Effect of Human Resource Development (HRD) Initiatives on Organizational Performance. A Case Study of the National Health Insurance Authority, Ghana

The paper investigates the practices of Human Resource Development (HRD) and its effect on organizational performance. The study employs a case-study strategy. A comprehensive study is done at the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) Human Resources to evaluate the variables of study. The study addresses the challenges faced by HRD professional, suggests remedies through HRD initiatives to achieve superior performance. Nonetheless, there is no empirical evidence as to whether the adoption of these initiatives led to employee retention and enhanced organizational performance at the NHIA. The study employs the mixed method approach: quantitative and qualitative research approaches. A total of 72 respondents were selected to participated in the research from a population of 90 employees at the Human Resources and Administrative Unit of the study organization. The study adopted questionnaires and interview guides to gather primary data. The study employs the use of descriptive analyses, and regression test to examine the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable. The study found that all the seven scales of the independent variable, HRD initiatives: career development, employee guidance and counseling, training and development, skills and technical training, organizational development, management and supervisory development, and coaching and mentoring had significant relationship with the dependent variable, organizational performance. The study concluded that the adoption of these practices would thus improve organizational performance.


Introduction
In today's fast revolutionary ever-changing environment, Human Resource Development (HRD) contributes significantly in determining the success of an organization (Muduli, 2015). The formulation of HRD initiatives by a range of researchers revealed that it is a means by which company employees can be transformed from their current state, to a preferred status in terms of enhanced expertise and technical know-how through training capability for the intention of reaching improved performance of employees (Woods, 2017). According to Graham and Bennet (2017), HRD is imperative to any growing company as it facilitates the improvements of organizational performance through the development of employees, directing and improving expertise and talents, using premeditated action design to enhance learning in firms. HRD is a people-centered idea that concentrates on developing the expertise, competencies and knowledge of people. According to Nadler (1984), HRD has to do with the learning encounters which are put together for a particular time and structured to produce the likelihood of attitudinal and behavioral change. Katou (2009) refers to HRD as a procedure of improving and enriching the knowledge, expertise, and behaviors of workers using training and refresher courses. In a business perspective, HRD is the way by which businesses assists their workers in a continuous and structured manner so as to gain or sharpen the talents needed to carry out diverse functions related to their current or expected future functions (Lawler, 2016). Swanson (2017) refers to HRD as a way of enhancing the performance of firms using the capabilities of its employees. According to Richard et al.(2009) organizational performance refers to the ability of a company to accomplish its goals by using its resources in an effective and efficient way. Organizational performance is also regarded as the actual results or output of a company as measured against its intended goals and objectives. According to Richard et al. (2009) organizational performance covers three specific spheres of a firm; financial performance (Return on Assets, Profits, Return on Investment, etc.), product market performance (Market Share, Sales, etc.), and shareholder return (economic value added, total shareholder return, etc.). The most preferred performance indicators recommended by past researchers for measuring performance in Human Resource Management studies is non-financial indicators (Khan & Shah, 2011). Therefore, this research used nonfinancial measures such as quality of service, cost reduction, flexibility, deliverability and commitment as identified by Richard et al. (2009). HRD initiatives were measured using training and development, career development, employee guidance and counseling, skills & technical training and learning & development as found by Sagwa et al. (2015). Researchers have over the years produced contradictory results concerning the effects of Human Resource Development initiatives on organizational performance in companies. Whereas researchers such as Odingo (2016), Obor (2017) respectively established a positive and significant effects of human resource development on organizational performance, Sagwa et al. (2015) and Dimba & K'Obonyo (2015) found a little effect of human resource development on organizational performance in firms. This study seeks to examine the effect of human resource development initiatives on the organizational performance.

