range approach to improving organizational performance and efficiency. It avoids the (usual) "quick-fix".
Organization-wide: OD focuses on the total system. Managed from the top: To be effective, OD must have the support of topmanagement. They have to model it, not just espouse it. The OD process also needs the buy-in and ownership of workers throughout the organization. Increase organization effectiveness and health: OD is tied to the bottom-line. Its goal is to improve the organization, to make it more efficient and more competitive by aligning the organization's systems with its people. Planned interventions: After proper preparation, OD uses activities called interventions to make system wide, permanent changes in the organization. Using behavioral-science knowledge: OD is a discipline that combines research and experience to understanding people, business systems, and their interactions. We usually think of OD only in terms of the interventions themselves. This article seeks to emphasize that these activities are only the most visible part of a complex process, and to put some perspective and unity into the myriad of OD tools that are used in business today. These activities include Total Quality Management (an evolutionary approach to improving an organization) and reengineering (a more revolutionary approach). And there are dozens of other interventions, such as strategic planning and team building. It is critical to select the correct intervention(s), and this can only be done with proper preparation. WHY DO OD? Human resources: Our people may be a large fraction of our costs of doing business. They certainly can make the difference between organizational success and failure. We better know how to manage them. Changing nature of the workplace: Our workers today want feedback on their performance, a sense of accomplishment, feelings of value and worth, and commitment to social responsibility. They need to be more efficient,
to improve their time management. And, of course, if we are to continue doing more work with less people, we need to make our processes more efficient. Global markets: Our environments are changing, and our organizations must also change to survive and prosper. We need to be more responsible to and develop closer partnerships with our customers. We must change to survive, and we argue that we should attack the problems, not the symptoms, in a systematic, planned, humane manner. Accelerated rate of change: Taking an open-systems approach, we can easily identify the competitions on an international scale for people, capital, physical resources, and information. WHO DOES OD? To be successful, OD must have the buy-in, ownership, and involvement of all stakeholders, not just of the employees throughout the organization. Change agents people or teams that have the responsibility for initiating and managing the change effort, usually facilitate OD. These change agents may be either employees of the organization (internal consultants) consultants.) Effective change requires leadership with knowledge, and experience in change management. We strongly recommend that external or internal consultants be used, preferably a combination of both. ("These people are professionals; don't try this at home.") Bennis (2) notes "external consultants can manage to affect ... the power structure in a way that most internal change agents cannot." Since experts from outside are less subject to the politics and motivations found within the organization, they can be more effective in facilitating significant and meaningful changes. or people from outside the organization (external
WHEN IS AN ORGANIZATION READY FOR OD? There is a formula, attributed to David Gleicher (3, 4), which we can use to decide if an organization is ready for change: Dissatisfaction x Vision x First Steps > Resistance to Change This means that three components must all be present to overcome the resistance to change in an organization: Dissatisfaction with the present situation, a vision of what is possible in the future, and achievable first steps towards reaching this vision. If any of the three is zero or near zero, the product will also be zero or near zero and the resistance to change will dominate. We use this model as an easy, quick diagnostic aid to decide if change is possible. OD can bring approaches to the organization that will enable these three components to surface, so we can begin the process of change. OD IS A PROCESS Action Research is a process, which serves as a model for most OD interventions. French and Bell (5) describe Action Research as a "process of systematically collecting research data about an ongoing system relative to some objective, goal, or need of that system; feeding these data back into the system; taking actions by altering selected variables within the system based both on the data and on hypotheses; and evaluating the results of actions by collecting more data." The steps in Action Research are (6, 7): Entry: This phase consists of marketing, i.e. finding needs for change within an organization. It is also the time to quickly grasp the nature of the organization, identify the appropriate decision maker, and build a trusting relationship.
