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Article

Sustainable Development of Human Resources in Globalization Period

Department of Economics, University of Zilina, 010 26 Žilina, Slovakia
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2020, 12(18), 7681; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187681
Submission received: 14 July 2020 / Revised: 18 August 2020 / Accepted: 21 August 2020 / Published: 17 September 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Brand Management)

Abstract

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The article deals with human resource management, its theoretical principles, and its use in practice in the era of globalization. The main goal of this paper is to analyze and describe human resource management focused on the process of human resource development and education. The article shows how the principles are applied in a selected Information-Communication Technologies (ICT) company in Slovakia as an attractive employer who is interested in satisfaction, education, and growth of its employees, thus employer branding. The data was collected through a questionnaire survey with employees in the selected company. Secondary data from corporate sources were used, too. The aim of the survey was to point out the human resources management in a selected company and to examine the perception of the impact of employees development on their performance and to design effective approaches to personnel development in a selected company with an impact on employee performance. The aim of the survey was to find out whether there was a dependence between the subjectively perceived performance of the employees and individual aspects, which are the completion of technical training programs, individual evaluation of the employee, relocation of the employee, and the number of completed training activities. A questionnaire survey was used to achieve this goal.

1. Introduction

Nowadays a global world is characterized by constant changes in society, technical development, legislation, and the economy. This puts pressure on the development of the employee’s work skills and on his ability to flexibly adapt to changing conditions. In order to function as a fully valued workforce, one must constantly expand one’s abilities, knowledge, and skills. Education and the formation of work skills are becoming a lifelong process in modern society [1]. The characteristics of sustainable human resource management (HRM) can be various: long-term orientation, care of employees, care of environment, profitability, employee participation and social dialogue, employees’ development, external partnership, flexibility, compliance beyond labor regulations, employee cooperation, fairness, and equality [2].
Human resource management procedures should focus on the needs of employees and their families, and should go beyond compliance. This should include development opportunities, career management, democracy in the workplace, and employee participation [3].
By investing in their human capital, individuals improve their skills and knowledge, thereby increasing their psychological and monetary income [4]. In the narrower sense of the word, education is focused on the acquisition of knowledge and attitudes that are important for the development of personality. Through them the employee is guided to the comprehensive performance of functions that will be required of him in the future. A further definition of education is as a systematic process of changing the behavior, knowledge, and motivation of employees in order to increase compliance between the requirements placed on the employee and his characteristics [5,6]. If the training is effective and it should guarantee the company a return on investment; it cannot be random and irregular, but systematic and based on the overall corporate strategy. This requires the necessary cooperation of several experts or departments in the company, and cooperation with internal and external experts as well as educational institutions [7]. Good management of processes of the education system, i.e., analysis and identification of educational needs, and planning and evaluation of education significantly determine the success and effectiveness of education in society [1].
With the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the human resources management area gained new tools for collecting and analyzing information, enabling data-based decision-making in all dimensions of the human resources area [8]. According to Kucharcikova et al., human capital management represents a modern concept of people management that also leads to the increase of performance and competitiveness of the enterprise within the context of sustainability. It is a necessary measurement and assessment of the effectiveness of the utilization of human capital and effectiveness of investment in its development [9].
Realizing the sustainable development of economy is the most important strategic target of regional economic development. Human resource decides the reasonable development and optimization. Other authors elaborated the relations between the HRM and the regional economic sustainable development [10].
Without considering long-term investment in employees, it is challenging for an organization to maintain their competitiveness and meet their goals.
We perceive globalization as an interconnection not only of nearby regions or countries, but also of large geographical units. It allows us to accelerate the development of civilization and balance the economic and social state of several countries in the world [11]. Thanks to the global connection, information, communication, feedback, and movement of people are accelerated. Interdependence points to differences between countries, in their maturity, wealth, and use of natural resource. It enables easier outflow of educated people from less developed countries to economically strong countries [12].
