Capital Airport Hrd Strategy

This report provides a case study on the current problems that are related to Capital Airport's Human Resource Development (HRD) strategy. It has been found that the HRD programmes that are being implemented lack the effectiveness that will help employees increase performance and firm's competitive advantage. After a detailed analysis, it has been found that this misalignment may be related to human resource (HR) planning and management. It is evident that there has been a clear lack of feedback and communication between the HR managers and the participants of the programmes. As such, the design of the HRD programmes has failed to include the perceptions of the employees' training and career development needs and goals. This eventually leads to organisational tensions and the failure of the HRD programmes. It is recommended that the management of Capital Airport undertake constructive reforms in the development of its HRD programmes. The redesigned programmes should include the employees' insights, training needs and career goals and there must be a control mechanism in place to assure that the programmes align with organisational strategic goals.

CONTENTS

Introduction 2

Problems of The current programmes 2

role of HRD 2

Misalignment of the HRD programmes 3

HRD and HR Professionals 4

Critical Challenges 5

Recommendations 5

Conclusion 6

References 7

INTRODUCTION

Human Resource Development (HRD) is defined as an organisation's investment in its human resources to increase their utility, and can be described as a non-exhaustive list of value adding strategies in the development of an organisation's employees (Kuchinke, 1998). Owing to the enhanced recognition of human capital and its contribution to an organisation's competitive advantage, HRD has become a dynamic and evolutional area of practice. This report will examine the implementation of HRD in Capital Airport.

The first part of this report will address the issues relating to the current HRD programmes being introduced at Capital Airport. Subsequently, the critical challenges in the current HRD programmes will be analysed. The final section of this report provides some constructive recommendations for the management of Capital Airport to undertake in order to overcome their current HRD issues and challenges

PROBLEMS OF THE CURRENT PROGRAMMES

All of the current HRD programmes that are being introduced in Capital Airport are targeted at improving customer service through increased employee work-place efficiency:

* The Human Factor program was to help employees in their career development;

* Introduction of a new customer service teams to achieve continuous customer service improvement; and

* The Winning Factor program to help in enhancing customer service

Though the programmes were introduced with well intention, the employees at Capital Airport did not perceive them positively.

One may ponder the causes behind the failure? In order to resolve this issue, it is imperative to understand the basic role of HRD within an organisation

ROLE OF HRD

In recent years, the role of HRD within an organisation has been increasingly significant. Barrie and Pace (1998, p321) argued that "the importance of learning within a liberal education framework" should be the goal of contemporary HRD. From an organisational perspective, Kuchinke (1998) commented that HRD plays a critical role in the change management and smooth operations of an organisation through implementing employee wellness program and transfer of expertise through training programs. Ultimately, it is clear that HRD, when implemented effectively should play a contributory role towards achieving the organisation's overarching objectives of growth, sustainability and profitability.

It is noteworthy to mention that in order for any organisation to 'reap the fruits' of the positive effects of its HRD programmes, the most pivotal factor is effective implementation. The HRD programs must firstly align with organisational imperatives like gaining competitive advantage and reduced turnover rates. Subsequently, the programmes must clearly address organisational problems effectively. It is this area of misalignment that may be the main cause of the current problems in Capital Airport.

MISALIGNMENT OF THE HRD PROGRAMMES

Becker (1975) stressed that education and training of individuals and organisations are primarily for increased productivity and efficiency. This long established perspective is important to the continual growth of HRD as it succinctly unfolds the reason for continuous learning and justifies training expenditure to an organisation's senior management.

The current HRD programs in Capital Airport had failed to gain acceptance from its employees. This may be because employees are not able to learn significantly from such programs. Employees may feel that there has been no improvement in their efficiency or productivity as these programs do not really reflect the real life problems that occur in the workplace on a day-to day basis. For example, the Human Factor is an off-site company-wide course. When Capital Airport's main program lies in customer service, a company -wide course would have been too broad, the program cannot effectively resolve the root of the problem within its employees who are handling customer service. Similarly, the 'Winning Factor' program is an organisational wide event which lacks targeted content. In fact the more senior staff 'felt that they were treated like fools' and had 'their intelligence insulted' during the role-play sessions.

Clearly, the HRD programmes are misaligned with the employees' expectations. The programmes being organisational wide events are overly broad and would not be able to target every aspect of the day to day reality in the airport. As such, the current HRD programmes not only fail to satisfy the needs of the employees but also fail to contribute to the