Start-up and contracting: In this step, we identify critical success factors and the real issues, link into the organization's culture and processes, and clarify roles for the consultant(s) and employees. This is also the time to deal with resistance within the organization. A formal or informal contract will define the change process. Assessment and diagnosis: Here we collect data in order to find the opportunities and problems in the organization (refer to DxVxF>R above.) For suggestions about what to look for, see the previous article in this series, on needs assessment (8). This is also the time for the consultant to make a diagnosis, in order to recommend appropriate interventions. Feedback: This two-way process serves to tell those what we found out, based on an analysis of the data. Everyone who contributed information should have an opportunity to learn about the findings of the assessment process (provided there is no apparent breach of anyone's confidentiality.) This provides an opportunity for the organization's people to become involved in the change process, to learn about how different parts of the organization affect each other, and to participate in selecting appropriate change interventions. Action planning: In this step we will distill recommendations from the assessment and feedback, consider alternative actions and focus our intervention(s) on activities that have the most leverage to effect positive change in the organization. An implementation plan will be developed that is based on the assessment data, is logically organized, resultsoriented, measurable and rewarded. We must plan for a participative decision-making process for the intervention. Intervention: Now, and only now, do we actually carry out the change process. It is important to follow the action plan, yet remain flexible enough to modify the process as the organization changes and as new information emerges.
Evaluation: Successful OD must have made meaningful changes in the performance and efficiency of the people and their organization. We need to have an evaluation procedure to verify this success, identify needs for new or continuing OD activities, and improve the OD process itself to help make future interventions more successful. Adoption: After steps have been made to change the organization and plans have been formulated, we follow-up by implementing processes to insure that this remains an ongoing activity within the organization, that commitments for action have been obtained, and that they will be carried out. Separation: We must recognize when it is more productive for the client and consultant to undertake other activities, and when continued consultation is counterproductive. We also should plan for future contacts, to monitor the success of this change and possibly to plan for future change activities. It would be nice if real OD followed these steps sequentially. This rarely happens. Instead, the consultants must be flexible and be ready to change their strategy when necessary. Often they will have to move back and repeat previous steps in light of new information, new influences, or because of the changes that have already been made. But for successful OD to take place, all of these steps must be followed. It works best if they are taken in the order described. And, since learning is really an iterative, not a sequential process, we must be prepared to re-enter this process when and where appropriate. If you would like to know more about OD, we highly recommend the books by Cummings and Worley (9), and by Rothwell, Sullivan and McLean (10). WHAT'S NEXT?
In future articles in this series, we plan to discuss some of the major OD interventions in common use today, and to classify these into systematic categories. WHERE YOU COME IN TAPPI has a Training and Development Subcommittee (of the Board's Education Committee.) Its current tasks include developing a getting-started guide for people newly assigned to training responsibilities in the pulp and paper industry. Join us -- contact Clare Reagan at Tappi if you would like to get involved. TAPPI in 1997: We are in the preliminary stages of planning for events at future TAPPI conferences. These events will focus on education and Human Resource Development, and may include workshops on Organization Development. We invite your participation. Case studies: In future articles, we plan to include some case histories of the successes (and failures) of applying OD practices in the paper industry. If you are involved in OD and would like to join us in this effort, please contact us. LEARNING IS NOW OUR RESPONSIBILITY Career development (CD) is now the primary responsibility of individuals in organizations. A recent survey of Human Resource Development Directors (1) indicates that they consider CD to be their least important function. This correlates with recent trends of disappearing corporate career paths and job security. Just as the responsibility for employee retirement planning is no longer a corporate function, the responsibility for learning and for the development of career paths has been downloaded to the individual employees. Personal learning project management is a new skill for most people, one for which they have not been adequately prepared. The good news is that this
responsibility also brings increased control over one's learning and career development, and the opportunity for a more stimulating and motivating work life. The purpose of this article is to help you develop plans for individual career development for yourself and for other employees in your organizations. This process results in a document that has been referred to by such terms as an individual development plan, a learning contract, MBO (management-byobjectives) for personal learning, a personal "curriculum" for learning, and a plan for personal career advancement. The results may also be applied to the "development" section of most performance appraisal forms.