Due to globalization, the world as such is changing significantly. It brings us opportunities to develop in areas where we are excellent, but on the other hand we become much more vulnerable in areas where we lag behind. Our country should increase the protection of the people of our state through a strong social policy; they should provide education as well as training of the population for the new situation. The ability to prepare the population for a new form of the labor market will be important, which will be expanded to include digitization, innovation, and automation used in production in companies [13]. After globalization, a new type of education is developing in countries, namely global development education [14].
In the beginning, educators and academics from different countries were concerned about the need to realize the need for change in the education system. The curricula at the time did not prepare pupils and students for life in a rapidly changing world. In a dynamic world, global development education is considered a lifelong learning process. It prepares people for life in a rapidly changing world [15].
Globalization is very closely linked to labor migration between countries. The migration of higher education professionals in individual sectors such as science and research has become a hallmark of globalization [16]. Employees’ training is one of the forms of developing employee potential. Education is generally the way in which a personality can be completed or developed [17]. We primarily understand it as a form of expanding knowledge, supplementing it, or as innovative education. In essence, it is a process of acquiring and mastering thought skills or knowledge from different areas of human knowledge. The aim of work education as a development activity of employees is to improve or enrich their professional awareness [18,19,20]. Jacobs and his team divide corporate goals with a focus on education into four categories. The first is knowledge, that is, the acquisition of facts [20]. In the second category, we find understanding between different types of information. The penultimate skills are acquired and applied in practice. The authors agree that education, whether professional, personal, or individual, should be part of every position in the company and at the same time be a business card of the organization’s personnel strategy.
The time in which we live today can be characterized as a period of change and progress, especially in the fields of development of modern information technology and development of related services based on these technologies [21,22]. Nowadays, it is increasingly difficult for companies to stay in the market. The companies need to make steady progress in order to be better than the competition and, above all, to be able to respond flexibly to changing customer requirements. One of the important areas that companies should focus on are human resources. Employees are resources that need to be constantly developed and educated. Creating sufficient conditions, involving support or motivation by the company for the development and career growth of employees, will increase their performance. Employee training is an investment that will have a positive impact on economic results in the future as well as on improving the company’s image on the part of customers, employees, or potential job seekers. The personnel policy, which is part of the overall policy of the company, contains important values for employees and regulates the relationship between employees and the company. Part of this policy is also the development of human resources, to which the paper pays attention. The digital epoch carries on with its development, generating outstanding technological prospects contingent on a progressively intricate electronic network of citizens, areas and objects connected with effective data-collection and processing capabilities [23].
The nature of work is changing and is confronting several challenges with regard to recruitment and retention of employees. The changing employment trends are not only limited to globalization, but also to other aspects like the changing pace of work-life balance, social life demands, changing demographics, and many other variables. Employer branding practices assume that human capital can create an added value through the adoption of optimum investment that in return improves performance [24].
Crain (2009) viewed employer branding as an emotional attachment and identification between organizations and employees [25]. Growth is, according to Ghadeer Mohamed (2016), one of the Branding framework dimensions [26]. This dimension is concerned with the factors related to an employee’s potential growth, self-development, and progression in the workplace. Growth dimension includes: long-term career development opportunities, jobs with task variety, challenging opportunities to grow and learn, training and development opportunities, utilization of employees’ knowledge and skills, objective evaluation, feedback for employees’ development, and job security that allows for future growth. Employer branding is a process that helps to promote the company as a suitable and attractive choice for employment. This strategic process involves the work and efforts of the entire company, not only human resources professionals, but also from marketing, business, and management. Employer branding is a series of steps aimed at building the company’s image as an attractive employer.

