The Management of Human Resources - Case Study Example

 Introduction In the contemporary business environment, the management of human resources has been one of the key factors contributing to organizational growth. This is because human resource management centres on the recruitment of people and giving them direction, aspects which are paramount to the success of the organization. In this case, people are integral facets in an organization. Human resource management addresses matters associated to individuals in an organization such as hiring, compensation, employee motivation, employee development and training, wellness, safety, administration and communication. Through effective human resource management, employees can contribute effectively to the overall company success and attainment of goals. Human resource management is also responsible for maintaining outstanding associations between employees within the organization. Every employee in an organization has his or her personal goals, and it is the responsibility of human resource management to ensure that the goals of the organization integrate with the individual’s goals. Therefore, this paper will focus on offering recommendations to St-Patrick’s Nursing Home human resource manager on how to eliminate the numerous human resource problems and improve on employee retention. Recruitment and Selection Process Recruitment and selection are a process that engrosses numerous activities that require a great deal of time. The primary aim of recruitment and selection is to guarantee that the most appropriate individuals with the most appropriate skills are employed by an organization. The health sector is a huge service industry that experiences rapid changes. This makes the recruitment process subject to numerous internal and external factors. The selection results should emanate from a systematic and comprehensive process (Fottler et al, 2007: 32). In planning for recruitment, a human resource practitioner is required to be in apprehension of the wider issues that involve the recruitment process. When planning the recruitment of people in the health organization, it is imperative to identify the requirements of a job (Fottler et al, 2010: 45). The staffing needs are articulated in the job analysis. A job analysis is a purposeful and systematic process that offers significant, descriptive information on the job vacancy (Durai, 2010: 77). This analysis offers a broken down evaluation of different components of the job. This analysis also gives the basis of the functions of the personnel (Fottler et al, 2007: 56). Needless to say, this analysis can work best with comprehensive information on the job vacancies. A job analysis it forms a basis for many personnel practices (Hernandez & O’Connor, 2010: 48). A job analysis in the recruitment planning process will assist the human resource personnel of St-Patrick’s Nursing Home to identify the required job requirements, the skills and abilities required and the essential roles of the job. A job analysis engrosses job description and job specification. A job description offers information on the job. It includes the job title, the department and the location (Flynn et al, 2007: 67). In this case, the St-Patrick’s Nursing Home recruitment plan should consider and include the job description. This will offer a picture on the responsibilities of the job position. Additionally, it will shed light on the shift-working arrangements within the organization, together with expected pay of the personnel (Armstrong, 2006: 78). This will eliminate any other cases of biases and the discrimination when it comes to recruitment. A detailed job description will be of great assistance in the recruitment process, performance and training management (Khanka, 2005: 47). In this stage, the St-Patrick’s Nursing Home recruitment plan should focus more shift patterns. This will ensure that employees can communicate significant messages to one another while on shift, and effectively hand over at the end of the shift. Alternatively, a job specification will offer insights on the human qualities identified as significant to the successful performance of the job (Armstrong, 2006: 169). This will engross the required skills, competencies, abilities and knowledge. This will assist in hiring qualified personnel who will eliminate cases of errors and inappropriate application of clinical care standards (Shi, 2010:112-116). This section will highlight the competencies required in order to attain the desired standards of performance. When planning the recruitment and selection of individuals in health and social care, the human resource team should consider the methods of recruitment. The most common methods of recruitment that an organization may use include the use of the internet, employee referrals, and internal advertisements and agencies. According to Hernandez & O’Connor, 2010: 92-94), an organization may choose a means of advertising or recruiting according to the audience it targets. If an organization wants to reach a wide range of qualified personnel, it may use the internet. This means that individuals far away can apply for the job. On the other hand, an organization can use employee referrals if it wants to get acquire access to other competent people in employee associations (Shi, 2010: 117). However, the organization can still use internal advertisements by identifying workers who are qualified for promotions. This will also act a motivating factor among the employees. It is also essential for the health care human resource to seek and consider advice from other departments on the positions to be