How labour relations influence to improve the quality of health care - Term Paper Example

? Labour Relations & Healthcare Labour Relations & Healthcare As in the case of other industries labour relations play an important role in the success and failures in healthcare industries. Only the satisfied healthcare professionals will be able to deliver quality healthcare to the patients. Healthcare professionals should have enough motivation to continue in their profession and compensation play a vital role in motivating them to continue in their profession. Even though healthcare is a service oriented industry, it doesn’t mean that professionals working in this sector are working for charity purposes. This paper analyses the importance of labour relations and compensations for providing quality services in healthcare industry. How labour relations influence to improve the quality of health care? It has been well established within the literature that the successful implementation of quality relies heavily upon the human factor. Most leading firms now recognise that a higher quality service and improved competitiveness will result from increased attention to people issues within the organization (Downey-Ennis et al., 2004, p.1143). The work culture has been changed a lot in the past few decades. Autocratic management styles have given way for participatory or democratic management styles because of the awareness that productivity of the employees has direct relationships with the management styles. At the same time, it is difficult for the management of a healthcare organization to implement participatory management all the time. Employees may exploit the situations if the management follows participatory management style all the time. In order to overcome the defects of participatory management style, situational management styles are adopted by many of the current healthcare organizations. It should be noted that situational management styles are flexible with respect to the situations. Healthcare professional are more comfortable with the situational management styles than with the autocratic management styles. “Most performance problems can be attributed to unclear expectations, skills deficit, resource or equipment shortages or a lack of motivation. These causes are rooted in a failing health system, low salaries, difficult working and living conditions and inappropriate training” (Dieleman and Harnmeijer, 2006, p.3). Manpower shortage is one of the major problems in developed countries. This problem is more visible in healthcare sector. Majority of the healthcare professionals working in America and Europe are from Asian countries. This is because of the fact that locals are not much interested in giving more attention to healthcare professions because of low salaries and challenging or demanding work environments. Good compensation and better working conditions are required in healthcare organizations improve the quality of healthcare delivered to the patients. It should be noted that majority of the nursing and other medical staffs working in American hospitals are forced to do overtime on continuous basis because of the shortage of professionals. Such situations should be avoided as much as possible to improve the quality of healthcare. A strategy for compensation practices tailored to a healthcare organization “According to the results of Modern Healthcare's 26th annual survey of compensation, strong gains are experienced by senior executives in salary, bonuses and benefits” (Evans, 2006, p.22). However, same thing cannot be said about the lower level executives and other medical staffs including nurses. Since nursing staffs are spending more time with the patient than the doctors, their services should not be underestimated. In other words, lower level executives should also get competitive remunerations in healthcare organizations so that the quality of health services can be improved further. It is a fact that healthcare organizations are incapable to increase the compensations of the healthcare professionals beyond certain limits since such increases may ultimately affect the hospital expenses of the patients. It should be noted that in a hospital, different employees may perform at different levels. Outstanding employees should get better salaries than others. In short, a performance based or merit based compensation system should be implemented in healthcare organizations. Guidelines for the management of benefits and variable pay As mentioned earlier, different healthcare professionals may have different abilities in their profession. “To recruit qualified physicians, hospitals must be attractive employers “(Mitlacher & Welker, 2010, p.272). In other words, hospitals should assume the role of a business person while recruiting physicians since physicians can make or break the reputation of a hospital. For example, patients may approach a physician more frequently than other physicians in the same organization because of their confidence in the abilities of that physician. Under such circumstances, that particular physician may have over workload compared to other physicians and it is illogical to pay same salary to that physician and other physicians. Even though healthcare industry is a service oriented industry, its business aspects or commercial aspects cannot be neglected. In other words, the physician who brings more business to the organization should be paid better than others. Better compensation motivates a physician further to excel in his profession. Moreover, other physicians also try to improve their performances in order to match with the better performing physicians. This is true in the case of other professionals also. Nurses and administrative staffs who perform well in their profession should get competitive salaries. A pay raise should always be coupled with a sincere effort to evaluate work performance. Thus, the employee is made aware that their compensation is tied directly to their performance. The evaluation should be scheduled at least annually, with new employees evaluated more frequently during their first year of employment. After evaluating an employee through annual review process, meet privately with him or her to actually discuss strengths and weaknesses, as the review as identified them. In a similar fashion, discuss work deficiencies and areas for improvement. Then, advise the employee what his or her raise, if any, will be. The net effect of merit pay raises should be that, individual employees will each receive different percentage pay raises. Thus, if the average pay increase is 3%, the "good" employees will merit a pay raise greater than 3% (perhaps significantly greater), an "average" employee will receive 3% and the "poor" employee will receive less than a 3% (and sometimes no) increase (Basing Employee Raises on Merit, 2006, p.1). Conclusions Better labour relations are necessary in healthcare organizations to improve the performances of the employees and thereby improve the quality of healthcare provided to the patients. Only the satisfied healthcare professions will deliver their best. Compensation packages to the healthcare employees should be adjusted based on their performances. No employee should feel that his/her performance is neglected by the organization. The organization should provide ample opportunities to the employees so that they may improve their performances. References Basing Employee Raises on Merit, 2006. The Health Care Group. Retrieved from http://www.thehealthcaregroup.com/pdf/92219.pdf Dieleman, M. and Harnmeijer, J.W. (2006). Improving health worker performance: in search of promising practices. World Health Organization. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/hrh/resources/improving_hw_performance.pdf Downey-Ennis, K. Harrington, D &Williams, B. Head and Heart in quality Implementation- Applying the quality Philosophy within Irish Healthcare Institutions. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, Oct2004, Vol. 15 Issue 8, p1143-1153, Evans, M (2006). Added Incentive. Modern Healthcare. 7/31/2006, Vol. 36 Issue 30, p22-22. Mitlacher, L.W. & Welker, A. (2010). Remuneration systems, employer attractiveness and demographic change: An analysis of anaesthetists in German hospitals. Journal of Management & Marketing in Healthcare, Dec2010, Vol. 3 Issue 4, p272-284, Read More