Establishment of HR department and role of HR in hospital

Discuss about the Perspectives on Human Resource Management.

In the given case study, the first hospital encounters many issues regarding human resource management as the hospital’s CEO has devolved the power to the middle managers and the finance management functioning as the human resource department. The following are the recommendations for the first hospital to improve the operation of the human resource management at the hospital. The sustainable development of a human resource (HR) capability is the key to success of an organization that include strategic management addressing the issues related to issues and competitive challenges generally encountered in an organization. The HR capability will cater to the needs and demands of the situations that arise in course of time in the company operation.

The first hospital lacks the human resource management functions and key HR policies that are required for delivering the efficient quality of care to the patients. The middle managers perform the functions of human resource like the job analysis, training and development, recruitment and selection and performance that affects the quality of care to the patients. The poor implications of HR policies and practices by the middle managers has lead to the increase in staff grievances, industrial disruption, staff shortages, absenteeism leading to deterioration in satisfaction in staffs and quality of care to the patients. The following recommendations would help to improve the operation of HRM in the first hospital.

The first hospital lacks the human resource department and a senior HR manager as the key functions of HR are performed by middle managers. The middle managers are responsible for providing guidance to the managers at the low level and push the data, facts, details and analysis to the organization. They are not meant to perform the key functions of HR like job analysis, training, staff selection and recruitment, occupational health and safety measures and in improving the overall performance of the hospital services. There is urgency for establishment of human resource management department. The human resource management is important for the first hospital as it plays a vital role and their decisions and actions directly affect the quality of care to patients and the job satisfaction in hospital staffs. The level of performance by the staff influences the hospital’s performance and the outcomes in patients. The human resource management is concerned with the development of both the individuals and the organization as a whole (Townsend, Lawrence & Wilkinson, 2013). They seek the responsibility of delivering quality of healthcare to the patients and improve services. The HR department would efficiently use the spectrum of patient services and their coordination with the health care providers. The HR department also ensures equity among the staffs, mechanisms for strategic financial protection, analyzing specific needs of the groups and in improving patient satisfaction (Baluch, Salge & Piening, 2013). The hospital requires a senior HR manager to manage the HR department. The role of HR in a healthcare is important in managing and performing the key functions of the HR department. The senior HR manager performs many functions like maintenance and use of financial services, planning of budget and profits of the owners and stockholders, and efficient use of finances to fulfill the patients’ obligations. The HR manager would look into the adequacy of staffs at every level of the hospital, absenteeism, recruit and replace the inefficient medical staffs and make changes to meet the demands of the current patients (Boella & Goss-Turner, 2013). The HR manger and the department are responsible for training and recruitment of medical staffs, renewal of medical licenses of the health care professionals and the replenishment of the educational requirements renewing the certifications.

Development of efficient HR policies and practices

The HR policies and practices are important in a healthcare system as the decisions and actions taken by the organization greatly influences the behavior of the staffs, their attitudes and the performance in ensuring quality care services (Tyson, 2014). It also involves the recruitment, training and assessment of workforce. The HR policies are responsible for looking after the manpower, their recruitment, welcoming new staffs, training and development, handling the staffs’ grievances, the patients’ needs, performance of the management and handling of charges and responsibilities in the healthcare sector (Stone, 2013). The identification and planning of the services and requirements of the hospital needs and a sound staff that helps in achieving the goals of the hospital. For the planning of manpower, the essential recruitment is important in terms of qualifications, aptitude, skills that are required for the hospital. The conduction of HR training for building of competent staffs, purpose and methods involved for the training interventions. These methodologies would help to recruit new staffs and replenish the shortage. The HR policy also looks after the grievances of the staffs and finds solutions to it. The HR policy also lays down the health needs of the medical staffs and for the patients. The HR Audit finally reviews all the aspects of human resource management functioning and strengthen the core HR policies for the better functioning of the hospital.