Literature Review 2.1 The Concept of Human Resource Development (HRD)
Several writers have utilized the HRD terminology to signify training and development, career development and organizational development as the investments institutions makes regarding what its workers learn as an aspect of a Human Resource Management (HRM) approach (Bratton & Gold, 2013;Swanson & Holton, 2014). HRD is on the basis that, firms are Human-made entities which depend on the competencies of humans for the purpose of establishing and achieving their objectives, and also that, professionals of HRD are promoters of individual-based and group-based working activities as well as institutional uprightness. Also, HRD is a comprehensive and strategic means used to manage the environment of the workplace, the culture at the workplace as well as the people (Habib et al., 2015). Whilst the HRD terminology has commonly been used only during the 1980's, the ideology has been in existence far longer than that (Nginyo, 2010). Wilson, (2005) stated that, 'HRD is a combined utilization of training and development, career development and organization development for the purpose of improving organizations as well as individual effectiveness. Practicing HRD in an institution is encouraged on the basis of the institution's vision, mission as well as values (Wilson, 2005). The HRD scope is no limited to education, training and career planning and development. It also involves additional aspects like performance appraisal, employee welfare, rewards and quality of work life, counseling as well as job rotation. Beardwell and Claydon (2017) stated that, every employee desire to be of value and remain highly-competitive within the corporate environment always -through training and development. Training and Development are processes utilized for the purpose of maintaining and promoting the expertise and talent of workers with regards to both internal and external organizational developments. Njenga (2017) observed that, employee development directly affects the capability of an institution to make its clients satisfied; to sort out challenges and crises as well as to adapt to varying conditions of the market. Training and Development in institutions can take two (2) forms namely: external and internal sessions of training (Beardwell and Claydon, 2017).

Career Development
Programs of career development are indicated by Price (2017) as essential in guaranteeing consistent update and upgrade of the know-how, expertise, behavior as well as competences of workers. It guarantees that workers are well-developed prior to moving a step higher in the hierarchy. It is a core activity to invest in employees' career development with regards to maintaining and developing the skills, knowledge and abilities of individual workers as well as that of the institution in its entirety. The aim of career development is to make workers utilize their potentials to the maximum, stand up to tougher challenges and be responsible for bigger tasks as well as increase their autonomy (Napitupulu et al., 2017).

Organizational Development
The motive of organizational development is to alter the beliefs, values and the structure of institutions for the purpose of adapting properly to modern technologies, markets, challenges and dazzling degree of change itself (Wilson, 2005). It concerns the development of plans and the application of programs structured to improve how effective an institution carries out its activities and is able to respond to changes (Armstrong, 2006). This may include processes like change management, continuous improvement, business processes re-engineering, performance management and organizational change. HRD consists of initiatives meant for changing organizational behavior or enhancing the capability of change. Thus, HRD ought to ensure the optimization of the hours for the purpose of enabling workers grow alongside the institution; encourage collaboration and team spirit; and assist in the congruence of the aspirations of individuals as well as expectations of the organization (Torrington, 2015).

Employee Guidance and Counseling
Emphasis is laid on the usefulness of guidance and counseling by Nteng'a et al. (2014) when it comes to assisting Journal of Resources Development andManagement www.iiste.org ISSN 2422-8397 An International Peer-reviewed Journal Vol.81, 2021 22 individuals in standing up to life's realities, noticing talents, interests, aptitude and needs. The understanding of counseling may be perceived to mean consultation, discussion, deliberation and exchange of ideas, advice or decision-making processes. A viewpoint is held by Corey (2016) that counseling is made up of services structured to assist individuals in analyzing themselves through a process of associating their capabilities, achievements, interests and modes of adjusting to new decisions. Counseling, according to Aroko (2014), is an interaction-based procedure which conjoins the counselee (the vulnerable and one who requires assistance) and the counselor (the individual who underwent training for the purpose of giving assistance). An explanation is offered by Ekpang (2015) that, the descriptions of counseling must not be limited to face-to-face works with clients. It must be on a wider basis which involves various other agents of change, roles, activities as well as skills which include consultation and training, family counseling, group work, social work, teaching, supervision as well as administration. It is pointed out by Coetzee and Roythorne-Jacobs (2007) that, the objectives of counseling include enhancing behavioral changes, improving coping skills, encouraging decision-making, enhancing relationships and the facilitation of the potentials of clients.

