The HRD matrix

The HRD matrix shows the interrelationship between HRD instruments, processes, outcomes
and organizational effectiveness.

 HRD Instruments: These include performance appraisal, counseling, role analysis,

potential development, training, communication policies, job rotations, rewards, job
enrichment programmes, etc. These instruments may vary depending on the size of
the organization, the internal environment, the support and commitment of the top
management, the competitive policies etc.
 HRD Processes: The HRD instruments lead to the generation of HRD processes like
role clarity, performance planning, development climate, risk-taking, dynamism in
employees. Such HRD processes should result in more competent, satisfied and
committed people that would make the organization grow by contributing their best to
it.
 HRD Outcomes: HRD instruments and processes make people more committed and
satisfied, where they tend to give their best to the organization enthusiastically.
 Organizational Effectiveness: The HRD outcomes influence the organizational
effectiveness, which in turn, depends on a number of variables like environment,
technology, competitors, etc.

A Schematic Presentation of Linkages between HRD Instruments, Processes,

Outcomes and Organizational Effectiveness
HRD Mechanisms or Subsystems:

Many HRD mechanisms are available to develop the competencies of employees and
improved the overall organizational climate. The major ones are discussed below:

1. Performance Appraisal: performance appraisal have become increasingly important

tools for organizations to use in managing and improving the performance of
employees, in making timely and accurate staffing decisions and improving the
overall quality of the firms products and services. The appraisal process is the formal
way of evaluating the employee’s performance. Its purpose is to provide an accurate
picture of post and future employee’s performance. To meet this performance
appraisal are set. The targets are based on job related criteria that best determine
 successful job performance. Where possible actual performance is measured directly
and objectively. Using a wide variety of techniques, specialists select an appropriate
method to measure an employee’s actual performance against the previously set
targets. The process is used to strengthen the effort performance linkage. Appraisals
help an organization communicate its expectations regarding performance and
connection between performance and reward to employees. They increase employees’
confidence and employees’ feedback that their efforts are being adequately rewarded.
The feedback is offered through an evaluation interview. Here the rater tries to give
both positive and negative sides of the employee performance. To be useful, raters or
supervisors should use HRD orientated appraisals as a mechanism to:
a. Uncover difficulties faced by the subordinate while handling assigned task and
try to remove these hurdles.
b. Understand the strengths and weaknesses of subordinates and help the
subordinates overcome the obstacles in the way.
c. Encourage subordinates to meet problems head-on, accept responsibilities and
face challenges with confidence and courage.
d. Plan for effective utilization of the talents of subordinates.

2. Potential Appraisal: the term ‘potential’ refers to the abilities possessed by an

employee but not put to use currently or the abilities to assume challenging
responsibilities in future assignments. The term ‘performance’ refers to one’s skills,
abilities in meeting the requirements of the job which one is holding currently.
Potential appraisal is different from performance appraisal which shows an
employee’s current performance in his existing role. If the employee is required to
play a completely different set of roles at the higher levels, potential appraisal needs
to be carried out at regular intervals. “The objective of potential appraisal is to
identify the potential of a given employee to occupy higher positions in the
organizational hierarchy and undertaken higher technologies.” The appraisal is carried
out on the basis of (i) supervisor’s observations; (ii) performance data relating to
various previous roles played by an employee; (iii) performance on roles in simulating
to a new position. A good potential appraisal system helps management to pick up a
suitable candidate for a given job and offer additional training, if necessary.

3. Career Planning: a career is a sequence of positions held by a person in the course of

a lifetime. Career planning is a process of integrating the employees’ needs and
aspirations with organizational needs. Career programmes and HR programmes are
linked to the degree that they help each individual meet individual and organization
requirements.

In the HRD system, the long term growth plans of a company are not kept secret.
They are made known to the employees. Major changes are discussed at all levels to
promote understanding and commitment among employees. The immediate concern
 of employees would be to find out where do stand in such a road map. Do they have
any chance to grow while building the organization brick by brick? Since managers
have information about the growth plans of the company, they need to transmit their
information to their subordinates. The subordinates should be assisted in planning
their careers within the company. It is, however, not necessary that each one of them
would scale new heights every year but atleast they are aware of the opportunities and
get ready for greater challenges ahead. Career planning doesn’t guaranty success. But
without it, employees are rarely prepared to encash the opportunities that come their
way.