The human resource management involves the administrative function of the healthcare system in hospitals. The strategic management consists of the approach of the HR in meeting the goals of the hospital through the staffs by the means of policies and practices of HR and integration of the HR strategies. It includes the setting of the strategic human resource management process that includes the strategic direction that would define the hospital’s goals, missions, the external threats and opportunities and the internal weaknesses and strengths (Abdelhak, Grostick & Hanken, 2014). It also comprises of the strategic implementation of devising structures and allocation of resources to enact human resource management strategies of the hospital. Above all, the hospital should practice sustainable HR practices to achieve the goals and fill the gap in the functioning.

Concisely, there is a need for urgency to reshape the HR management with the establishment of HR department, HR manager, the various HR policies and practices and the strategic planning and management. The recruitment of HR manager and a HR department is the foremost thing that would manage the operation of human resource management at the hospital.

Strategic human resource management

The basis of a sustainable HR capacity provides an essential insight into the HR policies and procedures that are followed by the organization to support for the proper functioning in congruency with the employee as well as the employers relationship and fulfillment of the personal needs of the individual employee. HR policies basically offer guidelines and standing instructions regarding matters related to HR issues in conjunction with definite strategies and approaches that may be applied into actual practice. The policies are so improvised that they are in accordance with the values and defined principles of the organization. The attitudes and social responsibilities of the organization towards their employees are exhibited by virtue of the overall HR policy. The specific HR policies generally comprise a range of issues encompassing age and employment, discipline, bullying, diversity management, employee growth, voice and relations, employment relationships, scopes of equal opportunity, health and safety provision, grievances, incorporation of new technology, promotion, rewards, redundancy, substance abuse, sexual harassment and work life balance. Moreover prior to implementation, the HR policies should be verified whether they satisfy the legal competency standards to put into effective practice. Extensive and thorough communication and feedbacks from the managers, employees and the respective representatives culminates in successful formulation and implementation of HR policies (Armstrong & Taylor, 2015). The utilization of the HR policies must be in line with the procedures that pave the way for the organizational functioning. Consistent and appropriate following of the HR procedures are the concerns of the line managers who work in coalition with the HR department to gain access to valuable information and necessary guidance to devise holistic strategies. Procedures for HR policies normally consider contexts linked to capability and disciplinary matters along with other matters like grievances and redundancy. Personnel function and human resource management are intimately associated that account for the operational advantage and employee satisfaction concerning HR issues. Instead of problem solving and mediation roles, they are entrusted with the roles of strategizing and planning to ensure functioning of the competent workforce (Storey, 2014). Therefore, a sustainable HR capability will ensure that all these standards and guidelines are adequately taken care of in keeping with specific organizational beliefs and values.

The roles of HR in an organization generally consist of certain vital functions including anticipation and driving of changes, possession of extreme professionalism and credibility, greater emphasis on behaviors rather than knowledge, self critical ability and harnessing of the care for the employees. The HR professionals are entrusted with the responsibilities of strategic management, health and safety, community and employee relations, design and analysis of work, HR policies and planning, HR information and systems, recruitment and selection, management of diversity an work life balance, learning and development as well as performance and management. Measurement and assessment of the HR issues related to international HR, employee services and compensation and reward management are among the other duties of the HR. The human and social outcomes within an organization are pivotal to the sustainability of the proposed HR capability. The stakeholders seem to be both positively and negatively impacted due to the human resource management linked o the applicability of the HR policies. Hence in view of this the promotion of social and environmental health is the basis of sustainable development of HR policy in an organization that impacts the working modality of the company (Kramar, 2014). These precondition normally the performance output. The socio-economic, regulatory and technological contexts are influenced and in turn affect the development of strategy and HRM policies and guidelines. The human resource, roles and responsibilities include evaluation, benefits, audit and data management in conjunction with industrial relations and legal considerations. Diversity, counseling and employee development in addition to compensation provided, organizational development, change management and strategic management are other criteria for the improvisation of a sustainable HR policy. An interdisciplinary approach comprising of the strategic positioners, credible activists, capacity builders, HR innovators and integrators along with technology proponents is desirable to the facilitation and implementation of the HR policies. Corporate social responsibility as well as the corporate social dependence indicates the success or failure of the HR policies that determine the functioning of an organization with respect to its intrinsic organizational policies and beliefs (Bratton & Gold, 2012). The success of the strategy implementation is determined by virtue of certain attributes related to organizational structure, design of task, types of information and information systems, selection, training and development of employees and reward systems. Supervision of the effectiveness of the strategy and the implementation techniques and accurate identification of the problematic issues, review of the existing structures and policies and improvisation of alternative strategies are other requisites to a sustainable HR capacity. Further recognition and acknowledgement of the vital nature of human resources in gaining competitive advantage are other significant criteria that foster the sustainability of a HR capacity.

