Human Resource Development Case Study

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The senior managers of Peak Finance, a large financial institution, recognise the importance of training and development for their staff. They have a clear policy that not only should staff be trained and developed to meet the CPD (continuing professional development) and legislative requirements that apply to their area of business, but that staff should also be encouraged and enabled to engage in other appropriate development activities. The middle managers, who largely look after staff performance and development, all welcome this policy. They have made it clear to all of their staff that development opportunities are available and can be applied for at any time. Many individual managers have therefore put together a list of courses that they think might be of interest to their staff, and make these available to staff so that individual members of staff can pick-and-mix the courses that they feel they would like to attend. There is no restriction on the number of courses that are allowed for each staff member, and it is up to each middle manager whether to allow attendance. Common practice is that staff just mention to their manager what they would like to do, and then an administrator books the place. The staff member then receives the letter from the training provider inviting him or her to the event, which he or she then attends when the due date arrives.

The performance management system at Peak Finance is good in that the process described in organisational policy and procedure is good practice, but in reality it does not happen, because managers do not have time and have not been properly trained. When a performance appraisal interview does take place, it is usually short, and development needs tend to be addressed at the appraisal interview with the question What do you want to do this year?, and then arrangements are made after listing the responses. Costs have never been a barrier because money is said to be freely available for developmental purposes.

When staff are to attend a course, they are supposed to let their line manager know about their impending absence, but this does not always happen. Neither does the manager hold any pre- or post-attendance discussions, nor does the organisation have any mechanism for evaluating the effectiveness of any course (or, for that matter, any mechanism for checking that the member of staff actually attended). Some courses are held in-house for those areas of specialism where there is plenty of expertise, but these do not seem to be very effective. One employee recently missed half a day of a twoday course and no one even noticed.

Some courses are particularly important to the organisation, especially those CPD (continuing professional development) courses that re-license staff to enable them to operate in their specific financial area. However, staff are responsible for their own updates and CPD the organisation does not keep records of when events are due or attended for any except the most essential staff. Rumour has it that many update courses are boring and inessential, so that it is not actually clear whether staff are or are not attending, and therefore may or may not be fully up to date.

Following a merger with a similar but slightly smaller organisation, WealthBuild, new staff are now to be incorporated into the wider organisation. In the smaller firm, training and development was of a very focused nature and a very high standard, as it had to be to keep the small firm competitive. Peak Finance is now faced with some pressing issues. The recently arrived staff appear to be expecting detailed development discussions prior to training course attendance, and a debrief of what was learned following the course. They are also complaining about the performance management system that appears to be blocking what they call proper discussion about their future, and the development needs that they have in order to position themselves to be ready when promotion opportunities arise. They have noted that training appears only to be courses, and are questioning this approach.

In the meantime, Peak Finances shareholders have begun to ask questions about the size of the training budget when compared to the size of the dividend budget that was recently set. Managers in the wider organisation, feeling suddenly under the spotlight, are now said to be unhappy with what they see as challenges to their way of doing things by both these newcomers and the shareholders.

QUESTION 1 (25 Marks)

Organisations have used human resource development (HRD) to stimulate positive behaviour in employees and impact their knowledge, skills, and attitudes in order to enable the organisations to increase their productivity and performance (Kareem and Hussein, 2019).

Critically discuss human resource development at Peak Finance and make recommendations for its improvement.

QUESTION 2 (25 Marks)

Performance management is critical to ensure that organisational plans are being implemented, that they have the desired developmental impact and that resources are being used efficiently (Singh and Twalo, 2014).

Critically discuss Peak Finances approach to performance management and make recommendations for its improvement.

QUESTION 3 (25 Marks)

HR plays an important role in an organisations change process through designing and implementing organisation development strategies and change interventions (Mishra, Shukla and Sujatha, 2022).

Critically discuss the role which the HR department should have fulfilled in facilitating the change process which was brought about through Peak Finances merger with WealthBuild.