HRD in Industrial

Relations

BLOCK 4
EXPERIENCES AND TRENDS IN HRD

191
HRD in Practice

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 Emerging Trends and
UNIT 11 EMERGING TRENDS AND Perspectives

PERSPECTIVES

Objectives

After reading this chapter you will be able to:

• understand the business environment;

• identify the management challenge;
• analyse the trends in the HRD function;
• understand the sectoral trends;
• analyse the different perspectives of HRD; and
• learn the trends and perspectives through the perspectives of the
organizations.

Structure

11.1 Introduction
11.2 The business environment
11.3 The management challenges
11.4 Trends in HRD function
11.5 Sectoral trends
11.6 Summary
11.7 Self-Assessment Questions
11.8 Further Readings

11.1 INTRODUCTION
The goal of HRD is to improve the performance of the organization by
maximizing the efficiency and performance of the people. In the process,
organizations develop the knowledge, skills, actions, standards, motivation,
incentives, and attitudes leading to a congenial work environment and
performance culture in the organization. HRD remains an important force in
the current context through an integrated use of education and training to
develop the productive capacity of individuals, groups, organizations and
institutions. The shift is towards creating a learning environment by
designing structures, which are suitable for unlocking the creative potential
of the employees. Thus, the focus is on developing the most superior
workforce so that the organization and individual employees can accomplish
their work goals.

This also entails an enlarged scope for HRD as it encompasses all

development functions of HR including performance management, potential
appraisal, mentoring, counselling, career development, and overall
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HRD in Practice organizational development. The continuous development of manpower,
thus, assumes significance to sustain the competitive advantage of
organizations as people are the most important strategic resource of the
organization. HRD policies gain importance to ensure the consistency in
HRD interventions and activities in the organization. The management of the
HRD activities is determined by the systems and the subsystems. The
systems perspective views the HRD function of an organization as an
integration of the system with the subsystems to accomplish the overall goals
of the organization. Hence the inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes along
with their evaluation also assumes significance. The organization
interventions in mapping the systems, processes, activities of any
organization requires an understanding of the business environment, which
influences the business decisions in any organization.

11.2 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

Businesses operate in a dynamic environment which has a direct influence on
not only how they operate but also how they achieve their objectives. It
encompasses a number of forces that can be grouped under economic,
political and legal, social, demographic, global and technological. Each of
these categories creates a unique set of challenges and opportunities for
businesses. Business leaders and managers do have a control over the internal
environment, but to compete successfully they should scan the environment
and shape their businesses according to the trends and perspectives in the
given context. There are also natural calamities and uncertainties like the
pandemic, impacting the business. The recent COVID-19 and its mandatory
lockdowns severely affected several businesses, small and big alike, most of
which are slowly recovering although the scientists /doctors are not certain
about the long-term consequences.

For example, major pharmaceutical companies in the US,UK and India have
successfully completed the procedure for the release of vaccines to prevent
the spread of infection and its severity through their R&D including the
required human trials which was quickly approved by the WHO for
emergency use initially and their commercial usage later. The USFDA also
speeded up the approval process for the drugs needed to counter the
infection.

Activity-1

1. Do you see any business – small or big - affected by any event around
you? List out some events where businesses got affected?

a. Event- 1 - __________________________________How?
b. Event-2 - __________________________________ How?
c. Event-3- __________________________________How?

Now, let us briefly look at the external influences.

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Economic Environment Emerging Trends and
Perspectives

Businesses get influenced by economic factors the most. Economic

fluctuations due to various reasons influence businesses and individuals in
many ways. Economic growth provides opportunities leading to low
unemployment rates and rising incomes. On the other hand, the rates of
inflation affect the interest rates both in terms of borrowing and saving, also
affect the economy, businesses and individuals. The announcement of the
Government of India reducing the interest rates on the home loans and the
stimulus package provided, has helped the employees to stagger the loan
payment for the loans already taken or go for loans to tide over the crisis in
the post-COVID situation. The policies/ schemes announced by the
government also directly and indirectly affect/boost the economic activity.
MANREGA scheme of the Government of India guaranteed 100 days of
work immediately after the lockdown in the rural areas. Further, the supply
and demand of goods and services determine the price, the quality and
quantity and dictate the economic behaviour in a free market.

Activity-2

Name some policies/schemes implemented by the government in your area

which stimulated economic activity due to slowdown recently.

Scheme-1-

Scheme -2-

Political/ legal environment

The political climate of a country as expressed in terms of the political will is
another factor that influences the businesses. For example, the proactive
government policies/schemes to stimulate the economy, the stability of the
government along with the ease of doing business, helps businesses to
flourish in the economy. It is also true that the MNCs like IBM, GE,
Accenture etc do evaluate the political stability of a country for their
investment in plant/ machinery, just like the individuals/ groups would
evaluate for individual investments /FDI in a country. More recently, the
individuals and businesses were a witness to the political turmoil in
Afghanistan, Ukraine, Sri Lanka, and other regions to a large extent. In
addition, the restrictions/ regulations for foreign players, the laws relating to
taxation, imports and exports, subsidies, local quotas, also influence the
business decisions at the macro level. This apart, global agencies like the IL
Oregulate the minimum wages, worker safety, and other issues, WTO
policies relating to fair bilateral agreements, and the role of UN in protecting
the interests of all nations are other political factors to regulate competition
and ensure a level playing field for all nations and businesses.

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HRD in Practice Social Environment
Social factors like education influence the attitudes, value systems, ethics,
and lifestyle of individuals thus influencing the production and sale of
products and services. These are difficult to define and predict because they
are personal and unique in nature. The world has witnessed a progression and
change for the better in terms of the education and literacy levels resulting in
a change in the workforce composition with more and more representation of
women and people belonging to different backgrounds, geography, location,
classes, cultures, etc. One of the recent trends on the organizational front is
mandated CSR in which organizations spend 2% of their net profits for
societal wellbeing.

Activity-3

Did you find any CSR activity of any company in your area? If yes, what is
the activity and which company was involved in the same?

1. _____________________________

2. _____________________________

Demographic Environment
Demographics define the market, products, and services and also determine
the size and composition of the workforce. Businesses are expected to keep
the demographic factors like age, gender, race, ethnicity, and location in
order to arrive at products and services. Of late businesses have to deal with
the unique product preferences and unique purchase behaviour of different
generations to decide on the product line marketing approach, to attract their
targeted customers. The more recent focus on the millennials and Gen Z at
the workplace along with a tech-savvy work preference has an immense
impact on the investment that has to be borne by the businesses in
technology. In India for example the demographic dividend in terms of its
young workforce is considered the greatest advantage globally. Statistics
prove that India will add 183 million people to the working-age group of 15-
64 years between 2020-50 as per the UN population statistics database, which
shows a whopping 22% of the global workforce coming from India over the
next three decades. This automatically increases the labour force with
enhanced productivity to the economy thus influencing businesses to invest
in physical and human infrastructure to draw mileage from this demographic
dividend. In contrast, a majority of the US workforce reflects an aged
workforce currently as they had surpassed the baby boomers in 2017. This is
true with employees from different classes, locations, gender etc., thus
making organizations recognize the value of hiring a diverse workforce and
taking business decisions targeting the different groups.

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Technology Emerging Trends and
Perspectives

The competitiveness of an organization in the current scheme of things is

determined by the ability, speed and effectiveness with which investments
are made in technology. Businesses, large and small use technology to adapt
to change, improve efficiency and streamline operations. For example,
advances in cloud computing has provided good access to store data without
running applications and programs in physical infrastructure. Moreover,
mobile technology has also allowed businesses to communicate with
employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders, and other stakeholders in an
effective way. E commerce and its increased acceptance in the post pandemic
period is yet another emerging trend leading to investments in technology.
Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning have helped businesses to
automate the repetitive tasks enabling the employees to focus on more
knowledge-intensive tasks critical to business success. The investment made
by the nation in digital technology at the macro level and the organizations at
the micro-level along with the ability of the employees to learn technology is
yet another trend that influences the business environment.

