HRD3702 - Exam
Notes & Exam
Summary
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STRATEGIC BUSINESS PLANNING
Strategic business planning involves a plan that indicates how an organisation will compete in
order to be successful
A plan that should indicate where the organisation is going over the medium to long term &
what needs to be done to be successful
It requires consideration of the organisation’s present strengths & weaknesses & future threats
& opportunities
SBP is usually top management’s chief concern & the highest priority of senior managers in the
organisation
The steps in strategic business planning
Strategic Human Resources Development is geared to the strategic business plan & to help
implement the HR strategy by improving knowledge & skills of employees of the organisation &/or
knowledge & efficiency levels of interest groups outside the organisation
HRD strategy is defined as the pattern of planned & unfolding activities that focuses
development capabilities to achieve current & future strategic objectives
HRD is seen as planned & unfolding & HRD makes the achievement of business strategy possible
HRD strategy development capabilities that are needed to deliver on current & future business
strategies
Strategic business planning is a cyclical process consisting of various phases:
1 Clarify the purpose – what is the purpose of the organisation & what should it be?
2 Select goals & objectives – what is the organisation trying to achieve?
3 Identify present strengths & weaknesses – what is the organisation doing well & what is it not
doing well?
4 Analyse future threats & opportunities – what opportunities or threats will there be in the
future?
5 Compare present S&W with future T&O – how can the organisation take advantage of future O
& avert future T posed by the external environment considering its present internal S&W?
6 Decide on a long-term strategy – what should the long strategy be in order to take full
advantage of O & aver the Ts posed by the environment?
7 Implement strategy – what changes need to be made so that the chosen strategy can be
pursued with the greatest chance of success?
8 Evaluate strategy – how well do decision makers think the strategy will work & how well is it
working?
A strategic plan is a proactive attempt to anticipate & select the best opportunities in a corporate
environment, thereby making the best business decision & resulting in success for the enterprise
Managers or directors make these decisions or choices, decide on the strategy that they will
implement after determining the outcomes & goals & drawing up the necessary policy
Strategic Training and Development
The process of changing an organisation, stakeholders outside it, groups inside it and people
employed by it, through planned learning so that they possess the knowledge and skills needed for
the future.
Key assumptions of SHRD
1. There should be an overall purpose statement for the organisation and the HRD effort should
be related to it
2. Every major plan of the organisation should be weighed in terms of human skills available to
implement it and alternative ways of obtaining those skills
3. People at all levels in the organisation’s chain of command should share responsibility and
accountability for HRD
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4. There should be a formal, systematic and holistic planning process for the organisation, HR
department and HRD.
Study Unit 2
A model for SHRD
1 The purpose of the HRD effort
The purpose statement must relate to the organisation’s purpose or mission as reflected in the
strategic business plan
A purpose statement that is based on these guidelines clarifies what HRD is supposed to do, & why
It makes explicit how HRD contributes to the organisation’s purpose & helps to guide operations
keeping HRD practitioners & other operating manager on track
Question that could clarify the purpose of the HRD effort & assist in determining priorities:
What purpose does HRD seek to attain inside/outside the organisation
What part of this purpose is the responsibility of the HRD department, supervisors, learners
What is known about learners, how can they be classified, how can this classification scheme
be used in planning instructions
How are HRD activities currently benefiting the organisation, how should they benefit the
organisation
How are HRD activities currently meeting learner needs, how should they meet learner needs
in the future
What is the organisation’s present philosophy about HRD, what should that philosophy be in
the future
Without a purpose, HRD practitioners may embark upon & successfully complete projects but may
never know how they are contributing to organisational goals or improving job performance
It is important that HRD practitioners clarify the purpose of the HRD effort in the organisation &
ensure it’s aligned with the broad business strategies
Examples of purpose statement for HRD:
To provide training & development programmes that will improve productivity & support the
strategic vision of the enterprise
To anticipate changing conditions & provide training & development programmes to help
employees cope with change
To establish a series of programmes & courses that management can access to ensure that
employees can do their jobs
2 Needs assessment
The starting point for planning all organized learning evens in an organisation is a comprehensive
