5 Concepts of Principles and Practices of Human Resource Development to Improve

[Nipa Sarker]

Here are five basic concepts that are required to improve performance for individuals and organizations to look for when hiring a Learning Agents or Performance Improvement Consultants. Here are five basic concepts that needs to be discussed thoroughly.

Needs Assessments
Instructional Design
Evaluation
Theoretician
Performance Engineers
Concept #1 –Needs Assessment- Constructing questionnaires to determine learning needs, identifying needs through interviews, focus groups, and formal discussions, and conducting analyses of job requirements should occur prior to designing learning activities, (pg-167).

In order to know there is a problem; one would have to do an initial assessment of the actual performance versus the desired performance. The job of the Learning Agent is to assess the situation before any action can take place. How do we know if there is a problem without doing an initial assessment? The assessment lets the Learning Agent ask questions of the desired performance and finds out what barriers are keeping the desired performance from the organization. A good Learning Agent has to discover and then implement based on their findings, then the Agent will be able to measure before implementation and afterwards; this will ensure the learning activities can produce future value for the desired job performance.

Concept #2- Instructional Design – A third activity by learning agents is that of program design and development. This multistep process fosters the creation of learning activities that increase knowledge, skills, and competencies, and improve behavior. The desired outcome is improved employee performance resulting in improved organizational performance, (pg169).

Designing a program is a role of learning agents, after their needs assessments then they have the information to make informed decisions based on the needs of the organization. Designing is establishing learning objectives; creating programs that satisfy specific needs all the way deciding whether to use an existing program, or to purchase an external one, or create a new one to satisfy the needs of the organization to identifying equipment and supplies required for programs and activities. Moving on to the development process includes; evaluating alternative instructional methods; developing training materials to developing self-assessment tools and preparing scripts for films and videotapes. Designing a program is essential for improved organizational performance to increase and improve the desired goals and improved performance of employees for the good of the organization.

Concept #3- Evaluation – Final activity learning agents perform is evaluation, both program and learner. The ultimate purpose of evaluation is to determine the impact that a particular learning activity has on the learner as well as on the organization, (pg-170).

Evaluation begins from day one from giving a pretest to the learner to assess their current knowledge to determine where to begin the process of learning. After the initial evaluation the next step is on to the activities that will produce the learned and desired material. The evaluator is measuring learning along the way which the final step is the post test. The post evaluation is where the measurement of the impact of the learning program.

Concept #4- Theoretician – Refers to the development of models and theories related to the learning and development process. Instructional designers are often asked to conceptualize a "better way" to perform a particular job, (pg-174)

Theory is the basis of all models which we learn from and a Theoretician is a person that is very skilled in the theories related to learning and development process. Since the Theoretician is so skilled they have a futuristic outlook on procedures and have a quick mindset of desired outcomes. Advance knowledge of Adult Learners and how the Theoretician looks at challenges and problems from points of view that many would see as coming from left field. This role first identifies problems and then is committed to bringing about the desired improvement for the organization.

Concept #5- Performance Engineering – Gilbert first introduced the idea of performance engineering when he put forth his perspective of human competence. He originally referred to performance engineering as human performance technology, (pg134).

Performance is the link between the organizational mission, strategy, culture, and policy. So the goal of the organization is to mend the culture and mission together to come to the desired outcome, and the mission is where performance engineering begins.

We first have to know what performance is desired and then engineer a system that we can coach and train to, in order to be effective in accomplishing the mission of the organization. Once we have found the desired performance we then can implement and measure the success of the training system. The main goal is to improve organization performance.

My personal mission is to add positive value to the lives of others, families, communities and organization through coaching, training and development.

I look forward to bringing your vision into focus through proper analysis to design a custom performance improvement plan. Followed by development and implementation that is custom fit to your strengths and weaknesses. I will continue to be your Training Coach and Partner, with ongoing service through evaluating performance metrics.

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