Activity-4

How has technology changed our life? List out a few ways in which we use
technology in our everyday life?

1. ___________

2. ___________

The business landscape, thus, reflects the changes and their long-term impact,
requiring sustainability measures. These factors also evidence significant
challenges for the managers not only to navigate through the trends but also
to address the workplace environment. The leaders and the managers have a
special role in addressing these trends with suitable measures and decisions
to keep pace with the changing environment.

11.3 THE MANAGEMENT CHALLENGE

Leadership
Organizational experience across the world evidences that leaders drive their
organizations to high performance. This is evident in the Indian context.
Although India’s competitive environment is relatively new, according to an
HBR Study, the top management of India’s large businesses continued
India’s legacy of a commitment to social goals fuelled by enlightened self-
interest. This is evident in Hindustan Unilever’s Project Shakti which applied
microfinance principles to create a sales force in India’s remote rural areas.
The hospitals, schools, and old age homes built by Indian organizations also
support the corporate commitment to social goals. Similarly, Indian
businesses also placed a high priority on building a performance culture in
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HRD in Practice the organization along with their focus on human capital development. The
Indian model of leadership view business strategy as a set of enduring
general principles of competing such as developing competencies, embracing
social purpose, and taking the longer view of business. This model helps in
enhancing the organizational agility in the marketplace and allows the leaders
to develop their top management by guiding and teaching as their priorities.
While globalization has helped Indian companies in terms of doing business
outside India to go global, careful strategy by the Indian leadership enabled
these companies to compete across international markets. About 50% of Tata
group’s revenue comes across from other countries. The group could achieve
this through a wave of acquisitions- the Tetley group, the Daewoo
commercial vehicle company, and the Boston’s Ritz Carlton hotel (now
known as Taj Boston). Similar was the story of the Nano car, where the price
of INR 100,000 was fixed and the managers/ engineers worked to meet the
target. Indian companies thus integrate strategy with their social mission, thus
translating their vision to invest heavily in employee development through
training.

The HRD efforts of Indian companies touch upon four themes: a) managing
and developing talent, b) shaping employee attitudes, c) managing
organization culture and d) Internationalization. Employee retention was also
paramount to the Indian companies where they saw a trade-off between
recruitment and development and paid attention to both. The Indian
companies believe that human capital drives business success and hence
adopt an aggressive approach to training and skill development. It is also
important to note that employee investment continues with leadership
development, where a majority of companies track leadership training. Indian
companies have experimented with many interventions at the individual and
the group level, thus contributing to best practices in the industry.

The Case of WIPRO

Wipro is a case in point, where each of the selected 1000+ managers and
executives is scored on 12 leadership measures and individual scores are
compared with company averages. The top 300 leaders are reviewed by the
chairman, in a process that extends over 5 days. Based on the assessment, a
development plan is drawn for each candidate which includes coaching,
training and job rotation. Succession planning is then done to fill the
vacancies. Indian leadership perspective arose from the unique situation of
the Indian economy and the Indian societal roots.

The VUCA world

Management is characterized by the VUCA times- volatility, uncertainty
complexity, and ambiguity. The VUCA times are going to stay, with the
pandemic having accelerated this trend and creating a number of new
obstacles. The result is, the existing management models no longer address
the crisis presented by the VUCA world. The consequences of uncertainty
198 impact the decision-making function of the managers resulting in either rash
or delayed decisions, which affect planning for the future. In such a scenario, Emerging Trends and
Perspectives
the HRD functions of recruiting, training, and retention suffer, calling for
equipping the managers to deal with such crisis situations and predict the
future.

Shaping Company Culture

Company culture is a key driver of employee engagement and productivity. It
is important that the managers address this challenge to create and maintain a
workplace culture that enables the achievement of organizational goals. The
pandemic has again disturbed the work arrangement, forcing the
organizations to mandate a hybrid work design, with a majority of them
working from home resulting in dispersed teams, isolation, and stress due to
the virtual interaction limited to the team or the manager. As a result,
organizations can no longer rely on the HR department alone to create,
recreate and build culture, thus changing the role of HRD in the process.
Further, the disconnect with the workplace, job insecurity, stress, loss of
income including health and safety concerns have fuelled anxiety for many
employees. With work from home likely to continue as per the projections,
the role of HRD to redesign work so as to promote the well-being and
support programs assumes significance.HRD has to be equipped with the
right tools to help the employees connect with one another, engage with the
organizational goals and help them with their professional development. The
learning and development activities should thus be associated with increased
engagement to enhance their productivity. The e-learning solutions have
proven to charge the team and individual performance so as to make a
genuine business impact.

Activity 5

1. How do we understand culture?

2. What are some examples of culture which we see today at home in our
day-to day life?
3. Choose a company and write about their unique culture?

Talent Management
The trends brought about by the pandemic has made the organizations
struggle to find talent with the right skills. Virtual recruitment, Virtual on-
boarding, and induction facilitated by technology has made it possible for the
organization to tide over the situation. This changed scenario has impacted
the role of HRD in not only using different technologies but also ensuring an
inclusive learning environment. Driving the learning and development
agenda within the teams, the managers can also support the diversity and
inclusion initiatives of the organization. Based on this, the talent acquisition
team can have strategies designed to attract a diverse pool of talent for
increased innovation and organizational success.

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HRD in Practice Technology and Digitalization
Changes in the organizational environment and the work environment has
made digitalization no longer an option but a necessary mode of survival.
There is increased pressure for the managers to keep pace with the
technology that continues to evolve till the right solutions are found.
Investing time and resources till the solution is found is a challenge that
managers and organizations have to consider. This trend of technology and
digitalization has enabled the organization to embrace a digital business
model post-pandemic and organizational experience proves that they have
succeeded in their efforts. Thus digitalization and the digital infrastructure are
viewed as important trends in the current context. The impact of
digitalization on HRD has been immense and the success of HRD
interventions are determined by the stage of digitalization that the
organization has and how the organization shores up its digital infrastructure.

Activity-6

1. Is technology applications a mode of life for us today? Give examples to

prove your point?
2. What are the ways in which technology is applied at
a. Home
b. Workplace
c. Learning

Summing up, success in the current business scenario, with its trends and
challenges in the VUCA world, forces organizations to embrace the right
strategies with a plan of action to address them.

11.4 TRENDS IN HRD FUNCTION

HRD aims at developing the capabilities of individuals working in an
organization. It also attempts to develop interpersonal relationships to
inculcate team spirit in the organization.HRD also drives to develop the
organizational health through a continuous renewal of individual capabilities
keeping pace with the technological changes. Work and the job become the
critical inputs for effective standards. The analysis of the job and job design,
therefore is essential to enhance the work efficiency and effectiveness.

