Assessment of Employee Satisfaction with Human Resource Development Practice in South West Zone Kale Heywet Church Office

The paper is design to assess employees’ satisfaction with HRD practices in south west zone kale Heywet church office. The main objective of the study is to identify the level of employees’ satisfaction with: the organization commitment to HRD, appropriateness of HRD practices, opportunities for growth and development, management’s guidance and encouragements and other dimensions of HRD practices. The research design is cross-sectional survey. Both secondary and primary data were used in the research. A survey questionnaire with five point Likert scale is a main tool for gathering primary data about employees’ satisfaction with human resource development practices of the organization. 180 participants were participating in filling the questionnaires. An interview also prepared for officials of training and development team of the organization. The findings of the study indicated that respondents perceived the HRD practices of the organization as unfair. Respondents also indicated their dissatisfaction with the promotional opportunities and the knowledge to gain from the work they do for the organization. Moreover, majority of respondents indicated that they don’t think that the organization is the best place to develop them. Introduction Human Resource Development is an organized learning experience aimed at matching the organizational need for human resource with the individual need for career growth and development. It is a system and process involving organized series of learning activities designed to produce behavioral changes in human resource in such a way that they acquire desired level of competence for present or future role. At firms’ level; training and education are the main areas of human resource development practices. Emphasis on human resource development result in several positive individual and organizational outcomes such as higher performance, high quality individual and organization problem solving, enhancing career plans and employability, sustainable competitive advantage, higher organizational commitment and enhancing organizational retention. To accomplish this undertaking, organizations will need to invest resources to enhance employees’ knowledge, skills and competencies. However, ineffective HRD practice can bring many problems such as reduced employees’ enthusiastic to learn and apply new skills, decreased employee productivity, low morale, and higher employee turnover (Edgar, 2005). Organizations need to look into the needs of the employees’ and ensure that HRD practices are aligned with both company and individual goals. It has been suggested that the level of employees’ satisfaction with the HRD practices are among the most important criteria to consider when assessing the HRD practices. (Wan, 2007). Employees’ satisfaction with the organization HRD practices can be expected only when the practices incorporate employees’ needs. Therefore, in assessing and improving the existing practices, the level of employees’ satisfaction with the practices is worth to consider. South west zone kale Heywet church office has Human Resource Training and Development department which is responsible for managing the organization HRD practices. In general, this project tries to assess employees’ satisfaction with HRD practices in south west zone kale Heywet church office. 2. Literature review • Employee satisfaction Employees are more loyal and productive when they are satisfied (Hunter &Tietyen, 1997), and these satisfied employees affect the customer satisfaction and organizational productivity (Potterfield, 1999). Employee satisfaction is defined as the combination of affective reactions to the differential perceptions of what he/she wants to receive compared with what he/she actually receives (Cranny, Smith, & Stone, 1992). Therefore, the organizations should try to supply the employee expectations in order to approach the employee satisfaction. In addition, emotional state of the employees may also affect their satisfaction. This forces the managers to create and sustain the desired working environments in the organizations. One the other hand, as stated by Organ and Ryan (1995), the employee satisfaction is one of the basics of organizational citizenship behavior (Ozdevecioglu, 2003). That is, the well-satisfied employees will work more willingly and this contributes to the effectiveness of their organizations. There is no limit for the employees to reach the full satisfaction and it may vary from employee to European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste. org ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online)