EXAMPLES OF PERSONAL LEARNING PROJECT MANAGEMENT These methods have been used recently in a variety of university and industrial settings: Industrial environments: At the Niagara Division of Consolidated Papers (2), employees draft individual development plans, both individually and in consultation with the Training Manager. This process occurs annually, much like a performance review. The individual development planning process is focused on personal development and career growth, and is kept separate from other HR management functions such as reviews for salary, promotion, and retention purposes. Individual developments plans can, and often should, include formal training programs, but the focus is on the learning and the individual, not on the organization's curriculum and courses. If used correctly, a compilation of the learning needs from these individual learning plans (coupled with studies of organizational needs) can lead to more efficient planning of training efforts by the organization.
University teaching and learning: At leading universities that focus on quality learning, education and training, learning contracts are often used in courses to shift the responsibility for learning from the instructor to the students (3). Individuals design, develop and implement their own plans for learning in their courses, in a process similar to the use of the industrial individual development plans previously referred to. This works especially well with adult learners who bring a variety of skills, knowledge and experiences to their studies, and who also have a variety of needs for learning and development because of the diversity of their working environments. It also benefits more traditional students who learn "how to learn", and who need project management skills and experiences. Pulp and paper education: This process has been used very successfully in a senior course in pulp and paper process operations at the University of Minnesota (4). The students felt that their learning was more interesting and exciting because they had the ability to choose (actually, to propose and contract-for) their learning projects. They also assigned themselves more work, and therefore learned more, than with traditional methods of instruction. As a bonus, they developed their skills in engineering project management as applied to projects of direct interest and importance to themselves. Industrial and corporate internships: This works especially well for individualized learning experiences such as on-campus student research and development projects, and for off-campus learning such as for corporate internships. STEPS TO DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT AN INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN We use standard forms to help the learners follow a systematic process to prepare their learning contracts, individual development plans, or learning project management strategies. Here is what should be included in a personal learning plan:
Assessment: First, identify your current skills, knowledge, abilities, and interests. A previous article in this series (5) describes the needs assessment process. Goals: Identify the new skills, knowledge, and experiences you would like to acquire and have. Do these goals match your personal and career interests? Are your goals in agreement with your organization's goals, mission and vision? Learning purpose: Identify the gap between the current situation and the desired outcome. This will produce a statement of purpose that should clarify why you want to learn something, and what specific skills; knowledge and abilities you wish to develop. Learning objective(s): Identify what skills, knowledge, and abilities are to be acquired or enhanced. Remember that this is only a plan, not a rigid promise; your plan can and should be revised as your goals change and as learning occurs. For each objective, identify the following: Target date: Identify when you plan to complete the work for this part of your learning plan. Learning strategies: Describe how you plan to do it, and what process you plan to follow to accomplish your objective. For example, strategies could include: reading and study, interviews and discussions with appropriate people, mill trials, networking and communication, reflecting on your own experiences, classroom study, literature review, synthesizing and writing. Learning resources: Identify what resources you plan to use to help you with this learning process. These resources might include, for example: literature, mentors, co- workers, other professionals for networking, vendors or suppliers, classes, technical conferences, professional association involvement, equipment manuals, laboratory trials, production workers, teachers and instructors, field experience, your
supervisors, and a variety of learning technologies including computers, the Internet, and perhaps even your mill's DCS (digital control system). Outcomes and products: List the evidence you will develop to show the accomplishment of your objectives. What deliverables will you have produced by this process? What objects can be used to validate your learning experience? This could include, for example, a log or journal of your studies or observations, a literature review and bibliography, written and oral reports, lists of questions, obtaining specific career objectives, and more. Evaluation plan: Describe the method you will use to validate your deliverables and to evaluate the success of your learning project. In other words, what criteria and means will you use to determine if you were successful in reaching your learning goals? Initial feedback and revision: Before starting to carryout your individual development plan, confer with your supervisor (instructor, mentor, or HRD-manager if available) for feedback, for another view of your learning needs and strategies. This will help insure that your learning will not only be based on your personal needs but will also be relevant to your organization's goals, results, and profitability. The more independent sources you can use, the better -- seek additional feedback from your co-workers, colleagues, family and friends. Summary of results: After completing the projects in your individual plan, you should evaluate the success of these activities. What insights have you gained? What new understandings do you have? What new skills, abilities and knowledge have you acquired? What experiences did you have, and what did you learn from them? How do you feel about this process? Next steps: You should review the accomplishments and successes of this project with your supervisor (and others, as appropriate). Then update your learning plan for the next cycle. Remember that learning and growth are processes that may, and should, continue indefinitely.
