Workforce planning and management strategy - Coursework Example

?Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Acknowledgements 3 Introduction 4 Methodology 4 Findings 5 Conclusion 11 Recommendation 12 Bibliography 13 Executive Summary Demographic trends in Australia are being changed with an increasing need of health care workers and growing demands of customers. Customers are increasingly getting more conscious about health care services and the history of those practitioners. This report analyses the demographic trends and the workforce planning of a health care organization ADHC. It has been analyzed by the material published by company itself, which includes all the steps involved in performance management at ADHC. It is a two way process which involves the consent of both employee and manager and company goals are given importance as well. All this planning is done to facilitate the clients. Acknowledgements I would like to thank all my lectures and professors who have been great help for me in making of this report. The company management also cooperated a lot and was kind enough to give internal information. Introduction There is a demographic shift going in Australia, because of which there is slowly growing but ageing population. The workforce growth rate is slow and by 2020, the annual growth rate of workforce will be 170,000 per year (National Health Workforce Strategic Framework, April 2004). So ageing of this population is expected to affect the increase in need of healthcare services (National Health Workforce Strategic Framework, April 2004). So there will be a more need of trained workforce (National Health Workforce Strategic Framework, April 2004). The customers will be more empowered and also more aware and more conscious about track records of their practitioners (National Health Workforce Strategic Framework, April 2004). This will change the way of management of knowledge and procedure for development in a health care organization (National Health Workforce Strategic Framework, April 2004). Consumers are more likely to go for more advanced but low cost health care services (National Health Workforce Strategic Framework, April 2004). The health system in Australia is currently changing with emerging shortage of workforce so there is a requirement of expanding workforce with increasing competencies and capabilities (National Health Workforce Strategic Framework, April 2004). This report analyses the workforce planning at ADHC and compares it with the changing demographic shifts in Australia. The findings about ADHC ae fiven afte which conclusion is made about what can be done to improve. Methodology Company jouranals and reports were used find information about performance management at ADHC. The different techniques of ADHC, like Striving for excellence, had proper reports written about the procedure, design, content and nature of activities it held. Findings ADHC, ageing disability and homecare, believes that establishing clear expectations from all employees and setting of measurable and attainable goal for employees is very important (Effective Supervisor Attributes 1). There is a tool called ‘striving for excellence (SfE)’ for both employees and managers to plan and regulate the work requirements of the company. It also comes up with the learning opportunities and manages the career growth of employees (Effective Supervisor Attributes 1).It is basically involved in contributing to the building workforce capability (Effective Supervisor Attributes 1). Supervisor requirements used in ADHC are those given by Smith (1996) and Dawson (1926) i.e. administrative, educational and supportive. Administrative function deals with clarification of roles and assignment of roles, it involves the basic admin work. Educational dimension covers the necessary skills and competencies required for this job. Supportive role involves dealing with job related stress; manage attitudes to do the required performance at job (Effective Supervisor Attributes 1). The program SfE provides guidance and supervision in performing job roles and duties. Moreover, it also provides the necessary skills and competencies required to perform certain job. We can say that ADHC keeps in mind the workforce requirements and hires the workforce which matches their requirement. Healthcare is an industry which requires extensive manpower planning because of the increasing consciousness of customers especially in Australia (Effective Supervisor Attributes 1).There is a list of attributes in SfE required from a supervisor and a supervisor is expected to perform those roles. There is a proper capability frame work (CF) at ADHC which contains the description of skills, knowledge and abilities which are required of an employee (Capability Framework overview). There are three components of this framework i.e. Organizational Culture, Direction and Capacity to deliver. For example if the organizational culture requires customer focus and no compromise on customer focus, there are leadership and management which provide the direction to achieve this culture, technology; customer relationship management and project management are the steps which ensure the capacity to deliver these attributes (Capability Framework overview). There is a proper