Once an employee has been selected for a position, the person needs to be trained to do the job. This may include training in skills, knowledge and even attitudes. An employee who has been properly trained is more likely to be productive, which creates a more positive situation for both the person and the organization.

After the initial job training has been provided, employees can expand their skills through development opportunities. Once again, this involves looking into the future at what knowledge may be necessary for employee growth within the context of the organization. Development activities can include, but are not limited to, job enlargement, job enrichment and job rotation. Empowering employees to make decisions and handle problems are also ways in which HR development can occur. In today’s business world, there are also many opportunities for learning, which include in-person workshops and seminars as well as online “webinars".

The ideas of career planning and career development are similar, although career planning is accomplished by an individual while career development is achieved by the organization. In both instances, the goal is to establish the future job needs of each entity. Employees determine the path that they intend to follow, while businesses chart out the future needs of their organizations. The objective of career planning and development is to ensure that the needs of both the employee and the organization are being met over time.

Organizational development (OD) is parallel to employee career development, but applies to the organization as a whole. The goal of OD is to increase productivity and develop new opportunities for the future.

The last two areas of Human Resource Development build upon Training, Development and Career Planning. It is not enough to have all of the right tools in place and plans made for the future. There must be an objective way to measure whether or not these goals are being met. In this case, we use performance management and performance appraisal. Once again, this is true for both the organization and the individual employee.

These tasks are complementary: Performance Management measures the effectiveness of the organization, while Performance Appraisals assess the efforts of each individual worker. In both instances, a fair and constructive evaluation should be made. This allows personal strengths to be capitalized upon while deficiencies that are identified can be overcome through additional training. Performance management and performance appraisals should be viewed as opportunities for continued growth as the results of each can help to shape performance goals and improve future results.