Strengthening Primary and Secondary Education Primary and secondary education provides the basic skills of literacy, numeric, communication and problem solving skills and develops the required attitudes which are necessary for the workplace. These skills and attitudes enable the people concerned to acquire job specific knowledge and skills They are a foundation for further education and training which has become increasingly important with fast changing technology, rapid obsolescence of knowledge and the intense competition of the globalize marketplace. Studies show that primary schooling improves the productivity of small farmers. Evidence from 13 low income countries show that 4 years of schooling were accompanied by some 8% increase in farm output. Where there were complementary investments in better roads or access to marketing facilities, fertilizers and improved crop varieties, the positive impact of 4 years of primary schooling was higher. The introduction of "packages" of technology through agricultural extension services is important to efforts at improving farm productivity. These "packages" are essentially combinations of practices and inputs tailored to specific crops and to land, water and climate conditions. Farmers need good quality basic education to use these extension services. They need most importantly to be able to read, to write and to count. Also important is a good understanding of the scientific principles behind the use of farming technologies such as pesticides and fertilizers. Higher levels and better quality education will increase the farmers' ability to use new agricultural extension services resulting from technological change, especially in biotechnology. Surveys of the urban informal sector in countries like Nigeria, Columbia and Thailand have shown that primary education increases the propensity to work in the urban informal sector and that there is a positive correlation between their education and their earnings. Primary schooling or less may suffice for lower level manufacturing involving single task machines with workers performing one or a set of repetitive tasks. But
secondary education will be required for medium and high level manufacturing, which Asian and Pacific developing countries are aiming for. Manufacturing which involves advanced production technologies like numerically controlled machine tools and automated technologies where workers are organized in flexible production systems using multiskilled teams that produce whole products will call for high levels of education. Good quality primary and secondary education of say ten years will equip students with the required level of literacy and numeric and the higher order skills like learning how to learn and problem solving to work in medium and high level manufacturing jobs. Strengthening primary and secondary education is a key HRD challenge in the developing countries of Asia and the Pacific Developing countries in the region have generally made good progress in primary schooling. Many have achieved near or complete universal primary education. A few need to expand their primary school enrolment. A number of Asian and Pacific countries have to raise their primary school completion rate. Thus in South Asia only Sri Lanka had more than 90% of the primary school cohort-reaching grade 4. The situation will worsen if the relatively high rate of population growth of most South Asian countries continues. In South Asia the primary school age population is projected to increase by 28 minions between 1990 to 2010 (World Bank 1995a). As regards the South Pacific, Papua New Guinea's school-age population is expected to increase by a third between 1990 and 2010 (Australian National University 1994). To improve the quantity and quality of its education, Papua New Guinea will have to raise its already high expenditure on education and increase the efficiency of its education expenditure. In many developing countries in the region more can be done to improve the quality of primary school education. Crucial to the quality of schools appears to be the qualifications, experience, and knowledge, level of education of teachers and more and better textbooks and materials. In this regard it is interesting to note that Hong Kong had since 1992 introduced degree courses for primary school teachers to upgrade their quality. It had graduate teachers in primary schools for the first time in September 1994. It aims to have 35% of graduates in
