Human Resource Development Practices

This assignment delves into the crucial role of human resource development (HRD) practices in shaping employee attitudes and behaviors. It examines the influence of high-performance HR practices, explores organizational concepts related to HRD, and highlights different learning styles and theories. The assignment emphasizes the importance of understanding adult learners and incorporates insights from renowned scholars like Knowles, Luthans, and Kolb.

HUMAN RESOURCE
DEVELOPMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TASK 1..........................................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Different learning styles...........................................................................................................................3
1.2 Role of learning curve and its importance...............................................................................................5
1.3 Contribution of learning styles and theories............................................................................................6
4.1 Role of government in training and development....................................................................................7
4.2 Impact of development of competency....................................................................................................8
4.3 Training initiatives introduced by UK government.................................................................................9
TASK 2........................................................................................................................................................10
2.1 Training of staff at different level..........................................................................................................10
2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of training methods..............................................................................11
2.3 Approach of planning and development................................................................................................11
3.1 Preparation of training event evaluation................................................................................................12
3.2 Carry out of the evaluation.....................................................................................................................13
3.3 Review the success of evaluation method..............................................................................................13
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES.............................................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
Human resource department (HRD) is an approach which helps individuals in an
enterprise to develop their skills, abilities and knowledge. It plays an important role in providing
training and development program. This report presents different learning styles, theories, role of
learning curve and importance of transferring to actual workplace. It also represents various
training needs and methods used by Sun Court Ltd. to improve its working efficiency. People R
Us is a small consultancy firm which advises Sun Court Ltd. on various issues regarding HR
department (Fee, 2014). Through this study learner will be able to understand process of
development of training and evaluation to know its effectiveness. It will also describe the role of
UK government in various training and development events of Sun Court Ltd.
TASK 1
1.1 Different learning styles
Learning means acquiring and modifying skills, knowledge, attitude, behavior,
preferences and values. Learning styles are such methods through which above things are gained
by human beings. Different styles are used by different companies to educate their staff or
employees to achieve their targets. These are as follows:
Kolb’s learning styles
There are four styles which are suggested by David Kolb i.e. converging, diverging,
assimilating and accommodating. These are discussed as under:
 Converging: This learning style does not focus on people but use the abstract concepts,
practical and experimental ideas.
 Diverging: Under this people first observe things rather than implementing them in real.
This focuses more on people instead of practicing it.
 Assimilating: Here, human beings gain a logical knowledge of doing work effectively at
workplace. It is used for those individuals who are engaged in research and inventions.the
drover's wife by Henry Lawson summary

 Accommodating: It is totally different from all above styles because in this learners learn
things by looking and observing other persons (Kehoe and Wright, 2013). This learning
style does not required any practical, experimental and logical explanation.
Honey and Mumford’s styles
They also suggested four different learning styles such as activists, reflector, theorist and
pragmatist which are explained as under:
 Activists: This style is used to educate those persons who want to practice new things and
are ready to face any consequences or issues involved in that.
Illustration 1: Kolb learning style
(Source: David A. Kolb on experiential learning. 2013)

 Reflector: It is generally used by many organizations because it includes learning things
not only collecting data from their own but also from different opinions of other
individuals.
 Theorist: Persons who want to formulate their own theories by their observations and
experiments follow this style of learning. It is quite similar to assimilating learning style
because here also people think logically.
 Pragmatics: Here, new ideas, thoughts and theories are experimented and implemented.
Solutions are made to overcome from various difficulties and problems.
Illustration 2: Honey Mumford learning style
(Source: Learning styles. 2017)