Management and Supervisory Development
Management and Supervisory Development concerns the development of behaviors and expertise which an individual requires to become and keep being a manager who is effective (Chambers, 2013). Programs of Management and Supervisory Development ought to be structured, carried out and assessed based on the goals of an institution, the requirements of involved managers as well as the possible alterations in the team of the institution's management (Armstrong, 2020). Involved in it is the training of supervisors and directors in fundamental leadership skills that enables them to carry out their duties effectively in the positions they hold. A few of the vital Management and Supervisory Development aspects include the following: decision-making skills, teaching, creating and successfully managing work teams, effective resource allocation, budgeting, setting of objectives and business planning. Supervisory development deals with the distinctive situations of a director as a connection between the workers and the management of the institution (Buys & Louw, 2012).

Skills and Technical Training
The procedure of teaching, informing or educating individuals for them to end up as well-qualified to undertake their tasks and perform in positions which come with more difficulties and responsibilities (Cowling & Mailer, 2013). According to Carnevale and Smith (2013), training is a plan and a calculated effort towards the modification or development of know-how, techniques and attitudes via learning experiences for the purpose of achieving effective performances in activities. Also, Cowling and Mailer (2013) described training as the acquisition of skills set and behaviors which lead to enhanced performance. Initiatives of employee training are essential to workers as well as management. Furthermore, the existence of training initiatives encourages an organization's efficiency (Ngeno, 2015). Alternatively, organizations must fortify the bonds they have with their workers by making further investments in them through the provision of chances of Training and Development (Salas et al., 2013;Amponsah & Afram, 2018).

Organizational Performance
Previously, performance has been described in 3 aspects namely: efficiency, effectiveness and adaptability (Malaolu and Ogbuabor, 2017). One of the essential aspects of an institution's management is the assessment of performance. The traditional technique of evaluating performance paid attention entirely to financial measures like equity, cash flow and earnings per share (Kamoche, 1996). Nevertheless, institutions have come to the realization that, there exists other vital elements which could be essential to long-term successfulness. Included in these measures which are not finance-based are the following: human resources, satisfaction of customers, product quality, market share, innovation as well as learning (Houger & Roux-Zink, 2016).
Aspects such as bottom-line profits have been described using performance. Other finance-based indicators like share price, performing better than rivals; maximized organizational effectiveness and the achievement of specific organizational goals have also been defined by the use of performance. It is argued by Torrington (2015) that, a specific group of programs which mutually reinforce human development probably possesses greater effects on performance than the application of a single program or a few of them in isolation.

HRD and Organizational Performance
HRD consists of the human development-related operations of an institution. To ensure the productive performance of a worker, the existing atmosphere within the institution must be favorable for development (DeSimone, 2015). Evaluating HRD activities should occur so as to address whether or not the strategic goals of the institution have been achieved and whether or not the performances of workers have improved. The outcome of the assessment may be utilized in influencing the perceptions of how effective the programs and resource allocation are with regards to HRD on the basis of performance (Hamlin & Stewart, 2011). There are a lot of motives behind the carrying out evaluations. Usually, the motives are categorized into two, namely: to have an improvement in the HRD program and to make a decision concerning maintaining it or not maintaining it (Nguah & Asare, 2015). Katou (2009) stated that HRD programs require emphasis to be laid on decision-making and customer handling techniques in addition to in-depth services and products knowledge. To employ and maintain good quality workers, it is a valuable policy to make investments into developing their abilities, knowledge as well as skills for the purpose of increasing the productivity of the workers and that of the organization ultimately (Chand & Katou, 2007).
During the procedures of HRD, the learning experiences encountered by workers stimulate education, training, leadership roles and peer coaching. programs of human resources development provide a prospect for formal as well as informal moments of learning (Muduli, 2015). Due to HRD workers are encouraged to enhance their productivities at the work place. With regards to Hutchins and Wang (2008), the greatest competitors utilize HRD programs for the purpose of improving the capabilities of their workers as a means of implementing their business strategy. Programs of development assist new and existing workers to consistently enhance the qualities of the services they offer. Employee retention in any institution is also affected by the development programs implemented since a lot of workers seek employers who offer developmental programs that ensure the facilitation of career advancement. A study conducted by Malaolu and Ogbuabor (2013) on HRD initiatives applied by organizations identified five HRD initiatives: employee training, mentorship, coaching, employee motivating and organizing of staff welfare programs. The study concluded that HRD initiatives substantially had an influence on Kenya Revenue Authority's organizational performance. Kamoche (2002) in a similar investigation in Africa assessed the HRD initiatives adopted by the organizations for the purpose of improving performance. The study suggested the following HRD initiatives: recruitment, training, promotion, incentives, benefits, and employee involvement that improved organizational performance. Based on the literature, the researcher hypothesis that: H1: HRD initiatives does not significantly affect organizational performance.