primary schools by the Year 2006 (Education Commission of the States, US, 1994). The pupil-teacher ratio should also be improved. This ratio in 1992 for industrialized countries was 18 for primary schools whereas for many of the Asian and Pacific countries it was much higher. Secondary school enrolment needs to be expanded for many of the developing Asian and Pacific countries. The average percentage of age group enrolled in secondary schools for five industrialized countries (Australia, New Zealand, France, Sweden and United Kingdom) was 88.8% in 1992. Except for a handful, most developing Asian and Pacific countries have less than 50% of the age group enrolled in secondary schools. Furthermore greater efforts should be made to improve the quality of secondary education. The pupil-teacher ratio should be improved. This ratio in 1992 for industrialized countries was 14 whereas for some Asian and Pacific countries it was above 20. There is a need to reduce the number of dropouts. The school curriculum should be revised to ensure that it not only caters for the academically less inclined but also prepares them for the world of work. Upgrading the Basic Education of the Workforce Most developing Asian and Pacific countries have low adult illiteracy rates however a small number have high adult illiteracy rates of over 40%. Most of them are in South Asia. A sizeable proportion of the workforce of many developing countries of Asia and the Pacific is poorly educated. This applies to the NIEs as well as other Asian and Pacific countries. In 1994 the percentage of the workforce with only primary or lower qualifications was 43.2% for Singapore. In the case of Indonesia, in 1993, 72.1% of its workforce had primary or no schooling. 78.7% males and 95.0% females of the Indian rural workforce had only up to primary education or were illiterate in 1987/88. In the case of the Indian urban workforce, 51.2% males and 74.0% females had only up to primary education or were illiterate. "Without basic literacy and numeric, people's ability to adapt to changing production methods and technologies is severely constrained" (UNDP Human
Development Report 1996, p. 105). This applies to agriculture, manufacturing and other industrial activity. A country's efforts to upgrade to higher technology and more skilled-intensive products with changing comparative advantage will be made more difficult. Without it an enterprise's ability to move to higher value added production would be hampered. A national effort will be needed to deal with the poor education level of the workforce. Enterprises will have to work with the government and educational institutions. Basic literacy and numeric skills should be taught to those without a sound foundation in primary schooling. The literacy and numeric of those with primary education should be upgraded to secondary school level. Such an upgrading scheme should be opened to those who have mastered basic literacy and numeric skills. The rationale behind these schemes is to enable those who have completed such programmers to precede to basic skills courses. Courses will have to be specially worked out to enable graduates of such programmers to undertake skills training. Expanding and Improving In-Company Training Training by companies is cost-effective and efficient. Such training, which should be structured and planned, can be on or off the job. Training in enterprises should be linked to its strategic plan and be based on a training needs analysis of the enterprise. In-company training in many developing countries of Asia and Pacific countries can be expanded and improved. Large companies do much of the training. Successful companies around the world devote about 4% of payroll on training. Developing Asian and Pacific countries may wish to use this as a benchmark and work towards it. To this end, they may wish to expand the pool of trainers in their countries. In 1992 the Singapore National Productivity Board's Advisory Committee on Training Infrastructure pointed out that Singapore in 1989 had only 1,200 full-time trainers or a ratio of about one trainer for every 1,000 employees. The ratio for the US was 1:122 and Germany 1:49. In Japan, most managers and supervisors
have training responsibilities as part of their duties. A national programmed to train more full time trainers and to train more managers in training and coaching skills could be considered. On-the-job training (OJT) is one training mode used by companies. Enterprises use OJT because it provides the specific skills needed for job performance. Unlike other training systems, it enables the enterprise to quickly change the skills required if there are changes in technology, work processes and product lines. OJT is a good training option for smaller companies. Such companies cannot release their employees for training during working hours especially if there is a tight labor market. Their employees are invariably unable to train after office hours, as they need to work overtime or at another job to supplement their low basic wages. Where OJT is conducted in Asia and the Pacific, it tends to be structured in large companies, whereas in smaller local companies it is unstructured. The Asian Productivity Organization (APO) conducted a research project from 1990-1991 on HRD in twelve Asian economies in the 1990s, which included a firm level survey of corporate HRD policies and practices (APO 1993). The survey of firms in eight developing economies viz. Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and Taiwan revealed scope for improvement and expansion of OJT. For example, in Hong Kong formal and systematic training was neglected in local firms. About a third of companies surveyed carried out OJT according to a company wide plan, 36% conducted OJT only on the initiative of each division and 27% conducted OJT only when necessary. A small number of companies did not have OJT. Self-learning and observing seniors was more widely adopted while learning through exposure to various jobs was in general underutilized. In Indonesia's case, there were still many companies, which did not see training as a basic need or as a strategy to compete. OJT was not widely done. Where practiced, OJT was conducted only in each division and not according to a company wide plan. In Pakistan more than 60% of the companies surveyed did not have any corporate policy for HRD. 35.8% of firms carried out OJT according to a plan, 17.6% did it on the initiative of each division,
