Human Resource Development at Adelaide Brighton Cement Ltd - Case Study Example

ADELAIDE BRIGHTON CEMENT (ABC) LTD NAME: INSTRUCTOR: DATE OF SUBMISSION: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT: ABC LTD COMPANY The HRD is human resource management function that seeks to build up human capital (Werner& DeSimone, 2011). The human resource development aims to develop employee skills, capability, and knowledge in a given field. The HRD function entails learning and skill formation initiatives in the company. As noted by Knowles, Holton III & Swanson (2014); Swanson & Holton (2001), the HRD function provides a source of competitive advantage in the contemporary economy. The organisation formulates differentiated HRD initiatives that seek to attract and retain experienced and skilled human resource as compared to its competitors (Werner& DeSimone, 2011). The selection and recruitment process is very expensive exercise and thus reduction of employee turnover improves company profitability and competitiveness in the respective industry (Lombardozzi, 2007; Baruch, 2001). The essay will focus on challenges of HRD, well-used aspects of HRD and recommendation of how to improve HRD and its impact on the performance of HRD of Adelaide Brighton Cement (ABC) Ltd and its employees. The ABC Ltd operates in manufacturing industry. The primary business entails manufacturing of cement and concrete. The employees who work with the company confessed that the working conditions are good and the employee turnover is low. Though, the company is actively trying to revolutionize its HRD. I look forward working with the company in future. The ABC Ltd human resource department lacks understanding on the drive that motivates them to develop and implement HRD program. Various literature contradicts on who (business or employee) benefit from HRD practice. Additionally, the exact ascertainment of the value the HRD brings to employees versus that of the organisation. According to Werner& DeSimone (2011), HRD entails the improvement of organisational performance through learning-based and thus put forth business goals as a primary drive of using HRD. Consequently, human resource theorist reiterates the same by explaining HRD value as a measure of contribution to business as opposed to learning gained by the individual employee. Additionally, Swanson & Holton (2001) emphasises that HRD practice needs to provide a value-added outcome which is in line with the mission, strategic goals, and planning process of the company. The conflicting perspective emphasises on the basis that HRD is learning a process which is employee centric (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart & Wright, 2006). The practice primarily focuses on growth and development of the individual employee through learning (Kumar & Phrommathed, 2005). The HRD takes the humanistic approach as opposed to competence-based approach in the development of an employee, although both methods advocates for enhancement of individuals employee or groups of employees through learning, training or other forms of planned strategies. The development involves empowering individuals to adapt to the changes in business environment. The practice imparts them with knowledge and skills that improve their effectiveness as technology and occupational requirements changes (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart & Wright, 2006). Those who propose that HRD benefits employee also supports that the organisation gains but a secondary beneficiary. The ABC Ltd gets challenged in design HRD framework due to confusion on who benefit from it. Also, ABC Ltd employees do not depend on company’s HRD initiatives since majority believes that responsibility to develop career depends solely on personal initiative, and thus set HRD programs are overlooked. Also, ABC Ltd faces a challenge of workplace dynamism. The nature of workplace keeps on changing and thus affects the relevance of HRD programs. The regular examination, evaluation, and improvement of HRD program is an expensive and arduous exercise for ABC Ltd. The significant contribution to this change is the globalisation of economy which increased the scope of competition (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart & Wright, 2006). For instance, companies are venturing into Australian cement and concrete industry. The change has influenced the evolution of ABC Ltd organisation structure making it less hierarchical, more flexible, the shift to learning and more team-based (Kumar & Phrommathed, 2005). Also, the change has brought participative and competitive organisational culture emphasises accountability of employee’s performance and improve on use of information, production and management technologies. The flexibility in employment needs a new approach to planning and development of human resource to cope up with dynamics in a business environment (Kumar & Phrommathed, 2005). The challenges due to changing work environment include the need for ABC Ltd to train employees on new roles and motivate them to appreciate changes in organisation structure and culture. Secondly, the dynamics in manufacturing industry reduces the life span of company’s HRD programs since they turn irrelevant within a short period. It, therefore, forces ABC Ltd to abandon the use of well-established schedules of implementation of long-term development plans (Kumar & Phrommathed, 2005). Lastly, the short-lived plans pose a great challenge with it comes to monitoring, measurement, evaluation and correction of ABC Ltd strategies (Kumar & Phrommathed, 2005). The ABC Ltd faces a great challenge in developing the organisational culture that fosters the development of a learning institution. The high-performing companies using new working practices do not have a problem in developing continuous learning process for its employees (Bratton & Gold, 2012). The ABC Ltd uses the traditional model that fixes HRD programs to the time frame and answer. The current trends call for a more participative approach to decision making, flexible use of labour, and use of advanced technology in production and