2. Materials and Methods

The selected company operated in the field of Information-Communication Technologies (ICT); it was a big-sized company and with potential to grow in the future. The survey was conducted using a quantitative method, in the form of a questionnaire survey using Google Form, furthered by expert interviews with human resources management. The target group was represented by the company’s employees. One hundred employees of the company participated in the survey.
The aim of the survey was to analyze the human resource management focused on the process of human resource development and educational process in the company, as well as the evaluation process of the employees. The level of reliability was determined at 95%, with standard deviation of 0.5, and the confidence interval 10%. The number of employees of the selected company reached almost 4000 employees.
The survey was carried out from March to April 2019. The electronic questionnaire consisted of 30 questions, with verbal scale (Likert scale), as well as open questions. The questionnaire consisted of multiple questions regarding educational and development activities. The obtained data were processed using automatic processing of Google Form and Microsoft Excel. In the assessment of findings we have set the hypotheses. We monitored the dependence of ordinal variables and binary variables. The tools of descriptive statistics were used. In the verification of hypotheses, the “Kendall correlation coefficient” and the “Chi-square test” to calculate the test statistics were used.
The size of the research sample was determined by the exact statistical calculation quantified based on the relationship:
n = z 2 ( p ) ( 1 p ) c 2
New n = n / ( 1 + ( n 1 ) / p o p ) n
Where, n—minimum number of respondents, z—critical value of normal distribution at significance level α = 0.05 (95% estimation reliability), p—the percentage of respondents who know or do not know the issue—the maximum error specified in the survey (p-admissible gauge margin 0.5%). The respondents size of the sample according to the equation was 94, the level of significance was set to 0.10, which corresponds to 90% confidence interval. A representative sample should be 94 respondents, where pop represented the size of population. The questionnaire was sent to 150 employees. A total of 100 valid questionnaires returned, which represented a return of 66.7%. The duration of the working activity in the working position at the selected ICT company in Slovakia is presented in Figure 1.
Within the research question, the following hypotheses were set:
  • There is a statistically significant difference between the individual evaluation of the employee by his chief and the performance of the employee.
  • There is a statistically significant difference between the move of an employee to another position and his performance.
  • There is a statistically significant difference between the number of completed educational activities and the employee’s performance.
In terms of the age structure of respondents, it can be seen that the age category ranging from 26 to 35 years (60% of respondents) were predominant in the company. The second largest sample of respondents is the age category from 36 to 45 years at 30.5%. The rest of the respondents (10%) were until 25 years of age. The majority of respondents were specialists (60%), other respondents were on the position of first line leaders and project managers. According to the survey, respondents were provided with sufficient information about educational and development opportunities in the company (90%), and the most of them found out the information from the intranet system. On average, two educational activities were carried out by 65% of respondents during the previous year. Thirty percent of respondents passed three to five educational activities. Six percent of respondents accomplished five or more educational and development activities. Figure 2 presents the breakdown of departments under which the respondents’ work position was located.
The following areas of questions from the questionnaire were analyzed:
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Number of completed educational activities of respondents.
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Influence of adaption plan for in the job position on his/her performance at work.
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Influence of completed specialized training programs on performance at work.
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Completed mentoring in last 12 months on performance growth at work.
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Completed coaching in last 12 months on performance growth at work.
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The language courses allowed to provide the tasks in the company more effectively.
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The chief ability to develop the potential of the employees.
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Use of taking the opportunity to change the job position in the company.
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Categorization to the level based on the Performance assessment according to the employee’s performance.
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The overall benefit after completing educational and development programs in the company.
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Individual evaluation of my performance, through an interview with the chief that motivated the employee to perform better in fulfilling work tasks.
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Which performance evaluation tools were used in company.

