human resource development

1. Q Class Notes - Human Resource
Management - Training & Development
Training & Development
Training is a process of learning a sequence of programmed behaviour. It improves the
employee’s performance on the current job and prepares them for an intended job.
Development not only improves job performance but also brings about the growth of the
personality. Individuals not only mature regarding their potential capacities but also become
better individuals.
Difference between Training & Development:
Training:
1. It’s a short term process.
2. Refers to instruction in technical and mechanical problems
3. Targeted in most cases for non-managerial personnel
4. Specific job related purpose
Development:
1. It is a long term educational process.
2. Refers to philosophical and theoretical educational concepts
3. Managerial personnel
4. General knowledge purpose
Purpose of Training:
1. To improve Productivity: Training leads to increased operational productivity and
increased company profit.
2. To improve Quality: Better trained workers are less likely to make operational mistakes.
3. To improve Organizational Climate: Training leads to improved production and
product quality which enhances financial incentives. This in turn increases the overall
morale of the organization.
4. To increase Health and Safety: Proper training prevents industrial accidents.
5. Personal Growth: Training gives employees a wider awareness, an enlarged skill base
and that leads to enhanced personal growth.
Steps in Training Process:

2. 1. Discovering or Identifying Training needs: A training program is designed to assist in
providing solutions for specific operational problems or to improve performance of a
trainee.
o Organizational determination and Analysis: Allocation of resources that relate
to organizational goal.
o Operational Analysis: Determination of a specific employee behaviour required
for a particular task.
o Man Analysis: Knowledge, attitude and skill one must possess for attainment of
organizational objectives
2. Getting ready for the job: The trainer has to be prepared for the job. And also who
needs to be trained - the newcomer or the existing employee or the supervisory staff.
3. Preparation of the learner:
o Putting the learner at ease
o Stating the importance and ingredients of the job
o Creating interest
o Placing the learner as close to his normal working position
o Familiarizing him with the equipment, materials and trade terms
4. Presentation of Operation and Knowledge: The trainer should clearly tell, show,
illustrate and question in order to convey the new knowledge and operations. The trainee
should be encouraged to ask questions in order to indicate that he really knows and
understands the job.
5. Performance Try out: The trainee is asked to go through the job several times. This
gradually builds up his skill, speed and confidence.
6. Follow-up: This evaluates the effectiveness of the entire training effort
The Sequence of Training Program can be put in a Flowchart as below:
Training Techniques:
An effective training fulfills the following criteria:
1. Adaptation of the technique/method to the learner and the job
2. Provides motivation to the trainee to improve job performance
3. Creates trainee’s active participation in the learning process
4. Provide knowledge of results about attempts to improve
Development
Management development attempts to improve managerial performance by imparting
1. Knowledge
2. Changing attitudes
3. Increasing skills

3. The major objective of development is managerial effectiveness through a planned and a
deliberate process of learning. This provides for a planned growth of managers to meet the future
organizational needs.
Development Process:
1. Setting Development Objectives: It develops a framework from which executive need
can be determined.
2. Ascertaining Development Needs: It aims at organizational planning & forecast the
present and future growth.
3. Determining Development Needs: This consists of
o Appraisal of present management talent
o Management Manpower Inventory
The above two processes will determine the skill deficiencies that are relative to the future needs
of the organization.
1. Conducting Development Programs: It is carried out on the basis of needs of different
individuals, differences in their attitudes and behaviour, also their physical, intellectual
and emotional qualities. Thus a comprehensive and well conceived program is prepared
depending on the organizational needs and the time & cost involved.
2. Program Evaluation: It is an attempt to assess the value of training in order to achieve
organizational objectives.
The Development process can be pictorially represented in a Flowchart as below:
Human Resource Management
Function 4: Employee evaluation
An organization needs constantly to take stock of its workforce and to assess its performance in
existing jobs for three reasons:
• To improve organizational performance via improving the performance of individual
contributors (should be an automatic process in the case of good managers, but (about
annually) two key questions should be posed:
o what has been done to improve the performance of a person last year?
o and what can be done to improve his or her performance in the year to come?).
• To identify potential, i.e. to recognize existing talent and to use that to fill vacancies higher in
the organization or to transfer individuals into jobs where better use can be made of their
abilities or developing skills.
• To provide an equitable method of linking payment to performance where there are no
numerical criteria (often this salary performance review takes place about three months later
and is kept quite separate from 1. and 2. but is based on the same assessment).

4. On-the-spot managers and supervisors, not HR staffs, carry out evaluations. The personnel role is
usually that of:
• Advising top management of the principles and objectives of an evaluation system and
designing it for particular organizations and environments.
• Developing systems appropriately in consultation with managers, supervisors and staff
representatives. Securing the involvement and cooperation of appraisers and those to be
appraised.
• Assistance in the setting of objective standards of evaluation / assessment, for example:
o Defining targets for achievement;
o Explaining how to quantify and agree objectives;
o Introducing self-assessment;
o Eliminating complexity and duplication.
• Publicizing the purposes of the exercise and explaining to staff how the system will be used.
• Organizing and establishing the necessary training of managers and supervisors who will carry
out the actual evaluations/ appraisals. Not only training in principles and procedures but also in
the human relations skills necessary. (Lack of confidence in their own ability to handle situations
of poor performance is the main weakness of assessors.)
• Monitoring the scheme - ensuring it does not fall into disuse, following up on training/job
exchange etc. recommendations, reminding managers of their responsibilities.
Full-scale periodic reviews should be a standard feature of schemes since resistance to evaluation
/ appraisal schemes is common and the temptation to water down or render schemes ineffectual
is ever present (managers resent the time taken if nothing else).
Basically an evaluation / appraisal scheme is a formalization of what is done in a more casual
manner anyway (e.g. if there is a vacancy, discussion about internal moves and internal attempts
to put square pegs into 'squarer holes' are both the results of casual evaluation). Most managers
approve merit payment and that too calls for evaluation. Made a standard routine task, it aids the
development of talent, warns the inefficient or uncaring and can be an effective form of
motivation.
Performance appraisal methods
(Tools of ) Performance appraisal methods include 11 methods / types as
follows:
1. Critical incident method
The critical incidents for performance appraisal is a method in which the manager writes down
positive and negative performance behavior of employees throughout the performance period
2. Weighted checklist
This method describe a performance appraisal method where rater familiar with the jobs being
evaluated prepared a large list of descriptive statements about effective and ineffective behavior
on jobs