Methodology
The study investigates the HRD initiatives on organizational performance. The study adopts the mixed method approach (Denscombe, 2008) : qualitative and quantitative approaches. Kothari (2004) suggested that qualitative approach seeks to probe intensely into specific experiences of subjects or respondents with the intention of probing and reporting the logical implication of such investigations through text, narratives or visual-based data.
Qualitative research produces reports based on the particular events or cases analyzed, and any extensive determinations are merely an assumption (Williams, 2007). Semi-structured interview questions were used to gather data. According to Kothari (2004), quantitative researches are methodical analysis of observable happenings applying numeric and statistical strategies. Quantitative researches are aimed at establishing and using statistical models as regards an observable fact (Osborne, 2008). With the quantitative research approach, the study employed the use of structured closed-ended questionnaire examined on the five-point Likert scale to gather data from participants. The validity and reliability of these data collection instruments were tested.
The study adopted the case study strategy, and the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), a body corporate established under the National Health Insurance Act, 2003 (Act 650) to attain universal health insurance coverage in Ghana was used. Yin (2011) stress that case-study research design is an in-depth study of a particular research problem rather than a sweeping statistical survey or comprehensive comparative inquiry. The researcher employed purposive sampling technique to select participants for the data collection. Purposive sampling helps to sample cases strategically so that the sampled are relevant to the research questions that are been posed (Etikan et al., 2008). In all, 72 participants were sampled from a population of 90 employees belonging to the Human Resources and Administration Units of the case-study institution's head office. These included the Director and Managers of Human Resources, Human Resource and Administration officers in the Head Office, and Finance Managers. Interviews were conducted in English for the Director and Managers of Human Resources. The interviews were held in the office of the Director of Human Resources. Interview sessions lasted between 30 minutes and 45 minutes. Closed-ended questionnaires were submitted to all participants and collected back in two hours.
The data collected from the question were coded into the IBM SPSS software version 25, multiple regression analysis were run and the results presented in tables. After the interviews, data which was digitally recorded were transcribed verbatim to express the views of participants in their own words. The transcribed material and the documents gathered were later read through several times with close attention being given to emerging themes in the data. The researcher complied with ethical issues by obtaining permission from the case-study institution and seeking consent of all participants.

Findings and Discussions 4.1 Gender, Level of Education and Work Experience
The Table 1 represents the gender class of the respondents, their level of education and work experience gathered from participants of the study. The study found that, 28 of the respondents representing 39% were male and 44 constituting 61% were female. Participants with diplomas as their highest educational levels were 11, making up 15%, those with first degrees were 43 representing 60%, and Master's degree holders were 18 representing 25%. This indicated that respondents were able to read and understand the questionnaires and then provide applicable responses to the questions. Concerning their working experience with the NHIA, 15 of the respondents constituting 21% had worked at the NHIA for 10 years and above, 32 respondents representing 44% had worked at the NHIA for 7-9 years and 21 making 29% of the respondents worked at the NHIA for 4-6 years. In addition, 4 respondents representing 6% had worked at the NHIA between 1-3 years. This indicated that the respondents had substantial working experience at NHIA and could offer the needed information required to deal with the research question.