3. Results

The selected company is one of the largest IT companies, which provides customers with its IT services worldwide. We proceeded to analyze its personnel policy. The method of analysis is processed on the basis of expert interviews and inquires. Based on the analysis, we also pointed out the system of development of human resources in the company and we characterized the tools for evaluating the performance of employees in the company.
The primary survey was made through questioning and hypothesis testing. The individual answers result in an overall evaluation. It was found that from the point of view of employees, there are certain shortcomings in the field of human resources development. Hypothesis testing based on the Chi-square test and the Kendall correlation coefficient confirmed that there is no statistical dependence between employee performance and individual factors (individual performance evaluated by the chief, change of the job position, and number of completed training activities).
Respondents in a relative number of 64% considered the adaptation plan as an effective way to enable the employees to do the work more efficiently; however, there are still leakage in the system regarding the method and duration of this period. It was surprising that 23% of the inquired employees could not assess if the adaptation period helped them to perform their job better.
Seventy percent of respondents stated that completing specialized training enabled them to carry out their work more efficiently. A percentage of 24% of the interviewed respondents could not assess the given question. Six percent of respondents tended to disagree with the question.
As many as 44% of respondents agreed that their performance in performing tasks increased after completing mentoring activities. Sixty-two percent of respondents said that they could not assess whether their performance had increased after coaching. Thirty-two percent of respondents said that their coaching increased their performance. Sixty-one percent of respondents could not express themselves. Fifty-six percent of respondent said that the language courses they attended allowed them to perform the work tasks in the company more effectively.
About 67% respondents noted that their superior could develop their potential in order to improve their performance. With less than half fewer respondents, 22% were unable to assess the statement. Out of the total number of respondents, up to 54% of respondents took the opportunity to change their job position in the company. The remaining 46% answered that they did not use this opportunity.
Also studied was the evaluation of their performance, which takes place twice a year between the chief and employee. There were included categories that indicate that the employee’s skills are sufficient at the certain position, and if the employee can be promoted or moved to other position. The category “fit” was reached by 40 respondents (40%). The lowest number of respondents were in the category “improve” at 4%, or “move” at 2% of employees. It is an advantage for the company when the employees have potential that can be developed and improved. A percentage of 16.7% of questioned employees were not evaluated, while 7.8% of respondents were evaluated as having potential to grow, 19.6% of respondents best fit for their position, 10% have to reach higher position and promote.
One of the questions focused on the overall benefits after the completion of training and development programs in society, the results of which are shown in Figure 3.
Seventy-two percent of respondents perceived the greatest benefit in completing educational and development programs as the ability to better use their potential, thus, improvement of skills, as well as higher performance at the workplace, personal satisfaction, acquirement of special skills, possibility to promote, and better financial appreciation. Other mentioned benefits were e.g., “opening up” horizons for their further self-education and self-development, and improved management. They see the least benefit in reducing complaints from superiors, colleagues, or customers.
Figure 4 shows an individual evaluation of a person’s performance through an interview with a supervisor, which motivates the employees for better performance in performing work tasks.
Most respondents (72%) stated to be totally or partially motivated by individual evaluation of their performance through an interview with their chief; the evaluation interview motivated them to perform better in their job. Only a small proportion of respondents were not motivated by the evaluation interview (17%). Eleven percent of respondents could not judge if the individual assessment of their performance by the chief motivated them to increase their performance.
The answers to the question of which performance evaluation tools were used in the company are shown in Figure 5.
The resulting p-value of the respective Kendall coefficient, 0.681, was bigger than the significance level (α = 0.05), i.e., there was no statistically significant relationship between the individual evaluation of an employee by his chief and the performance of employees. To test the hypothesis, the Kendall correlation coefficient was used. We monitored the value of Kendall tau-c, because it is a different number of attributes of the given variables. It was based on the evaluation of performance through the review and by individual evaluation of the performance in the interview (Table 1).
Out of the total number of respondents, up to 54 respondents (54%) used the opportunity to change their job position in the company. The remaining 46% answered that they did not use this opportunity.
It was investigated if there was a statistically significant relationship between the move of an employee to another position and his performance. According to the resulting p-value of the test, 0.557 was bigger than the significance level α = 0.05. There is no dependency, and we accept the null hypothesis H0: There is no statistically significant dependence between the transfer of an employee to another position and his performance. The Chi-square test was used because these are ordinal and binary variables. To perform this test, it was necessary to create two tables of empirical as well as theoretical frequencies. As the expected frequency was less than 5, it was necessary to modify the contingency table; see Table 2.
It was investigated if there was a statistically significant relationship between the number of completed educational activities and the employee’s performance. The resulting p-value of the respective Kendall coefficient (0.820) was bigger than the significance level (α = 0.05), i.e., there was no statistically significant relationship between the number of completed educational activities and employee performance; see Table 3.
Based on statistical calculations, we pointed out that there was no statistically significant relationship between individual evaluation of chief of the employee and the employee’s performance, as well as between employee’s transfer to another position and his performance, and between the number of completed training activities and employee’s performance.
The employee’s performance can depend also on other factors, such as performance appraisal tools, variable salary component, special remuneration, completed adaptation plan, duration of employee’s work in the company, the age of employee, period of employee performance assessment, or from the chief’s approach to their employees.
By testing hypotheses, it was found that there is no statistically significant relationship between the move of the employees to other positions and their performance. This may be due to the fact that almost half of employees did not take the opportunity to change their job position.
Therefore, it is necessary for the company to inform its employees more, especially executives and line managers, about the opportunities. It is important for the human resources department to define the conditions for taking advantage of opportunities and benefits that will be sufficient motivation for employees.
As the company cares about its employees, it is necessary to monitor constantly the development of fluctuations. If an employee, with a certain qualification, decides to leave the job, this is an undesirable situation for the company. The company thus incurs problems as well as costs associated with acquiring a new employee and undergoing training that will enable him to perform his work. Despite the relatively good results of fluctuations, it is necessary for the company to constantly monitor and reduce the status of this indicator. It is appropriate for the human resources department to define the causes that may affect the indicator and eliminate its impact. The company should analyze the causes that affect fluctuations and then proceed with corrections or eliminations. There are various methods to reduce turnover, such as improving recruitment processes, engaging employees, making changes in the company’s culture, improving remuneration strategies, mapping employee attitudes, and improving training programs.