filled. Additionally, the human resource team should consider how to conduct the interviews. For successful interviews, it is important to shortlist the candidates to a number that can be managed well, according to their qualifications. In addition, a venue for the interviews should be well identified. The venue should be free from any destruction such as movements of people and noise. In each country, there are different legislative and policy frameworks that govern the selection, recruitment and employment of people, which organizations should adhere. In United Kingdom, the governing law calls for equal opportunities for everyone regardless of sex, religion, caste and creed (Hernandez & O’Connor, 2010: 67-70). This is stipulated in the Equality Act 2006. Equal openings and race impartiality deliberations should be replicated at every phase of the recruitment process (Armstrong, 2006: 213). Therefore, this process should embrace the necessities of the United Kingdom’s equality and diversity policy and Race Equality Scheme. Therefore, St-Patrick’s Nursing Home should employ a diverse workforce that typifies the society where it functions. It is unlawful to prejudice a person only because of age, disability, marriage and sexual orientation. The Equality Act 2006 is also supplemented by the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. On the other hand, the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1992 protects employees from prejudice on the grounds of work status such as a permanent employee, causal labourer and agency employee. In this case, the legislation identified affects the recruitment process. This is because discrimination is prohibited. A direct discrimination where an employee with certain attributes such as disability and race is strongly prohibited. Therefore, it is significant for an employer to institute policies that affect everyone equally in the working place. . Promoting Teamwork Almost everyone finds themselves part of a group during their work in health care. It is believed that inter-professional teams are effective and assist in offering seamless and holistic patient care. Inter-professional teams are exceptional teams that engross considerable collaborations and break down of differences (Hayward et al, 2000: 45). Most of the teams in health and social care are multidisciplinary. In this case, these groups of people come together in order to share information and work together on some issue of mutual interest (D’Amour et al, 2005: 119). Additionally, these people share a common vision and goal. Such teams portray a distinction between the teams where people are defensive in preserving and safeguarding their professional boundaries and those where the people concur to work across the boundaries. In reference to Meads et al (2005: 123), collaborations within a group move through numerous phases, which have some application to health and social care. These phases are isolation, encounter, communication, collaboration and integration. The distinct theories on the interaction of people in a group include the functional theory and structural theory. In the functional theory, the members of a group communicate and interact to solve issues and make resolutions (Borrill et al, 2002: 163). This makes their interaction instrumental in the attainment of the group goals. The symbolic convergence theory acknowledges that people in a group use a language and codes that only they can understand (Armstrong, 2006: 107-09). This implies that they have common experiences and apprehensions (Shortell et al, 2004: 1043). This is also seen in inter-disciplinary teams in health and social care, where the individuals collaborate and have common understandings and experiences. Multidisciplinary teams are formed through five stages as identified by Armstrong (2006: 140-46). The first stage is forming the team. At this phase, the membership of the team is established, and the process starts to take shape. The team membership, to some degree, determines the future effectiveness of the team. In most cases, most of the professionals join teams for growth and a sense of belonging (Hayward et al, 2000: 166). The second phase is the storming phase. It is at this stage that conflicts emerge, and if not solved, can hamper the progress of the team. Inter-professional teams will never lack conflicts. It is, therefore, the role of each member to communicate their problems to each other. In this stage, the members should not always rely on the leader to have solutions for everything. In addition, at this stage the team should have a concise process that guarantees the development of team consciousness on their interactions (Hayward et al, 2000: 173). The third phase is the norming phase. In reference to Armstrong (2006: 149), the team settles at this stage to the set routine techniques of working. The ways in which work is done must satisfy both the needs of members and the goals of the formation of the team. The most common needs that team members bring to the teams are sense of belonging, control and growth. After norming, the team advances to performing stage. This is the phase at which the team function effectively towards its objectives. At this phase, the team members are reviewed regularly to ensure progress towards the goals of the organization. After attaining its objectives, a team is adjourned. Every team has an end (Hayward et al, 2000: 171). However, if members have worked together satisfactorily without many problems, they can decide to keep the team active. At this stage, the team members offer feedback where appropriate. The attainments of the team are