Why Develop a HRD Strategy?

For the HRD Department, the increasingly competitive business environment and the consequent streamlining of organisations have created both challenges and paradoxes. 'People are our greatest asset', is on the lips of many senior managers, yet the development budget is often the first target when economies are needed. Nor are HRD professionals exempt from the pressures experienced throughout the organisation to do more with less, and do it faster. It is all too easy in such a context to work harder, yet achieve less, to launch initiative after initiative, confusing employees and exhausting the HRD resources. It is precisely when there seems no time to develop strategy that a strategy is most needed. Far from being an intellectual or abstract exercise, it is a way of tackling quite pragmatic issues: prioritising among conflicting demands for scarce resource or creating new, more effective ways of delivering value to the organisation. Benefits Business Relevance Value Synergy The Services I Offer Assignments in this area can be quite varied. Sometimes a company wants a thorough review and reformulation of its HRD strategy (e.g. a newly privatised company, a company facing a crisis) More often a client wants help with a particular strategic aim Examples include: Creating a response to a strategic business challenge e.g. developing greater international perspective among managers in an increasingly global business Improving the cost-effectiveness of development and learning approaches Introducing more timely and flexible support for learning Equipping individuals to take greater responsibility for their own development Building a competency framework as a foundation for an integrated set of development processes Developing a process to capture and prioritise individual and organisational development needs
Human Resource Development effort is invested in areas of greatest value-added for the business. The organisation obtains the best learning value for its development Initiatives are integrated so that a learning culture can gradually be built and strengthened.