Job Analysis and Job Design

Job design focuses on the motivational aspects of the job. It helps in
organizing the job-related tasks and directly impacts the mental and physical
health of the employees. By design, the physical aspects reduce physical
strain, fatigue, and monotony arising out of doing repetitive tasks. Similarly,
work systems and culture enable individuals to enjoy a comfortable work
environment in a relaxed way. In the post-industrial revolution, the jobs were
200 broken down into independent elements so that the worker can perform
repetitive tasks, which made it easy to measure the performance and Emerging Trends and
Perspectives
compensate accordingly. Thereafter, the human relations school and the
behavioural school highlighted the behavioural issues in the job design. The
trend today is towards the human aspects of job design to synergise the
productivity and employee satisfaction. This makes it necessary to have
critical inputs related to the job and the consequent job design, job analysis,
and job evaluation. Thus job design necessitates a broader perspective and is
moving towards identifying the specific activities required to do the job, to
motivate the individual and instil a performance culture. This process also
helps in identifying the skill sets while hiring, developing those skills through
training and the consequent compensation and rewards management.
Understanding the job in a holistic manner helps HRD work towards
efficiency and effectiveness. By design, the job should be flexible to
accommodate the needs of the employees and ensure their efficiency and
effectiveness as well. The case study in a manufacturing organization
illustrates this.

Box 2: Case Study

The plant develops and produces electronic computers and other component
parts used in data processing equipment and computers. Production systems
are changed frequently, sometimes to improve methods, but more often
because of the introduction of improved models of computers offering greater
speed, memory capacity over older models.

Description of Job Prior to Redesign

The production operation in which job redesign was carried out had eleven
workers. All of them were over 45, stood at work tables and inserted 2- by 5-
inch epoxy laminated cards containing electronic circuits, into a chassis
frame, designed to hold approximately 200 such cards. It required physical
and eye strain.

Nature of the Redesign

A staff of engineers is engaged constantly in studying work methods in all

operations to reduce costs, increase output, and eliminate obstacles to high
productivity. They designed a new system with three distinctly new elements:
a new card storage system, a swivel top worktable, and a recording device
that dictates taped instructions. The new system eliminated in several ways
physical effort in reaching and bending, and possible eye strain.

Training and Development

Training is an important activity in HRD which reinforces HRM in an
organization. HRD is a concept and it consists of an organised learning
activities in a given time frame to learn the required content and achieve the
desired behavioural changes in the employees. From an organizational
perspective, it is a process to provide functional capabilities to don the
current and future roles. Trends in the training and development activity have 201
HRD in Practice changed dramatically with the changes in the world of business. It is believed
that the concept itself has undergone a major change in the nomenclature
from training and development to learning and development both in terms of
letter and spirit. Consequently, organizations created structures in the form of
a centralized learning and development centre as a hub of all learning
activities irrespective of the sectors. For example, IDBI, as a financial
institution has established Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Banking and
Finance (JNIBF) at Hyderabad. Similarly the State Bank Of India (SBI)
established 6 domain specific training centresat Hyderabad to provide
specialized training across the country to address different objectives of the
organization such as (i) Leadership, Management & Banking Research (ii)
Risk, Forex & Credit (iii) Consumer Markets & Retail Products (iv) Rural
Markets & Financial Inclusion (v) IT Innovation & Technology Products and
(vi) On-boarding, Orientation and Leadership Development programs of new
entrants.

Post pandemic the function underwent many more changes. Evidence

suggests that L&D would be at the forefront of this, with many organizations
planning to invest in learning technologies on virtual platforms. With remote
working accepted as a new normal, e-learning has become the norm of the
day. Great reliance on technology implies more learning to work efficiently.
Upskilling and reskilling the workforce is another trend to bridge the skill
gaps in the workforce. Global changes and challenges have also forced
employees to switch occupations and acquire new skills because of increased
use of automation like Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Machine learning in
the organizational activity. Given the considerable magnitude of these trends,
the pandemic has accentuated the issue and forced organizations to be much
more vigilant in equipping the workforce. This being the case, a new culture
of continual training and learning has become the norm for many
organizations. One of the critical L & D trends that have emerged in the
recent past is the emphasis on social learning methods. Social learning
discards the traditional learning models and focuses on new behaviours
acquired by observing others. A majority of the organizations are planning to
strengthen their social learning tools in future for efficiency and
effectiveness. Thus, HRD efforts have a new direction to follow in future.
Experiences of the trends in the L& D are given below.

Organizational Experiences

Accenture has tied up with XLRI Jamshedpur for providing diploma in

human resource management. ICICI Bank has set up a number of academies
for different functional areas and has certification processes for different
roles. Tata Management and Training Centre of Tatas, Bodhi Vriksha of
Mahindra Group, Gyanodaya of AV Birla Group, etc., are a few examples of
superior training facilities provided to employees for skill enhancement

Multinational organizations operating in India are tapping in global training

system for training their top talents in India. Hindustan Unilever's Talent
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Excel-Rator is an example of one such program where high performing Emerging Trends and
Perspectives
managers of South Asia gets global exposure in cross-cultural trainee groups.
Cisco has Short Term Rotation (STIR) program where people from different
countries take up jobs on a rotational basis. To address gender-related issues,
many organizations (e.g. IBM, HDFC, Standard Chartered Bank, Accenture)
have different training programs in place. For retention of BPO employees,
companies like Infosys BPO, are providing higher educational opportunities
to their employees. This program in a way has resulted in less percentage of
attrition amongst BPO employees.

With over 12 million new entrants in the labour market, India has the world's
youngest workforce, but it is short on employability skill. To address this
concern like China and Germany, a Vocational Training Act is going to be
introduced in India soon to provide a legal framework for providing quality
skill building training to youths to make them employable. Corporate India is
also doing their share of corporate social responsibility to ensure
employability of certain segments of individuals. For example, a month after
initiating voluntary retirement scheme, Nokia India at Chennai came up with
Bridge program through which employees who had put in at least 5 years of
service in the company and had to face job loss are given special training on
different career avenues. Training programs are imparted on MS
Office/Tally, commissioning of solar units, desktop publishing, beauty
treatment courses, garment making, etc. to ensure employability of these ex-
employees.

Career Development
Effective human resource development encompasses career planning, career
development and succession planning. Since availability of internal
manpower to man the present and future vacancies is important to the
organisation, HRD efforts attempt to focus on career planning and career
development. Further retention of key performers is a strategic issue of
organizations. A well planned and transparent career planning and
development initiative takes care of retaining the employees. Further, suitable
management development and organisation development initiatives reinforce
HRD, especially for employees at the top management. The career
development efforts of an employee is given in the case study below.

Box 3: Case Study

Mr. Rahul was working as a QA engineer in a reputed firm for the past 15
years. Receiving minimal increases in his wage throughout his career, he was
now certainly underpaid. Career counselling optimized his resume, refined
his presentation skills and even polished his networking abilities. This helped
him in exploring the job market.

Mr. Rahul now unveiled a QA engineer vacancy in one of the Fortune 500
companies and applied for the same. He was selected and was offered 10%
salary increase. His current organization realized his significance and carried
203
HRD in Practice out a market correction to match it. However, the new organization offered
an extra 7%. He is now happy and content with his new job and looks
forward for a bright career.

Performance Management
Performance management is the most critical part of HRD function. It
reinforces HRD in an organization. In an era of technological change and
competitiveness, the organizations are constantly required to renew and
update the skill of employees to inculcate the performance culture.
Performance appraisal helps organizations to take stock of their skill
inventories, performance standards. Training helps to address the skill gaps
and raise the standards of performance. Psychologists believe that individuals
are unique and they bring unique capabilities to the organization thus
contributing to cumulative performance of the organization. Customized
performance plans for each of the employees are the trend of the day. Further,
the definition of performance, the measurement of performance and
management of performance have undergone a tremendous change. The
methods of appraising the performance of the employees to make it objective
and to bring in transparency. This trend has necessitated the use of modern
methods in place of traditional methods to achieve performance development.
The appraisals are generally used by the organizations to compensate and
reward the employees. Compensation and rewards management has attained
strategic significance and hence several companies have initiated various
experiments to make this function development oriented. The role of HRD is
paramount in the entire process. The case of Accenture, mentioned below,
enhancing the professional development of its employees is one such
example.

