Human Resource Development (HRD) is one of the most noteworthy opportunities that employees look for when they are anticipating taking a new position. The program is also known to progress the company’s productivity and effectiveness while increasing employee satisfaction. It is simply defined as the integrated use of training, organisation, and career development efforts to improve individual, group, and organisational effectiveness. Experts say HRD is viewed as critical for higher productivity, profitability and better relations. It increases trust and respect, improves team spirit and overall growth of employees, and prepares organisations with greater effectiveness and a culture of efficiency, not to forget improved employee participation. According to Aimable Nkuranga, a personal finance coach in Kigali, human resource development has a variety of benefits as some of these are; it allows employees feel that their company is invested in them, which in turn creates a more trustworthy workforce. But also, it makes them more tolerant of change when equipped with new skills, information and practices. He carries on that HRD is the framework for helping employees develop their personal and organisational skills, knowledge, and abilities. “Human resource development includes such opportunities as employee training, employee career development, performance management and development, coaching, mentoring, succession planning, key employee identification, tuition assistance, and organisation development,” he says. Nkuranga stresses that this can be formal such as in-classroom training, a college course, or an organisational planned change effort. It can also be informal as employee coaching by a manager. He adds that ‘healthy’ organisations believe in this form of development and cover all of these bases. The personal finance coach points out that the main benefit of HRD is the improvement of the growth of the employees. It develops new knowledge, skills and attitude and makes employees more competent. Employees become more committed to their job, find themselves better equipped with problem-solving capabilities, and participate more in the organisation. He also states that more competent employees generate more satisfaction from clients, and the profitability of the organisation goes up as a result. On the other hand, employees feel more confident and more appreciated, and ready to take on more responsibilities, which normally come with better fringe benefits. Justin Racheal, a business leadership coach in Kigali, says that any company or organisation’s performance can only be as good as its people. She notes that good leaders know that you can get to a high level of performance if you grow more leaders within the organisation. “It is also true that sustainable business leadership is about relationships and you can only build productive relationships within organisations if you help people grow. People will not buy into the vision or mission until they know how much you care about them,” she stresses. Racheal carries on that employees have dreams too, they have fears, opinions, and initiatives that need to be heard and facilitated to grow into exceptional performers both socially and economically. She says, it is also a good corporate governance practice to develop the human resource, its part of being accountable to society.