Quantitative Results
To address this research question, the study investigated the key HRD practices identified in the literature review by Malaolu and Ogbuabor (2013) in the organization. The results are presented in Table 2.  Table 2 represents the results of the implementation of HRD initiatives at NHIA. The identified HRD initiatives were analyzed using minimum, standard deviations, mean and minimum distributions respectively. The study found that employee guidance and counseling, career development and training and development respectively were the most applied HRD initiatives. These practices recorded a mean of 4 and a standard deviation of 1.41 respectively. Skills and technical training emerged as the next frequently applied HRD initiatives with a mean score of 3.5. The maximum score of 5 and standard deviation of 2.12 implied that majority of the respondents agreed that skills and technical training was a critical HRD initiatives at the NHIA. These results corroborate the findings of Beardwell and Claydon (2017) who found training and development, career development and employee guidance and counseling as major HRD initiatives that results significantly to organizational performance in selected pharmaceutical firms in Kampala, Uganda.
The findings indicated that organizational development and management and supervisory development respectively were other two most important HRD initiatives with mean scores of 3 each. Coaching and mentoring was also found as a moderately applied HRD initiatives with a mean of 2.5 and a matching standard deviation of 2.12. The deployment of coaching and mentoring as demonstrated by these findings supports that of MacLennan  (2017) who found coaching and mentoring as an important HRD initiatives that helps employees to function effectively. According to MacLennan (2017), coaching is largely having to do with performance and the development of certain expertise whereas mentoring seeks to establish wisdom, that's the capacity to apply knowledge, skills and experience to contemporary positions and processes.

Qualitative Findings
The results of the interview carried out on HRD initiatives at the NHIA indicated the following: Remarking on training and development practices, respondent C indicated that; "The NHIA formulated a career-enhancement policy to train and develop employees and thus increase their efficiency in carrying out their obligations". According to interviewee A: "Training and development assist NHIA to develop pools of competent substitutes for employees who might quit their jobs or be elevated to areas of greater duties. This initiative helps our organization to ensure that qualified work force is required to sustain the growth and expansion of the organization". Respondent B revealed that; "Training and development help NHIA to utilize modern technologies and to adapt to the hastily varying competitive environment. It also enhances the efficiencies of employees as well as motivates employees, leading to benefits in both job satisfaction and productivity". Commenting on career development, Respondents D stated that; "At the NHIA, we use career development to modify knowledge, attitudes, behaviors and skills of employees. The NHIA support the career development initiatives of its workforce through the creation of chances for organizational learning, financing career development initiatives, providing incentives to employees partaking in career developments such as promotion upon completion, permitting workers to be on study leave among others". Regarding employee guidance and counseling, interviewee A indicated that; "At the NHIA, guidance and counseling initiatives are structured to help the organization to assist its employees to understand the unchallengeable state of affairs of issues in the organization and not to be overcome by the challenges of their positions". Speaking on Organizational Development, interviewee C revealed that; "The NHIA has implemented organizational development initiatives to modify the attitudes, beliefs, and values of the organization, so that our employees can adapt better to new markets, technologies and challenges". The results from the interview found training and development practices, career development, employee guidance and counseling and organizational development as major HRD initiatives at the NHIA. The quantitative findings also established similar findings such as skills and technical training, training and development, management and supervisory development, coaching and mentoring, career development, employee guidance counseling and coaching and mentoring as the HRD initiatives at the NHIA. From these findings, it is obvious that the NHIA had implemented a number of HRD initiatives.

HRD and Organizational Performance What is the effect of HRD initiatives on organizational performance?
The study adopted a descriptive statistics and regression test to address this research question. Multiple regression test was run to assess the association between the HRD initiatives and organizational performance. The descriptive statistics was employed to examine the views and opinion of the respondents on how the HRD initiatives contributed to organizational performance at the NHIA. The results are provided in Table 3.  Table 3, "high service quality observed" and "reduction of operational cost" respectively came forth as the two most significant benefit gained from the implementation of the various HRD initiatives. These factors had a mean score of 4 and a standard deviation of 1.41 each. "Flexibility of services", "employee commitment", "enhanced profitability witnessed", and "steady firm growth observed" respectively came as the second most important benefits gained from the utilization of the HRD initiatives. All these factors recorded a Journal of Resources Development and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2422-8397 An International Peer-reviewed Journal Vol.81, 2021 mean of 3 and a standard deviation of 1.41, except increased profitability witnessed which had a standard deviation of 2.82. These results implied that the respondents agreed that the HRD initiatives employed by the NHIA had led to the listed benefits. These findings corroborate the results of Kamoche (2002) who found reduction of operational cost, stable firm growth and high service quality as outcomes of effective implementation of HRD initiatives. The results additionally confirm the conclusions reached by Malaolu and Ogbuabor (2013) that HRD initiatives can provide a company with a competitive edge both in local and global environment in areas such as employee commitment and loyalty toward the company.