4. Discussion

Nowadays, it is increasingly difficult for companies to stay in the market. The companies need to make steady progress in order to be better than the competition and, above all, to be able to respond flexibly to changing customer requirements. One of the important areas that companies should focus on is human resources.
Employees are resources that need to be constantly developed and educated. Creating sufficient conditions, including support or motivation by the company for the development and career growth of employees, will increase their performance. Employee training is an investment that will have a positive impact on economic results in the future as well as on improving the company’s image on the part of customers, employees, or potential job seekers. The personnel policy, which is part of the overall policy of the company, contains important values for employees and regulates the relationship between employees and the company. Part of this policy is also the development of human resources, to which this work pays sufficient attention.
The field of human resources management and development and their impact on increasing employee performance was analyzed here by the means of questionnaire and employees evaluation. Based on the information obtained from the analysis of personnel policy, the survey, and verification of hypotheses, we could suggest effective approaches to personnel development in the company.
A new employee’s adaptation program is also one of the processes that affects the performance of employees. The survey showed that there were some places for improvement in the adaptation process to enable employees to understand their tasks and know how to perform them effectively. Throughout the adaptation program, it is important that the leader not only correctly leads and directs his subordinate, but also gives recognition and appreciation, because then the awarded employee is more motivated to achieve the highest possible performance. Part of this process is to build positive relationships with team members as well as with the leader. Good relationships should be built on mutual respect, open communication and trust. All these factors affect the adaptation process as well as the employee’s attitude to the performance of his work tasks.
The survey carried out by Stachova et al. revealed an insufficient focus of organizations on both knowledge sharing and the use of knowledge databases in organizations operating in Slovakia. The basic variable in the use of new opportunities is the involvement of employees dedicated to human resources management in organizations, as well as technical support and the competence of employees to work with new tools, to select and share appropriate information through appropriate communication channels, and to use them to streamline employees [8].
The most important factors of a human resource strategy are the following: legal requirement, employee engagement, career advancement programs, corporate image, and performance management system [27].
The company, based on specific business plans and evaluation of employee performance, annually compiles development and training plans. Despite the wide range of different trainings, in 2019 employees completed an average of at most two training activities.
The survey shows that in the case of mentoring and coaching, employees could not assess whether the tools increased their performance in fulfillment of working tasks. It is necessary to focus on the persons (lecturers) who perform these activities. It is important that the trainers carrying out these training activities know how to give employees the right information in the right way. We recommend to employees who provide these activities, professional training or selective lectures on the proper provision of coaching or mentoring.
The leader plays an important role in the development of employees at the company. The leader discussed the development plan with the employee and together they proposed a personal development plan. With his consent, the employee may complete any of the training activities. It is important for leaders to know the personal potential of their subordinates. However, it is questionable whether, despite the knowledge of the potential, the leader is able to develop their skills. According to the results of the survey the company needs to focus more on the development of the leaders. The company should implement a program for the development of leaders within the HR development policy.
Participants in this program would be acquainted with the basics of leadership and management of the company, as well as gradually acquire skills and knowledge in the management of their subordinates. All educational and development activities would be diversified by more demanding work tasks or case studies. We also suggest internships for leaders in the parent company, where they could learn about different team leadership practices. In order for the program of development of leaders in the company to be successful, it is necessary to identify gaps in the management of leaders, e.g., through 360° feedback. Another effective approach that would contribute to increasing employee performance is their participation in conferences, lectures, or workshops focused not only on IT but also on areas such as finance, management, human resources, etc. A maximum of two educational activities were completed by 65% respondents during the last year. Thirty percent of respondents completed three to five educational activities. Five percent of respondents answered that they had completed five or more educational and development activities. In this case, the company should consider whether it offers its employees a sufficient number of training and development activities.
Here, there is preference for social goals or perspective future psychological benefits and intangible aspects of human work in the form of a positive socio-psychological climate. The benefit of intangible valuation, highlighted by Blazek [28], is when real prestige and the associated satisfactory effect can ultimately be extremely high and irreplaceable by monetary valuation.
