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Question: Discuss About The Strategic Human Capital Business Management? Answer: Introduction Human resource management is an approach that helps business organisation in proper management of their workforce using practices, such as performance management, training and development, career development, recruitment and selection, etc. Human resource management is an approach that aims at improving the performance of the workforce by fostering better employee-employer relations and improving the work environment and conditions for the employees[1]. The concept of human resource management has greatly evolved since the industrial revolution and the importance of managing human resources effectively has increased exponentially in the past few decades because of the business environment becoming more competitive and complex. Training and development Training and development is a process that allows business organisations to enhance organisational learning by designing and implementing learning programs that can help employees in learning new skills and technicalities. Training and development is one of the most important core functions in the management of human resources and is considered to be really important from an organisational point of view[2]. In the modern day business world of global competition, business organisations are facing tough competition and market changes that are occurring in real time. In order to cope up with the changing market trends and to remain competitive, it has become important for business organisations to continuously design and implement training and development programs so that the workforce can remain competitive and can perform better by learning new skills and competencies. Company Background and problem analysis ABC Group of Institutes is an Indian company that has been offering education to the children since 1989. The institute was started by a school teacher and was aimed at educating the children during their holidays for certain subjects that were not a part of their school syllabus. The institute received a great response throughout the country and today, the company has almost 58 institutes in different cities of the country, where expert provide education to the students in different fields, such as computers, music, dance, yoga, and many other hobbies. The ABC Group of Institute, today, has an approximately workforce of 2,300 employees who educate over 48,500 students every year in a variety of subjects and hobbies. The institute has been performing very well but has failed to incorporate the changing technology in its business operations with the lapse of time. ABC Group of Institutes is still using manual practices to carry out and manage most of its business operations, such as record keeping of students and of teachers, time table for students and teachers, financial statements, etc. The inability of the institute to incorporate latest technological trends in the management of its business operations is making its lose its competitive edge in the market. Therefore, the management has decided to acquire and implement an ERP business suite, also known as an Enterprise Resource Planning software, that will be specially designed to tailor to the needs of the institute and will help the management in carrying out the operations of the institute in a more effective manner. To increase the effectiveness of the change, the management of the institute has also discovered that there is an urgent need to design and implement a training and development program that will help in increasing the knowledge of the employees in the field of ERP business suite and technology so that they can perform business operations with a greater efficiency. Training Need Analysis Training need analysis is an approach that is aimed at analysing the training needs of a workforce so that appropriate training and development programs can be implemented to help the workforce in achieving the skills that they lack. Analysing the right training needs of the employees is highly important for business organisations because a failure to analyse the right training needs can lead to designing and implementation of a training program that can be targeted at imparting the wrong skill set and cause high wastage of resources and time[3]. The management of the institute has taken some serious steps that have been helpful in analysing the right training needs of the employees that are working in the institute. The training need of the employees have been identified using the following strategies: First of all, the company had implemented a new performance management system throughout the nation in the last 18 months, which was aimed at measuring the performance of the teachers as well as of the managers in carrying out their job roles and responsibilities. The management incorporated some important key performance indicators in the performance management program, such as number of errors in records, time taken for record keeping, clarity of records, ease of information availability, etc. The management accessed the performance of the employees on a regular basis and was able to identify a major area of weakness i.e. the manual work operations of the institute. The management found that the way in which the institute was managing its student records, human resources, finances, etc. was not efficient enough and the employees required to undergo a training program that would assist them in gaining information on how to use technology to manage work operations [4]. A major advantage of using performance management as a tool for analysing the training needs it that it gives accurate and reliable results. By analysing the performance of individuals, departments and of an organisational on the whole, it becomes easier for human resource managers to analyse