Importance of Human Resource Management: A Comprehensive Report

This report delves into the critical importance of Human Resource Management (HRM), highlighting its multifaceted role in organizational success. The report identifies key challenges within HRM, particularly focusing on training and development, employee retention, and organizational effectiveness. It examines various challenges such as time and resource constraints, inconsistent training methods, cultural and language differences, and the need for updated knowledge. The report presents facts and figures from surveys and studies to illustrate the impact of these challenges and emphasizes the need for strategic solutions. The research questions address how training and development pose a major challenge, strategies to overcome them, and objectives to enhance organizational performance. The report stresses the need for innovative training methods, the importance of adapting to a changing business environment, and the strategic positioning of training and development in achieving organizational goals. It underscores the importance of investing in employee development to create a better corporate image and foster organizational growth.

Running head: IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Importance of Human Resource Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Identification of the problem...........................................................................................................4
Facts and figures..............................................................................................................................5
Research questions and objectives of the study.............................................................................10
Summary........................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Human resource management is the process in which the organization recruits, trains and
manages people with the aim of achieving its goals. The objective of any the department of
human resource management is to ensure that the company has sufficient people with the
necessary skills for achieving the goals of the company. The responsibilities of this department
include recruitment and selection, staffing, training and development of human resources,
compensation and benefits and maintaining employee relations, appraisals, maintenance of work
culture, resolving workplace conflicts, legal knowledge, and payroll management (Akey et al.
2017).
As human resource management involves such a vast range of roles and responsibilities
on the part of the manager at the same time it also comes with a set of challenges. With the
fluctuation in economy alongside the local and international advancements modifications are
taking place. These modifications have a big impact on the functions of HR in a variety of issues.
In spite of the existence of national and global differences, the unity is noteworthy. The process
of human resource management has identified ten important challenges in benefit costs of health
and welfare, retaining the staffs, learning and development, planning of succession, recruitment
and availability of trained local workers, compensation, and organizational effectiveness,
measurement of HR effectiveness, leadership development and change management (Anderson,
2013). The percentages of companies in an ascending order who are facing these challenges are
described in the following chart.

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Fig: Percentages of companies facing HRM challenges
Source: (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014)
Out of all the aforesaid challenges in the function of Human Resource Management, the most
important one to be considered is training and developing the employees for future job needs.
There arises a problem in the process of training and development when the management fails to
identify the specific needs of the employees and the employees are unaware of their own
development needs. If the objectives are not set properly then the whole motive of training the
employees go in vain. The employees are less interested to take responsibility for their own
development which becomes an issue for the management. Time also poses to be a major
constraint which is involved in the preparation of the training programs and the participation of
the employees. The effectiveness of the whole training and development program becomes
hopeless when the employees are unable to follow the course. Inattentiveness of the employees
during the training program also makes it ineffective. When training of the employees is the most
important thing in the growth and sustainable advantage of the company, the management cannot
take the risk of neglecting this step in the functioning of HRM (Beardwell & Thompson, 2014).
The process of training and development of employees vary from one organization to another
because there is no fixed technique that will be applicable in all situations. The management

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must establish a learning development program which will address the concern of challenges
faced by the employees in an organization. The issues must be dealt in such a way that the
company can stay in the leading position and can adjust to the changes required for evolution.
The challenges in the process of training and development of the employees remain
almost similar in all the organizations with little bit of variations. These common challenges
include the content of the training program, who provides the training, who develops the
materials and environment for training, standardization of training, cultural differences in the
global workforce, generation gap and gathering feedback (Bolman & Deal, 2017).
Identification of the problem
Time and resource constraints are the most common hurdles which consider that
training is not the most effective option for learning. When training and development of
employees are so essential in the functioning of HRM, the problems associated with it should be
focused on and the management should take care of the ways required to overcome those. So it
can be observed that the role of training managers are changing with the rising demand of
training, entry of new generation individuals and world- wide expansion. The managers should
not only focus on providing quality training to the employees but also assure that the training is
engaging effective and presented in a timely manner. Moreover, the aspects that are mentioned
should be attained at a reasonable price (Brewster, Mayrhofer & Morley, 2016).
Other challenges included that can be mentioned here is inconsistent training. In the
contemporary business operations which are spread in multiple locations and under multiple
training managers, the consistent delivery of training cannot be assured. The reason behind this is
that the knowledge levels and the teaching styles vary from one trainer to another. It leads to
inconsistency in the training program. To take care of this inconsistency in the training program
a standard curriculum can be set which will involve the inputs and consent of the trainer or
expert on the subject.
With the increase in mobile workforce shift and outdoor working, the challenge exists in
managing the workforce. With the influencing technology, flexible training courses can be
developed according to the convenience of the employees (Festing & Schäfer, 2014). It is a bit
difficult but can be tried to keep a track of the employees who has got the training and up to