Results of the Regression Analysis
The research employed a regression model presented below for the regression test.
OP=α+β1EGC+β2CD+β3TD+β4STT+β5OD+β6MSD+β7CM+ε Where: • OP stands for organizational performance, α is the constant term, • EGC represents employee guidance and counseling, • CD is career development, • TD stands for training and development • STT represents skills and technical training • OD which is organizational development, • MSD which represents management and supervisory development • CM which stands for coaching and mentoring.
• β1, β2, β3, β4, β5, β6 and β7 in that order represents the coefficients of the independent variables although ε is the error term.  Table 4 represents the fitness test of the regression model utilized for this study. From the results, the R squared score is .895 and adjusted downward to .76.9%. This implies that 89.5% of the changes in organizational performance are explained by employee guidance and counseling, career development, training and development, skills and technical training, organizational development, management and supervisory development and coaching and mentoring. The study found that 10.5% of the variations in organizational performance are accounted for by other indicators that are not included in this research. The 89.5% precision level is a signal that the adopted regression model is fit for this study.  Table 5. The model had a regression sum of square of 16.36 and a residual sum of squares of 8.52. The model additionally recorded a regression mean of squares of 2.548 and a residual mean of squares of .729, an F statistic of 9.125 and a matching p-value of .001. These results implied that employee guidance and counseling, career development, training and development, skills and technical training, organizational development, management and supervisory development and coaching and mentoring in that order are important in estimating organizational performance at the NHIA since the p-value of .001 is less than 5% which is the decisive value adopted for the study. Journal of Resources Development andManagement www.iiste.org ISSN 2422-8397 An International Peer-reviewed Journal Vol.81, 2021 Coefficients test  Table 6 revealed that the adopted regression model which was OP=α+β1EGC+β2CD+β3TD+β4STT+β5OD+β6MSD+β7CM+ε, by adding up the coefficient scores now becomes:

Significance test
OP=.571+.218*EGC+.319*CD+.241*TD+.106*STT+.131*OD+.163*MSD+101*CM From the demonstrated coefficient results, the study recorded a positive correlation between organizational performance and employee guidance and counseling, career development, training and development, skills and technical training, organizational development, management and supervisory development and coaching and mentoring. All these independent variables recorded a significant effect on organizational performance as expressed by their individual p-values that are lesser than the 5% critical value adopted for the study.
The study found that employee guidance and counseling had a coefficient of .218, a t-statistics of 1.87 and a p-value of .000 in that order. This implied that organizational performance had improved by 21.8% when employee guidance and counseling increased by 1%. The effect of employee guidance and counseling on organizational performance at the NHIA is statistically significant at 5%. This supported the findings of Push and Ananthram (2016) who found a positive and significant association between employee guidance and counseling and organizational performance in five selected manufacturing companies in Kano, Nigeria.
Career development also recorded a coefficient score .319 and a p-value of .002, suggesting that the adoption of career development initiatives had resulted in a 31.9% increase in organizational performance. The findings corroborate the conclusion reached by DeCenzo and Robbins (2015) that career development practices are critical contributors to organizational performance.
On training and development, it registered a coefficient of .241, a t-statistics of 0.51 and a p-value of .000. The findings indicated that organizational performance increased by 24.1% when training and development increased by 1%.
Skills and technical training established a coefficient score of .106, meaning the adoption of skills and technical training had affected organizational performance positively. This indicated that, an increase in the utilization of skills and technical training by 1% would result to 10.6% increase in organizational performance. Concerning organizational development, there was a recorded coefficient value of .131, a t-statistics of 0.63 and corresponding p-value of .001. This is an indication that organizational development contributed 13.1% to organizational performance.
Management and supervisory development recorded a coefficient score of .163, a t-statistics of 0.30 and a pvalue of .004, which implied that the initiative contributed 16.3% to organizational performance. The effect of management and supervisory development on organizational performance is statistically significant. The findings supports that of Beardwell and Claydon (2017), who found that management and supervisory development practices such as the training of managers and functional heads in leadership expertise, decision making skills, developing and managing work forces, effective resource allocation, business planning, budgeting and goal setting were some of the major management and supervisory development factors that contributed significantly to organizational performance.
With regards to coaching and mentoring, there was a coefficient of .101, a t-statistics of .374 and a p-value of .003. This suggested that coaching and mentoring initiatives had contributed 10.1% to NHIA's organizational performance. From these findings, the researcher was able to conclude that all the independent variables used in the study, namely, employee guidance and counseling, career development, training and development, skills and technical training, organizational development, management and supervisory development and coaching and mentoring were key organizational performance indicators at the NHIA as exhibited by the coefficient and pvalues recorded in this study. However, employee guidance and counseling and training and development respectively had the greatest effect on organizational performance. This was followed by skills and technical training and organizational development, and management and supervisory development initiatives had the least Journal of Resources Development andManagement www.iiste.org ISSN 2422-8397 An International Peer-reviewed Journal Vol.81, 2021 28 effect on organizational performance.

