Background

Discuss about the Workforce Plan of SummitCare.

The workforce plan considering the period 2013-2017 was developed to support strategic decisions of SummitCare in the same period. This plan is documented to maximize the strategies and strengths of the workforce and to respond to challenges which will come in the path of success of the organization (SummitCare, 2018). Over the period of this plan, anticipate growth in the organization to a remarkable stage is conducted as there is growth in both residential and community services. There is also planned the introduction of new service and also a new service for transition care which is post hospital discharge. It is very important to be customer-centric as their comfort will bring a boom to the revenue of the organization.

As from the establishment of SummitCare they had provided a high quality of services, skills, and commitment with the help of their dedicated workforce. Workforce planning is directly linked to organizational planning this will ensure that the company has delivered high-quality services and ensure that best people are placed in the company (Cascio, 2018). The workforce plan is developed stage by stage and comprises of many different processes that are used to implement the plan.

SummitCare Workforce comprises of youth and aged person as their contribution is appreciated enormously by both the older people and the organization, the scope of this plan is actually restricted to paid staff. There is need to review these mentioned things:

• The work was done by the workers at SummitCare.
• Skills of workers
• Opportunities and benefits for workers
• Management arrangements
• Engagement of workers

The objective of the plan is to initially get a snapshot of the initial situation in relation to paid staff and to identify some key points that majorly affect our workforce. Most of the key issues are avoided by the organization which creates a major impact on their operations. Hence it will be much better to address the issues which will majorly affect the organization as a whole and its progress.

A Stakeholder is an individual or a group who takes the interest so that organization can fulfill its mission. The stakeholder of the organization includes the person who is interested or affected by the working of the organization and its services are a stakeholder. The key stakeholder of the SummitCare organization includes board founders, staff, beneficiaries, donors and paid staff. Different stakeholders in the organization perform various roles and responsibilities for the engagement.

Roles and Responsibility

The stakeholders of the company contribute to developing the draft plan for the approval. The stakeholders get engaged by offering support to the people who need it and they work for the welfare of the people. This will motivate the employees to remain in the organization.

• Developing an organizational capacity and capability.
• The objective of developing skills that help the organization to provide high-quality services considering the changing needs of the clients.
• The objective of hiring talented people who can help the organization for the current and future directions and goals.
• Bringing positive organization culture in performance, learning, and well-being.

Workforce Profile

The workforce profile includes the current and the future workforce profile considering the strength and weakness. SummitCare workforce profile is discussed below:-

Occupational profile

The organization employs diverse staffs that perform the wide range of functions. More than 76% of the staff is appointed for the direct care roles which include community support work, nursing, allied health and many others. The remaining employees are appointed for the operational roles.

(Aged community, 2013)

Gender profile

SummitCare organization believes in sexual and gender diversity due to which they appoint diverse staff at their stores. Moreover, it is the responsibility of every member to ensure that they are obeying the individual and valuing diversity (SummitCare, 2018).

Age profile

SummitCare workforce consists of youth, people in the age bracket of 40-49 years and 50-59 years which is the strength of the company. The organization follows different plans with the help of which they are able to connect more with the employees.

Along with the organization might face the problem of high retention because youth generally leave the organization when they get a better deal. Moreover, the company has appointed the people who are going to retire in next coming years.

Skills required

The organization emphasis on attributes or soft skills which are required: –

• Self-care and management
• Social intelligence
• Commitment to lifelong learning
• Attitude towards continual improvement
• Accountability

Capabilities required

• ACFI skills
• Leadership skills
• Digital literacy
• Rehabilitation skills

Training

In the year 2012, around 21% of the workforce participation was there in training which includes qualification in an aged home, care, nursing, and management. SummitCare offer traineeships in the aged care work, commercial cookery, and administration.

SummitCare will be requiring more candidates who can help the company in fulfilling the community demand, policy environment, and the organizational strategy. In the next 3 year, SummitCare need:

• More people in key jobs
• New skills
• Culture of learning
• New Roles

Along with the workforce, there is need of the effective skills which are given below: –

• The active involvement that leads to improvement in health and wellbeing
• Provide support guided by consumer

Aging workforce- The workforce of the sector is older than the industry average which leads to the risk that they will lose the skilled labors as this will impact the operations of the company.

Rise in service demand- There is a rise in the number of people who are living alone when they continue to age. This reflects that there is a rise in the clients and communities which means diverse and needs are changing such as palliative care, additional service in dementia and many others.

The internal factors include the funding arrangement for the aged care change. The organization requires broadening our funding base for which the organization can charge a maximized fee for forming a new partnership and for service work (King, et. al, 2013). The high workloads are another aspect which makes the staff under pressure so the organization has to appoint additional workforce.