40.8% carried it out as and when necessary and about 6% did not practice it at all. The majority of employees acquired skills and knowledge by self learning and observing. OJT in enterprises in Asia and Pacific can be improved. A national programmed to improve and expand OJT, involving the government, enterprises and the relevant training body, is worth looking into. Expanding Post Secondary Technical Education and Training A number of developing Asian and Pacific countries are at present involved in labor-intensive lower technology manufacturing. They intend to or are already upgrading into medium technology manufacturing. Higher technology manufacturing involves fewer but more skilled workers and more technicians and engineers. In this regard, it may be of interest to note that when Singapore decided to restructure into medium technology products from labor intensive lower technology manufacturing in 1979, it expanded the training of skilled workers, technicians and engineers from 1980 onwards. An issue for developing Asian and Pacific countries, which want to move into medium technology manufacturing, is the need to expand post secondary technical education and training. Given the time lag in education and training institutions producing the needed graduates, alternatives like importing foreign manpower and working with foreign companies to train skilled workers and technicians for the economy in excess of their own requirements may be considered. Expanding Scientific And Technological Manpower Some Asian and Pacific developing countries intend to or are already upgrading into high technology and knowledge intensive manufacturing. Foreign advanced technology is difficult to access and is costly. Asian and Pacific developing countries embarking on high technology manufacturing need to develop indigenous research and development (R & D) capability. They need to expand tertiary education and more importantly to train more scientific and technological
manpowe. To compete in the league of industrialized countries means to operate in sophisticated and highly competitive markets. The most successful are those enterprises, which can innovate and produce new products and services. Merely to improve the quality of goods produced or producing at a lower cost is no longer enough. Asian and Pacific developing countries concerned need to move towards the innovation phase of their economic development. {According to Porter there are four distinct stages of national competitive development -- (i) factor driven; (ii) investment-driven; (iii) innovation-driven; and (iv) wealth driven. A nation's competitive advantage is upgraded successively in the first three stages, which is normally associated with progressively rising economic prosperity. The fourth stage is one of drift and ultimately decline [Porter 1990]}. The elements of plans to move to high technology and to boost indigenous R & D could include the following: i. ii. Increasing national R & D expenditure Expanding the supportive role played by the government in R & D. The government should develop a national science and technology development plan in consultation with industry and tertiary education and training institutions. In the plan R & D must be industry driven. The government should then play a proactive coordinating and facilitating role in the implementation of the plan. iii. iv. Supporting more R & D by the private sector and the universities (ea. through grants and financial incentives) Assisting smaller companies to acquire the relevant technology including sourcing technology which may require creating a national repository of new and emerging foreign technology v. Expanding tertiary education, especially in science and engineering and developing R & D manpower and recruiting such manpower from overseas. vi. Establishing and supporting research centers/institutes, which can provide scientific and technological support to enable companies to undertake
