Human Resource Development Report: Unilever's Training and Development

This report delves into the realm of Human Resource Development (HRD) with a specific focus on Unilever. It begins by introducing the core concepts of HRD, emphasizing its role in enhancing individual capabilities for current and future job roles. The report then explores various learning theories, including Kolb's experiential learning cycle and Honey and Mumford's learning styles, and their relevance in designing effective training programs. The significance of the learning curve and its impact on assessing training effectiveness is also discussed. Furthermore, the report analyzes the transfer of learning to the workplace and the steps involved in planning and designing successful learning events. The second part of the report focuses on the training needs of staff at different levels within Unilever, particularly in the finance and accounting, marketing, and production departments. It evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of different training methods, such as lectures, practical training, and case studies. The report then outlines a plan for a training and development workshop, including the alignment of training strategies with Unilever's business objectives. Finally, the report examines the role of government in training, development, and lifelong learning, as well as the impact of the competency movement on both public and private sector organizations. It concludes by discussing how contemporary training initiatives contribute to a company's HRD.

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................1
TASK 1......................................................................................................................................1
Slide 1.....................................................................................................................................1
Slide 2.....................................................................................................................................2
Slide 3.....................................................................................................................................3
Slide 4.....................................................................................................................................4
Slide 5.....................................................................................................................................5
Slide 6.....................................................................................................................................6
Slide 7.....................................................................................................................................7
Slide 8.....................................................................................................................................8
Slide 9.....................................................................................................................................9
Slide 10.................................................................................................................................10
Slide 11.................................................................................................................................11
Slide 12.................................................................................................................................12
TASK 2....................................................................................................................................12
2.1 Training needs for staff at different levels in the organisation.......................................12
2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of training methods will be utilised for the workshops 13
2.3 Plan of training and development workshop..................................................................14
TASK 3....................................................................................................................................15
3.1 Preparation of training evaluation using suitable technique...........................................15
3.2 Carry out an evaluation of a training event....................................................................16
3.3 Evaluation method success review.................................................................................17
TASK 4....................................................................................................................................17
4.1 Role of government in training, development and lifelong learning..............................17
4.2 Explaining how the development of the competency movement has impacted on the
public and private sector organisations................................................................................18
4.3 How contemporary training initiatives of UK government contribute to company’s
human resources development.............................................................................................19
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................20
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................21

INTRODUCTION
The concept of human resource development (HRD) mainly emphasise on improving
individuals quality and to make them eligible for their current and potential jobs. The
development of human resource is a broad concepts that comprise several conceptual and
practical findings. The training and development covers a small portion of HRD and plays a
significant role in improving employee’s quality in a company. In the following report,
several learning theories, techniques and the learning curve importance is discussed along
with the adequate transfer of such learning in current job at the work. Here, the company
chosen to discuss the subject is Unilever. The training needs at distinct units of the firm and
several techniques of training as well as their effectiveness is explained in the below paper.
Moreover, the learning and evaluation program is studied in brief and how all the process
work and performed is defined. At last, the government role in the employees training and
development and imparted training actual transfer in the real-world business is discussed at
the end.
TASK 1
Slide 1
1

Slide 2
Learning plays an important role in developing and maintaining the human resource quality
that also affects the productivity and quality of the organisation’s output. The mode of
learning varies from one person to another according to the individual’s capacity. Therefore,
knowledge of different learning theories and learning styles is essential to design and
implement an effective learning event.
2

Slide 3
David Kolb (1974) suggested that there are four learning styles which people follows and an
integrated process of learning takes place involving four stages. When a person progresses
through these four stages of learning cycle effective learning happens (Mobbs, 2017). These
four stages are:
• To have a concrete experience
• To observe and reflect on that experience
• To form abstract concepts (analysis) and generalizations (conclusions)
• To test hypothesis in future situations which results in new experiences
3

Slide 4
Honey and Mumford advocates four different styles of learning as follows:
• Activists learning style: This learning style is followed by people who like to learn by
experience and to face new challenges practically.
• Reflectors learning style: These people are very cautious and like to learn from the
experience of others by collecting information and analysing them to reach any
conclusions.
• Theorist learning style: These people like to formulate new theories from the logical
derivation for learning and solving issues.
• Pragmatics learning style: Pragmatics likes to experiment new ideas and theories by
considering the issues as new challenges.
4

Slide 5
• Kolb uses different words to describe the stages of the learning cycle (concrete experience,
reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation, active experimentation) and four
learning styles (diverging, assimilating, converging, accommodating) as compared to
Honey and Mumford’s learning styles (activists, reflectors, theorists, pragmatics).
• Kolb’s model proposes that learning takes place in a cycle and in stages whereas Honey
and Mumford identified four different and separate learning styles as individual may start
learning in different places or may spend time on one aspect of learning than the others
(Kolb and Kolb, 2005).
5

Slide 6
Learning curve is a graphical representation of the performance of learners which displays
the relationship between the level of competence achieved and the time spent in the learning
process.
6

Slide 7
The learning curve is useful to assess the effectiveness of a learning event or training
program. It also reflects the elements of effective learning and helps to formulate learning
policy. The learning curve is also prominently used in resource requirement planning (Holton
III, Bates and Ruona, 2000).
7

Slide 8
Transfer of learning to the workplace ensures that the knowledge or skills acquired during the
learning process are utilised and applied at the work in a way that improves the level of
performance.
8

Slide 9
Organisations invest time, money and efforts to arrange training and learning program in
order to develop skills of personnel so that competitive advantage can be obtained. Therefore
it is necessary to transfer learning of individuals to workplace. The transfer of learning to the
workplace helps in adding value to the organisation by process improvement which results in
better products and services. The transfer of learning to the workplace ensures proper
utilisation of resources such as funds for training event. Moreover, employees may face
practical obstacles in performing assigned responsibility, for which transfer of learning
helps the employees to come up with the new solutions to face and overcome challenges (Pan
and Yang, 2010).
9

Slide 10
Planning and designing a learning event requires several steps to be undertaken. These are as
follows:
• First step involves to analyse employee performance and behaviour in order to determine
the needs of training.
• Next, designing takes place in which it is required to determine the mode, content and
location of training program.
• In the next step, necessary resources are collected and aligned for the learning process.
• The last step is the implementation after which the performance of learning program is
continually measured through evaluation.
10