Introduction
Ensuring the sustainable and productive work of the HR department in the organization is an important and responsible task that directly affects the quality of executive activities and employee productivity. HR specialists are involved in a number of important operational procedures and tasks, for instance, recruiting, load balancing, and other processes. In this regard, this is critical for these employees to have a wide range of professional skills and abilities to operate the available human resources skillfully and ensure the sustainable work of all departments.
In today’s dynamic markets and competitive struggle, new approaches to strategic development and management practices are emerging regularly due to continuous technological progress and digital innovations in business. As a result, those HR specialists who do not have access to appropriate resources or do not know how to use them in their practice lag behind their colleagues in terms of engagement and productivity. Therefore, there is a need to implement a continuous training program in the HR department so that the employees of this unit could have access to relevant operational resources and development strategies. The value of this course lies in an opportunity to optimize the work of the HR department in the company and increase their professionalism in a number of operational aspects.
Main Activities to Perform
Any optimization process within an organization requires creating a detailed plan or framework for change and a new regime. Omarova (2019) gives an example of initiatives to introduce fintech developments in modern businesses and notes that this advancement affects not only the financial aspects of activities but also a wider context due to the involvement of various stakeholders and their competencies. Regarding the planned continuous education program for HR specialists in the company, despite the targeted work to interact with these employees, the availability of a number of resources is to be taken into account as a factor in determining the schedule, work volumes, and other operational nuances. Therefore, planning, including the assessment of the current conditions and the expected objectives to achieve, is an integral factor in the successful implementation of this initiative.
To determine the main steps to be taken to establish the planned program, this is important to take into account the needs of this work. According to Nicea et al. (2017), continuous education influences not only work efficiency but also the range of goals that employees can cover in the case of acquiring and training relevant competencies. Therefore, as a framework for intervention, step-by-step activities need to be organized to build a stable work algorithm, including not only preparatory but also assessment procedures.
The main activities to perform so that to introduce and maintain an ongoing education program for HR specialists are as follows:
Identifying a list of potential program participants with the need to strengthen qualification skills and acquire new experience of interacting with colleagues.
- Establishing a stable algorithm for working on a specific schedule.
- Attracting the necessary resource base that should include both teaching materials for participants and practical tools and applications to hone skills and simulate different situations.
- Interacting with mentors and coaches from other companies to build the curriculum and identify potential weaknesses and strengths of the program participants.
- Implementing assessment tools to monitor the effectiveness of the program and its acceptance by the program participants.
- Developing a reporting system to transfer the results of the educational process to senior management to monitor the success of the program.
This framework should not be followed in stages because most of the procedures can be performed in parallel, with the exception of performance evaluation and reporting steps. At the same time, as He and Shen (2019) argue, following pre-planned strategies allows allocating resources rationally by involving only those tools that are practical and not using all possible instruments and spending money on testing them. Thus, the presented stages of the continuous education program for the HR department are the core of the planned project, which, nevertheless, can be modified and supplemented as the work progresses, depending on the needs and success of the participants involved.
Applications to Involve for the Program Development
Preparing the necessary resource base is an essential aspect of the planned program in the organization. Due to modern capabilities and wide functionality used for both educational and assessment activities, some applications are valuable tools to implement. Despite the fact that the planned educational course deals with the internal aspects of the company’s work and does not affect its external features, investing in a resource base is an important aspect. Herath et al. (2017) emphasize that the more productive and safer the corresponding development materials are, the lower are the risks of inadequate asset management. Therefore, the preparation of tools for building the learning process requires assessing and implementing effective instruments.
One of the useful and effective applications for the planned education program is the AI algorithm that combines the possibilities of adaptation to specific learning conditions and assessment of the results of work based on the given parameters. According to Ahmed (2018), “AI systems in HR get smarter, more proven, and more focused on specific problems” (p. 976). These tools make it possible to create a flexible learning process in which there is no need to focus on rigid frameworks, and varied approaches to evaluating the performance and success of participants can be applied. For instance, by analyzing the progress of a specific HR specialist, such a program can predict the degree of assimilation of the materials studied, identify problematic aspects in training, and suggest relevant ways to address knowledge gaps. In addition, many AI algorithms are easy to operate and do not require special skills in managing complex computer programs, which makes them easy to utilize. Thus, such applications can speed up the learning process and be involved in its different stages.
Another type of application to implement within the framework of the education program under consideration is a digital decision-making algorithm. As Herath et al. (2017) note, such instruments help obtain objective data on the use of specific methodologies in practical work and build knowledge about the principles of managing available resources. HR specialists of the organization can model various projects and determine their sustainability and efficiency based on the calculations of digital tools. This training regime is a convenient practice that trains employees’ responsibility and reinforces their planning knowledge.
As additional applications to utilize, common instant messengers and social media can be useful. Mentors and coaches can interact with the target program participants outside of class time and provide guidance and advice as needed. The interaction among employees can also be improved through the use of a unified communication system. As a result, in Table 1, the main applications to utilize are presented, as well as their basic features.