1.2 Role of learning curve and its importance
Learning curve has a significant impact on the process of learning which reflect
performance of learners. It is very important to transfer learning in real world or workplace to
know its effectiveness. The S shaped learning curve shows that an individual takes time in
learning and acquiring knowledge at beginning. After that steep accelerations shows that the
person has acquired enough knowledge and learning through various channels. The final area is
plateau, which shows the stability in learning. This idealises the normal progression from
discovery of something to learn about followed to the limit of what learning about it.
Role of learning curve
Learning curve is a graphical presentation which shows decrease and increase of
performance and experience of person (Sparrow and et.al, 2016). It is an important technique
through which impact of learning program may be analyzed. Through this graphical
representation, relationship between time spent in learning activities and competency level of
individuals are shown. Therefore, this curve represents progress of people or learners. This curve
Illustration 3: The S shaped learning curve
(Source: Let’s Not Forget the Forgetting Curve, 2016 )

is used by management of Sun Court Ltd. (SCL) to overlook at performance level of their
employees.
Importance of transferring learning to workplace
Every enterprise facilitates training and development program to train their employees to
perform their job efficiently. SCL also provides these learning sessions for their workforce
therefore, it is necessary to transfer this to workplace to know its effectiveness. There are
following importance of this transferring:
 Optimum utilization of funds: Providing training is not so easy task for every firm
because an effective learning program requires lots of funding. If learning is not
transferred to the workplace then all spending on it will go in vain so it is very important
to move it to business operations of Sun Court Ltd.
 Adding value: One of the key objects of learning is to adding value of entity in market. If
enterprise facilitates training sessions and does not transfer it to day to day working of
firm then value of such undertaking will not increase in market place.
 Facing and solving problems: While working in organization employees may face
various problems (Gruman and Saks, 2011). In Sun Court Ltd. also staff of firm has to go
through several problems related to operations and functions of business. To overcome
from such difficulties, they must have prior knowledge of it. Learning sessions help
people at workplace to solve such crisis. Therefore, learning is transferred to workplace
to minimize business obstacles.
1.3 Contribution of learning styles and theories
Role of learning styles and theories is very important while designing and planning
training sessions. Different types of styles are used by different organizations in various fields.
As per the knowledge and field of person training is provided to them. It is the responsibility of
organizer of learning event to use proper style or theory to make learn people with different
categories. For example to train a scientist assimilating learning style is very effective and on
other side to train a new or existing employee in a corporation accommodating style is useful

(Khan, Khan and Mahmood, 2012). Here, both persons are engaged in different types of job so
their technique of learning must also be different to each other.
Similarly, in Sun Court Ltd. various employees work at different level of management.
There are three level of management is Sun Court Ltd., which are;
 Top-level management: This includes the managers, CEO, and managing director of
the company. They are responsible for overseeing and controlling of the whole
company.
 Middle-level management: All the employees of the company comes under this level.
Employees are responsible for the execution of organizational plans. These plans are
in the compliance with the policies of the company. This management serves as an
intermediate management between the top level and low level management.
 Low-level management: This management includes all the workers of the company
which works for them. The focus is on the direction and control of the plans made by
the company.
So, different learning styles help organizer to plan and design training session. Before
organizing learning event, designer required to know working field of learners. After this their
potentiality for respective job is analyzed. The psychology of human being should also take into
consideration that how they behave and perform their job with existing knowledge and skills.
After understanding all these organizer will get clear idea about which style will be suitable to
train them. At last, learning event and activities are held by designer on the basis of chosen
learning style. Thus, learning styles contribute a lot in designing and organizing learning event.
4.1 Role of government in training and development
Role of government of a country is very important in relation to training, development
and lifelong learning. In becoming a professional trader, the employee must have certain skills
which are very essential in trading. The government of UK is providing the special training so
that it can improve the skills of the employees. Few skills are;