5. 3. Paired comparison analysis
Paired comparison analysis is a good way of weighing up the relative importance of options.
A range of plausible options is listed. Each option is compared against each of the other options.
The results are tallied and the option with the highest score is the preferred option.
4. Graphic rating scales
The Rating Scale is a form on which the manager simply checks off the employee’s level of
performance.
This is the oldest and most widely method used for performance appraisal.
5. Essay Evaluation
This method asked managers / supervisors to describe strengths and weaknesses of an
employee’s behavior. Essay evaluation is a non-quantitative technique
This method usually use with the graphic rating scale method.
6. Behaviorally anchored rating scales
This method used to describe a performance rating that focused on specific behaviors or sets as
indicators of effective or ineffective performance.
It is a combination of the rating scale and critical incident techniques of employee performance
evaluation.
7. Performance ranking method
Ranking is a performance appraisal method that is used to evaluate employee performance from
best to worst.
Manager will compare an employee to another employee, rather than comparing each one to a
standard measurement.
8. Management By Objectives (MBO)
MBO is a process in which managers / employees set objectives for the employee, periodically
evaluate the performance, and reward according to the result.
MBO focuses attention on what must be accomplished (goals) rather than how it is to be
accomplished (methods)
9. 360 degree performance appraisal
360 Degree Feedback is a system or process in which employees receive confidential,
anonymous feedback from the people who work around them.

6. 10.Forced ranking (forced distribution)
Forced ranking is a method of performance appraisal to rank employee but in order of forced
distribution.
For example, the distribution requested with 10 or 20 percent in the top category, 70 or 80
percent in the middle, and 10 percent in the bottom.
11. Behavioral Observation Scales
Behavioral Observation Scales is frequency rating of critical incidents that worker has
performed.
A performance appraisal, employee appraisal, performance review, or (career)
development discussion[1] is a method by which the job performance of an employee is
evaluated (generally in terms of quality, quantity, cost, and time) typically by the corresponding
manager or supervisor[2]. A performance appraisal is a part of guiding and managing career
development. It is the process of recording information about relatives worth of an employee to
the organization.
Contents
[hide]
• 1 Aims
• 2 Methods
• 3 Criticism
• 4 See also
• 5 References
• 6 Sources
• 7 External links
[edit] Aims
Generally, the aims of a performance appraisal are to:
• Give an employees feedback on performance
• Identify employee training needs
• Document criteria used to allocate organizational rewards
• Form a basis for personnel decisions: salary increases, promotions, disciplinary actions, bonuses,
etc.
• Provide the opportunity for organizational diagnosis and development
• Facilitate communication between employee and administration
• Validate selection techniques and human resource policies to meet federal Equal Employment
Opportunity requirements

7. [edit] Methods
A common approach to assessing performance is to use a numerical or scalar rating system
whereby managers are asked to score an individual against a number of objectives/attributes. In
some companies, employees receive assessments from their manager, peers, subordinates, and
customers, while also performing a self assessment. This is known as a 360-degree appraisal and
forms good communication patterns.
The most popular methods used in the performance appraisal process include the following:
• Management by objectives
• 360-degree appraisal
• Behavioral observation scale
• Behaviorally anchored rating scales
Trait-based systems, which rely on factors such as integrity and conscientiousness, are also
commonly used by businesses. The scientific literature on the subject provides evidence that
assessing employees on factors such as these should be avoided. The reasons for this are two-
fold:
1) Because trait-based systems are by definition based on personality traits, they make it difficult
for a manager to provide feedback that can cause positive change in employee performance. This
is caused by the fact that personality dimensions are for the most part static, and while an
employee can change a specific behavior they cannot change their personality. For example, a
person who lacks integrity may stop lying to a manager because they have been caught, but they
still have low integrity and are likely to lie again when the threat of being caught is gone.
2) Trait-based systems, because they are vague, are more easily influenced by office politics,
causing them to be less reliable as a source of information on an employee's true performance.
The vagueness of these instruments allows managers to fill them out based on who they want
to/feel should get a raise, rather than basing scores on specific behaviors employees
should/should not be engaging in. These systems are also more likely to leave a company open to
discrimination claims because a manager can make biased decisions without having to back them
up with specific behavioral information.
[edit] Criticism
Performance appraisals are an instrument for social control. They are annual discussions,
avoided more often than held, in which one adult identifies for another adult three improvement
areas to work on over the next twelve months. You can soften them all you want, call them
development discussions, have them on a regular basis, have the subordinate identify the
improvement areas instead of the boss, and discuss values. None of this changes the basic
transaction... If the intent of the appraisal is learning, it is not going to happen when the context
of the dialogue is evaluation and judgment.