Human Resources Intellectual Development and Performance of Small Scale Enterprises in Ondo State, Nigeria

The study assessed the effect of Human Resources Intellectual Development or HRID, on the performance of Medium Enterprises or SMEs in manufacturing within the Ondo State, Nigeria. The study focused on the relationship between training and development, skills acquisition and educational qualifications of employees and productivity. A survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised of 46,433 workers in manufacturing SMEs in Ondo State, Nigeria. Using the Taro Yamane formula, the study selected 397 SMEs as the sample size for the study. Data for the study were collected directly from the owners/managers of the SMEs and their employees using a questionnaire as the research instrument. The study analysed the data using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The data were described using the mean and standard deviation, while multiple regression analysis tested the hypotheses. The study found that training and development, skill acquisition and educational qualifications of employees significantly influenced employee productivity. However, the variables had different levels of influence. The study recommends that managers of SMEs should invest more effort in training and developing their employees, create avenues for acquiring skills through practical training and ensure their employees further their studies to upgrade their educational qualifications to increase their productivity.