Box 4: Case study

Accenture Abandoned Ratings for performance Development

Accenture, one of the largest companies in the world, disbanded its former
ranking and once-a-year evaluation process as back as September, 2015. Like
GE, Accenture has decided to put frequent feedback and conversations at the
heart of its new process and focus on performance development, rather than
performance rating. As Accenture’s CEO, Pierre Nanterme, stated at that
time “It’s huge, we’re going to get rid of probably 90 percent of what we did
in the past.”As Ellyn Shook, Chief HR Officer at Accenture, stated:“Rather
than taking a retrospective view, our people will engage in future-focused
conversations about their aspirations, leading to actions to help them grow
and progress their careers.”

204
Human Resource Information System Emerging Trends and
Perspectives

Human resource information systems (HRIS) refers to the technology used

by the organisation to store, record, link, analyse and retrieve data about the
human element within the organization. Applications of HRIS are possible in
all HR functions to reinforce sharing of information in people related
activities. The application of HRIS in HRD enables the employees to learn
acquire new capabilities, refresh their existing abilities thus leading to the
competitive advantage of the organization. Organizational experience reveals
a few challenges in the integration of HRIS in HRD. They are:

1. Organizations spell out their vision, mission and objectives along with
their strategies to achieve the same. The challenge of HRD lies in the
organizational readiness to audit the skills, competencies and abilities of
the employees, who are the critical resource to achieve those objectives.
It becomes incumbent on the organization to align the skill mapping with
the business objectives. It is also important for HR to facilitate this
alignment by creating the required infrastructure and systems in the
electronic resources in the organization.

2. The alignment of HRIS with HRD requires integration between HRD

processes and HR practices. HR functions like recruiting, L&D ,
performance management require a good amount information and
records to achieve the integration. For example Google integrated the
hiring process with HRIS, where it could use the recorded information
about the best performance predictors of current employees to select the
prospective employees.

3. The integration of HRIS with the HR processes also enables the

organization to create an environment in which the individuals would
own up responsibility for their training and development. For example:
FedEx corporation not only invests in training and development both in
terms of time and money, it mandates compulsory training along with
voluntary course work. With the help of HRIS, the company helps
multiskilling the employees by offering 800 short term courses online
through its portal. Similarly, CISCO has made Web based training an
integral part to make employees more productive, making the training
available anytime and anywhere. LG in Korea mandates training for all
its employees throughout the year and with the help of HRIS prizes are
doled out to encourage people to learn. All the same, decisions about the
employees who do not reach the desired levels of performance in the test
after training are taken by the organization and communicated to the
employees. These examples clearly prove the clear strategy of
organizations relating to training and development and how the function
has been reinvented with the help of HRIS.

4. The supportive environment of the organization has to be supplemented

by the commitment of managers in the learning process. The manager
has access to the information, record of work behaviour of employees, 205
HRD in Practice the performance data, the awards and rewards information, placing him
in a position to understand the learning requirements of the employees.

To sum up the linking of HRD with HRIS reveals challenges of a higher-

order requiring organizational and managerial commitment. Google’s use of
HRIS and its analytics approach points to the advantages that its screening
process has helped the company to focus on all the potential candidates in its
recruitment process.

Box 5: Case study

Google is well known for its tough screening process of new job
candidates. But as the company grows, it has become increasingly difficult to
find enough people who are likely to perform well. A few years ago, as it
waded through some 100,000 applications a month, Google was not sure it
was identifying the best candidates with traditional techniques such as grade
point average. To develop a more sophisticated approach it started with a
comprehensive database that captures employees’ attitudes, behaviours, and
personalities and biographical information, as well as job performance.
Google collects the same information from applicants. The data for
individual job seekers are matched against a list of the best predictors of
performance generated from the current employees' data. Google then applies
an algorithm that calculates a score to predict the likelihood that applicants
will succeed at the company. This analytical approach has helped Google
manage the rapid growth of its workforce. In the third quarter of 2007, for
example, the company hired 2,130 people, a 38% increase from the second
quarter. Just as important, this approach ensures that the company does not
overlook potential employees who may not have made it through the
previous process. The company's initial analysis of two million data points
from the survey confirmed that Google's reliance on GPA as a simple
screening metric had indeed caused them to overlook great candidates in the
past.

11.5 SECTORAL TRENDS

The HRD trends are visible across different sectors both at the global and the
national level highlighting different trends and perspectives. More
specifically, IT and ITES, Pharma and Biotechnology, Tourism and
Hospitality, I India, present interesting trends and perspectives. The recent
trends for some sectors in India are presented below:

IT Industry
IT industry is one of the fastest and dynamic industries contributing to the
Indian economy. Initially, the Industry grew in the tier 1 cities and gradually
spread to the other locations with the advancement in economic growth and
infrastructure development. The industry contributes 9.3% of the Indian
GDPand 56% of the global outsourcing market. India’s IT and business
206 services market is projected to reach US$ 19.93 billion by 2025. India is only
next to China in terms of the population however in terms of youth in the age Emerging Trends and
Perspectives
group of 10-24 years India has gone past China according to the estimates of
United Nations. The increase in the young population, the availability of
younger people for employment is also on the rise. The growing number of
graduates accelerates this with an increased pool of younger generation
available for the growth of economy and business. The IT industry plays a
seminal role in providing employment to the graduating youth. The IT
industry is also known for the higher remuneration and the organizational
experience proves the fact that the IT and ITES maintain a good balance
between the new hires and the experienced employees.The emergence of new
technologies like big data analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), Cloud
computing, additive manufacturing, cognitive computing and open platforms
will not only create opportunities but also challenge the businesses to be
competitive in the markets. Innovation, Privacy and security solutions remain
to be the important components to be considered in adopting the newer
technologies. All these have implications to the role of HRD in not
strategizing for recruitment, talent management, learning and development,
compensation and rewards management along with the softer side of benefits,
welfare and wellbeing measures.

Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Sector

India is among the top 10 pharmaceutical exporting countries with its share
of the global market on the rise compared to the previous 5 years.Indian
drugs and pharma exports reached US$ 5.78 billion between April, 2021-
June,2021. India is also among the top 12 most preferred biotech destinations
in the world owing to a large reservoir of scientific human resources
including scientists and engineers. Pharmaceuticals, infrastructure, and the
chemical sectors are projected to have annual increments owing to the
demand and nature of the business. All these trends indicate a renewed role
for HRD in terms of the recruitment strategies, training, and development,
talent management, and performance management including compensation
and rewards management.

Tourism and Hospitality Sector

Tourism in India is important for the country’s economy and the growth
projections put the sectoral importance both in terms of its contribution to the
GDP and also the employment that it creates. The world travel and tourism
council has stated that tourism generated 9.2% of India’s GDP in2018 and in
FY20 it has created 39 million jobs which is 8.9% of total employment. This
sector is expected to grow at an annual rate of 6.9% and contribute 9.9% of
GDP by 2028.Since the tourists include foreigners for various reasons like
medical, spiritual, leisure etc. and domestic tourists, the role of HRD in this
sector assumes special significance to understand and anticipate the customer
needs and then focus on what is required and needed by the markets.
Strategies relating to hiring, training, and development especially the soft
skills to ensure customer satisfaction are the need of the hour.
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HRD in Practice India as a developing economy stands as the 5th largest economy in terms of
GDP which is projected to reach US$ 5 trillion by 2025. A number of sectors
contribute to the GDP, services being the major sector accounting to 54.27 %
in 2020-21. The IT & ITES, the Pharma biotechnology, and chemicals along
with the tourism and hospitality contributing the most to the GDP. The
implications to HRD to sharpen the capabilities of employees and prepare
them to acquire the desired competencies through facilitation and HRD
mechanisms like talent management, performance appraisal, training, OD
efforts, feedback and counselling, potential development, job analysis and
enrichment, rewards management assumes significance in organizations.