Challenges of Implementing HRD Initiatives What are the challenges of implementing HRD initiatives at the NHIA?
The researcher conducted both quantitative and qualitative analysis to identify challenges in the implementation of HRD initiatives. On the quantitative study, the respondents were examined on six key challenges identified in literature. The results in Table 7 represented the views of respondents:  Table 7 represents the findings regarding the challenges to effective implementation of HRD initiatives at the NHIA. "Lack of cooperation, commitment and motivation to take part in HRD initiatives" came forth as a major challenge to the implementation of HRD. This is expressed by a mean value of 4 and a standard deviation of 1.41. The maximum response rate of 5 and the recorded standard deviation score of 1.41 is an indication that most of the respondents strongly agreed that Lack of cooperation, commitment and motivation to take part in HRD initiatives was a major challenge in implementing HRD initiatives.
Resistance to new changes and procedures in the company among the workforce emerged as the second challenge as demonstrated by the mean score of 3.5 and matching standard deviation score of 2.12. The recorded minimum score of 2 and the maximum score of 5 connotes that the respondent agreed to this.
The study found that "Insufficient financial resources for HRD initiatives" was another key challenge to the implementation of HRD initiatives at the NHIA, which showed a mean value of 3. The maximum rate of 5 and the standard deviation score of 2.82 which is relatively lesser than the mean score of 3, is a clear indication of a general acceptance of the respondents to the findings that Insufficient financial resources for HRD initiatives was an impediment to effective implementation of HRD initiatives at the NHIA.
Other factors such as "The lack of intellectual HRD experts" (mean=3), "Dealing with the demand for knowledgeable employees" (mean=2.5), and "Fear of failure during training initiatives" (mean=2) respectively were also found as key challenges to the implementation of HRD initiatives at the NHIA. This findings supports the results of Muduli (2015) and Katou (2009) who found resistance to new changes among employees, lack of commitment and motivation to participate in HRD initiatives and insufficient funding for HRD initiatives as major factors that negatively affected the implementation of HRD initiatives.
• Qualitative Findings on the Challenges in Implementing HRD Initiatives at the NHIA From the qualitative data obtained through the interview sections, the researcher identified the lack of HRD professionals who are adequately knowledgeable to carry out need assessments and follow-up analysis as a challenge to effective implementation of HRD initiatives at the NHIA as described by interviewee A and C respectively: "The NHIA provides training to our employees but our major challenge is having somebody to take care of our follow-ups on training, evaluations and so forth. These duties are wearisome, complex and needed a professional like an actual HRD professional. I am struggling to handle these functions since they are not my area of specialization". (Respondent A) Reporting on the lack of well-informed HRD experts, respondent C indicated that; "The NHIA provides a number of HRD trainings to our employees. However, we use external trainers to train these employees, since we do not have the internal experts to deal with training. My task is to plan for the company's yearly HRD initiatives, get external trainers and our employees to participate in the training " From the above interview results, it is noticeable that the NHIA lacked the workforce and experts to carry out the diverse HRD duties. The finding supports that of Grobler & Warnich (2016) whose studied selected manufacturing firms in South Africa and found that firms required knowledgeable and experienced HRD experts such as professional internal trainers with the skills to train and build up the workforce within the companies.
Regarding the challenges of dealing with the demand for knowledgeable employees, respondent D, C and A reported that the NHIA faced challenges which were related to employing, re-training and keeping technical experts, and the study also found that workers frequently exited the company after they were trained. Remarking on this, respondents stated that; "It is hard to get workers to stay with the organization even after they received expensive trainings. These employees are competent, but the NHIA cannot prevent them from leaving because they are searching for better opportunities" (Respondent A). "Most of our technical employees have been with the organization for more than 10 years ……they were promoted through the ranks to where they are now, but the challenge is that other private insurance companies are poaching them" (Respondent D) "Other competitors always pinched our skilled employees. It is part of the major challenges of implementing effective HRD initiatives in the organization. That is why we hardly provided expensive training to our employees; apart from those whom we know are loyal and dedicated. For instance, a year ago, we presented six functional heads and supervisors to South Africa for three months to study new strategies that could assist the organization to achieve its goals of achieving efficiency, high quality and speed of service delivery. It was a huge investment. Upon their return, two of the employees were given jobs by other private insurance companies and they took the chance to leave, I think we should have bonded them". (Respondent C) The above responses indicated that employees of the NHIA were being poached by other competitors in search of highly skilled workers. Another identified challenge was resistance to change as indicated by interviewee E, who reported that; "A major challenge of implementing HRD initiatives in this company is insufficient change management programmes. Change management is realistically imperative. Notwithstanding how significant a HRD initiatives may be, it cannot succeed if workforces do not want it implemented"

