HR Development (HRD) vs HR Management (HRM): Differences Explained

HR Development (HRD) and HR management (HRM) are two important pillars of an organization that works together to achieve successful HR operations. 

Competition among candidates is rising; hence, recruiting the skilled candidate is getting tougher. 

Thus, it’s necessary to smartly hire people and also take care of them in every aspect, from onboarding and payments to maintaining a safer environment for them to thrive. 

To do so, organizations follow two programs – HR Development and HR Management. 

Both programs involve various strategies to manage the workforce. They together align HR practices to achieve the company’s goals. In addition, they help the workforce develop their skills, work hard, give their best to the company, and get rewards for the same. 

Although they might look similar, HRD and HRM are different with their own sets of functions in an organization. 

In this article, I’ll discuss HRD and HRM, their functions, and their differences. 

Here we go!

What Is Human Resource Development?

Human Resource Development (HRD) is a subset of Human Resource Management (HRM) that focuses on developing the workforce of an organization. It aims at enhancing the skills, knowledge, attitude, competencies, and behavior of the employees working in a company. 

In addition, HRD activities are carried out to empower and strengthen employees’ capabilities to build better performance metrics in an organization. It provides beneficial opportunities for the overall development of the employees. The main activities include:

• Career development
• Talent management
• Coaching and mentoring
• Training and development
• Succession planning
• Performance management
• Essential employee identification

From the date of joining to termination or retirement, the HRD department works toward the employees’ development. 

What Is Human Resource Management?

Human resource management (HRM) is about managing employees working in an organization. It’s also concerned with managing all the organizational strategies to enhance and maximize employee performance, experience, and engagement. This can be done through hiring, talent acquisition, training, onboarding, salaries, compensation, incentives, and more. 

HRM professionals, like HRs, cover the task of managing employees within an organization which includes hiring and firing, creating job descriptions, setting salaries, and maintaining disciplines and the code of conduct. 

The aim of HRM is to ensure proper management of employees, improve their performance and engagement, and create a thriving company environment. There are various company principles applicable to HRM so that employees can work effectively. 

Furthermore, HRM not only helps improves overall company performance but also productivity. In addition, it involves selecting the right candidate for the right job. This enables HRM professionals to make maximum use of the organization’s workforce. 

The HRM is a broader department that includes a variety of activities, such as recruitment, hiring, induction, training, skill development, maintenance, safety, motivation, welfare plans, health, change management, and more. It aims to maintain a good relationship across the organization and various levels of management.

Functions of HRD

#1. Manpower Planning, Retention, and Recruitment

Human resource teams follow a strategic way to hire employees so that they can build a qualified workforce. Their primary concerns are to plan development for staff, recruit new talent, and retain them for a longer period. These are the critical factors in long-term business success. 

Employee development helps close skills gaps; so when you need to forecast and plan HR needs, you can easily get the right person for the role. Developing employee skills helps you attract as well as retain them, especially in today’s competitive labor markets. 

#2. Talent Management and Succession Planning

The talent management plan is beneficial for employees by focusing on their growth in terms of skills, behavior, etc. In addition, it helps foster better relationships between employees. 

A human resource development program helps future-proof and enhance your organization’s productivity using succession planning.

#3. Policy and Procedures

HRD identifies the need to develop suitable policies along with procedures to meet your business requirements. This is achievable using a cycle of launching, creating, improving, and monitoring initiatives for the employees’ development. 

HRD collects feedback and makes reports based on policies and procedures to achieve departmental goals with ease.

#4. Performance Management

The performance management system depends on your workforce’s alignment based on the company’s strategic goals. These management systems combine technologies and methodologies that measure and develop the performance of every employee. 

HRD continuously monitors and improves development plans along with other factors of performance management.

#5. Benefits and Compensation Program

Benefits and compensation refer to distinct concepts. Benefits are in the form of non-cash rewards, whereas compensation refers to the employee’s wages or salaries, where you get cash returns.

HRD uses both to offer professional development through the procurement of different learning platforms, the creation of internal training programs, funding for various groups, and more. 