a) Analytical skill: The ability to analyze the collected data is a skill every trader needs to have.
The training will be given to the employees so that they can recognize the ongoing trends very
easily.
b) Focus: All the trader of Sun Court Ltd. need to be focused on what they are doing. So that the
company can take the advantage of the market and can gain competitive advantage over other
companies.
c) Record keeping: This is the most important key in trading. The training will be given by the
government, so that the traders will keep all the records neatly and clearly. This will easily show
the progress of the company.
There are following contribution made by the Department of International trade (DIE),
and Department of Education (DIE) in training and development programs of Sun Court Ltd.:
 Generate a public norm: Government plays several roles in success of a business.
Although it includes various provisions, norms, rules and regulations; it helps in initiating
process of generating common culture among people that assists to train and develop
them.
 Develop HR policies: Government creates HR policies for all organization in country
which must be followed by all entities in the nation. It helps in improving capabilities of
employees of every company.
 Allocation of funds: The training and development events organized by an undertaking
are one of the difficult and expensive functions because it required lots of funding.
Government also help Sun Court Ltd. of UK by providing them money for conducting
training and development program (Bamberger, Biron and Meshoulam, 2014). It
allocates funds for human resource department for both public as well as private sector
enterprises.
 Promoting HRD: Government promotes various activities of HRD which includes
training, development and lifelong learning.

 Developing favorable working environment: To run a successful business it is very
necessary to create an effective work environment within the organization. Government
of UK also plays a vital role in creating positive working atmosphere. It can be done by
several ways. Many laws and provisions are made by government in favor of employees
working in a corporation. For example, by passing law which is consist of rights of
workers and employees and law regarding violation of them.
Thus, by above discussion it is clear that government also play an important role in
facilitating training and development program.
4.2 Impact of development of competency
Competency is an ability to perform a given job. This ability requires some other
qualifications also which helps in finishing specific job or work. Here, competency of workforce
is determined by company to know their performance level. For this, performance management
program is conducted to evaluate performance of employees. The performance based on
competency is evaluated by employee’s core competency. Both public and private sector is
affected by this competency movement (Boxall and Purcell, 2011).
In past this movement was not considered by any company but by passing of time its
importance in business increases. In public sector, competency of public servants is considered
as an important factor. In order to serve public it is required to develop high competency
standards. This helps in facilitating effective training programs for employees and workers to
create them more competent to perform their jobs. Therefore, to maintain competitive advantage
both private and public sector accepted high competency standards.
In present market, very high level of competition exist for companies due to which
enterprises are more interested in performance gap. It describes the difference between current
situation and future situation of firm. Enterprises in private sector generally invest in
performance gap to improve various activities of entity and to get success over other institutions.
This competency movement helped both private and public organizations to improve their
productivity and profitability by offering quality service in market (Fee, 2014). If there is no
competition in market then firms will not try to improve their activities and functions because no

one will be affected by it. But if competition exists in market then each and every establishment
will try to compete with each other this will enhance competency level among them.
4.3 Training initiatives introduced by UK government
UK government took many initiatives which contributed to human resource department
of Sun Court Ltd. The main priority. The department of UK government which is looking after
the human resource is “The Civil Service Human Resource Department”. There are following
government institutions which look after in various activities of HRD:
 Trade and industry department
 Work and pension department
 Education department
 Health and safety department
The above agencies provide following services to private corporations in UK:
 Learning and Skills Council helps in funding and planning education for children above
16 years.
 Small and medium sized organizations receive funds to operate their businesses
 Sector Skills Council facilitates training sessions to enhance skills and knowledge of
people engaged in Sun Court Ltd.
 Create standard workforce of specific sector by National Vocational Qualifications.
 These departments also create skilled workforce for industrial purpose
 Ensures good and effective practice of work by investors.
Government of UK adopted simultaneous training methods which are facilitated to small and
medium size organizations that help in promoting development activities of such firms. It also
promotes the economic growth and stability of country (Luthans, et.al., 2010). Training and
development program provided by Sun Court Ltd. are very much effective which facilitate a
competitive advantage to this entity. Training and development program set by UK government