also documented. The significance of teamwork in health care has been stressed in various policy documents. In reference to Guzzo and Dickson (1996: 312), teams that work together are innovative and effective. In health care, the effectiveness of teams is seen through the effective delivery of health care services. In order to develop and promote effective team working at St-Patrick’s Nursing Home, there is a need to institute a strong and effective leadership, institute an agreed statement of purpose, shared value base, promote communication between the team members, institute recruitment practices that guarantee appropriate members to the existing team and a suitable supervision system (Armstrong, 2006: 120-26). In order to be efficient, the team members in St-Patrick’s Nursing Home will need to understand what they need to attain. In this regard, it is imperative for the Nursing Home to institute a process where they all discuss and agree on the objectives and goals (Borrill et al, 2000: 366). Additionally, the team members will need to be involved in decision making, in their fields of responsibility (Armstrong, 2006: 145-49). This will come in hand with the development of Action plans, which will engross what is and when to be accomplished and by whom. On the other hand, the nursing home will need to encourage openness among the employees (Hayward et al, 2000: 167-70). Effective team work requires openness. Therefore, the organization will need to encourage honest and open communication culture between the employees that will allow feedback from the employees. Additionally, the nursing home will need to emphasize on cooperation among the employees. By working together, the employees will work together to attain the goals and objectives (Barker et al, 2005: 7-9). This will ensure that information is shared among the employees in a reciprocal way. By working cooperatively, the employees can deal with matters that create conflict, and reduce on errors. St-Patrick’s Nursing Home will also require instituting sound procedures on working and ways of decision making in order to attain objectives. This will assist in reducing the numerous cases of medical errors and biases in recruitment. In order to ensure improved performance of employees and effectiveness of teams, St-Patrick’s Nursing Home will also require conducting regular review on employees and teams on how they work and make decisions (Shortell et al, 204: 1049). This will offer employees a chance to learn from their experiences. Consequently, there is a desire for sound relations between the employees within the organization. Therefore, St-Patrick’s Nursing Home should emphasize on the relations between the team members as it is a requisite for collaboration and information flow. Performance Appraisal People have different capabilities and skills, and there is always some distinction in the quality and quantity of work executed by two distinct individuals. Therefore, performance appraisal is used to apprehend the competencies and capabilities of employees. This also assists an organization to assess its progress towards its objectives (Jackson et al, 2012: 175). There are numerous ways on how performance of employees can be appraised. In this case, St-Patrick’s Nursing Home should appraise the performance of its employees through 360-Degree feedback, assessment centres, field review, and critical incidents techniques (Armstrong, 2006: 187-92). Under 360-degree feedback, the nursing home will collect performance information from stakeholders such as clients, peers and supervisors (Tapomoy, 2008: 167). In this case, identified groups of stakeholders will offer information on how employees carryout their duties. Needless to say, this technique will assist the hospital to assess customer satisfaction. Through the assessment centres, the managers and team leaders will be brought together in order to participate in job associated exercises and assessed by trained observers. This will focus on observing the skills and attributes of the team leaders that are essential for successful performance (Armstrong & Armstrong, 2009: 97). This evaluation focuses on the communication ability, decision making, assertiveness, planning, and administrative ability. On the other hand, field review can be employed to assess the behaviour of employees. Lastly, the critical incidents method will centre on significant behaviours of the workers that immensely affect performance (Wilson, 2005: p. 116-118). This can be identified by the supervisors. In essence, the success of a health care organization relies on the team and professional progress of the employees. For distinct levels of success to be attained, there is a need for certain skills to be attained. However, improper identification of the skills required can result to poor performance and failure of the organization (Armstrong, 2006: 198). Therefore, it is essential for the human resource manager to identify the appropriate skills and needs that can be used to propel the organization to attain its objectives (Sims, 1998: 92). Training and development needs can be identified through interviews, responses from the employees, knowledge assessments, and through observations of work (Sims, 2006: 115-121). A manager can identify the knowledge and skill gaps among the employees through a brainstorming session with the employees. This can be used to identify the skills that the employees possess and the required skills for the performance of a given task. It is through comparing the existing skills and the required skills that a manager can determine the training needed. Health care professionals