Training and development

  QUESTION In Assignments One, Two and Three, a typical variety of circumstances that an HR professional might face have been highlighted. These have in" rel="nofollow">included expansion and mergers, reduction in" rel="nofollow">in busin" rel="nofollow">iness and the consequent redundancy, and a situation where devolution of key HR responsibilities from HR to Lin" rel="nofollow">ine Management has gone sadly astray. In each of these situations, the focus in" rel="nofollow">inevitably has been on resolvin" rel="nofollow">ing current issues and devisin" rel="nofollow">ing an Action Plan to move forwards, with particular emphasis on puttin" rel="nofollow">ing right what might be wrong, and makin" rel="nofollow">ing sure that the next steps taken are fully in" rel="nofollow">in lin" rel="nofollow">ine with the legal requirements. The resit assignment takes the longer-term view, and places you in" rel="nofollow">in the situation of bein" rel="nofollow">ing a newly-appoin" rel="nofollow">inted HR Director in" rel="nofollow">in a medium to large-sized organisation, with operations main" rel="nofollow">inly in" rel="nofollow">in the UK, but also in" rel="nofollow">in Europe, the US and Australia. The busin" rel="nofollow">iness is prosperous and is in" rel="nofollow">in a reasonably secure market position, but there is always danger in" rel="nofollow">in complacency! Your task is to look forward at least 2 years, and to envisage what challenges and opportunities there will be for employment in" rel="nofollow">in the widest sense within" rel="nofollow">in the organisation, possibly lookin" rel="nofollow">ing as far ahead as 10 years. What challenges will the busin" rel="nofollow">iness face, and what steps can the organisation take to secure the necessary quality and quantity of manpower that will be needed?