Human resources are one of the most important and necessary issue that impacts great on the organizations activity and success. Human resources are the people that work for an organization, and Human Resource Management is concerned with how these people are managed.

For example, different individuals have their own needs and aspirations. HR management therefore involves finding out about the needs, wants and aspirations of individual employees, also through the appraisal process and then creating the opportunities within the organization and outside the organization for employees to improve themselves.

HR management therefore relates to every aspect of the way in which the organization interacts with its people, by providing training and development opportunities, appraisal to find out about individual needs, training and development needs analysis, etc.

Organizations need to move away from traditional forms of e-learning and training and development and embrace new approaches according to Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas. Speaking in Edinburgh to members of the Large Organization Network Group he showed how using a new generation of support tools to integrate learning and working can generate returns of over 30 times the costs involved within months.

Coulson-Thomas explains, “Building learning, critical success factors and how high performers operate into job support tools can quickly boost the productivity of key workgroups.” He gave examples of what pioneering companies are doing and presented the returns on investment they have achieved. “In one case a return of over 70 times the cost of the project was obtained in the first year alone.”

Return on investment was the theme of the day long event hosted in Scotland. The Professor explained: “While there may be an association between training and development and higher performance establishing a causal link is often difficult. Effective management teams endeavor to do well in areas such as corporate governance and training and development, but their superior performance overall is often the result of many other things they get right. Evaluation needs to get specific.”

A two-year investigation of corporate learning plans and priorities by Coulson-Thomas reveals that while large sums are spent on grandiose initiatives, fashionable concepts such as empowerment, and general ‘quality’, ‘teamwork’ and ‘leadership’ training, far too little is being done to help people to do difficult and important jobs. The study involved corporate visits and 69 structured interviews with those responsible for the training and development of some 460,000 people. The results are summarized in a report entitled ‘Developing a Corporate Learning Strategy’.

Coulson-Thomas found: “Many trainers and human resources teams ‘follow fashion’ and buy ‘off the shelf’ rather than think about what would be most appropriate in specific situations. They provide standard programmers regardless of individual interests and workgroup needs. They expose people working on very different activities, to common experiences that have little relevance to their particular requirements and priorities. Key workgroups lack what they need to be effective.”

The Professor explains: “Much of what is presented in traditional courses is quickly forgotten, while people find e-learning boring. Many e-learning centers are like chapels of rest. The largest returns on investment result when organizations use bespoke support tools to make it easy for important workgroups to understand complex issues and do difficult jobs. The focus is upon vital areas like winning business and building customer relationships. Learning and working are integrated.”

According to Coulson-Thomas, “Simply providing knowledge is not enough. People may also require skills and tools to apply it. Evaluations of tools developed for sales teams reveal improved win rates, increased cross and up-selling, shortened sales cycles, lower staff induction and training costs, and less time out of the field. Many organizations are missing a historic opportunity to boost workgroup and corporate performance.”

The 239 page A4 report ‘Developing a Corporate Learning Strategy’ examines nine policy issues in depth, including developing the skills and assembling the internal and external capabilities to build a learning organization. The report contains diagrams, checklists and 13 revealing case studies to help ensure an organization’s corporate learning strategy adds value for its customers and shareholders.


Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas, an active consultant and experienced chairman of award winning companies, is the author of ‘Developing Directors’, ‘The Knowledge Entrepreneur’, ‘Developing a Corporate Learning Strategy’ and ‘Winning Companies: Winning People’. He has reviewed the processes and practices for winning business of over 100 companies, helped over 100 boards to improve board and/or corporate performance, and spoken at over 200 national, international and corporate conferences in 35 countries.

Nowadays Human resources management departments should permanently develop skills, knowledge and attitudes that help the organization to achieve its objectives and success. If you are one of those who works for HR management department stay in charge of every new issue to avoid negative atmosphere and vassalage. The organization that have got strong Human resources department seems to be good managed and always under development.