Personnel
Development
Manual

by Juergen Peterke

published in 2006 by Cornelsen.

Personnel development

Personnel development = skills development within the company providing a competitive edge

Personnel development has to support the value-added process within the company and play a key role in strategy implementation. Personnel development is accordingly much more than the organisation of on-the-job training or the implementation of seminars and workshops.

Personnel development as corporate skills and potential management serves to improve daily operations - and the accumulation of long-term know-how to the benefit of the company.

We regard personnel development as "the task and discipline which promotes corporate development by the targeted design of learning, development and change processes" (Peterke, 2006 P. 11).

The objectives of personnel development are

• to build up in a targeted and efficient way the know-how required to overcome future challenges
• to promote and organise the process of continuous learning within the company
• to respond fast to new challenges in daily operations.

JP-Consulting will support you in the reorientation of your HR and personnel development section, and will apply expert knowledge from practical experience of personnel development in the provision of:

• a conception of personnel development in the company / division / plant
• targeted and practical learning and development programmes
• design of instruments and systems for personnel development
• the mental reorientation of companies and divisions
• implementation of measures (seminars, workshops etc.) for personnel development
• skills enhancement for executives
• skills enhancement for internal trainers and consultants
• external personnel development and personnel marketing

We will also be happy to design customised blueprints for your personnel development programmes.

Knowledge and learning are categories on the basis of which the competition among companies takes place today, and this will remain so in the future. "We have to learn faster than the competition and make better use of new knowledge..." is the conclusion of those who operate on highly competitive global markets.

Even though this target group of course deserves attention, concentrating on a few top executives is not what will lead to success in personnel development. The key question is rather:

How do we manage to achieve peak results with an average workforce? The reason is that this is exactly what the challenge for personnel development consists of.

We therefore work with entire teams, departments and workforces in order to enhance skills — improving the performance of the organisation as a whole is our approach to personnel development. This integrative and comprehensive performance-enhancing approach is combined with many years of experience and impressive successes with our customers.

Learning has to have a direct effect on everyday operations. The task is to implement new ways of action on the spot quickly, and to integrate personnel developmentinto the working process in the form of operational learning. The aim is to acquire practical skills in cooperation with others during the process of "learning by doing". This places new demands on personnel development.

The days of 'nice-to-have' in personnel development are long past. In the course of the reorientation of human resource management as the business partner of management the role of personnel development has changed for ever.

Today's challenge to personnel development is to place the concept of management, processes and structures on a new footing in order to increase value creation for the company. This has to take place in tandem with the strategic repositioning of HR management.

The study "The Nature of Competitive Advantage", Europe's biggest strategy research programme, indicates that personnel development is one of 3 important success factors for securing the future of the company:

"The task is to push forward innovative concepts for organisation and personnel development which aim to break down mental barriers and prepare the ground for the acceptance of new ideas."

Literature: Peterke, J. (2006), Personnel Development Manual, Cornelsen Verlag Scriptor Berlin