Stakeholder Engagement

The current and the future workforce analysis reflect the gaps among the workforce requirements and shortages. There is a considerable risk which reflects that the large numbers of staff are retiring in the coming few years. In SummitCare, there are few gaps related to the skills with the growing age. It is suggested to the organization to pool skilled people from different sources as the organization is relying on local media and mouth recruitment. The organization has increased the opportunity for student placement, commenced a traineeship program and the staff for accredited training. These strategies are not enough to acknowledge the gaps.

The priorities for the future that the company has to rectify on the urgent basis include the retention of staff in the company, hiring of talented employees, fulfilling the needs of the skills that are essential for the organization. The priorities have been used to develop the workforce plan which is done in the Appendix. (Please refer Appendix 1.1).

A contingency plan is developed as a back-up for the main action plan which will be helpful for the company in case of an emergency (Taneja, et.al, 2014). The emergency in the case of SummitCare might take place when the human resource advisor resigns or staffs go on strike. Please refer appendix 1.2 to check the contingency plan.

There are different ways such as survey, questionnaire and many others that can be used by the company to gather the feedback from the staff. The survey has been prepared in the Appendix which helps the company in identifying the reason behind securing the feedback of current employees. (Appendix 1.3)

Aged care act 1997- This act ensures that everyone who needs the aged care has access to it irrespective of their race, culture, language, culture, and gender. This act promotes the high-quality care and services that fulfill the needs and protect the health and wellbeing. SummitCare organization believes and promotes the welfare of the aged care people. They make sure that they are providing effective services to the older people (Australian Government, 2018).

Aged care (Accommodation Payment security) Act- The act came into existence in the year 2006, which guarantees an amount will be paid equivalent to your refundable lump sum balance plus interest. SummitCare organization makes sure that they are able to refund the whole amount which is paid by the elders.

Age discrimination act- Australians have right to be treated equally irrespective of age due to which the government has introduced the Age Discrimination Act in the year 2004 (Australian Government, 2016). Though, there are people who found the problem with older people. The organization doesn’t believe in the age discrimination as this is the only reason the company has appointed people as an employee who belongs to different age group. 

Awards

The Australian organization excellence foundation was registered in the September 2013. Summitcare organization was awarded the Gold for the business excellence in the year 2014. Moreover, the organization was the first organization who achieved such awards (SummitCare, 2018).

Conclusion

Workforce planning is very important in an organization as it helps to generate more revenue and ultimately leads to maximize the profit of the organization. It is a continuous process of the company as workforce plays an important role in accomplishing the organizational objectives (Ono, Lafortune and Schoenstein, 2013). The report includes the workforce plan of SummitCare for the year 2013-2017.

References

Aged community (2013) Workforce Plan July 2013-June 2016 [Online]. Available from:  https://www.agedcommunity.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Sample-Workforce-Plan.pdf  [Accessed on 21^st March 2018]

Australian Government (2016) Protecting consumer rights [Online]. Available from:  https://www.myagedcare.gov.au/financial-and-legal/protecting-consumer-rights [Accessed on 21^st March 2018]

Australian Government (2018) Legislation and Policies [Online]. Available from: https://www.agedcarecomplaints.gov.au/about/legislation-and-policies/  [Accessed on 21^st March 2018]

Cascio, W., 2018. Managing human resources. Irwin: McGraw-Hill Education.

King, D., Mavromaras, K., He, B., Healy, J., Macaitis, K., Moskos, M., Smith, L. and Zhang, W., 2013. The aged care workforce 2012 final report. Canberra: Department of Health and Ageing.

Ono, T., Lafortune, G. and Schoenstein, M., 2013. Health workforce planning in OECD countries.

SummitCare (2018) About SummitCare [Online]. Available from:  https://www.summitcare.com.au/about-summitcare [Accessed on 21^st March 2018]

SummitCare (2018) Day Respite [Online]. Available from:  https://www.summitcare.com.au/day-respite [Accessed on 21^st March 2018]

SummitCare (2018) Staff Directory [Online]. Available from:  https://www.summitcare.com.au/about-summitcare/our-team/staff-directory  [Accessed on 21^st March 2018]

SummitCare (2018) SummitCare Achievements [Online]. Available from:  [Accessed on 21^st March 2018]

SummitCare (2018) Why SummitCare? [Online]. Available from:  https://www.summitcare.com.au/about-summitcare/why-summitcare  [Accessed on 21^st March 2018]

Taneja, S., Pryor, M.G., Sewell, S. and Recuero, A.M., 2014. Strategic crisis management: A basis for renewal and crisis prevention. Journal of Management Policy and Practice, 15(1), p.78.