for employees of Sun court Ltd. helped workforce to adopt energetic changes of market
environment.
TASK 2
2.1 Training of staff at different level
In an enterprise training need for all employees, workers and management are different to
each other. In Sun Court Ltd. there are three types of department exist namely finance and
accounting, production and marketing (Knowles, Holton III and Swanson, 2014). HR
management of Sun Court Ltd. must design training sessions for these department as per their
requirement. Mangers of this entity should monitor training needs of employees in these
departments. Training needs for these are explained below:
 Finance and accounting department: In Sun Court Ltd. learning needs of managers are
different from needs of their subordinates. In this department, managers must be given
training to analyze total availability of funds and other resources from which company
can get funding. While subordinates should be given training for crediting and debiting
amount for various operation of business. Therefore, as per the job of persons their
training is decided.
 Marketing department: In this, managers are trained to become effective leaders and
decision makers. Employees must be facilitates training program so they can execute
decision made by higher authority for effective working of firm.
 Production department: Training is provided to managers so that they can make
effective decisions (Wang and Noe, 2010). For this experts are hired by management to
train such managers of Sun Court Ltd. employees and workers in this department must be
trained so they can conduct better production process which helps enterprise to become
successful in market place.
Therefore, from above discussion it is clear that different departments of Sun Court Ltd.
have different training needs according to their job and responsibility they hold.

2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of training methods
Sun Court Ltd. follows various methods of training and development of staff, employees
and management of it. Every technique has some positive as well as negative impact on
functioning of business. These are as under:
 Classroom training: It is one of the most common and effective method of providing
training. Here, all trainees are selected and placed at one place or classroom where they
are trained by one or more than one trainer who trained them by using audio and visual
source of learning. This method has a great advantage that it is cost and time effective
because through this a large number of people are trained at a time. It has a drawback that
it does not provide a practical knowledge which reduces its effectiveness.
 On the job training: In this method, knowledge and skills of persons are enhanced by
performing their actual job at workplace. In some fields theoretical knowledge is not
enough, implementation of their knowledge, skills and expertise is required to perform
their job effectively (Guest, 2011). It has an advantage that, it is very much suitable for
such job where practical experiment is necessary to work. It has a disadvantage also that
it does not include theoretical knowledge for those who are new to a particular job
because it is necessary for new comers to be facilitates theory knowledge before
performing it practically.
 Off the job training: According to this method, trainees are trained by trainers away from
actual workplace. In this various ways of training is used like, enhancing skills and
knowledge though meetings, seminars, lectures, business tours, etc. This type of training
does not required much money to spend over it because by participating in meetings,
seminars trainees may get ideas for future benefits of Sun Court Ltd. It does not include a
practical experience which is the main disadvantage of this method.
2.3 Approach of planning and development
Before setting up a learning session every undertaking required to make an effective plan.
It is very important for Sun Court Ltd. to follow a systematic approach for planning and
developing learning event. People R Us plans a following training event for Sun Court Ltd.:

 Aim of organization: It is first step in setting up training event for Sun Court Ltd. Aim
of this entity is to maximize profits and minimizing cost (Jiang, et.al., 2012). To
accomplish this objective organization need to focus on reducing its costs. Setting up training need: Here, management of firm identifies their efficiency in
achieving their goals effectively. To achieve organizational targets employees of Sun
Court Ltd. need to perform their work with full efficiency. Therefore, managers of entity
decide to conduct different learning and development programs for various department
of enterprise. Designing strategy of training: Multiple strategies must be made by different type of
worker, employees and managers of Sun Court Ltd. By developing different strategies
management may be able to run its business effectively. With the use of lecture method
various fact and plans of company are shown by power point presentation.
 Implementation of training event: It is final step where Sun Court Ltd. implements its
various training and development events at decided place and date.
3.1 Preparation of training event evaluation
Evaluation of training program facilitated by Sun Court Ltd. play an important role in
determining success and effectiveness of training at workplace. It is the final process in training
approach. Management must have a knowledge about evaluation means what, when and how
should be evaluated. It is very necessary for Sun Court Ltd. to evaluate its training (Avey, et.al.,
2011). For this first of all management should know what the evaluation is. Evaluation is the
feedback which is collected by researchers from individuals who are related to training events.
This feedback plays an essential role further planning and development of organization. So it
facilitates many advantages to Sun Court Ltd.
The purpose of evaluation of training is to know effectiveness of it in Sun Court Ltd. it
also helps in measuring functioning of firm. To know whether it meets organizational objectives
or not, it is important for Sun Court Ltd. to collect data from both primary as well as secondary
sources. It is an effective tool of this entity and is also important to improve its performance and
profitability. It also helps in improving design of training for future aspects. By this,
management can identify strengths and weaknesses of particular training session which helps in