11.6 SUMMARY
The goal of HRD is to improve the performance of the organization by
maximizing the efficiency and performance of the people. This entails
developing the knowledge, skills motivation and competencies of the people
to instila performance culture in the organization. HRD continues to be a
major force in the given context through the use of mechanisms like
education and training. With the change in the global scenario and the
national needs, an enlarged scope of HRD functions assumes importance.
However, the dynamic business environment entails management challenges
in the VUCA world. Similar remains the case with the sectoral trends which
highlight a renewed thrust for the HRD functions. Consequently, the role of
leadership in shaping the company culture, talent management, the changing
technology, and digitalization present trends requiring solutions and
strategies. This background highlights trends in the HRD function to enhance
work efficiency and organizational effectiveness. The organizational
experience supports the increased scope of HRD function to deal with the
emerging trends and contribute to both the HRD function as well as
organizational development.

11.7 SELF-ASSESSMENT
1. Is business environment dynamic? Explain with an example.
2. How can a firm cope up with the changing technological environment?
Explain with an example.
3. Why do the organizations focus on the VUCA world today? Take an
example of a company and briefly explain how it managed each of the
elements?
4. What do you think are the major trends in HRD?
5. What are the trends in the major sectors in India? Do they differ at the
global level?
6. Write short notes on
a. HRD in the Training & Development function
208
 b. Political & Legal environment and its impact on business Emerging Trends and
Perspectives
environment
c. The IT sector and the HRD function

11.8 FURTHER READINGS

• Tiwari, T.D and Thakkar, Anuja, (2005) New Dimensions on Human
resource development. New Delhi; Wisdom Publications.
• Angelo S DeNisi, Ricky W Griffin, Anita Sarkar,(2014) H R – A
South Asian Perspective. New Delhi; Cengage Learning.
• Subba Rao,P (2009)International Human Resource Management
Mumbai; Himalaya Publishing House.
• Bhattacharya, D K (2009) Human Resource Development. Mumbai;
Himalaya Publishing House
• DeSimone, Randy L and Wernar, Jon M (2012), Human Resource
Development. New Delhi; Cengage Learning.
• Mukund Chandra Mehta and Doel Kar (2020), Human Resource
Development. New Delhi; Bharti Publications.
• Kaila H L (2020), Human Resource Development and Business
Growth. New Delhi; Dream Tech Press.
• Google Case Study Human Resource Management International
Digest, Vol. 20 (3) 2012, pp. 15-17, Emerald, ISSN 0967-0734.

209
HRD in Practice
UNIT 12 HRD EXPERIENCES

Objectives

• understand the HRD function

• analyse the experiences of organizations relating to HRD functions;
• highlight the role of HRD in the organization; and
• identify the HRM functions, which have a direct or indirect role in the
HRD function.

Structure

12.1 Introduction
12.2 HR Planning and HRD
12.3 Job Description and HRD
12.4 Recruitment and HRD
12.5 Selection and HRD
12.6 Training and development and HRD
12.7 Talent management and HRD
12.8 Performance appraisal and HRD
12.9 Compensation and rewards development
12.10 Employee engagement and HRD
12.11 Ethics and HRD
12.12 Technology in HRD
12.13 Summary
12.14 Self-Assessment Questions
12.15 Further Readings

12.1 INTRODUCTION
Human resource development as a concept has become popular in the 1980s.
The concept, however, can be traced back to the small businesses limited to
the products of household use in the post-industrial revolution era. Skill
development programs were conductedfor all those artisans and employees
who were involved in the production of those products. This was followed by
the apprenticeship training programs and vocational education programs for
the semi-skilled and unskilled workers.Further, the experiments conducted by
F. W Taylor and Elton Mayo brought to light the need for scientific training
for improving efficiency and productivity. The aftermath of thetwo world
wars evidenced the emergence of human resource development and the
establishment of training departments in a professional manner.The
relationship between human resource management and HRD training
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emerged for the effective utilization of human resources to achieve the goals HRD Experiences

of the organization. Training as an important function of HRM to develop the

human resources assumed significance in this context. The comprehensive
HRM entails all its functions starting from HR planning/ manpower planning,
recruitment and selection, training and development, performance
management, career development, compensation and rewards management
which are primary functions, directly and indirectly,affect the HRD function.
Thus, the HRD functions of training and development, organization
development, career development along with coaching/ mentoring,relate to
the functions of HRM, which are described as HRD experiences.
Organizations have altered the structure of the HRD function and made
efforts to enhance the competencies and role of the HRD professionals.
However, the challenges to the organizations and the HRD professionals in
relation to competition at the global level, identifying and mapping skill gaps,
diversity and inclusion, facilitating organizational learning and the need for
lifelong learning remain as challenges as organizations plan their
development initiatives. Further, the Covid-19 pandemic has further
accelerated the workplace transformation and has impacted businesses,
calling for developing the needed skills forlong-term organizational
sustainability.

12.2 EXPERIENCES
HRD today is faced with myriad challenges that include managing layoffs,
organization restructuring, making urgent financial decisions, ensuring
employee wellness, adhering to government regulations, and adapting to a
newer, remote way of working. It has become essential that
HRDprofessionals learn from global best practices/ experiences to tide over
these uncertain times and prepare their organization for long-term growth and
transformation.The experiences of organizations across the world and India
highlight the role of HRD in relation to human resource management and
development. These are presented below in the form of case studies.

HR Planning or Workforce planning

Box 1: Case Study

The Dutch Railway system processes 1.3 million passengers and more than a
million tons of cargo daily with high reliability and safety and a low CO2
profile. In the coming 10 years, the daily number of trains will need to grow
30% to enable train operators to deliver on the growing demand for
Passenger and Cargo traffic. This is a major challenge for the Dutch Railway
infrastructure manager, Pro Rail. An obvious choice would be to change and
grow the rail infrastructure within the Netherlands. But growing the
infrastructure would require a multi-billion Euro investment and may take too
much time and space in urban areas. The strategic workforce challenges for
the 700 Train Traffic Controllers and 150 operational planners whose jobs
will change tremendously because of this. They wanted to do it with a digital 211
HRD in Practice vision. A data-driven approach was adopted to estimate the availability and
composition of the workforce, based on available personnel data. In the end,
the model was quantitative, providing estimates on needed workforce at any
given point in time.

Discussion

After the major steps of the Digital Vision were defined, the management
from Traffic Control had to design a Strategic Workforce Plan to see what
the impact would be on the workforce. They wanted to know what decisions
and steps would be needed to align workforce requirements with the ever
changing fundamental changes in technology and processes. Thetask of HR
Departmentis related to the deployment of people while HRDwas responsible
to train the traffic controllers andthe plannersto manage change in the context
of the digital vision. The next step is to devise a plan where the Digital
Vision and other developments would be analysed and translated to
workforce requirements for the years ahead. Estimated qualitative effects on
the jobs and personnel characteristics, based on current insights, may have
limited impact, following discussions with the management team. The
proposed quantitative model provided them with several useful insights on
the work force planning and the needed HRD efforts.