the gaps in actual performance and expected performance and identify the skills that are missing in the workforce. In short, analysing the training needs through a performance management system always helps in analysing the right training needs and avoiding errors in the assessment process. Secondly, the institute also took an initiative to design and implement regular employee surveys where the management as well as the teachers were required to fill in anonymous questionnaires that contained important questions related to the work operations and employees job satisfaction. The management also added certain questions in the questionnaire that were aimed at gaining information about the training needs the employees. Some questions included in the survey were: Do you think that the workforce is efficient in its work? Do you think you have the all those competencies that are required to fulfil your job duties and responsibilities? Do you think that there are certain skills which the workforce lacks and can perform better if those skills are learned by them? From the employee feedback survey, it was identified that the employees lacked skills and competencies in the field of technology and could perform better if they knew how to use information systems to carry out the work operations of the institute [5]. An advantage of using anonymous employee survey to identify the training needs of the workforce is that the results of the technique are highly accurate. For identifying the training needs, no other source can be as effective and reliable as the employees themselves. Further, the fact that the surveys or the questionnaires are anonymous also increases the effectiveness of the process because it acts as a platform for the employees to freely share their feelings, without having a fear of offending the management or a senior. Thirdly, the senior level executives of the institute group also conducted a meeting where all the departmental heads were called upon to participate. The main motive behind the meeting was to have a discussion on the training needs of the employees. In the meeting, all the departmental heads were asked to share information about their respective departments and recommend specific training programs if they felt that the workforce working under them lacked certain skills and competencies. The meeting was conducted after analysing the results of the new performance management system and of the employee survey feedbacks, so that the results could be compared with what the departmental heads had to say about their departments. The viewpoints and the information shared by the departmental heads proved to be important in validating the information that was obtained in the previous steps. Using the above techniques, it was identified that the management needs to design and implement training programs that will help the employees in increasing their knowledge about information systems, ERP business suites and other basic softwares, such as MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, that will help them in carrying out their job duties more effectively. Design implementation ABC Groups of Institutes, after having analysed the training needs of the employees and of the workplace, has signed a contract with XYZ Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd., which is a company that develops Enterprise Resource Planning softwares. XYZ Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd. is a market leader in software development and has been developing ERP business suites for a number of multinational companies. ABC Groups of Institutes has entered into a contract with XYZ Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd. under which XYZ will: Develop an Enterprise Resource Planning software to cater to the need of the institutes. The software will perform multiple functions, such as human resource management, record keeping, financial management, etc. Provide the required infrastructure to the company that will be required to operate the ERP business suites Provide training and development to the employees so that they can use the new ERP software to carry out the business activities and operations of the institute Provide training and development to the employees that will help in increasing their knowledge and skills related with information systems and softwares like MS Word, MS Excel and MS PowerPoint. The company has agreed to pay a sum of $300,000 to the company for the entire program. It will be the responsibility of XYZ Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd. to arrange all the material that will be required to train and develop the employees so that they can meet the skill gaps that have been identified the management. The program will be last for 2 months and the company will also pay regular visits to the institutes afterwards so that it can solve employee doubts if there are any. A complete design of the training program is given below: The training program designed for the employees of ABC Groups of Institutes will be an on-the-job training program which will be conducted by professional trainers that will come from XYZ Softwares Solutions Pvt. Ltd[6]. The software developing company will send an expert developer to each of the institutes where a workshop of one hour will be conducted every day. The training session will take place after the working hours and for attending the training sessions, the employees will be offered a compensation of $200/month and will be considered as an overtime benefit for the workforce. The training session will involve practical classes as well as theoretical classes but will commence only once the company would have acquired the software and the infrastructure to run it. The employees will be given practical problems to solve and will also have to work as teams to solve certain team oriented problems. By