Human Resource Development studies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Human Resource Development studies - Essay Example Hard skills are also known as technical/administrative skills that are necessary for an organizations success and overall operations. Hard skills are required for machine operators, computer administrators, safety officers and even financial procedures. Hard skills are easy to quantify, observe and even measure in an individual; moreover, they are attained through training and apprenticeship as opposed to soft skills which are acquired through life exposures and experiences (Wellington, 2005). Hard skills are easy to learn and acquire as they are physical skills that has no elementary background at the brains cell level. Soft skills are learnt as we grow, interact, do mistakes and get exposed to different life and work situations. Once incorporated and integrated into ourselves, soft skills cannot be replaced. This is because the brain cannot simply delete the behaviours and skills that we may feel are unnecessary. Acquiring these skills can also present a challenge once an individua l has grown and become so adept to his old practices. Human resource experts and managers have shifted their focus to soft skills as opposed to hard skills. This has resulted into a wide array of situations for the society, the employees and the employers. In this paper, the analysis of the impacts that this focus has created will be evaluated and critically discussed. Prominence will be given to the advantage of this new approach especially to the domestic and international human resource management and labour issues (Schulz, 2008). Impacts of emphasis on soft skills The increased demand for more employees with both the technical and hard skills has been attributed to the recent happenings in the business world. Competition has reached the highest level and organisations are striving to outdo each other in their innovativeness and good public relations. The growth in multinational companies and globalisation has also created another frontier for competition. The international marke t is more averse with technology and seeks quality and value in the services and products they seek to buy. All these have prompted human resource managers to develop new ways of promoting, recruiting and assigning responsibilities to their employees (Wellington, 2005). Technology intense projects have proved to have high failure rate when compared to projects that integrate the soft skills of the employees. Failure in any project that the organisation has invested a lot of resources, time and staff reduces the company’s competitive advantage and position in the market. This calls for individuals who can fuse both the hard skills that they posses to their soft skills to make them more viable and productive. The increasing competition in the job market and the increase in the number of fresh graduates and technical expertise have made it quite difficult to choose the best individual to engage (Riley, 2006). In an economy where the applicants have the same training, university academic staff and same graduate degrees, a new approach on how to choose new employees should be adopted. Human resource managers have in the recent past, resorted to sorting out the best employees based on soft skills as opposed to the hard skills. As all graduates will have the same technical skills,