R&D and can, train R & D manpower? Their close links with industry should be promoted. vii. Developing the physical infrastructure for R & D. The experience in industrialized countries shows that intensive knowledge based activities flourish best in techno poles. A techno polis is a closely-knit community where a high concentration of high technology industries, research centers and higher education institutions are integrated in an attractive living environment. California's Silicon Valley and France's Sophia Antipolice are examples of techno poles. The government will have to develop the equivalent of these techno poles in Asian and Pacific developing countries. viii. Assisting the commercialization of R & D products and services. Successful commercialization requires the availability of and the ability to link together complementary assets like finance, marketing and competitive manufacturing. The older Asian NIEs are already implementing measures to boost their indigenous science and technology capabilities. The newer Asian NIEs, which also intend to move into high technology and knowledge intensive production, have begun to implement programmers to strengthen their science and technology capabilities. More measures will need to be taken as their economies upgrade. Upgrading Skills in the Service Sector As developing countries in Asia and the Pacific industrialize further, the size and contribution to output and employment of the service sector will increase. Liberalization will also increasingly affect the service sector. The development and the productivity of the service sector will become more important. Service industries, which are not exposed to international competitiveness, tend to have lower productivity. Developing countries in Asia and Pacific will increasingly need to pay greater attention to the development of the service sector and the raising
of its productivity. This may involve the development of new service industries, the rationalization of existing service industries, where applicable, and the improvement of productivity of individual service enterprises. There are opportunities for the development of new service industries in many developing Asian and Pacific countries to service national, sub regional or regional markets. An example of a seized opportunity is the software industry in Ban galore, which services not just the region but also OECD countries. Other possibilities include medical services, legal services, logistics, lifestyle, information and communications. Various measures will have to be taken to develop these new service industries including having the appropriate policies, regulatory framework and infrastructure. Manpower will also have to be developed and overseas recruitment of trained and experienced professionals and supporting staff will be necessary. The experiences of outstanding service companies in the world, especially the United States and Japan, indicate that the development of a quality culture is essential to higher productivity. Such a culture enables the enterprise to develop management systems to improve productivity and to motivate employees to deliver quality service. The commitment by top management to its implementation is critical. At the same time, management systems designed to achieve higher productivity and customer satisfaction practices; are also human necessary. resource These include quality improvement good management practices;
performance management systems providing for clear customer oriented performance standards in work; and technology management which involves the use of modern technology to improve customer service and to make work easier and more rewarding to employees. The attitude, knowledge and skills of workers is a major ingredient in service quality. The upgrading of service skills is an issue for many developing countries of Asia and the Pacific. Skills standards for service jobs are generally underdeveloped. Without such standards, it would be difficult to improve performance and have career development. Training in the service sector tends
to be inadequate. There is a need to set skills standards for service vocations and to certify service skills. Training programmers should then be developed to teach these skills. To this end, industry bodies in the service sector will need to work with government bodies dealing with training and certification to develop standards and certification of skills and training programmers to teach such skills for their respective service industry. Continuing Education and Training Given the rapid obsolescence of knowledge and the fast change in technology, there is a need for continuing education and training on the part of all employees whether they are managers, supervisors or rank and file workers. Greater attention needs to be paid to continuing education and training in many developing Asian and Pacific countries. Continuing education and training will have to be looked at holistically and systematically and improved and expanded. Government training agencies, employers' organizations, education and training institutions and trade unions should be involved in the exercise to review the existing situation in regard to continuing education and training and to map out its future development. Greater Employers' Involvement in Education and Training The government invariably makes presently major national decisions on education and training in developing countries of Asia and Pacific. A major responsibility of education and training institutions is to produce trained manpower to meet the needs of industry. Employers should seek greater involvement in national education and training policy making. They should be consulted as a matter of course in the formulation of major education and training initiatives. This should be complemented by greater exchanges between individual enterprises and schools and training institutions. The prospect of industry receiving job entrants better equipped for the world of work will be enhanced.