#6. Brand Value

The brand also plays a crucial role in attracting employees. So, HRD enables your employees to do the branding for them. In general, you are unable to create a robust employer brand without investing much. 

Functions of HRM

HRM lets employees follow the smooth steps toward production. The process begins with the right policy formulation for the jobs and ends with successful business growth.

Therefore, it is considered an invisible agent of a company that binds everyone together within an organization. 

#1. Job Design and Analysis

The most essential function of HRM is to design and analyze jobs. It involves several processes, such as describing operations, responsibilities, and duties of the job.

In order to hire employees based on research and rationality, it is necessary to identify the characteristics and qualities of the candidate. This can be easily achieved by describing the character traits and skills of the top-performing employees. 

Job analysis involves understanding job requirements, like skills, work experience, and qualifications. So, you must describe everyday functions in detail since this will decide the course of action of a candidate while recruiting. 

#2. Employee Selection and Hiring

Recruitment, being the major function of HRM, aims to obtain efficient and qualified employees and retain them in order to achieve the organizational objectives and goals. All this depends on hiring the right candidate from a pool of applicants. 

HRM professionals identify and source the ideal applicant for interview and final selection. The candidates then go through a screening process to filter out the suitable candidates. Next, the candidates face multiple interview rounds based on their skills, work experience, and knowledge required for the position. 

#3. Training and Development

Training employees and developing them in their professional journey influences the growth and success of an organization.

HRM professionals continuously study each employee’s performance, how well they have acquired knowledge from the training, and their development and growth level aligned with the company. 

This will boost the overall productivity and efficiency of the workforce, which results in business growth. HRM plays a vital role in an organization in preparing all employees to take on bigger responsibilities.

#4. Benefits and Compensation

This function is concerned with paying the employees for their jobs. HRM professionals formulate an attractive benefit for the employees to encourage them to perform well, be on their best behavior, and be aligned with the work culture while preserving the sanctity of the company environment. 

The primary advantage of this function is to set up fair and equitable remuneration for every employee. In addition, HRs use this function to maximize employee productivity and establish a good image of the business in the market. 

#5. Employee Performance 

Effective performance management of an employee ensures that the employees meet the organization’s objectives and goals. It focuses on the performance of an employee as well as the team, department, and organization. 

#6. Labor and Managerial Relations

Employment relations are of two types – labor relations and managerial relations. Labor relations are mainly the relationship between the company and the workforce, while managerial relations are the relationships between the multiple processes in an organization. 

These relations determine the work needed to be done within a given timeline and how to manage the workforce to achieve the objective. It is about providing appropriate work to the right employee to make sure the project is going smoothly. 

#7. Employee Communication and Engagement

Employee communication and engagement guarantee greater employee satisfaction and better productivity. This helps in enhancing the employee retention rate. HRM is the right source of management that manages the engagement of employees seamlessly. 

Proper engagement and communication enhance employees’ involvement and keep them happy throughout the day. It is said that the more engaged the employees are, the more will they be motivated and committed to their work. 

#8. Safety and Health Regulations

Employers must follow the safety and health regulations designed by the authorities. The labor laws require employers to provide training, supplies, essential information, and PPE to ensure safety and health. HRM integrates safety and health regulations with organizational procedures to ensure every employee of an organization is safe.  

#9. Personal Support

When employees run into personal issues which may slow down the workflow, HRM assists them. After the COVID pandemic, the personal support scenario has increased. Whether it is about insurance assistance, extra leaves, medical assistance, or more, HRM professionals provide help so that employees can feel better and work with full focus. 

#10. Succession Planning

Succession planning aims at monitoring, planning, and managing the path of employees within the organization. For this, HRs handpick bright and promising employees and supervisors to develop their growth paths. 

The aim here is to infuse trust into employees to boost their loyalty to the organization for the longest time. So, when developing growth paths for employees, companies must take care of various aspects, including assigning challenging tasks, activities and improving engagement.

#11. Industrial Relations

Companies, especially in production and manufacturing lines, must follow industrial relations practices. This helps them engage with the Unions existing in factories in a positive and friendly manner and maintain a good relationship with them. 