Job Description
Box 2: Case Study

ReTargeter was a high-growth pioneering digital advertisingcompany—they

were acquired by SellPoints for their highgrowth potential. ReTargeter
believed that there was a lack ofdetail, engagement, and interaction on job
descriptions creatinga wide gulf between employers and candidates. This,
theyfound, resulted in wasted time, misinformed decisions, andmissed
opportunities. In high growth mode, ReTargeter neededa solution to drive
consistent hiring. ReTargeter needed to keeptheir candidate pipeline full,
attract quality talent (not justquantity), and optimize hiring spend.ReTargeter
had some valuable qualities as a company thatwould be attractive to
candidates including culture, professionaldevelopment, respect, and
teamwork. They knew thesequalities would help their initiative to drive
consistent hiring, butthey needed a way and channel to communicate it. The
perfectsolution for them was a job description. ReTargeter filmed aseries of 5
videos in less than 2 hours and the jobs went livewithin 2 weeks in a phased
release. The phased release wasplanned to allow their team to focus on
sharing specific jobs viatheir social networks one at a time.ReTargeter’s
video job description approach to recruiting andhiring resulted in the hiring
of three “A-players” in its first month!ReTargeter’s performance metrics
could be understood across the 5 positions that they advertised. Theyreceived
38 applications and they hired for 3 positions with a total views of 4,423.

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 HRD Experiences
Discussion

SellPoints acquired ReTargeter and found that there was a need for a solution
for constant hiring and they found that the job description was the best
solution to keep their pipeline full. They used technology and social media in
their hiring process and succeeded in diagnosing the problem and finding a
solution to it. Digital advertising companies in the current context provide the
digital marketing to grow businesses going online. Its high reach, visibility
and measurement of results were seen in ReTargeterin attracting its talent.
Post Covid digital advertising is moving towards being the primary focus of
advertisers because of building a cost effective customer base, restoring
brand image and awareness, leading to high reach, measurable results,
increase in ROI and retaining loyal customers.

Recruitment
Box 3: Case Study

The Losch Group is the biggest player in the Luxembourgish car sector.
Therefore, recruiting the best talent is key for the success of the company. To
maintain its operations, Losch hires diversified profiles, from mechanics to
digital managers or accountants. The biggest pain points of the old
recruitment were large-volume applications management; selection process
of the most promising profiles, collaboration within HR department and
quality of hire improvement. The group implemented a new software using
AI-powered algorithms which optimised the recruitment cycle and enabled
better hiring decision making.

Discussion:

Losch became aware of how crucial it was to embrace a more

agile recruitment process, with the implementation of a software that could
prevent the company from losing potential talent and, also, allow them to
keep up with the digitalization and fast growth. The new automated saved a
lot of time and improved the candidate experience.The recruitment software
also provided the HR departmentwith acentralized and streamlined hiring
process between their subsidiaries, enabling them to embrace the digital
revolution through standardized processes.The digital transformation was
further accelerated in the post covid context with several businesses
implementing remote work policies and changed processes.This also applied
to recruitment as companies came to realize they needed to adapt to keep
hiring during the pandemic. Key companies, who want to further optimize
their recruitment process, need features that are key to hiring success.

213
HRD in Practice Training and development
Box 4: Case study

One of the key functions of the HR department in Infosys is training and

development. The other departments also collaborate with the HR department
along with the subject matter experts from other organizations and
universities. Infosys designs its training policies, ensures the quality of
training and development ( T&D)and integrates it with daily operations and
strategy development. Training sessions are designed for different teams
according to their level (4 levels). Their T & D is integrated with
performance management which allows the managers to identify the training
needed by the employees and chart out the development strategy along with
mentoring to develop their career. Infosys mandates at least 5 training
sessions in a year, equipping them with latest skills/ knowledge to prepare
them to contribute to the company. Infosys holds several lectures to
summarise the T &D programs thus helping the HR department to plan the
training programs in the following year. The company uses a number of
methods to review the concepts and theories to make training development-
oriented.
Discussion:
Infosys is a global leader in consulting, technology and outsourcing, with a
global clientele of 30 countries and with a footprint across the world.The
company thustakes the training and development function seriously by
providing training opportunities for all its employees. Different departments
collaborate to provide training for skill-building, content interms of
technology, business knowledge etc. with subject matter experts contributing
to the quality of training to enhance the efficiency of the employees. The
training policy integrated with HR policies and the overall strategy proves the
developmental orientation of training at Infosys.
“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” These words
by Benjamin Franklin fit the Infosys policy on training and development thus
helping the people discover and develop their talent. In the contemporary era
of digitization, e-learning is ineluctable and the competitive world demands
organizations to explore innovative ways to augment learning. Therefore, HR
needs to leverage technology and transition from traditional learning to
digital learning. A futuristic organization will empower people to learn at
their own pace, anytime, anywhere. Learning Management Systems (LMS)
and Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS) are great ways to
reinvent learning & development at workplace. Training in Infosys not only
helps fill skill gap but also improves productivity at work. As a technology
leader it leverages technology for its transition from traditional learning to
digital learning, thus empowering people to learn at their own pace at
anytime and anywhere.Summarizing their training and development
programs at the end of the year thus enable the company to reinvent the
training and development at the work place

214
Performance Appraisal HRD Experiences

Box 5: Case study

A & M follows an annual appraisal process which is led by goal setting in the
beginning of the fiscal year, followed by mid-year and then year-end review
processes. Since it is a consulting organization, the work is predominantly
project-based and the overall role expectations are pre-defined for each level.
There is deep focus on defining the roles clearly so that the performance
expectations and discussions are effective and dovetail into the larger
organizational goals. Achieving clarity on individual and project goals has
always been treated as the most critical part of the performance review
process. As a firm of “doers” that fosters an entrepreneurial and hands-on
approach to work, the people showed tremendous accountability, rising to the
challenges of the pandemic and giving their 200 per cent to deliver superior
results. 2020 has been an extraordinary year, that also led to extraordinary
results. The year stood out for them for being one of those with the highest
number of promotions at A&M India with about 30 per cent of employees
promoted. The company has also ensured that the employees received full
bonuses as per the organization’s regular business cycles. Continuous
feedback and real-time recognition also form critical elements of the
performance management processes.

Discussion:

Performance managementis a process through which the managers ensure

that employee activities and outputs are congruent with the organization’s
goals. As in the case of A & M the goal setting is done according to the
organization’s development plan, strategy and goals. In a way the
performance is defined, the measurement metrics are clearly spelt out,
leading to managing the performance integrated with training and
development, career development, and compensation and rewards
management.

Activity 1

1. Have you learnt anything following a hands-on approach, either at home

or at work? List them out

1……………

2…………….

3…………….

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HRD in Practice Compensation Development
Box 6: Case Study

KPMG, a consulting firm in New York announced a new package of

enhancements to their benefits and compensation, tied to mental, physical,
social and financial well-being. These increases are the biggest in the history
of the company. The company made sure that their base compensation is in
line with the market, to give attractive benefits.The company cut healthcare
premiums by 10% for 2022 with no change in benefit levels, and they
introduced healthcare advocacy services. They are replacing their current
401(k) match and pension programs with a single, automatic company-
funded contribution within the plan that's equal to 6% to 8% of eligible
pay.As part of this, the company was focusing on the crucial element of
ensuring that employees know that the company iscaring for them. So the
company is also providing up to three weeks of additional caregiver leave,
separate and apart from PTO. The company also provides paid parental
leaveof 12 weeks of paid parental leave, and have expanded our holiday
calendar.
Discussion:
Employees across domains have acquired special skills and improved their
resumes. It has been reported in a survey that employees were demanding a
whopping 70% increase in their compensation due to their technical
superiority and skills. Every industry is now looking at suitable candidates
who are thorough with a basic functional knowledge of remote working tools,
data literacy, big data, cloud computing including social media and strategic
tools. On the other hand, surveys also report that 82% of job vacancies
require digital skills as one of the basic criteria. A person thus needs to be
tech-savvy to bag a role in organizations that are also offering a much better
incentive to meet not only the mental and physical but also social and
financial well-being, as can be seen in the case of KPMG in the US, most
organizations have also brought in a changein the benefits relating to the
healthcare of the employee and his family. In view of the health exigencies
arising out of the pandemic, paid leave to take care of the self and family for
working from home, the caregiver leave etc. are expanded benefits. The role
of HRD in terms of taking care of the mental, physical, social and financial
well-being assumes importance in the current context.