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which level. Difference in the culture and language also pose a major threat in the training of the
employees worldwide. The trainer cannot use English for providing training to employees who
are non- English speakers. Time is a significant factor in the process of imparting training and it
should not be allowed to control the process by being a hindrance. Single training programs
should be set for the new generation employees for their timely requirement in their personal
devices.
The management, when planning the training program should pay attention to reduction
in training costs. E-learning can be suitable which will cut down the transport and
accommodation costs. It can be used for n number of times for training n number of employees.
The system of reusing will help in the decrease of training costs to be used for a long term
process. It is a serious challenge to provide the employees with the update knowledge as the
legislation, working processes and the policies are in constant change. Therefore the
management has to keep it in mind while designing the training program to implement user
friendly tools in the process. The topic of the training program decides whether it will retain the
employees or not. If the training and learning is considered effective then it will be able to keep
the employees in the organization. But again, if the internal experts are unable to plan an
effective training program then the service can be outsourced to an experienced individual
(Kehoe & Wright, 2013).
Facts and figures
The managers face a variety of challenges while preparing and planning for contents to
be included in the training program as per the increasing global demand. A Lion-bridge survey
carried out by the training and development executives recognized the most significant training
and development challenges in the learning process of corporate world.
Quality is defined by what the participants learn and can do after training”, Ann Gretter,
CEO of HEi training company in Washington (Kramar, 2014). “Selecting or developing training
that is closely aligned with improvement of job performance is crucial to realizing a return on
training investment, and a cost-effective training delivery medium that works well for the target
audience is equally important. So, with these statements it was taken into considerations that to
attain both, few direct analysis is required. This analysis requires articulation of training

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outcomes that the employees should realize, understand the context of situation in which the
employees will perform and to suggest a delivery method which will be suitable for achieving
the desired outcome. Gretter added, “the instructional designer is as important to the
development of good training as your subject matter expert” (Marchington et al., 2016).
According to Harvard Business Review study, an article on ‘why top young managers are
in a non- stop job hunt’, by Monika Hamori, Burak Koyuncu and Jie cao, it was narrated that the
international databases of more than 1200 young and top achievers were analyzed. It can be
derived from the analysis that most of the best and talented are failing to receive their career
development support as per their desire. It was stated in the article:
"Dissatisfaction with some employee-development efforts appears to fuel many early exits. We
asked young managers what their employers do to help them grow in their jobs and what
they'd like their employers to do, and found some large gaps. Workers reported that companies
generally satisfy their needs for on-the-job development and that they value these opportunities,
which include high-visibility positions and significant increases in responsibility. But they're
not getting much in the way of formal development, such as training, mentoring and coaching -
things they also value highly."
To be aware of the current facts about the state of training and learning the following
major statistics can be taken into consideration.
Fig: training time

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Source: (Meijerink, Bondarouk & Lepak, 2016)
Fig: rate of HR managers believing in training and development
Source: (Minbaeva et al., 2014)

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Fig: average percentage of learning and training content
Source: (Purce, 2014)

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Fig: types of compensation
Source: (Shields et al. 2015)
Fig: projected figures to 2020 for employment levels
Source: (Sparrow, Brewster & Chung, 2016)

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From the given facts and figures, it can be stated that the expenses related to training and
development of employees is easy to bear rather than paying the price later on for inefficiency of
the employees. Training on one hand is beneficial for the employees to do their present jobs
while development helps them to become efficient for future job roles. Training makes the
employees aware of the specifications in their job and company. It can be observed that there lies
a challenge in bridging the gap between existing skills, attitudes and knowledge with that of the
required ones. With the initiation of training and development in a smoother way, a better
corporate image will be created along with organizational development (Sung & Choi, 2014).
Research questions and objectives of the study
The research questions for this particular problem of training and development are as
follows-
a) Why training and development tends to be a major challenge in HRM?
b) How can this challenge be overcome?
c) What strategies are required for solving this issue?
The objectives of the study can be explained as the international business environment are
constantly changing with strong pressure on the organizations to become learning organizations,
therefore it is essential to stay ahead in the competition. This can be done by bringing
innovations or modifications in the strategy used for training and development by stressing on
planning, implementing, designing and assessing the training programs. The objective of the
problems associated with training and development has always been an influence in the
department of HRM. Moreover, it has become an over arching style of social requirements
putting stress on the organizations that must indulge in learning culture as a social responsibility.
It has been observed that previously there were strong connections between the practices of
training and development and various measures taken for organizational performance (Tahir et
al., 2014).
Training and development has its own strategic positioning which contributes directly
towards the fulfillment of organizational goals and objectives. The training imparted by using
new and innovated technologies such as programmed instructions or PI, computer games, AV
tools are suitable for being used extensively in the current training processes in the organizations.

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These modern techniques with the combination of traditional methods such as conferences,
lectures, movies and case studies are effective methods used in the training and development
provided in the organizations. As training and development refers to obtaining knowledge, skills
and abilities to proceed a specific activity, therefore the benefits of the training and development
program so the benefit for both the trainers and employees are strategic in nature as well as
wider. To cope up with the emerging challenges of the training and development programs, a
broad range of programs are assumed which are ranging from providing training to the
employees, sharing of knowledge for expanding the business scenario and the customer services.
The training also pays attention on the development of career which further develops the
effectiveness of the individual, a group or the organization as a whole.
In the beginning of 21st century, the human resource managers have spoke on the key
challenges that they have to face and those mainly dealt with training and development. There
are some cultural assumptions underlying in the process of human resource management with
respect to the development of employees. There can be two kinds of approaches, hard and soft,
from the development aspects. The hard approach refers that the employees in the organization
are simple resources for achieving the objectives of the organization (Veloso, Tzafrir & Enosh,
2015). On the other hand, the soft approach refers to the employees as valuable resources
essential for the development of the organization. So the objective of the study can be based on
the need for developing the employees through a proper training and development program to
improve the quality and increase the productivity of output. The development strategy if used in
the training and development program will help in the decrease of staff turnover and absenteeism
which helps in the increase of motivation among the employees. To be a leader in the market, the
training and development must be associated with innovation and modification with the help of a
wider range of learning activities.
Summary
To summarize this assignment, it can be said that the challenges faced in the functioning
of human resources management was highlighted properly throughout this assignment. The
common challenges were mentioned at first and then the most prominent challenge was
discussed. Training and development of the employees were considered as the most common