Human Resources

Any company must recognise that people are an expensive investment and worthy of your maximum attention if their contribution is to be optimised. The country has generated a strong move towards a recognition of the importance of training, if we are to compete in world markets in the future.

Every business uses its people across all functional areas, and in previous sections the skill and competence of managers and staff to do their job has been an important theme. Best practise in every business activity requires the effective input and management of your employees.

The National Standard for effective investment in people has been launched. It is called Investors in People. The principles of the standards are:

• An Investor in People makes a people public commitment from the top to develop all employees to achieve it's business objectives.
• An Investor in People regularly reviews the training and development needs of all employees.
• An Investor in People takes action to train and develop individuals on recruitment and throughout their employment.
• An Investor in People evaluates the investment in training and development to assess achievement and improve future effectiveness.

The following section will enable you to focus on the fundamentals of best practise in human resource management. See how many statements are really worthy of your "agreed" response.

G1 - Fundamental of People Management

Commitment	Strongly Agree	Agree	Not Sure	Disagree	Strongly Disagree	Good Business Practice
Our most senior managers are committed to developing our people.						You cannot expect full Employee commitment without giving commitment in return.
We have a business plan which sets out a vision of where we are going, business goals and targets.
Our plan sets out how training and development needs are to be identified and met.
Our company has dedicated specific resources to training and developing employees.
People at all level know how they can contribute to our success.
Our plans are regularly updated and changes are communicated to all our staff.
Employee representation is acknowledged and involved in our business plans.

Planning	Strongly Agree	Agree	Not Sure	Disagree	Strongly Disagree	Good Business Practice
We regularly use appraisal interviews or staff reviews to reassess training needs.						The training and development of your staff must be effectively planned in an organised way.
Our company makes plans to link training needs to our defined operational requirements.
Training plans and programmes always have clear objectives and a timescale.
We have defined who has responsibility in our company for developing people.
Our managers have the skills and knowledge to execute their training and development role effectively.
Our company has considered external standards as a basis for measuring training achievement.
We regularly review our procedures for planning the training and development of our people.
All employees have their own personal development plan.

Action	Strongly Agree	Agree	Not Sure	Disagree	Strongly Disagree	Good Business Practice
Our company has an introduction programme for all new staff that explains the company and the job in full.						Ensure that every training event has been planned and is in line with clear business and training objectives.
When our staff change jobs they are always reassessed for skills and training needs.
Our managers ensure that everyone is aware of the range of development opportunities open to them.
All our training plans are effectively implemented.
We review training plans throughout the year in the context of changes in business targets and practice.
Our company assesses the benefits and outcomes of all training actions.
Training records are maintained throughout the company.
Our managers help those who work for them to meet their training and development needs.

Evaluation	Strongly Agree	Agree	Not Sure	Disagree	Strongly Disagree	Good Business Practice
We frequently evaluate how our investment in people is contributing to our business goals and targets.						All expenditure on training can be wasted if you fail to measure the results.
We use a wide range of evaluation tools to measure training outcomes and effectiveness.
We measure the cost benefits of all of our training activities.
We modify our training and development policy in the light of training outcomes and actions.
Evaluation activities are the responsibility of trainers, managers and employees.

Most businesses expend effort on management and employee training and development, but few do it in an organised and well-structured way. Even fewer do it with co-ordinated approach to their business planning activities.

You need to focus on the critical areas where you were forced to "disagree" or "strongly disagree".

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