Activity 2

1. All of us take care of our well-being and wellness> List out some
activities you do to take care of your physical, mental, and others relating
to well- being and wellness?

1………………………………
2………………………………
3………………………………

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Diversity Management and Inclusion HRD Experiences

Box 7: Case study

Hewlett & Packard was one of the forerunners in formalizing the HP way in
1957 when it went public. Right from the beginning, HP followed an open
corporate policy where the objective was to enable all employees to do a
good job of whatever they did. The diversity journey of the company started
in the 70S and 80s with the college recruitment programs, student work
experience programs, black managers network, focus group discussions to
attract women and minorities, technical conferences for women etc. where
the CEO issued statements valuing diversity. The 1990s witnessed the first
worldwide diversity dialogue held with all the managers of HP across the
world. In addition, black employees forum, revised policies on diversity, deaf
and hard of hearing forum, conferences and diversity initiatives in Asia and
Europe etc. which lead to work life balance initiatives, dependent care
initiatives, enabling a harassment free environment, affirmative action etc.
The 21st century initiatives included the appointment of the diversity and
work-life manager the middle east, Asia and Europe. The diversity lead for
Latin America, collaborative partnerships to ensure diversity internally and
externally, forginga global alliance to assess diversity need worldwide, HP
diversity council to champion initiatives worldwide where were the other
progressive schemes that were launched by HP. The company reaffirmed its
values and added a few more practices like passion for customers and speed
and agility, when it announced its merger with Compaq. These initiatives
demonstrated its commitment to the employees and the policies and
achievements over the years are a witness of the same. The company believed
that diversity and inclusion are the key drivers for creativity, innovation and
invention. Thus the shifting paradigm of HP which started with equal
employment opportunity in 60s and 70s by establishing a workplace free of
discrimination. The 1980s evidenced affirmative action, where it initiated
proactive behaviors and actions in making the equal employment opportunity
a reality for all. The 1990s witnessed workforce diversity, where the
company created an inclusive environment that values all employees. The
shift is continuing and evolving to global diversity practices in the 21st
century putting differences to work in the marketplace, workplace and the
community.

Discussion:

As can be seen in the case diversity can be understood as a mixture of people

with different group identities within the social system. It includes factors
suchas race, gender, age, colour, physical disability, ethnicity etc. Companies
incorporate diversity and consider it as an essential part of business strategy
for gaining market share, reducing costs, increasing productivity, and
improving the quality of management. HP as a company perceives diversity
as theexistence of many unique individuals at the workplace, with men and
women from nations, cultures, ethnic groups, generations, backgrounds,
217
HRD in Practice skills, abilities and other unique differences to make employees exceptional.
By inclusion, HP means a work environment where everyone has an
opportunity to participate in creating business success and where each person
is valued for their distinctive skills, experiences and perspectives. As the
company grew and expanded, dealing with a multicultural workforce has
become a challenge. Retaining a diverse workforce to serve the customers
better has defined the success of HP. The extremely competitive market had
its lessons, yet the company’s belief right from the beginning makes it an
ideal company for the equality index. While most companies claim to be
deeply committed to diversity, HP’s inclusive workplace policy demonstrates
that they are deeply ingrained in their corporate culture. It is interesting to
cite a Deloitte survey conducted in India, where half of the Indian companies
admitted that they were grossly unprepared and they need to make a
conscious effort to build an inclusive workplace.

Employee Engagement
Box 8: Case Study

The world-renowned Hyatt hospitality brand traces its origins to 1957 when
brothers Jay and Donald Pritzker purchased the original Hyatt House motel
that planted the seeds of a hospitality empire. The company now has over 600
properties in more than 50 countries and employs more than 100,000 people.
Known for upscale lodging and fine dining on-site, Hyatt is also building a
reputation for having an outstanding employee engagement strategy. More
specifically, the company focuses on employee development and promotion
from within. The company also makes it a point to share that their
comprehensive employee engagement strategy is not an add-on developed to
keep employees content. Rather, it is a pillar of the company’s overall
business strategy – one that has seen steady growth as well as avoidance of
problems that often plague the hospitality industry, such as high employee
turnover.

Employee empowerment is a key element of Hyatt’s employee engagement

strategy. Employees who feel unable to act to solve the inevitable problems
that arise in day-to-day business cannot be expected to be engaged in their
work because their efforts are stopped before they can start. Hyatt offers
ongoing training opportunities for employees and trusts them to act when
problems arise. This not only results in problems being solved more quickly,
it improves employee engagement because engaged employees are ones who
know that their work makes a difference on multiple levels. Empowerment of
employees to listen and solve problems not only helps them in their current
work, but also helps prepare them for greater responsibilities, and this is
critical in a company that likes to promote from within.

Hyatt’s employee engagement strategy is about creating better business

outcomes. A company that is in a constant cycle of replacing workers due to
high turnover simply cannot achieve the level of competence of a company
218
that has loyal, well-trained employees. Companies that demonstrate to HRD Experiences

employees that their development as a person and as an employee is

important by reimbursing education costs naturally have more engaged
employees than those that do not.

The right employee engagement strategy does several things, but two of the
most important are empowering employees to excel on a daily basis and
making employee engagement part of the very foundation of working for the
company. The investment and effort are real, but the rewards show a
consistent, strong ROI from such an approach.HubEngageis an app that Hyatt
designed which offered a fully customizable employee engagement app
platform, that helped the company add their brand elements, customize the
user interface, and offer functionalities that are known to improve employee
engagement.

Discussion

Employee engagement like talent management not only motivates to

contribute their best but also motivates to contribute more. Employees must
be willing to walk that extra mile than what is expected in his or her
role.Hyatt as a company designed its engagement practices to include all
elements of engagement – Pride, satisfaction, commitment and praise – so as
to reflect the attributes of passion, willingness, working relationship ad
commitment to organizational success. It is often reported in surveys that
engaged employees are passionate and demonstrate profound connection with
the organization, thus driving innovation among the employees and taking
the organization forward. The engagement levels vary in countries. Its 45%
in India, 44% in the US, 43% in New Zealand, 40% in France and Germany,
33% in the UK and Sweden. The other Asian countries reflect much lower
engagement rates with China at 29%, South Korea 18% and Japan with 11%.
Thus employees who are not engaged clock the time with no passion or
energy at work. The key drivers as has been demonstrated in the case of
Hyatt are triggered by the leadership, people systems and processes,
strategies and positive work culture and values. Customer satisfaction and
enhanced performance were the outcomes of engagement. A Gallop study
conducted across 50 global companies in 1 year found out the engagement
and profitability link. The study reported a 19% increase in operating income
and a hike of morethan 25% in earnings per share, while those with low
engagement levels revealed a deterioration in key financial measures. The
Hyatt case also demonstrated the alignment of strategy, people capabilities,
and engagement determining organizational success thus organizations like
Hyatt consciously initiate and drive employee engagement for the several
benefits that accrue to the organization.

