What does a company need to excel? Is it excellent customer service, or is it a successful branding strategy? Perhaps choosing the right niche is an important success element.
Those factors all play a role in an outstanding organization. In this article, however, we will discuss a crucial internal success factor instead of the well-known external ones: human resource development programs.
Properly investing in human resource programs turns strong candidates into great employees. Moreover, it allows companies to attract talent who later enter the company and continue the success.
What is human resource development?
Human resource development is considered to be one of the five primary duties of an HR department, including:
- Talent management
- Compensation and benefits for employees
- Training and development
- Compliance
- Workplace safety
The focus of HR development is to develop the employees’ capacity and career path to align with the company’s long-term goals. Depending on the organization, the program’s main target may vary across the stages of an employee, from early career training, to mid-career up-skilling and re-skilling, and late-career advancement.
In addition to nurturing employees to reach their full potential, HR development also aims to cultivate a young workforce for the organization while creating the next generation of leaders. You have probably seen numerous yearly internship programs or fresher programs. Not only does these programs prepare a new crop of industry talent, but it also helps with workforce planning – cutting costs from ineffective hiring processes.
These training programs also include some following specific initiatives.
Cross-cultural awareness HR development programs
Cross-cultural awareness refers to the understanding of one’s own cultural identity, values, and beliefs, as well as the acceptance of the cultures of others. A better understanding of ourselves and a greater respect for those who are different are all brought about by cultural awareness, which also helps to dissolve cultural barriers. By doing so, we improve our interpersonal abilities, making it easier for us to connect with others from different cultures and foster deeper relationships.
EDI awareness HR development programs
EDI stands for equality, diversity, and inclusion. As the name suggests, training EDI awareness allows employees to eliminate any inequality or prejudice inherent in an individual’s character traits. As a result, people are brought together to build a healthy working environment where employees can perform their best.
ESG awareness HR development programs
ESG is the acronym for environmental, social, and governance. ESG might sound like a weighty and complex topic, but raising ESG awareness not only promotes sustainability within the business, but it also fosters a workplace that takes the employee’s health and safety into consideration.
Benefits of a human resource development program:
Human resource development programs bring about major benefits for the employees and allow the company to reap long-term rewards.
Better retention rates
You have probably heard of the phrase “the war for talent”. It refers to the fight over top talent in an industry, due to the rarity of skills businesses are searching for. Notably, job seekers nowadays are not only looking at salary and benefits, but also the company’s values and the personal development opportunities being offered.
A Linkedin survey reveals an interesting fact: more than 90% of employees are willing to continue their relationship with the company if the organization has invested in their career. This statistic is a loud and clear statement about what a crucial role professional development plays in retaining talents. Keeping top talent has been an ongoing challenge for companies, which is why you should take employee satisfaction into serious consideration.
Higher retention rates reduce costs and time spent on expensive recruitment processes. Using recruitment automation tools such as bravoTALENT optimizes the process of filling in essential positions fast. Did you know that US employers spend a whopping 1.1 billion dollars searching for recruitment replacements a year?
Priming executives in waiting
The time and energy invested in training an employee enlighten them to grasp a clear understanding of the manager’s expectations. With regular and proper feedback rounds, your employee is encouraged to perform better with higher efficiency. Human resource development programs ensure employees obtain and develop the essential hard skills for the job. However, human resource development programs can go over and beyond by investing in the employee’s soft skills.
As human resource development programs contribute to a higher retention rate, you now have valuable resources. Aim to use it efficiently and not let them go to waste. Remember, they might be the next generation of excellent executives and trustworthy leaders. Ultimately, employees with a diverse set of skills give your business a competitive edge in the industry.
Help the company move with time
Human resource development programs often make it easier to introduce and implement changes. These changes might be new company policies, procedures, or new industry rules and regulations. This is especially helpful when you and your team are trying to keep up with the shifting standards. Having an up-to-date team allows you and your company to gain a competitive edge and stay ahead of the game.
Help employer branding
It is no doubt that employer branding matters. When a company is well-known for investing in and caring for employees’ professional growth, safety, and even health, they are also investing in and fostering a strong employer brand.
Strong employer branding is always beneficial for future recruitment attempts, as the recruitment team no longer has to be on the constant lookout for talents, for talents are coming to the company instead. Again, this helps the company cut down on a lot of costs in the long run.
Types of HR development programs
There are a variety of human resource development programs a business can choose from. It really depends on the business requirements. However, if you do not know where to start, below are a few suggestions.
Onboarding Training
When you want to get your new talent up to speed, onboarding training comes into the picture. The training session can last from a few days to months, depending on how long it takes for the employee to familiarize themselves with the required skills for the job. This training program aims to introduce the employee to any software, hardware, or relevant projects that they will be involved with. It is also during this type of training that the employee gets a better view of the company goals, business plans, KPIs, and compliance information.
Orientation Training
Orientation training is a one-day training focusing on welcoming new employees to the company. It is to guide them through some basics to prepare them for the first day at work, including:
- Company policy
- Organization structure
- Office tour
- Paperwork
- Company’s values and visions
- Creating login accounts, etc.
Compliance Training
Compliance training is compulsory training by policy, legislation, or regulations. After attending this training, employees should understand the laws and regulations relating to the job or industry. These legal obligations mitigate risk and prevent any misconduct or litigation.
Product Training
Product training is not only designed for the sales team, but it is also useful for the customer service team, marketing team, and even your customers. Just as the name suggests, product training provides one with essential information relating to the product so that the employee can better perform at their job.
Technical Training
There is always something new to learn. There is always room for improvement. Even in situations where your team members are experts in what they do, such as writing, coding, or designing, it is always helpful to polish and update their skills once in a while.
Technical training also allows your employees to avoid falling behind, and further master difficult skills.
Quality Assurance (Q/A) Training
This type of training helps employees have a better grasp of quality assurance practices. From there, they can work on improving operations to ensure the final product meets the company’s standards and customers’ expectations.
Soft-Skills Training
A great skill set does not consist of only hard skills or technical skills. In today’s modern economy, soft skills play an equally important role. Soft skills are vital in improving work relationships and fostering an overall healthy company culture. Some desired soft skills might be communication, adaptability, conflict resolution, or teamwork.
Team Training
If you are looking to improve a team’s dynamic, this is the type of training program to go to. Its goals are similar to other types of development programs, as it aims to encourage healthy team dynamics, promoting the same personal development opportunities, employee morale, and employee happiness.
Diversity Training
As mentioned earlier in the article, EDI is part of the human resource development initiative. It encourages employees to look past their backgrounds and embrace differences, including race, sexuality, nationality, religion, and so on. The ultimate goal is to foster a healthy working environment with positive interactions, eliminating discrimination among employees.
It has been proven that the more diverse a workplace is, the more likely it is to be successful.
Leadership Training
This type of training program is meant for both existing leaders and next-generation leaders. As for existing leaders, it is a great way of refreshing their mindset. As for leaders-to-be, they are prepared for their higher position and better understand what it takes to handle the role.
Invest in your employees
Investing in your employees is investing in your business’s own success.
Perhaps it is time to take a good look at how your human resource development programs have been doing. If you do not know where to begin, note that the programs can be conducted in-house by senior employees who have the required skills and experience; or you can outsource training-intensive organizations and programs for further education. Use AI-enabled tools such as employee profiling to design on-point development programs.
Whatever your choice is, remember, it really is about the employees. Their success is what makes your company successful.