This involves ensuring the continued relevance of courses and syllabi of tertiary educational and training institutions and accepting and ensuring the effective industrial attachment of students of tertiary institutions. At the school level, the linkage may involve increasing the awareness of students to the world of work, the relevance of vocational courses and the familiarity of vocational teachers with the industry they are preparing their students for. It could also cover more effective teaching of the basic skills needed by enterprises as outlined in part four above. Adapting Education and Training to the Market Economy The education and training system of countries in transition to a market economy was designed for a command economy. Under such a system basic education was of a high standard but subsequent training was too specialized. Adult education and training was neglected since workers were expected to be in one job throughout their working life. Furthermore subjects such as economics, management science, law and psychology were ignored or underemphasized. Such a socialist education and training system was inadequate for the needs of the market economy, which is being set up. Reform of the education and training system is needed. The World Bank lists the financing, content and delivery of education as the three priority areas for education reform in countries in transition to a market economy (World Bank 1996). Much progress has been made in the reform of the education and training system in these countries as they move closer towards a market economy. However much more remains to be done. The above is not a comprehensive list of the HRD issues/challenges confronting developing countries of Asia and the Pacific. It is a list of the major issues/challenges from the perspective of employers. They do not affect all the developing countries in the region. Nor do they necessarily affect them to the same degree when applicable. Furthermore the list does not in any way imply that no country is dealing with the issues/challenges at all. Thus in regard to the poor education level of the workforce, Thailand was reported to be intending to launch a programmed on
October 1995 to upgrade two million poorly educated factory workers from primary to lower secondary school level by the year 2000. As regards the issues of expanding technician, engineering and scientific manpower, Malaysia for instance has unveiled a ten-year blueprint to promote technical education from 1996. It has announced its intention to increase enrolment in universities to 40% of those between the ages of 19 and 24 by the year 2020. It also has inaugurated the Academy of Sciences, Malaysia, and designated twenty-one research institutes as approved institutions whose services would enjoy double taxation deductions when used by the private sector. A Science and Technology Human Resource Fund of M$300 million to provide scholarships for postgraduate studies as well as fellowships for graduate research has been set up. Even when countries are dealing with them, it is useful to draw the attention of employers and their organizations to these issues so that they can play a role in the implementation and review of the measures being taken. Where countries have not taken action, employers and their organizations can contribute to the formulation and implementation of measures to deal with these HRD issues. The measures to be adopted must necessarily take into account the situation in each individual country -- its stage of education and training and economic development as well as its historical and political context. There cannot be one single solution to each of the HRD issues/challenges. However the experience of other countries in and outside the region in dealing with these HRD issues/challenges will be useful. The principles and approaches behind their best practices will be useful in the quest for measures to deal with these HRD issues/challenges. The Role of HR development Employers' organizations in Asia and Pacific developing countries have an important role to play in HRD. Since they deal with labor matters, HRD is an area within their responsibility. Their prime task is to ensure that the education and
training system is "demand driven" and responsive to the changing needs of industry. One role they can undertake is to contribute to HRD policy making. They should seek representation on national education and training bodies and the policy making bodies of tertiary education and training institutions. Submissions should be made on major aspects of education and training requiring improvement or on any planned major education and training changes. In this regard they may wish to take up the issues/challenges listed in part five, which are applicable to their countries. Employers' organizations may want to encourage individual enterprises to work with schools and other education and training institutions in programmers which improve the relevance of vocational courses, introduces the world of work to students, increases the familiarity of teachers with the industries they are preparing their students for and promotes the teaching of the basic skills required by industry. In this regard the employers' organization may want to establish jointly with the Ministry of Education, a committee to improve linkages between industry and education and to promote collaborative programmers between enterprises and schools. National targets for education and training systematically and holistically arrived allows for the setting of priorities and the identification of key-areas for improvement. They provide unambiguous quantitative goals against which to evaluate performance. They also enable a country to measure where it stands in relation to other countries, which are its competitors, and provides a basis for catching up and eventually overtaking them. Employers' organizations of Asian and Pacific countries may want to push for the setting up of national education and training targets if their countries do not already have them. Those with such goals already may want them to be reviewed at least on an annual basis. They may also wish to suggest a periodic skills audit of where their countries stand in relation to countries, which are their competitors. Another HRD role for employers' organizations is to undertake advisory and training services designed to improve the skills and knowledge of managers and
supervisors. Thus they can provide an advisory service in training needs analysis and the development of a training plan. As regards training, they can mount training the trainer programmed or programmers to improve supervisory and management skills.
Sources: 1. www.google.com 2. www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/actemp/papers/1998/tanhrd2.htm 3. alumni.caltech.edu/~rouda/T1_HRD.html Gilley, J.W. & Eggland, S.A., Principles of Human Resource Development, Addison-Wesley, NY, 1989, p. 5.
McLagan, Patricia A., "Models for HRD Practice." Training and Development Journal, September 1989, pages 49-59. 4. Human Resource Management, Gary Dressler 5. Human Resource Planning: an Introduction, Reilly P. Report 312, Institute for Employment Studies, 1996 6. www.gov.ns.ca/psc/ 7. Dr. John Sullivan, Head and Professor of Human Resource Management, College of Business, San Francisco State University 8. www.anticlue.net/archives/000794.htm

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