identification of required capabilities and method of measuring it is also given (Capability Framework overview). In other words, ADHC incorporates proper methodology of identifying, quantifying and measuring capabilities required from employees. The core work activities at ADHC do not only involve the described job description of the defined jobs but also involves the overall contribution of that job in fulfilling overall organization’s mission (Core work overview : Striving for Excellenence). The underlying objective of all ADHC workplace initiatives is to improve the quality of life of customer (Core work overview : Striving for Excellenence). ADHC gives much importance to the fact that organizational objectives can only be met if the employee roles are somehow fitted with the overall agency’s goals (Core work overview : Striving for Excellenence). It means that ADHC believes in the concept of alignment. For example the task given to strategic human resource managers was to manage employee performance, they came up with Striving for Excellence program which contributed much to the employees’ output and contributed to organizational mission too (Core work overview : Striving for Excellenence). Goal setting process is done with complete analysis of why to achieve, when to achieve, what to achieve and how to achieve (Core work overview : Striving for Excellenence). Another criteria of goals is setting of SMART goals which mean specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound goals should be set (Core work overview : Striving for Excellenence). There are some do’s and don’ts of goal setting like employees’ goals should not be settled without their own input and also there should be a proper alignment of employees’ goals to the bigger picture or the mission of organization (Core work overview : Striving for Excellenence). ADHC believes that gaining employee engagement in the organization is achieved by giving them the opportunities to attend formal training and skill enhancement on the job (Development and Opportunities : Striving for Excellence). ADHC looks for right attitude in the employees and then they train them for the skills. That means they focus primarily on the attitude of employees and then train them for skills (Development and Opportunities : Striving for Excellence). Since ADHC is a service oriented firm which focuses on the customers more, so right attitude employees are better able to attract customers like at the front desk (Development and Opportunities : Striving for Excellence). ADHC provides opportunities to employees to learn more about new experiences and formal training (Development and Opportunities : Striving for Excellence). An employee is linked to a professional or mentor more experienced in his job and in this way he guides the employee, attend the meetings being held industry wide and identify formal training needs that ensure advancement in career (Development and Opportunities : Striving for Excellence). There is a special framework made for guiding health care procedures for workforce because of the changing demands of customers who are becoming more conscious about the health care services provided to them (Framework for skilling the NSW disabilty workforce, 2010). The purpose of this framework is also to apply expert’s knowledge in a member’s area of expertise. Regional management of ADHC will act on the Panel’s decisions to support disability support workers who require training to undertake approved procedures. This framework is meant to plan the recruitment of workforce and identifies a proper procedure for decision making in the organization. ADHC will make the formal training available to the employees when they need, also considers risk management in recruitment practices (Framework for skilling the NSW disabilty workforce, 2010). The underlying objective of SfE is to promote a two way communication between an employee and a manager (SfE Key summary points). It is a cyclical procedure of reviewing and monitoring the employees’ performance within a formal review framework (SfE Key summary points). A flexible tailored approach is useful basis for achieving the objectives of a supervisor (SfE Key summary points). Key SfE documents include striving for excellence policy and procedures which is step by step guide on the expectations and processing to manage ADHC employees, a single generic SfE plan which provides consistency across the roles of ADHC, a self review form which needs to be filled before review meetings which ensure that employees monitor their performance and reinforces ADHC values, position descriptions which contain details about the capabilities required for certain job roles across the organization (SfE Key summary points). SfE process takes place every six months or a year, also small meetings are held to make certain improvements if required (Striving for Excellence Policy and Procedures, 2009). Before the meeting, manager gathers information about job description of different employees, their performance individually and their attitude. On the other hand employee considers his perception of working environment, his career goals in long term and his requests from management (Striving for Excellence Policy and Procedures, 2009). So it is a two way conversation