improving future activities of business (De Haas, 2010). Therefore, the main aim of evaluation is
to assess whether training is effective in enhancing performance employees, workers and
management of Sun Court Ltd. it is the responsibility of HR department of this enterprise to do
this evaluation.
3.2 Carry out of the evaluation
HR team of Sun Court Ltd. took part in evaluation of training event for their employees
and staff. In relation to this HR considers following feedbacks:
 Reaction of participants: It is one of the immediate assessments of participants. By
reactions of trainees management can easily understand whether training session was
effective or not (Werner and DeSimone, 2011). Here, an expert team of HR observes the
various activities of all trainees to know their reaction towards training and development
program. HR department of Sun Court Ltd. finds positive reactions from their
participants.
 Knowledge and skill acquisition: Under this method of getting feedback, managers
prepare questionnaire related to their training session and its effectiveness in their actual
job or work. By putting these immediate questions before them, managers acquire their
knowledge and interest by their gesture. So, here rate of this acquisition was good.
 Behavioral aspect: After participating in training program behavior of trainees help in
knowing the effectiveness of such session. Sometimes, HR department observe both type
of changes in employees i.e. positive and negative, but here, training event facilitates
positive changes in employees which help in success of business.
 Measuring business improvements: If there is any improvement is seen by management
in working of firm then it is clear that training event was successful. HR department of
Sun Court Ltd. observe over all performance of undertaking and finds measurable
improvement in business (Luthans, et.al., 2010). This event helped organization to
minimizing its production cost and maximizing its profits.

 Measuring by benchmark: It is final step in evaluation process. In this results of current
training sessions are compared with previous events. Sun Court Ltd. obtained impressive
results which increases its percentage of growth.
3.3 Review the success of evaluation method
HR department of Sun Court Ltd. follows five methods of evaluation training session. All
the methods used by Sun Court Ltd. is very much effective in evaluating learning events. Usually
every firm discusses the success of evaluation before implementing it in actual. After evaluation
is made by managers it is necessary to review its success. Sun Court Ltd. uses all five methods
which gives different feedbacks. The first method used by managers is to know the reactions of
people involved in training program which is a psychological phenomenon (Bratton and Gold,
2012). This expressed the actual and inner feelings of participants who are part of this event.
There are following benefits of this evaluation:
 Skills and knowledge: Through evaluation of learning event, managers come to know the
skills and knowledge developed with in employees of firm. The aim behind providing
training and development program is to enhance skills and knowledge of unskilled
persons within workplace. So, evaluation helped in knowing and understanding level of
knowledge and skills of trainees.
 Productivity and profitability: As discussed above that evaluation is done by observing
previous activities and events of company so it helped in understanding the improvement
of Sun Court Ltd. It is one of the main aims of Sun Court Ltd. to generate more profits at
low cost of production. Therefore, by comparing previous data to current data assist this
entity to know its percentage of profit for current year.
 In future aspects: Evaluation of training program also important in relation to future
aspects because it is helpful in conducting future events (Meredith Belbin, 2011). If HR
team of Sun Court Ltd. evaluate its training session then it will be easy to compare it to
its future events.

CONCLUSION
This study concluded that Human resource development plays an essential role in growth
and success of Sun Court Ltd. Management of this entity needs to understand the learning styles,
theories and training needs to enhance skills and knowledge of its employees and managers at
different levels. To conduct effective training event managers of Sun Court Ltd. require to follow
a proper and systematic process. Evaluation of training event is necessary to made by
management to know its effectiveness at workplace. Evaluation can be made by observing
activities of staff, their performance level, their reactions and behavior within workplace. UK
government also plays a vital role in providing training and development program to the
employees of Sun Court Ltd.

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