One of the conditions for the creation of a competitive advantage is the development of human resources. The general practice of management shows that the difference between successful companies and those that achieve less success or even fail in the labor market is mainly the way in which they shape human potential in the company. A constant factor influencing the success of the company is the degree of employee motivation, performance to which employees should be guided in an optimal way, and undoubtedly one of the factors is the employee’s loyalty to the company [29]. The research conducted by Herzberg et al. showed that people are exposed to basic duality. On one hand, they strived for growth and self-realization (motivational factors—satisfactory) and on the other hand (hygienic factors—dissatisfaction factors), they want to avoid displeasure [30]. The importance of higher education for human resource management in the field of training and employee experience management is among the ten best trends in 2018. Executive Education is one of the best ways to achieve these two goals. Upgrading skills is the main goal of executive education and a well-developed executive education program goes a long way in improving employees’ skills and helping to develop talent. Executive education has a dual meaning in the organization. The first is to improve talent development, that is, to increase qualifications, and the second is to improve retention rates by providing an engaging employee experience [31].
The current concept of human resource development includes focusing on three basic issues: learning, performance, and change, both at the level of individuals and organizations [32]. This means that human resource development is a broader concept than the concepts of education or learning on economic and managerial aspects.
The results of some studies show that some Human Resource Investment Strategies negatively affect income inequality and reveal that business decisions regarding social sustainability can affect social sustainability in society [33].
Education affects the quality of life of an individual and his family and has a long-term effect on the feeling of satisfaction. According to Stanek [34], it also brings benefits for the whole society, such as vocational education that supports the increase of productivity and profit in the company, affects the improvement of labor market proportions, improves poverty reduction and social integration, and improves the level of human development. It affects also public health, encourages participation in civic and political life, and influences the adoption of a socially acceptable attitude.
Coleman and Barrie stated that the success of a company is influenced by the quality of its employees, their approach to the tasks entrusted to them, their attitude towards the company, and their knowledge, which they use for the benefit of their company. However, management must strive to support them on the path of continuous education, because the main goal and task of personnel work is to provide purposeful and active support to meet the main goal of the company [35].
Employee education can be characterized as an ongoing process in which there is adaptation and changes in work behavior, level of knowledge, skills, and motivation of employees of the organization through learning based on various methods [36]. Today’s modern society is often described as a “society of knowledge.” This concept suggests that education and knowledge have become a key element for both individual development and the development of society itself [37]. It is therefore not surprising that knowledge and information are becoming a hallmark of developed countries. Another such element of contemporary society is its dynamism, which is also reflected in education (and of course learning), which must be dynamic, continuous, and at the same time long-term. The paradigm, according to which education was once sufficient, has already been overcome and vice versa—it turns out that there is now an interaction between the worlds of education, learning, work, and personal life. Lifelong learning and adult education thus become an integral part of modern life in the 21st century [37]. In all occupational groups, the main motivating reasons for training are opportunities to improve work processes, personal development, and greater confidence in work, while lack of time is a key barrier to employee training [38].
Education, like any other activity in the organization, has to be monitored and evaluated to ensure its effectiveness [39]. The necessity of educational activities can be marked by advantages or disadvantages. One of the advantages is that, if the evaluation is well done, it can provide useful information on how the training program works and at the same time identify its strengths and weaknesses. It can show us what needs to be adjusted or improved in the education program and, in particular, helps us to find out whether the program has met the pre-set goals. Armstrong sums up the whole issue of evaluation: it is an integral part of education. Setting goals and methods for measuring results is, or should be, an essential part of the planning phase of any educational program [40].
In our investigation of the impact of human resources development on increasing employees’ performance in the company, we found out that the selected company had a sufficiently sophisticated human resources development policy. The modern approach is to consider the financial function in terms of financial policy and financial decision-making [41]. It strives to provide its employees with the best possible conditions for their development and career growth. The questionnaire survey showed that employees were sufficiently informed about training and development opportunities in the company through the intranet. They expected still more information about opportunities from personal development. It is appropriate to improve awareness of sources providing information on training opportunities.
Our proposals and recommendations are based on the individual perception of employees, who evaluated the impact of individual development tools on their performance. We recommend comparing the views of managers and employees on individual development tools with an impact on their performance. As a result, information can also be obtained on weaknesses where differences of opinion regarding education and performance improvement arise. With these suggestions and recommendations, the company can contribute to increasing the performance of its employees. Some proposals and recommendations can be implemented immediately, while others require time and sufficient funding to implement them.