needs assessment defined as a broad systematic examination of conditions conducted for purpose
of identifying general differences between what people should know/do & what they actually
know/do
The gap/training need could be viewed as a weakness but he assessment should identify talents,
competencies & skills – strengths – emphasizing what is done satisfactorily & unsatisfactorily
To execute a proper assessment of strengths & weaknesses:
Identify learners & prospective learners & determine their location, contact number,
motivation level, ability to learn& what the most appropriate learning period would be
Classify learners into broad market segments
Compare actual to desired knowledge & skills for each learner market segment
Identify present learning needs for each market & learner market segment – W are identified
when employees don’t possess skills they should have
A well trained core of employees represents a strength
Changes in the external environment create unique T&O for any organisation
Levels at which training needs are experienced:
Macrolevel – needs found both nationally & internationally
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Mesolevel – needs experience at organisational level (focus is on enterprise as a whole)
Microlevel – needs experiences at operation level by one person or small group (emphasises
content of incumbents work & employee performance)
Training needs assessment determines the gap between what an employee should be able to do &
what they can actually do, or are currently doing
SHRD is an aid to implementing HRD & strategic business plans & the process through which an
enterprise is changed
This change is brought about by planned learning & by assessing the present conditions
Both these actions should be related to & supported by the enterprise’s mission statement
3 Environmental scanning
Environmental scanning is described as a structured examination of future external environment
A systematic procedure for monitoring the world that sustains the organisation to identify O & T
Steps followed to execute environmental scanning:
Classify external environment into sectors
Decide on a time horizon appropriate for the scanning efforts
Examine environment sectors for expected changes over the chosen time horizon
Try to infer the effects of environmental changes on the general public, external stakeholders,
departments/work groups in the organisation, individual & job requirements
Identify future learning needs of the general public, external stakeholders, department/work
groups, individual & job requirements
Reassess learning needs by market segment from a future orientation
Results of environmental scanning should address two major questions:
What major threats & opportunities will probably be posed by environmental changes that affect
the firm’s dealings with the general public & key external stakeholders, the organisation as a whole,
each work group, the career objectives of individuals & job performance or job requirements?
What should the future status of the corporation be relative to the general public & key external
stakeholders, the organisation as a whole, each work group, individuals as they progress towards
the realisation of career objectives & job performance or job requirements
Macro factors affecting training & education in South Africa:
Population growth – organisation should develop training programmes that focus on adult
learner & create a culture of lifelong learning so older workers can adapt to changing external
influences; training efforts will have to focus on black population to give effect to employment
equity legislation without neglecting other population groups; training programmes to
manage diverse workforces needs to focus on literacy, numeracy, conflict handling,
supervisory training & management & training of scarce skills; factors affecting population
numbers are emigration, ageing White & Asian population, impact of urbanization on fertility
& lifestyle/health preferences, HIV/Aids & number of immigrants to SA
Low levels of education – a threat as in SA approximately 27% of country’s economically
active population is illiterate; despite literacy programmes run by private sector &
government departments, literacy levels in SA remain low; low levels of education are as a
result of education & training policies in the past; illiterate, unskilled & semiskilled people are
mostly black as a direct result of Bantu education; many people enter the job market without
necessary education background; organisations have to assist them to further their education
through adult basic education & other forms of continuous education which becomes costly
Unemployment – high unemployment levels in SA re related to high population growth, low
economic growth, a declining number of production processes that require labour;
department of labour will contribute towards employment creation by striving to ensure its
labour market policies & strategies complement national growth & development objectives,
develop implement, monitor & evaluate new labour market regulations in relation to new job
creation strategies; unemployment can be improved by creating more job opportunities,
providing people with more opportunities to create jobs for themselves, encouraging foreign
capital investment, present education & training to encourage self-employment
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