teamwork structures (Bratton & Gold, 2012). It, therefore, requires ABC Ltd to have an HRD plan that is flexible to gather for this new requirement instead of using the outdated HRD models (Gangani, McLean & Braden, 2006). Consequently, the lack of adequate competence in the information age is a challenge for ABC Ltd and this is crucial for an organisation to survive the post-industrial economy. Wilson (2005) explains that capacity creation and learning is imperative in enhancing long-term performance of the organisation. The enhancement of technological, engagement and performance management competence is crucial to organisational survival in the information age (Baker, 2010; Bates & Chen, 2005). It, therefore, places pressure on human resource department of ABC Ltd to understand core competence and skills to match with necessary competence in developing HRD strategies. Despite the challenges facing ABC Ltd in formulating and implementing HRD plan, the company has strategies that are working. The ABC Ltd uses learning organisation HRD strategies which gives it a competitive advantage compared to its competitors. The learning organisation HRD strategies have proven to work for a number of high-performance companies such as Coca-Cola Company. The ABC Ltd emphasises on building capacity to amass, store and convey knowledge that helps them to change and thus achieve high performance and competitive position in manufacturing industry (Beattie, Kim, Hagen, Egan, Ellinger & Hamlin, 2014). Additionally, ABC Ltd allows the employees to question the process as part of the learning process and thus empowering them to gain new knowledge in utilising the technology. The efficient utilisation of technology increases the productivity of human capital and urge for continuous personal and collective improvement. ABC Ltd has invested in system that integrates financial, human resource, management, and production activities and thus increasing efficiency in decision making. It, therefore, elaborates learning organisation as a model off HRD that empowers the employee to learn as they work as an individual or group (Egan & Hamlin, 2014). The ABC Ltd does not require emphasis on formal training and procedural skills but more on behavioural skills development and learning that occur through collaborative work practice (Daley, 2012; Becker & Huselid, 2006; Collins & Smith, 2006). The ABC Ltd embraces the sharing of knowledge through its clear channel of information. The use of HRD is seen successful in an organisation that embraces sharing of knowledge among employees through teamwork or sharing with competitors or online-based resources (Ghosh, Kim, Kim & Callahan, 2014; Gray, Ekinci & Goregaokar, 2011). Active channel of communication is important at this point since it is the primary concern in problem-solving, conflict resolution and team building to enhance workplace learning. As discussed above, the work environment and flexible employment practice gives employees an opportunity to learn and develop themselves, and thus reducing junk organisation HRD strategies being overlooked by employees who are only concerned with specific areas of their expertise (Hamlin & Stewart, 2011; Holton III, 2002). It, therefore, shows the difference between companies that have working HRD program and those which are not working. The contemporary economic environment does not give space for rigid HRD plans. In conclusion, it has been established that HRD is an important practice in an organisation despite some challenges that might render these strategies obsolete. It is noted that to formulate and developing working HRD program ABC Ltd should take into consideration the changing working environment, increased competition, embracing new technologies and encouraging a participative working environment to enable employees to criticise the current process. The review also supports the abandonment of traditional, more hierarchical and rigid organisation structures (Chen & Huang, 2009), which discourages team building in ABC Ltd. The team building is a major component of human capital development. The ABC Ltd company requires a proactive HRD policy for long-term business growth is summarised into four major points. First, the management needs to be an agent of change by ensuring that it changes with the changing environment. The dynamic management saves the company from being a victim of change which might lead to its collapse (Storey, 2007). Secondly, the HRD measures should be encompassed to values that uphold trust, honesty, and openness to encourage full cooperation by employees. Thirdly, production and efficiency maximisation should be the driving force in enhancing the growth of employees’ capabilities and potential (Jackson, Schuler & Werner, 2011). Lastly, the HRD strategy should be geared towards the improvement of personal competence as noted in the role of HRD in core organisational competence of ABC Ltd. The essay recommends that ABC Ltd should acknowledge and anticipate the change in human resource management. The acknowledgment and anticipation of change give the company resilience in the implementation of long-term HRD strategies (Boxall & Purcell, 2011). The most notable characteristics of successful organisation is that their programs have moved away from traditional models and adopt flexible frameworks (Beattie, Kim, Hagen, Egan, Ellinger & Hamlin, 2014). Therefore, ABC Ltd HRD models should embrace changes in global economic environment and flexible to offer room for small changes. Baker (2010); Bates & Chen (2005) reiterates that human resource professionals need to be encouraged to be responsive to the changing organisational environment, and emphasises on reframing boundaries and developing a new mindset in the field of human resource. The ABC Ltd human resource department should devise means of responding to changing working environment to manage human capital efficiently. Reference Baker, N. 2010. Employee feedback technologies in the human performance system. Human Resource Development International, 13: 477-485 Baruch, Y. (2001). 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