4. Training and Employee Development: Training has gained importance in present

day environment where jobs are change rapidly. Training is a learning experience
designed to achieve a relatively permanent change in an individual that will improve
the ability to perform on the job. Employee development on the other hand is a future
oriented training process, focusing on the personal growth of the employee. Both
training and development focus on learning. Training programmes should not be
designed as quick fixes for organizational problems, nor should they depend on
faddish techniques just because they are popular now and are followed by our next
door neighbor. Instead, training should be planned to meet the specific needs of the
organization and its employees. To survive and grow in a competitive environment,
organizations have to motivate their employees to get ready for all kinds of future
challenges.

5. Organisation Development:

Organizations are never perfectly static. They keep on changing. Employees’ skills and
abilities, therefore, require continual upgrading. The future is uncertain when full of
surprises. It is not easy to fight the force of change without adequate preparation and
training. A systematic planned way of managing this change is through the process of
OD.

OD may be defined as a change effort that is planned, focused on an entire organization

or a large subsystem, managed from the top, aimed at enhancing organizational health
and effectiveness and based on planned interventions made with the help of change
agent or third party who is well versed in the behavioral science.

6. Rewards:

People do what they do to satisfy needs. They choose to behave in way which will
maximize their rewards. The most obvious reward is pay but there are many others.
Intrinsic rewards come from their job itself such as feelings of achievement, pride in
doing a job etc. Extrinsic rewards come from a source outside the job including pay,
 promotion and benefits offered by management. Reward could be linked to
performance as well to motivate high achievers to do well. If rewards are allocated
completely on non-performance factors such as seniority, job titles etc. then employees
are likely to reduce their efforts. Now days organizations also use team based rewards
to motivate empowered work teams to exceed established targets.

7. Employee welfare & quality of work life (QWL): The term employee welfare
means “the efforts to make life worth living for workmen”. It includes various services,
facilities & benefits offered to employees by the employers, unions & govt. The
purpose is to improve the living standards of workers & thereby improve the quality of
work life. Employees voluntarily extend a number of benefits to employees in the hope
that these indirect compensation plans motivate employees to perform better. Over the
years, the types of benefits offered have been expanding in line with competitive
pressures, changing job market trends, employee expectations, union demands &
legislative requirements.

Quality of work life (QWL) efforts are systematic efforts by organizations to give
workers a greater opportunity to affect the way they do their jobs & the contributions
they make to the organization’s overall effectiveness. It is a way of empowering
employees by giving them a greater ‘say’ in the decision making process. QWL means
having good working conditions, good wages & benefits, good leadership & interesting,
challenging jobs. QWL efforts include the following:

 Employee involvement: Here employees are given the opportunity to participate in

the decisions that affect them & their relationship in the company.

 Quality circles: These are small group of employees who meet regularly to find,
analyse & solve quality & other work-related problems of a particular
department/section/area.

 Socio-technical systems: These are interventions in the work situation that redesign
the work, the workgroups & the relationship between workers & the technologies they
use to perform their jobs.

 Co-determination: In this method, representatives of workers meet mgt in a formal

way to discuss & vote important decisions that affect the lives of workers.

 Self-managed work teams: These are employee groups (also called autonomous
workgroups) with a high degree of decision-making, responsibility & behavioural
control for completing their work. The team is usually given the responsibility for
producing an entire product or service.
  Suggestion programmes: It is a formal method for generating, evaluating &
implementing employee ideas.

 Open door policies: Where open door policies exist, employees are free to walk into
any manager’s office with their problems & seek solutions to such problems.

HRD system focus on employee welfare & QWL by continually examining employee
needs & meeting them to the best possible extent.

Human resource information system: Human resource information system (HRIS) is a

method by which an organization collects, maintains & reports information on people &
jobs, the information is generally stored in a central human resource data bank, preferably
in a computer containing the following details:

 Personal data: Identification, education, reserved category, place of origin, etc.;

 Recruitment data: Entry date, grade in aptitude tests, grade in leadership tests;

 Experience data: Placement history, promotions, tasks performed grade wise;

 Appraisal data: Appraisal on each job, ratings of behaviours in a group, commitment

to overall goals, etc.;

 Training data: Nature of training received at each level, current training assignment,
etc.;

 Miscellaneous: Health status, personal problems, security needs, record of incentives

received, absence & sickness data, etc.;

This information is put to use whenever there is a need to identify employees for certain
special assignments.