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HRD in Practice Ethics
Box 9: Case Study

Justin, the new district manager does not like Janet who is the receptionist.
He claims that she is careless and makes far too many mistakes, and with her
casual attire, she doesn’t “look good” at the front desk. “Besides,” he says,
“she’s not really that interested in her job. That community theatre thing
takes way too much of her time.” When Janet asked to take the morning off
the day after her opening night, Justin commented that now she’s
undependable and insisted that Anna, her supervisor, talk to Janet about it,
even though Janet seldom misses work and her absence that morning was
easily covered by other staff. Friday morning, Anna is called into Justin’s
office. It has been a busy week because Justin is getting ready to leave for a
two-week vacation. Several projects must be completed or offloaded to other
staff before he leaves. It was decided that Anna would take care of some of
Justin’s projects while he is gone, and she is confident things will go well in
his absence. While Anna is gathering up her papers at the end of the meeting,
Justin says, “There’s just one more thing, Anna. While I’m gone, I want you
to document Janet’s poor performance and write up an appraisal on her. Have
the paperwork on my desk and ready for me to sign when I get back, and then
you can terminate her. I want her out of here within the next 30 days.”

Anna is stunned. She knows Justin dislikes Janet, but she is not sure how she
can document Janet’s “poor” performance because she believes Janet is a
good employee. Any time she has talked to Janet about Justin’s concerns,
Janet has tried to improve. Janet knows Justin does not like her, and she has
made it clear to Anna that if Justin has any problems with her work, she
wants to know immediately so she can correct the problem. “I don’t want to
lose my job,” she’s told Anna. Anna wonders what to do. Grocery
Distribution has a published Code of Ethics, and there is an HR department at
headquarters in Atlanta, but there is no HR representative at Anna’s facility
in Ft. Myers.

Discussion:

Anna is being pressurised by her boss to write a negative performance

appraisal about Janet as a document to justify Janet’s termination. Anna, as a
supervisor believes that Janet is a good employee and has never receive a
negative performance appraisal. She is faced with the ethical issue of
reporting something negative for a good performer and not going by the
boss’s request. The role of HRD assumes significance in the current context
when no one can say that ethics have fallen of late. In fact ethical standards –
formal or informal have changed and are higher and on non-compliance to
the standards is considered a problem in the changing ethical business
scenario. Austin’s code of ethics is considered the bench mark where the
interest of the organization should be considered above personal interests,
duty to society and decision making based on facts and not on values. Every
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function of HRD has potential implication for ethical issues. For example, in HRD Experiences

training and development, equity and equality to prevail in the selection of

trainees, equal opportunity for the different types of training provided etc.
Similarly in compensation and benefits, avoiding differential pay, disparity
among the employees along with equal tangible and intangible benefits on
account of employee recognition etc could be sited. As was demonstrated in
the case integrity and honesty for employees has become the norm of the day.
Similarly, organizations are bound by national and international laws,
policies, rules, regulations and procedures. HRD function, thus has a
significant role to play in a multi-cultural, multinational, diversity-oriented
organizations.

Activity 3:

1. All of us have ethics at the personal level and at the workplace. List out
some ethics you follow in your daily life?

1. …………

2. ………….

3. …………

HR Analytics
Box 10: Case Study

Employee attrition at Experian was a problem. The company was facing

levels of turnover that were 3-4% higher than they wanted it to be. By
building a predictive model that included 200 attributes, including team size
and structure, supervisor performance, and length of commute, they were
able to predict flight risk. An example risk factor was the teams of more than
10 to 12 people. The analytics team also identified flight risk triggers: when
someone moved further away from the office, this would increase immediate
flight risk. The model was rolled out in multiple regions – with slight
differences in the predictive algorithm. These insights, combined with good
management practices resulted in a drop in attrition of 2-3% for the next 18
months with an estimated saving of $8,000,000 to $10,000,000.

Discussion:

Technology has transformed every aspect of work in the past decade. The
pace has been fastest during the Covid period and is predicted to have more
impactful driven changes. A significant transition has been the analytics,
which lends unimaginable power to businessesto leverage information
leading to a transformation in the organizations. HR analytics, as has been
seen in Experion is an evidence-based approach with a better logic to achieve
the organizational goals. The case demonstrates that HR analytics marries the
art of HR metrics and the science of technology-enabled statistical
computation to achieve results. The case also evidences the transition from
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HRD in Practice the use of data to prepare reports, and performance dashboards, to big data.
The analytics used by the company transformed using complex algorithms
enabled by technology-enabled them to achieve their objective of reducing
attrition. HR analytics also helped in Data classification, association, and
clustering the mechanisms on internal organizational factors and external
environmental factors. Fundamental to HR analytics in Big data, which turns
out large volumes of information compared to the databases in all
departments of t organization including HR. Organizational experience
evidence that leaders who increasingly are turning to Big data analyticsfor
answers to their questions are being rewarded exponentially. Mukesh Ambani
who relies on data analytics has been rewarded in his companies. Thus HR
analytics reflect what real-time research would look like. The long-term
benefits accrue to the organization only when the volume, velocity and
variety are mapped for correlational and actionable intelligence. HR analytics
provides an opportunity for HR for a credible image in the company, board,
and the external world.

12.3 SUMMARY
Human resource development as a concept has evolved over time. Several
events and experiments shaped the concept and its content. As it evolved,the
relationship between human resource management and HRD training
emerged for the effective utilization of human resources to achieve the goals
of organization. Consequently,the role of career development, and
coaching/mentoring in the organizational development efforts assumed
significance. Further,the umbrella of HRM with its strategic relevance has
attained a broader spectrum to include all the functions of HRM to impact the
development function. The all-pervasive concept had its impact on the
structure of the HRD function and the competencies required for the HRD
professionals for their effective functioning. The post-Covid period
accelerated this further with the result that the organizations experimented
with many initiatives resulting in practices and learning from the experiences
in India and across the world.

Acknowledgments:The caseswhich reflect the experiences of the companies

are taken from the open sources and not original. We gratefully acknowledge
the same.

12.4 SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

1) How do you understand digital vision? Cite the example of an Indian
company which demonstrated a similar vision.
2) What is digital Advertising? Cite an example in the Indian context.
3) What is e-recruitment? What do you think are the advantages?
4) What do you understand by‘learning anytimeanywhere? Which are the
companies which encourage this method?
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5) What do you understand by being entrepreneurial and hands-on in terms HRD Experiences

of approach to work? Did you find any activity which uses hands-on
approach?
6) Wellness and well-being are two concerns of organizations in the recent
past. List out the companies that have addressed these concerns in the
Indian context.
7) How do you understand the concept of diversity and inclusion? Do
Indian companies demonstrate diversity in view of India’s diverse
nature?
8) What are the employee engagement practices being followed by the
Indian companies? What do you think are the benefits that accrue to the
company?
9) What is the role of HRD in ensuring ethics and values in an
organization? Cite with examples.
10) How is HRD related to HR analytics?

12.5 FURTHER READINGS

• Angelo S DeNisi, Ricky W Griffin, Anita Sarkar, (2014) H R – A
South Asian Perspective. New Delhi; Cengage learning.
• Subba Rao,P (2009) International Human resource management first
edition (2009). Mumbai; Himalaya Publishing house.
• Bhattacharya, D K (2009) Human Resource development. Mumbai;
Himalaya Publishing
• DeSimone, Randy L and Werner, Jon M (2012), Human resource
development. NewDelhi; Cengage learning.
• Mukund Chandra Mehta and Doel Kar (2020), Human resource
development. New Delhi; Bharti Publications.
• Kaila H L (2020), Human Resource Development and Business
Growth. New Delhi; Dreamtech Press.

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