and discussion plan meant for improvement of employees. The ultimate focus of workforce planning at ADHC is making clients’ and customers’ lives better (Striving for Excellence Policy and Procedures, 2009). Employee and manager discuss about how supervision and support in the organization is given to the employee by top management, how the core work experience is and what are the difficulties employee has to face in doing the job, they also discuss about the extent of ADHC values ae applicable and how professionally and ethically work is done, lastly there is a discussion about caeer development plan and learning opportunities provided to the employees (Striving for Excellence Policy and Procedures, 2009). The community care workforce resource says that there is a need of spreading a positive public image in society as an employer (Community Care Workforce Resource, 2011). The recruitment pathway should be clear and potential workers should be informed about the employment opportunities in the organizations (Community Care Workforce Resource, 2011). There should be a proper orientation session informing employees about job descriptions, their responsibilities and the mission of the company overall (Community Care Workforce Resource, 2011). There should be enough development opportunities so that employees get satisfied with their jobs and want to work for ADHC, also there is a need of proper exit systems so that information about employees exiting the organization can be collected and worked upon to minimize turnover (Community Care Workforce Resource, 2011). According to a productivity commission report, Caring for Older Australians, the availability of informal caretakers will decline which means that home based or informal care trend will decline resulting in more need of healthcare organizations (Community Care Workforce Resource, 2011). Also the population needing healthcare services will be from diverse backgrounds requiring diverse and culturally appropriate services to different needs of public (Community Care Workforce Resource, 2011). The attraction and retention of talented young workforce will remain a challenge because of the increasing competition for workers and ageing workforce (Community Care Workforce Resource, 2011). The National Public Health Partnership (NPHP) program, which was commenced in 1996, looks after the public health infrastructure in Australia (Mr Lee Ridoutt, 2002). This program implements the educational initiatives, improved technology and other improved information technology (Mr Lee Ridoutt, 2002). De Geyndt (2000) explains three actions in the development of workforce planning, training and managing. Planning refers to quantitative concern to tell what the quantitative focus is and how many employees are to be hired, training refers to the quality training of those employees and managing refers to management of performance of employees (Mr Lee Ridoutt, 2002). In workforce planning budget, strategic planning and human resources are essential parts of workforce planning (Mr Lee Ridoutt, 2002). There is a complete analysis of workforce demands of the organization and then it is compared with the supply of workforce (Mr Lee Ridoutt, 2002), A gap analysis is done to identify the gaps between required and actual state of workforce, in terms of skills, competencies and capabilities (Mr Lee Ridoutt, 2002). Then there is formulation of strategies depending upon the gaps identified, which is followed by a monitoring process of checking the progress from time to time after the implementation of those strategies (Mr Lee Ridoutt, 2002). There is a need to project the future supply of workforce and should be compared it to the workforce demand to achieve a balanced workforce, impact of technology on productivity should be analyzed and at least after five years there should be a review of workforce to ensure the quality service (Mr Lee Ridoutt, 2002). To ensure safe future planning, it is imperative that organizations plan for their workforce to remain competitve even in 2030 (Population, 2011). Older population, women and indigenous people are less in the workforce cuently so there needs to be an incresed participation by them (Population, 2011). Also flexible work arrangement is also expected to be more in demand so ADHC needs to take that step (Population, 2011). The age profile of the company should be balanced, more ratio of older to younger workforce results in loss of skills and knowledge if there is no proper implementation of succession planning (Population, 2011). There should be a promotion of lifelong training and development opportunities to retain the skilled wokfoce and increas their depth of skills (Population, 2011). ADHC also takes initiatives of incorporating technology in their operation and increse productivity of workforce by proper training of workforce about the technology (Population, 2011). There are seven steps of planning the workforce given in workforce planning guide (Workforce planning : A guide, 2003). In the first step the scope of the project should be defined, the timeframes and range of scales need to be identified (Workforce planning : A guide, 2003).the next step is to identify organization’s demand from workforce, and it should be closely linked to the requirements