Recommendations

 The sustainability of the HR capacity may be interpreted by means of the capability approach and the careful analysis of the ecological dimension, responsibility and relationship between the individual and collective levels. Integration of all these variables account for strong sustainability. In view of this, reference can be made about the job analysis, job design and workflow design that are necessary to create a link between the strategic aims of the business and the job patterns (Pelenc et al., 2013). Job analysis ensures identification of the tasks accomplished and the knowledge, skills and abilities required to execute them. Moreover a thorough understanding about the job requirements allow pragmatic hiring decisions along with the evaluation of the performance of individual employee thereby fostering the training needs and career progression. Further addressing of the multiple stakeholders in managing innovation and environmental sustainability contribute towards a strategic human resource management (HRM) that is both utilitarian and sustainable (Jackson, Schuler & Jiang, 2014). 

Conclusion

The hospital is situated at multiple sites so there is a need for a large manpower. The hospital requires a HR department and a manager. The planning of efficient HR policies that would help the HR in the practicing of key functions like job analysis, recruitment of staffs, management of performances, the financial issues and management processes.

The establishment of a sustainable HR capacity is instrumental to the functioning of an organization and the chief characteristics that define such set up include a number of committees such as the safety, health and environmental risk assessment surveillance committee, regulatory and legislative supervision committee, stakeholder relations committee and credit committees. Bidirectional and mutual relationships among the representatives of the operational units as well as the corporate departments congruent to the corporate relations add value to the organizational framework. Hence the human resource management comprising of features related to selection, recruitment, employment legislation, discipline, development, training, reward systems, productivity and motivations seem to impact the HR capacity’s sustainability.

References

Abdelhak, M., Grostick, S., & Hanken, M. A. (2014). Health information: management of a strategic resource. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

Baluch, A. M., Salge, T. O., & Piening, E. P. (2013). Untangling the relationship between HRM and hospital performance: the mediating role of attitudinal and behavioural HR outcomes†. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(16), 3038-3061.

Boella, M., & Goss-Turner, S. (2013). Human resource management in the hospitality industry: A guide to best practice. Routledge.

Bratton, J., & Gold, J. (2012). Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave Macmillan.

Jackson, S. E., Schuler, R. S., & Jiang, K. (2014). An aspirational framework for strategic human resource management. The Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), 1-56.

Kramar, R. (2014). Beyond strategic human resource management: is sustainable human resource management the next approach?. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(8), 1069-1089.

Pelenc, J., Lompo, M. K., Ballet, J., & Dubois, J. L. (2013). Sustainable human development and the capability approach: Integrating environment, responsibility and collective agency. Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 14(1), 77-94.

 Stone, R. J. (2013). Managing human resources. John Wiley and Sons.

Storey, J. (2014). New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.

 Townsend, K., Lawrence, S. A., & Wilkinson, A. (2013). The role of hospitals’ HRM in shaping clinical performance: a holistic approach. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(16), 3062-3085.

Tyson, S. (2014). Essentials of human resource management. Routledge.