can be developed through numerous strategies. The primary strategies that focus on their development are predisposition and enabling strategies. These include the use of educational materials, conferences, outreach trips, clinical guidelines, and patient mediated interventions (Alsop, 2013: 56-67). Through offering educational materials to the staff members, the team members can improve on the quality of care afforded to patients. Additionally, meetings of numerous types, including hospital rounds and workshops can assist in developing the employees in their workplace (Jackson & Thurgate, 2011: 134-143). These continuing medical education offers heath care practitioners’ data on the transformations that have occurred in their professions that may be useful to the health care centre when incorporated to their practice. Outreach visits are effective in transforming the health care practitioner’s approach to a given patient or a clinical dilemma (Alsop, 2013: 82). The individual executing outreach spends significant time designing the data offered to needs of the health care personnel. Effective Leadership Effective leadership is paramount to improving organizational performance, and then by inference, leadership development in health and social care is equally essential. There are numerous theories on leadership that are relevant to the health and social care (Martin et al, 2010: 24). These include the behaviourist theories, situational and contingency theories. The behaviourist theories suggest that the behaviours exhibited by leaders determine the leadership styles employed (Malholland & Turnock, 2012: 212-20). The first proposal is that there are two primary behaviours which include concern towards the people, which builds on the interaction and relations, and concern for the tasks at hand (Hafford-Letchfield et al, 2007: 83). This shows that a health and social care leader can either focus on the relations between the employees and other people or the job and productivity of the employees (Marquis & Huston, 2009: 272-82). Situational theory relies on the premise that leadership emanates in certain circumstances such as an event or crisis. The underlying notion is that leadership is all about being in a position and flexible to deal with changing situations (Jasper & Jumaa, 2005: 234-45). It is essential for a leader to manage relationships among employees in a health care organization. The way the leader associates with the other people is significant. A leader can manage to work relations through cultivating trust, respect, openness and effective communication (Gittell, 2009: 318-22). The leader should encourage employees to be positive towards each other and appreciate others. Additionally, a leader should establish boundaries between personal relations and work relations. Furthermore, a leader should encourage employees to be active listeners and give feedback (Koloroutis, 2004: 257-62). I can attribute my development to the different managerial approaches that were employed in my previous work stations. It is essential to note that the management approach adopted by managers affects how employees develop. In the previous workstation, the organization leadership cantered on employee development and training. The management evaluated employees and determined their training needs. This ensured that the employees were equipped for the progress of the company towards its set objectives. I was also assigned with the task of spearheading a campaign on improving relations between employees through encouraging feedback. The campaign was successful as each team was required to formulate objectives that required the members to communicate to each other. This gave me insights on the significance of cooperation and effective communication among employees (Muller et al, 2006: 257). Therefore, for a team to attain its goals, communication and cooperation are essential for the attainment of team objectives and the overall progress of the organization. Conclusion Human resource management is imperative for the success of a health and social care organization. This paper has identified that it is important to conduct a job analysis, identify the advertising means, the interview venue and the number of candidates shortlisted before recruitment of workers. On the other hand, hiring is affected by numerous legislations such as the Equality Act 2006. It is, therefore, significant to consider the available legislation before recruiting workers. Health and social care organizations have multidisciplinary teams formed through the five stages of development and which are effective through collaboration. The success of these organizations is dependent on the performance of the employees, and it is thus necessary to appraise the employees regularly through the numerous methods. Additionally, the management should consider the training and development needs of the employees and the type of leadership to be employed. References Alsop, A. (2013). Continuing Professional Development in Health and Social Care: Strategies for Lifelong Learning. Chicester: Wiley. Armstrong, M. (2006). A handbook of human resource management practice. London: Kogan Page. Armstrong, M., & Armstrong, M. (2009). Armstrong's handbook of performance management: An evidence-based guide to delivering high performance. London: Kogan Page. Barker K, Kimpton S, & Soklaridis S (2005). Teamwork in Healthcare: Findings from Key Informant Interviews. Working Paper. 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Human resource development: Learning & training for individuals & organizations. London: Kogan Page. Read More