Assessing the Effectiveness of Human Resource Management Practices in Achieving Departmental Goals: A Comparative Study of Key HRM Practices and Departmental Outcomes

The effectiveness of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices plays a pivotal role in achieving organizational and departmental goals, particularly in the education sector where human capital is the core driver of performance. This study investigates the extent to which HRM practices—recruitment and selection, training and development, performance appraisal, and compensation—contribute to departmental goal attainment within the Elementary and Secondary Education Department, District Kohat, Pakistan. The total population consisted of 10,385 employees across various strata, including teachers, headteachers, administrative staff, and support personnel. Using Krejcie and Morgan’s (1970) sample size determination table, a representative sample of 371 respondents was selected through stratified random sampling to ensure proportional representation of diverse employee groups. Data were collected via structured questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings indicate that HRM practices significantly enhance departmental outcomes such as efficiency, innovation, and service delivery, with training and development and performance appraisal identified as the most influential practices. Contextual factors, including leadership support and organizational culture, were found to moderate the effectiveness of these practices. The study concludes that strategic and systematic implementation of HRM practices is essential for optimizing departmental performance and recommends strengthening HR systems to achieve sustainable educational outcomes in the public sector.