Where do we go with people development?

Welcome to this week’s Discuss HR, the HR blog written for and by members of Human Resources UK.

The networking events concluded this week, so can I thank everyone who attended and especially those that hosted.  I shall be looking to organise more in February so I will keep you posted.

This week our regular writer John Hepworth returns from his travels to look at why he feels so many individuals and organisations fail to develop themselves. (Ed Scrivener)

Where do we go with people development?

A longer term view

It is really interesting that during the current austerity, individuals and companies still do not seem to ‘get’ the need for continuous development of people, as a way out of decline.

My opinion is purely that: an opinion. And I am sure that there will be thousands of you out there that disagree – you will seek to ‘sharpen the saw’ as Stephen Covey would have it when it comes to your own development. And you may well be involved in companies that have extensive development – and dare I say it, training – programmes that seek to bring out the best in the existing workforce.

But too many individuals and companies fail to recognise that they have to take the first steps in order to keep ahead of the game. I was working with a director recently who had decided to look at the market place to see whether she was ‘up-to date in thinking – as well as strategically.’ Now perhaps you would expect that from someone in a senior position, to be always on the look-out for new ways to develop so that they can use it for themselves and for the benefit of their companies. Too often though both individuals and companies get drawn into the daily routine and at most short-termism, when it comes to dealing with their own development.

Let me give a view on funding, as development always seems to ‘hit the buffers’ when it comes to money. Government makes a great play about access to funding from banks and also the resources put into empowerment and leadership training in general. At best, there seems to be a market for ‘matched funding’ – the company puts in £2000 and gets £2000 additional, for instance. And this is at best: most companies baulk at investing such a lowly amount as ‘surely, the benefits are so intangible that it is worthless?’ Yet the availability of large sums of money – enough to invest in new machinery for instance – when it comes to management and employee development fail to materialise. We have had LMAS – but what else, especially in relation to REALLY helping individuals and companies take advantage of employee engagement after the MacLeod Report?

And whatever happened to the MacLeod Report and its successor initiative?

Believe me, this is not meant to appear as a negative slant in order to sell newspapers [or in this case the Discuss HR blog]. What I am trying to highlight is that we are still a long way away as an HR / Learning & Development business sector from giving individuals and companies the clear benefits of continuous improvement and development. The default for managers it seems is always knowledge and skills training at most and yet the biggest impact for individuals and business is when attitudes, and behaviours in particular, are impacted. And individuals recognise that this is a worthy part of their development and it has to be personal.

This leads me to another opinion – that management as a profession is still seen as a poor cousin. If you possess an accounting background, sales history or engineering skills, this still – yes, even engineering – puts you ahead of the good people manager or the manager who can run projects or administration effectively and efficiently. They are simply not seen as important – at best, inter-changeable - and a great deal of this in my view stems from the apologetic nature of HR / L&D, rather than championing the skills and showing the ‘benefits not the features’ [to steal from Sales] of professionalization of management.

What then is the future? There is a great deal of hope, believe me, but only if we change our tune as an industry. Look at the success of work-placed learning; look at the movement towards two year degrees in higher education; seek out those who do not follow ‘The Apprentice’ school of management and see how they have improved both personal development and the status of management. In reality too, look at Ricardo Semler and SemCo. A beacon of work-placed democracy, but learn from his experiment and the way that his staff developed. Google him as part of your own CPD.

All of which can lead to the principle that capitalism was invented for: profits. You see, development and professional management can bring rewards for all – now go and spread the message.

About the author

John helps organisations, especially in the SME sector, achieve competitive advantage.  He has a particular interest in translating strategic HR management into practice.  Typically, this has meant focusing his efforts on recruitment and selection, performance management and training and development activities.  John sees the challenge of matching the development of internal competencies with the externally driven demands of the market place as one of the key themes in developing organisational engagement, capability and performance.
Email | LinkedIn | Website

*****

Discuss HR is the blog for Human Resources UK, the leading LinkedIn group for those involved with HR in the UK.  Next week’s Discuss HR will be written by Performance Consultant Una Doyle.

Any source