Table 1. Applications for the Education Program
Justification of the Program
The relevance of the proposed continuous education program for employees of the HR department is due to constantly changing trends in personnel management and the high activity of the labor market. Specialists in this area should have a broad knowledge of the existing methods of interacting with colleagues, conducting adequate recruiting policies, and other tasks the organization cannot ignore to function stably. Guliyeva et al. (2020) state that an appropriate educational environment is a valuable platform and basis for the development of the potential of HR specialists. Omarova (2019) remarks that special digital tools used as auxiliary instruments simplify any procedures and create convenient mechanisms for the successful transfer of knowledge. Within the framework of the considered model, the aforementioned digital applications and tools correspond to these objectives and allow focusing on the quality of an ongoing learning process. Therefore, such a program carries significance as a knowledge-sharing algorithm.
The stimulation of continuous training of HR specialists is justified due to the close interaction of these employees with the staff, which, in turn, makes it possible to convey specific goals and objectives of organizational development more effectively. According to Paleti Narendar and Mishra (2021), obtaining feedback from colleagues is a crucial aspect of a sustainable workflow in which each participant understands one’s value and can explain specific performance outcomes. Despite the existing educational background, the involvement of HR specialists in an additional experience accumulation program is aimed not only at improving individual professional skills but also at the ability to work in a team. By gathering data from the team through the application of actionable approaches and practices learned during training sessions, HR staff gains valuable insights into the current gaps in organizational culture, thereby gaining a chance to reorganize specific aspects of the work process successfully. As a result, the introduction of such a program is associated with a specific need to obtain objective information about the peculiarities of the company’s work from an employee perspective.
To justify the implementation of the proposed program in the organization, a comparison of the performance indicators will need to be conducted. Through the use of specific assessment tools, productivity results should be compared before and after engaging appropriate materials and mentors. In case real shifts are observed, and the HR specialists themselves report an increased efficiency of work, the education project will prove its effectiveness and relevance to the company. In addition, a positive outcome will be associated with improved organizational behavior, and not only HR employees will benefit from such an initiative but also their colleagues from other departments. Thus, the rationale for implementing a continuous education program can be identified in objective ways.
Benefits of Implementing a Continuous Education Program
One of the valuable implications of introducing a continuous education program for HR specialists into the workflow is motivation. As Akhmetshin et al. (2018) state, there is a tendency of “an independent “cultivation” of highly professional personnel, which involves the development of the companies’ own training base and the institute of mentoring” (p. 358). This means that many managers implement such programs in an effort to improve employees’ qualifications, expand the range of their competencies, and create conditions for continuous professional growth to ensure high performance and, at the same time, subordinates’ trust. This principle of enhancing organizational behavior is a potentially powerful approach that reflects the interest of business owners in providing conditions for withstanding competition and attracting a skilled workforce. Therefore, such an initiative has value as a practice to improve productivity and allocate the current resource base efficiently.
Another advantage of developing the educational program under consideration is an opportunity to expand the range of operational activities of the organization. For instance, De Stefano et al. (2017) mention corporate social responsibility as one of the types of organizational activities that can increase the reputation of companies in the market and create a positive image. The researchers argue in favor of this practice and note that for its successful implementation, raising the level of HR specialists’ education is a crucial objective (De Stefano et al., 2017). Employees of this profile have knowledge of how to distribute workload and adjust the current workflow in accordance with the capabilities of human resources, but in relation to interaction with external partners, this knowledge may be insufficient. Thus, continuing education is the key to the successful implementation of various development strategies and methods for accumulating profit, including both traditional approaches and modern solutions.
The prospect of stimulating the active analytical work of HR employees is an important advantage that explains the value of implementing the program. According to van der Togt and Rasmussen (2017), education optimizes the decision-making process by exploring different approaches to human resource management to use them efficiently. Organizational behavior is not static, and this concept is associated with constant interventions aimed at changing certain aspects of operations and interaction with personnel. Continuous education, in which HR professionals can be involved, is an incentive to learn a wide range of methods and practices that open up effective and cost-effective approaches to interacting with colleagues. In case of a limited budget, the lack of staff, or other constraints, the organization can count on the constructive work of the HR department, whose specialists can analyze the current business environment and apply the most effective tools of influence. Therefore, this program is a potential incentive to bring new strategies into the activities of HR specialists and train them in different concepts of interaction with human resources, which corresponds to the modern principles of flexible management.
Conclusion
A significant advantage of the proposed continuous education program for HR specialists is an opportunity to expand the professional potential of this department’s employees, thereby increasing business capabilities and establishing a stable and productive mode of interaction with personnel. This project includes several important activities to implement, in particular, collecting the necessary materials, engaging mentors and coaches, identifying tools for assessing training, and some other stages. A variety of resources can be mobilized for this work, and the emphasis is on digital tools as advanced analytical instruments. The rationale for implementing such a program is driven by its high-performance prospects, and a range of its benefits for establishing a dynamic work environment proves the value of such a project.
References
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