The primary objective of this is to understand the issues within the industries and find solutions. For instance, it helps meet wage standards, reduce strikes and protests, improve safety and working conditions, reduce wastage, and minimize production time. 

If handled properly, industrial relations play an important role in circumventing violence, lawsuits, walkouts, protests, loss of production and funds, and more.

Advantages of HRD

• Employees with improved skills: Employees are required to build a set of skills that define their potential in an organization. HRD takes care of the soft and hard skills of employees within the company.
• Improve workforce diversity: A strong HRD dept expands different opportunities for the employees in terms of training of attitude and behavior. This helps the HRD team bring a better functioning and diverse workplace. 
• Business goals supporter: In order to bring broader business objectives, alignment of HR order is necessary. Here the HRD team organizes development programs for employees to enhance vocational skills, resulting in achieving business goals. 
• Simple employee management: HRD allows employees to coordinate with each other and seniors to reduce pressure. All this will result in improving functional and time-management skills toward goals. 

Challenges of HRD

• HRD programs are expensive in order to maintain and implement
• These programs are only applicable to certain jobs and employees
• Some employees don’t want changes and resist participating in programs
• HRD programs can be time-consuming for managers and employees

Advantages of HRM

• Turnover improvement: HR professionals select ideal candidates for the role, helping the company save its costs. Proper benefits and compensation are outlined perfectly to enable an employee to stay focused on their roles. 
• Conflict resolutions: Conflicts are common inside a company where various opinions come across, and personalities work together. But, good HR management will effectively deal with conflicts and resolve them faster. This will help both parties to stay cool and allow HRM professionals to assist them equally. 
• Employee performance boost: HRM teams manage performance management systems. They build a good relationship with the employees, allowing every employee to maintain a good atmosphere inside the company. This will lead to a better work environment and enhance performance and productivity. 
• Employee satisfaction: HRM professionals organize surveys, focus on interview strategies, and more to hire the right candidate for the right position. Once hired, they regularly check their emotional status and performance, etc., and offer rewards and support to improve employee satisfaction. 

Challenges of HR Management

• HRM programs increase costs related to hiring, recruiting, and training.
• There could be biases towards certain employees, affecting the morale and trust of other employees.
• HRM is highly dependent on leadership quality. If not effective, it could result in chaos and disharmony among employees. 
• HR practices must be compliant with regulatory and legal requirements. Else, there will be legal challenges. 

HR Development vs. HR Management

HR Development	HR Management
It refers to the development of employees’ skills within the organization to enhance the performance of every employee.	It refers to the management of employees’ working environment, personal issues, and more in an effective way.
HR Development is a sub-function of HR management.	HR management is an entire management function of an organization specifically put in for employees.
The HRD functions are proactive and have to be applied continuously to improve the employees’ productivity.	The HRM functions are reactive that are applied to attain organizational goals.
The primary goal of HRD is to connect with knowledge enhancement, skill development, and competency improvement.	The primary objective of HRM is to enhance the overall performance of each employee in an organization.
HRD processes are ongoing processes.	HRM processes are routine processes that are carried out when the requirement arises.
HRD is a subset of HRM that draws functions, processes, and functions from HRM.	HRM is independent and comprises multiple sections, including hiring and retention, compensation, HRD, appraisal, performance, and more.
HRD functions could be informal that help receive coaching from managers or superiors.	HRM functions are formal that are applied in laboratory or classroom training.
It has strategic planning and long-term goals.	It has instant operation needs and targets short-term goals.
It is employee-oriented, targeting employee engagement, growth, and career progression.	It is organization-oriented, targeting resource management and efficiency.

Conclusion

HRD and HRM both focus on developing and managing the workforce of a company. These aim to enhance employee productivity and performance using different training programs. Although both could seem to be the same, they are actually different in terms of development and management.

HRM is a bigger concept than HRD. It focuses on planning, staffing, developing, maintaining, monitoring, managing, and evaluating.

On the other hand, HRD is a part of HRM that focuses on the development part only, including learning, talent management, employee engagement, career development, training, and empowerment. 

You may also explore some best people management software for small to medium businesses.