5. Conclusions

Generally it is highly important for this and other companies to improve the identification of the needs regarding development and educational needs of employees, to improve the analysis of the work process and thus assessment of employees, and to try to find out their needs in the work process. Based on the analysis of personnel policy, obtained information from the questionnaire, and hypothesis testing, the proposal and recommendations for the company were determined. The survey focused on several aspects in order to increase employees’ performance. This included improving resources providing information on training activities from the human resources department, and to focus the company on factors that motivate employees to complete educational activities. The survey revealed a focus on the development of leaders, because leaders can greatly influence the performance of their subordinates. We also suggest that the company increases the awareness of employees about the opportunity for improvement at the workplace. It also includes a proposal for continuous monitoring of fluctuations by various methods. By introducing these proposals and recommendations into the company’s personnel policy, we expect a positive impact on the development and training of employees with an impact on increasing their performance.
In this survey, the employee’s performance was analyzed. This can depend also on other factors, such as performance appraisal tools, variable salary component, special remuneration, completed adaptation plan, duration of employee’s work in the company, the age of employee, period of employee performance assessment, or from the chief’s approach to its employees.
By testing hypotheses, there was found no statistically significant relationship between the move of the employees to other positions and their performance. This may be due to the fact that almost half of employees did not take the opportunity to change their job position.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, Z.S. and V.S.; methodology, Z.S. and V.S.; software, Z.S.; validation, Z.S. and V.S.; formal analysis, Z.S.; investigation, V.S.; resources, Z.S. and V.S.; writing—original draft preparation, Z.S. and V.S.; writing—review and editing, Z.S. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Acknowledgments

This paper was supported by project VEGA 1/0064/20, VEGA 1/0755/18 and IR 4/FPEDAS/2019.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Figure 1. The duration of the working activity in the working position in the Information-Communication Technologies (ICT) company.
Figure 1. The duration of the working activity in the working position in the Information-Communication Technologies (ICT) company.
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Figure 2. Work position of the requested employees.
Figure 2. Work position of the requested employees.
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Figure 3. The overall benefit for respondents after completing educational and development programs.
Figure 3. The overall benefit for respondents after completing educational and development programs.
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Figure 4. Motivation for better performance through performance review with employees.
Figure 4. Motivation for better performance through performance review with employees.
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Figure 5. Evaluation tools of job performance in company according to respondents’ statements.
Figure 5. Evaluation tools of job performance in company according to respondents’ statements.
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Table 1. The resulting values of testing hypothesis no. 1 based on the Kendall coefficient.
Table 1. The resulting values of testing hypothesis no. 1 based on the Kendall coefficient.
Measures of Ordinal AssociationAcceptance/Rejection of the Hypothesis
Kendall’s tau-c−0.032
95% CI−0.186 to 0.121
Two-sided p-value0.681
Table 2. The resulting values of testing hypothesis no. 2 based on the Kendall coefficient.
Table 2. The resulting values of testing hypothesis no. 2 based on the Kendall coefficient.
Measures of Ordinal Association
Kendall’s tau-c−0.018
95% CI−0.169 to 0.134
Two-sided p-value0.557
Table 3. The resulting values of testing hypothesis no. 3 based on the Kendall coefficient.
Table 3. The resulting values of testing hypothesis no. 3 based on the Kendall coefficient.
Measures of Ordinal Association
Kendall’s tau-c−0.018
95% CI−0.169 to 0.134
Two-sided p-value0.820

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Stofkova, Z.; Sukalova, V. Sustainable Development of Human Resources in Globalization Period. Sustainability 2020, 12, 7681. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187681

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Stofkova Z, Sukalova V. Sustainable Development of Human Resources in Globalization Period. Sustainability. 2020; 12(18):7681. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187681

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Stofkova, Zuzana, and Viera Sukalova. 2020. "Sustainable Development of Human Resources in Globalization Period" Sustainability 12, no. 18: 7681. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187681

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