Summary of Findings
The study identified seven HRD initiatives: • career development • employee guidance and counseling • training and development • skills and technical training • organizational development • management and supervisory development • coaching and mentoring There was a significant relationship between career development, employee guidance and counseling, training and development, skills and technical training, organizational development, management and supervisory development and coaching and mentoring, and organizational performance. Benefits of the implementation of the HRD initiatives identified were: • high service quality • reduced operational cost • flexibility of services provided • employee-commitment • enhanced profitability • stable firm growth Challenges of the implementation of the HRD initiatives identified were: • lack of cooperation • commitment and motivation to take part in HRD initiatives • resistance to new changes and procedures in the company among the workforce • insufficient financial resources for HRD initiatives • the lack of intellectual HRD experts • dealing with the demand for knowledgeable employees • fear of failure during training initiatives

Conclusion
The study sought to investigate the effect of human resource development initiatives on organizational performance. A review of the exit interviews conducted at NHIA pointed out lack of training and development practices as effects for the high turnover. In order to overcome the challenges and achieve superior performance, the NHIA introduced HRD initiatives. Seven elements of HRD initiatives were identified and the measurement shows that when these practices are applied effectively, it would improve organizational performance. This calls for active implementation of the HRD initiatives. The organisation should ensure HRD practice execution in operational administration The prevailing situation in the case of NHIA with regards to challenges could be Journal of Resources Development and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2422-8397 An International Peer-reviewed Journal Vol.81, 2021 explained by absence of HRD professionals. Thus, if the NHIA is seen as a key player in promoting its mandate, then, Management may have to concentrate on the employment of HRD professionals to take care of the responsibilities of developing human skills and managing the different specialized HRD roles. Managers of the NHIA may have to evaluate and examine their employment and promotional policies to guarantee that their workforce is retained, especially those that benefited from expensive trainings and developments. The implementation of HRD initiatives adopted at the NHIA has led to improved organizational performance in areas such as high service quality, reduced operational cost, flexibility of services provided, employee commitment, enhanced profitability and stable firm growth. The performance of the organisation is seen from the productivity level more than the innovation, task completed or level of costs. It is therefore important that the company should look into the adoption of these HRD initiatives. The organisation should structure the organisation to ensure the implementation of the HRD initiatives. According to Rao (2002), HRD initiatives can be organized in different ways in the organisation, such as: -a dedicated and fully manned HRD department; -a HRD cell in the units or locations; -high profile HRD Manager with the required Staff; -HRD taskforce comprising line managers with a HRD trained leader; -CEO handling HRD; -the training Manager handling HRD; and -personnel Manager handling HRD, among others.

Suggestions for Further Study
Further studies should be considered to conduct empirical evidence as to whether the adoption of the HRD initiatives had a relationship with employee retention, increased efficiency, competitiveness and enhanced organizational performance. The same topic under study could be undertaken in other firms in the insurance industry other than the NHIA.