of the customers of the organization (Workforce planning : A guide, 2003). After that, there is a need of identifying the supply of labour in the market, the knowledge, competencies and skills of labor market (Workforce planning : A guide, 2003). Fourth step is to identify gaps in the workfoce by comparing the available workforce with the required workforce in tems of skills and competencies (Workforce planning : A guide, 2003). Fifth step should be the formulation of strategies and action plan to adress those gaps, this requires deep analysis and discussions (Workforce planning : A guide, 2003). Sixth step is the implementation pf the plan and the strategies selected in fifth step and last step is to monitor the progress of the implemented steps (Workforce planning : A guide, 2003). The trainings done at ADHC are meant to implement a consistent approach of workforce planning (Workforce Planning Facilitator’s Guide). There learners are given case discussions to practically solve a dilemma of workforce planning and then apply this analysis to their own workforce needs (Workforce Planning Facilitator’s Guide). There are group discussions, teamwork practice, case studies and other activities which enhance facilitation of workforce and their management. The overall picture of paid workforce in health care sector is not bad, however it is a challenge for health care organizations to attract and retain the good quality employees (Home and Community Care Workforce Project, 2011). It is inferred that right kind of policies and procedures, with the learning opportunities and provision of career management and growth are important for people to stay in this sector (Home and Community Care Workforce Project, 2011). Mostly the workforce consists of older workers, so there is a need to train the employees and get a committed workforce who will be able to replace the retiring workforce in future 10 to 15 years (Home and Community Care Workforce Project, 2011). Also the workforce wants a range of employment opportunities; they do not want to stay at their specific jobs and want to be rotated to other jobs across the organization (Home and Community Care Workforce Project, 2011). Maybe task variety is very important for them to retain their interest; also the skill acquisition is not enough for the employees to satisfy them unless they are not provided with adequate opportunities to apply those skills (Home and Community Care Workforce Project, 2011). Conclusion All the policies and practices involved in workforce management at ADHC are according to the needs of ever changing customer demands and changing demographic trends. However, more focus of ADHC should be to focus on hiring of a diverse workforce with diverse language backgrounds. This will ensure that the culturally diverse customers will be satisfied by getting customised services. Aslso with the hiring of people from multi ethnic backgrouds, there should a proper trainings of employees about adjusting to othe cultures to make a healthy and comfortable working environment. Also the SfE plan which is already being used in ADHC, should be further improved and steps should be taken to implement its recommendations every year. Othewise it is a waste of cost unless it cannot add value to the existing workforce motivation. Because of the demographic shift, workforce needs vast learning opportunitites and career growth and advancement facilities in order to be retained at a job. So thee should be a trend of succession planning and career deverlopment to help employees monitoring themselves and their performance. Recommendation There should be some steps taken for change management too (Foster). The process of ovecoming the resistance to change is very important in the life cycle of an organization (Foster). The planning of perfomance should be such that more and more employees should be involved in the change process and in this way change will have a more postitve impact (Foster). There should be considerable attention given to change agents and also there should be proper coaching on change management which will help the employees to take change positively and do not panic and know how to respond to changing customer demands (Foster). Bibliography Capability Framework overview. NSW Government. (2011). Community Care Workforce Resource. Department of Family and Community Services NSW. Core work overview : Striving for Excellenence. Development and Opportunities : Striving for Excellence. Effective Supervisor Attributes 1. Foster, A. HR High Impact Changes. 2006. (2010). Framework for skilling the NSW disabilty workforce. (2011). Home and Community Care Workforce Project. Department of Family and Community Services NSW. Mr Lee Ridoutt, M. D. (2002). Planning framework for the Public Health workforce. National Public Health Partnership. (April 2004). NATIONAL HEALTH WORKFORCE STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK. Sydney: NSW Health Department. Population, T. 2. (2011). New South Wales Government. SfE Key summary points. (2009). Striving for Excellence Policy and Procedures. Ageing, Disability and Home Care. (2003). Workforce planning : A guide. P r e m i e r ’ s D e p a r t m e n t o f N S W. Workforce Planning Facilitator’s Guide. New South Wales Government. Read More