Each of the subsystems described contribute to the achievement of overall HRD goals.
Performance & potential appraisal helps an employee develop his role capabilities &
prepare himself for future changes. Training improves his learning abilities. Feedback &
performance coaching helps him correct mistakes & improve interpersonal relationships.
OD promotes the collaborative spirit & self-renewing skills. Rewards & welfare amenities
enrich the life of employees & help them carry out the assigned tasks with zeal &
enthusiasm. It should be remembered that the subsystems discussed above should not be
viewed in isolation. They are all inter connected & independent parts. When viewed in
isolation, they do not offer the synergistic advantages of a well developed HRD system.

THE CONTRIBUTION OFSUBSYSTEMS TO HRD GOALS

The subsystems described already, contributes to the achievement of overall HRD goals
performance appraisal helps an individual to develop his current role capabilities. Potential
appraisal focuses on identifying the employee’s likely future roles with in the organization.
Training helps an employee to improve his job knowledge and skills. It enables an employee
to do his current job more efficiently and prepare himself for a higher level job .It bridges the
gap between job requirements and employee’s skills, knowledge and behavior .Feedback and
performance coaching helps the development of the individual as well as interpersonal
relationships. Organization development aims at developing team spirit and self-renewing
skills. Welfare amenities, rewards and incentives improve the quality of life of employees
and make the work place a stimulating one for employees .The contribution of these HRD
subsystems to various development dimensions is shown in the bellow table.

The HRD mechanisms described above should not be viewed in isolation .They are designed
to work together in an integrated system, although they may cast in an organization that does
not have an overall HRD plan .the collective benefits of integrated mechanisms may not
accrue to an organization ,when these are viewed in isolation . each subsystem is inter-linked
to other subsystems and offer rich benefits to an organization when they are well integrated.

THECONTRIBUTION OF HRD SUBSYSTEM TO

DEVELOPMENT DIMENSIONS
Development
HRD subsystems Mechanism
dimensions
Individual Training Career planning Potential
appraisal and
development
Feedback and Rewards
coaching
performance
Individual in the Performance Training Feedback and
present role appraisal Rewards performance
coaching
Individual in Potential Training Performance
regard to likely appraisal and appraisal
future roles development Feedback and
performance
coaching
Dyadic Feedback and Performance Training
relationships performance appraisal
coaching
 Teams & Organization Training Team rewards
teamwork development
Collaboration Organization Training
among different development
units/teams
Self-renewing Performance Organization Training
capability and appraisal development
health of
organization

Principles in Designing HRD Systems

In order to realize the benefits of integrated HRD systems, top management must invariably
observe certain principles which are categorized below:

Management Support: HRD requires consistent support from managers working at various
levels. They must formulate the HRD policies keeping organizational requirements in mind
and implement these wholeheartedly.

Focus of the HRD System: The system must be designed keeping various contextual factors
such as size, technology, skill levels, support for function, in mind. It must focus on
developing human resources at various levels (problem solving capabilities leading to
increased employee productivity) and commitment. It must take the organization forward by
anticipating changes and preparing people for future challenges. It must be properly
integrated with other long range functions such as corporate planning, budgeting, etc. Line
managers must be actively involved in all the above steps.

Structure of the HRD System: The system must have a distinct identity of its own, headed
by a senior manager taking care of the implementation process. The HR department created
for this purpose must have proper linkages with outside systems as well as internal
subsystems. The system must be reviewed periodically so as to find out the progress and
effectiveness of the programme.

Functioning of the System: The system must provide for appropriate feedback from various
departments at regular intervals. It is better to quantify the various aspects of HRD and
arrange for storage of data in computers. Internal experts and external consultants could be
judiciously used to offer training to various departments/ persons. Various aspects of HRD
should be introduced in a gradual way, after a thorough review of the organization’s size, its
needs and level of sophistication. Each stage should be planned carefully, with subsequent
phases built one over the other.