Policy on Human Resources Development

Policy Title – Policy on Human Resources Development

Policy Number – 09

Functional Area – Human Resources

Effective and Revised Dates – 08.11.2018

Approving Authority – The Council, University of Sri Jayewardenepura

Administrative Responsibility –Vice-Chancellor, Deans, Heads of Departments/ Units


Rationale & Purpose

A pool of employees (academic and non-academic) with up-to-date knowledge, skills and motivation to perform their duties in accordance with desired standards; enhances task performance and citizenship performance, and prevents counterproductive performance at any institute. Having such a competent and motivated workforce is crucial for the university to accomplish its mission of ‘Developing globally competent citizens through education for a sustainable future; drawing inspirations from our cultural heritage and wisdom’ and progress towards contributing to the university’s vision: ‘Prosper lives through Education’. In order to create and maintain a workforce with required capabilities and motivation, it is important to provide opportunities for every employee to acquire relevant new knowledge, skills and attitudes.

The main purpose of this policy is to provide a systematic and structured approach for providing new learning opportunities for university employees to enhance their work related capabilities and motivation enabling them to increase their current as well as future job performance at University of Sri Jayewardenepura (USJP).

Specific Objectives of the Policy on Human Resource Development (HRD) are to:

I.   Uphold the vision, mission, goals and values of the university.

II.  Ensure provision of relevant training and development to every employee to enhance their task performance and citizenship performance, and to prevent counterproductive performance.

III. Make training and development opportunities accessible and available to all employees.

IV. Ensure efficient and effective utilization of resources available for HRD.

V.   Ensure continual implementation of consistent and uniform HRD activities, processes, and practices in all units of the university.

VI.  Promote a culture of learning that nurtures continuous upgrading of work related knowledge skills and attitudes among employees to attain their full work potential for the benefit of the university and themselves.

VII. Assist the university to fill existing and new job openings internally.

 

Scope

Human resource development policy will focus on every employee at the university.

Definitions –

This policy applies to the different types of training and development programs indicated below:

Induction Training: Type of compulsory training for newly recruited employees that systematically and formally introduces new employees to the university policies and procedures, duties and responsibilities, code of conduct, the work groups and the work environment.

Job-Related Training: A type of training given to existing employees to perform their current and new duties more efficiently and effectively.

Management Competencies Training: Training given to newly appointed or promoted non-experienced employees to managerial roles such as supervisors, Heads or Deans to help them develop correct attitudes, managerial knowledge and skills.

Professional Development: Mandatory job related postgraduate education provided or facilitated to employees, particularly academic staff.

Lifelong Learning: Programs specially designed to inculcate capabilities that will help them manage themselves (work-family balance, career, time, etc), work ethically, and to enhance personal quality shall be made available and given to all the employees from time to time. Also soft skill development is considered.

Foreign and local training opportunities for administrative officers to improve their capabilities will be provided when needed.

 

Policy Statement –

USJP is committed to enhance the knowledge, skills, competencies and attitudes of its employees without any discrimination with regard to their gender, race, creed, religion or marital status.

 

a) No training or development program is formulated without Needs Assessment in order to avoid unnecessary training for an irrelevant role/task owing to wrong performance diagnosis.

b) A systematic attempt shall be made, every two years, to identify training needs at the level of the university to answer the question of where the training emphasis should be placed. Human Resources analysis, climate indexes and efficiency indexes shall be reviewed for the purpose.

c) A systematic attempt shall be made every two years, to identify training needs at the job level to answer the question of what should be taught in training so that the trainee can perform the job successfully. Job analysis information (job descriptions, job specifications etc) shall be examined for the purpose.

d) A systematic attempt shall be done annually to identify training needs of the employee in order to answer the question of who needs training in the university. Performance evaluation, self-assessment, and training requests shall be applied to identify individual level training needs.

e) Identified training needs shall be prioritized owing to the limited resources (specially financial) and administrative feasibility. Special concerns of the respective heads, Deans and the Vice Chancellor shall be taken into consideration for prioritizing. In some cases, Nominal Group Technique (NGT) shall be applied.

f) Based on the indentified and prioritized training needs, relevant training programs shall be formulated and implemented. Each training program shall need to have established specific training objectives, training evaluation criteria, other-related training decisions such as training contents, training materials, training methods, trainers, training duration, training time, training place, meals and refreshments, travelling and payments, and training budgets.

g) Implementation of the training programs shall be done by the relevant institutions, faculties, departments, or centres. Supervision shall be ensured for successful implementation of each training program.

h) Success of each training shall be evaluated, at least at one of the four levels, i.e. reaction, learning, behaviour, and results through pre-post-measure Design, and sometimes through a cost-benefit analysis.

i) Each employee shall be responsible for self-learning and development. Thus each employee shall be expected to seek ways and means of developing himself or herself through new learning, give all the possible aid to the relevant authorities to support his or her learning, and to participate in the offered programs by the university seriously.

j) The heads and deans shall be responsible for management of training and development function.

k) The university shall be responsible for the overall management of the training and development of its employees.

 

Keywords –

Staff Development, HRD, employee, training, performance

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