forming teams during the training program and providing the employees with team based tasks will also help the organisation in fostering a team oriented environment in the workplace. On every weekend, there will be an extra class where a test will be conducted to analyse the progress that the employees have made in the entire week and also to check the effectiveness of the training methods and modules. To maximise the effectiveness of training modules and to foster a positive attitude amongst the employees, the management has decided that it will offer rewards and recognition to those employees who will be star performers in the tests that will be taken at the end of the training program. Thecompany understands that a training program is not enough in educating the employees and they can maximise their learning only when they deal with real life problems. While dealing with practical problems, the employees might experience certain issues. To help them in maximising their learning and overcoming such issues, the management of the institute has decided that the professional trainers from XYZ Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd. will visit the workplace once in every 15 days so that the employees can get their doubts cleared. The professionals will also offer on call assistance to the employees and will also include a help section in the software itself so that the employees can find answers to some of their basic software related queries. Validation Evaluation Training and development programs can prove to be very costly and time consuming from a business point of view. Business organisations invest millions of dollars in training and developing their employees and also have to deal with the loss in productivity that can sometimes result because of absence of employees due to the training programs. There are a lot of resources at stake when a company implements a training and development program and it is important for the companies to evaluate the training programs so that they can calculate the return that they are getting on the investment that they have made. The evaluation plan that ABC Group of Institutes is most likely going to use for evaluating its training and development program is discussed below: Kirkpatrick's four-level training evaluation model To analyse the effectiveness of the training program, the management of the institute has decided to use the training evaluation model proposed by Kirkpatrick. Donald Kirkpatrick was a Professor at the University of Wisconsin who proposed a four-level training evaluation model in 1959. The four levels in the model are reaction, learning, behaviour and results. In the first level, the management will aim at evaluating the training program by measuring the reaction that the employees show towards the training program. It is important for the employees to feel positive about the training program and consider it as a valuable experience. The employees should also feel good about the teachers, the topic or the skills being taught, etc., which can be easily judged from their reactions. By assessing the reactions of the employees, the management will be able to understand how well the training was received by them and making improvements in the training program for the future trainees[7]. In the next level i.e. learning, the management will evaluate the effectiveness of the training program on the basis of what they have learned in the program. In this level of evaluation, the basic aim of the management will be to evaluate the training program by analysing the increase in knowledge or skills that the employees have been able to achieve as a result of the training program. To measure the increase in employee knowledge and skills, the management will compare the skills achieved with the training objectives that were formulated prior to the commencement of the training program. Analysing the skills that the employees have been able to learn will allow the company to design better and more effective training programs in the future[8]. In the third level of training and development assessment, the management will aim at analysing the extent to which the employees will be able to bring about a change in their behaviour as a result of the training that they would have received. Assessing the change in employee behaviour is one of the most important techniques of training evaluation as it allows the company to know whether the employees have been able to transfer what they have learnt in the training program to their jobs or not. It is not always necessary that the failure of the employees to demonstrate a change in their behaviour is because they have not learned anything during the training program. Sometimes, it is also possible that the conditions in the workplace are not favourable for the employees to transfer their learnings to the workplace. In such situations, analysing the behaviour of the employees will also help in identifying those workplace conditions that are hindering the ability of the employees to tr ansfer their training to their jobs[9] In the last level of evaluating the training program, the company will try to determine the tangible results of the program, such as reduced costs, improved quality, efficiency, increase productivity, greater employee retention, increased sales, employee motivation, higher employee morale etc. Though it might not be easy for the company to associate the right benchmarks with the training program but analysing the results will prove to be one of the best ways to determine the return on investment of the training expenditures that the company will incur[10]. Along with the Kirkpatricks four level training evaluation method, the management at ABC Group of Institutes will also use its performance management system to analyse the effectiveness of the training program. As the company already has a performance management system in place, it will become easier for the company to evaluate the training program by comparing the performance levels shown by the employees before and after the training program[11]. Results To measure the effectiveness of the training program accurately, it is important for business organisations to formulate the right training objectives, which are related with the skills or competencies that will be taught in the training program. To measure the results of the training program, the performance indicators decided by the management of the ABC Group of Institute are listed below: Quality of information stores Ease with information can be accesses Accuracy of stored information Time required to store, access and analyse information Errors in record keeping Employee morale Employee efficiency in using information systems and business management softwares Employee engagement Team work By measuring the changes in the above key performance indicators, it would become easier for the management to evaluate the effectiveness of the training program. Action plan if training targets are not met Training and development programs, irrespective of how well planned or expensive they are, can sometimes fail to achieve the desired objectives and can result into wastage of resources and time of the workforce. In extreme cases, business organisations might have to deal with loss in productivity that is caused because of absence of workforce when they are away for training[12]. Failure of training programs will not just waste resources and time but can also throw a company out of market competition/ Therefore, it is important for business organisations to have contingency plans that can help them in dealing with difficult situations that might arise due to the failure of training programs in achieving the desired objectives. ABC Groups of Institute understands the important of evaluating its training programs and being ready with contingency plans in case its discovered that the training programs have failed in meeting the training objectives. The management of the institute has already prepared a contingency plan under which, the company designing and providing the ERP business suite for the institute group will have to ensure proper operation of the infrastructure and of the software for a period of two years after the completion of the training program. The software company will also assist the management of the institute in deciding the performance indicators so that they can assess the right training results and if the trainees fail to meet the training objectives formulated by both the companies, the company will offer a new training program to the employees at no additional cost. The new training program will then be an off the job training program where the workforce will be trained on Sundays. The training sessions will last for 5 hours a day and the employees will be trained using various methods, such as case studies, role play, in-basket methods, lectures and simulation exercises[13]. Conclusion ABC Groups of Institutes is one of the top educational companies in the country and have been preforming exceptionally well. The changing technology and market trends are making the institute lose some of its competencies to the rival firms, which is creating an urgency for the company to implement training and development programs that will help its employees in gaining knowledge about information systems and software so that they can perform better. The training program designed by the company is highly effective. The company has prepared effective strategies that will not only help it in analysing the effectiveness of the training program but will also help the company in dealing with a situation if the training program fails to meet the training objectives formulated by the management. Thus, the company should implement its training and development program as soon as possible so that the employees can learn the skills that they lack and can perform their job duties and responsibilities more effectively References Hendry, C., 2012. Human Resource Management. s.l.:Routledge. Jehanzeb, K. Bashir, D. N. A., 2013. Training and Development Program and its Benefits to Employee and Organization: A Conceptual Study. European Journal of Business and Management, 5(2). hr-survey.com, n.d. Training Needs Assessment Survey. [Online] Available at: https://www.hr-survey.com/TrainingNeeds.htm [Accessed 14 May 2017]. Barbazette, J., 2006. Training Needs Assessment: Methods, Tools, and Techniques. s.l.:John Wiley Sons. Kumar, A., 2016. Methods for Conducting Training Need Analysis Part 5. [Online] Available at: https://blog.commlabindia.com/elearning-design/training-need-analysis-part5 [Accessed 13 May 2017]. Agarwal, N., Pande, N. Ahuja, V., 2014. Expanding the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Model-Towards more Efficient Training in the IT Sector. International Journal of Human Capital and Information Technology Professionals, 5(4). The MT Team, n.d. Kirkpatrick's Four-Level Training Evaluation Model. [Online] Available at: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/kirkpatrick.htm [Accessed 14 May 2017]. Kirkpatrick, D. L., Kirkpatrick, J. D. Kirkpatrick, W. K., n.d. Four Levels of Evaluation. [Online] Available at: https://www.trainingindustry.com/wiki/entries/four-levels-of-evaluation.aspx [Accessed 14 May 2017]. Saez, A., n.d. Training and Performance Evaluation. [Online] Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/training-performance-evaluation-50046.html [Accessed 14 May 2017]. Explorance, 2013. 5 Steps to Creating Effective Training Programs. [Online] Available at: https://explorance.com/2013/11/5-steps-to-creating-effective-training-programs/ [Accessed 14 May 2017]. Phillips, J. J. Phillips, P. P., 2016. 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