International Recruitment at King Faisal Hospital - Case Study Example

Student Name January 17, 2010 Professor Name University Name International Recruitment at King Faisal Hospital The recruitment of physicians at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center is probably one of the most complicated activities undertaken by any hospital or research centre in the world. King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center has been accredited of providing the most highest level of specialized healthcare in an environment that integrates education and research. The Hospital & Research Center’s vision is ensuring that it is a world leader in healthcare providing excellence and innovation that is unmatched across the world. The King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center has slated quite aggressive expansion plans in the coming year. The hospital has plans to increase and expand the facilities by doubling the bed count from 330 to 760 in the current year. The hospital has entered into contracts with a leading construction management company that will supervise this expansion. The objective of these expansion plans is to ensure that the hospital can provide quality and comprehensive services that can meet the needs of patients for the next 20 years.  This impressive plan has included in it all sections and aspects of the hospital, such as increasing the number of beds to augmenting the intensive care units and in addition, to provide hospital employees scholarships in their specialties as well as organizing the most modern and latest training courses for doctors and nurses. (King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre Business Portal) Recruiting and retaining excellent talent has always been the cornerstone of organizations’ success. The job market has become progressively difficult and competitive. Skills that are available have become more diverse and recruiters are required to be ever more selective in their choices, as a bad decision could have a negative impact that last for a very long time. Prime among them is the high cost of training and development costs In order to be one of the best and most modern facilities across the world and in the middle-east, the center has always strived to maintain an impressive set of physicians and doctors. This paper analyses the recruitment methodologies of the center and compares it with some of the tenets and theories of recruitment in order to provide a synergy between the two. The management of Human resources is probably the most prime when compared with the other disciplines of management. According to Adam Smith, In the initial days, there were only three resources for managing - capital, labor and land. As life progressed, there were a few more additions to them and it expanded to include material, machinery, men, money and so on. In the modern day, it is probably more appropriate to classify resources and show under Humanware, Orgoware and Infoware. (Smith) In this new definition of resources, human resources or human beings play a different dual role in the entire pie. They also serve as the motivational factor among all the other resources in a manner that develops, utilizes, commands and controls the other resources such as machines, materials, information, money, land infrastructure and so on. In this ever changing world, businesses and organizations are becoming more knowledge based and skilled incentives. To remain successful, it is critical that organizations recognize this and build an environment that suitably takes advantage of this. A creative spirit and the employment of innovative management techniques effectively ensure that this is built in into the organization. The King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research center follows this principal in order to be world-class and bring in the best facilities. In order to ensure quality manpower in the hospital, it reaches out to several organizations to source its talent. These include international recruitment agencies, through referrals, the managed care organizations (MCOs) and in addition, through personal submissions and email inquiries. These avenues ensure a steady mix of resumes that cater to the needs of the hospital. Once the resumes are received, the next step is to send them across to their respective departments to be reviewed. The first step in the entire process is to review them according to the requirement of the departments and their needs. If the department does not find them up to their expectations, it is naturally closed, by sending a polite letter of refusal. If the applicant meets up to the requirement of the hospital and the department, he is made an offer by the secretary of the respective department and an interest letter is sent across. In case he is interested in taking up the position, he is then asked to submit documents that are to be used in order to take the case forward. These are, of course, possible only through the constant empowerment of employees. Employees feel empowered when they remain competent, are genuinely interested in their work and are passionate about it. This additionally leads to the employers trusting them entirely. Theories of Recruitment Behling and others have explicitly said that, there are essentially three reasons which influence an individual’s decision to join with an organization. Viz. objective factor, subjective factor and critical contact. In accordance to this, there have evolved three theories in recruitment, namely, objective factor theory, subjective factor theory and critical contact theory. (Behling and Schriesheim) As per the first theory, objective factors, the primary consideration by the prospective employee depends largely on the objective assessment of tangible factors that exist in a work environment. These tangible factors are basically, the pay and perks associated with the job, the location of the job i.e. either a relocation or in the same city, but travelling distances, the opportunities for growth in the career, the opportunities to pursue further education and more importantly, the exact nature of work. However, in the second factor i.e. subjective factor theory, what matters is the compatibility of the image of the organization with the personality of the individual. This is the single most decisive factor that pushes the employee to choose an organization and seek employment with the organization. (Jones, Schultz and Chapman) Apart from these, there are several instances when a candidate has difficulties making a choice of the organization, even though the above two factors are in place. The reasons for this could range from having access to insufficient or limited data of the organization that he’s seeking employment, or sometimes, the candidates own shortcoming of being able to objectively or subjectively analyze the organization and come to a conclusive decision. In such cases, as had been noticed extensively, there are a few critical factors that he observes during his interview act as catalysts in the decision making process. (Dessler) It is good to put down on note here that most of the recruitment theoretical bases represented above were developed by Behling and others was predominantly influenced by the labor and other conditions that exist in the developed nations such as USA, Western European nations such as France, Germany and UK. This was at a time when the vacancies were at a maximum due to the boom then. Things, however, have changed since then and are currently seeing more number of jobs in development countries such as India, China and others. Still, some of these recruitment policies hold good even in these times and are practiced even today in most organizations. There are, of course, different theoretical and practical consideration when recruiting for highly skilled jobs such as IT, R&D, finance, marketing and so on and various other considerations when recruiting for manufacturing or skilled labor. In the case of King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research center, the organization is looking for highly skilled manpower to join as physicians in order to make it one of the best centers across the Middle East. To achieve this, especially in a manpower sensitive environment such as a hospital, it is extremely critical that recruitment follows the highest standards possible or achievable. Since it is the hospital that is in dire need of high-quality talent, it becomes more of a buyer’s market i.e. the candidate has the freedom of choice. It is seen that during these times, the factors that affect recruitment range from pay to perks and most of the other objective and subjective factors as depicted above. (Hendry) In the stage in the recruitment flow, the candidate is asked to furnish various documents, each of which are obtained to ascertain the exact standard of the individual. Doing so, results in overcoming many embarrassments that may exist when recruiting personnel. These documents may range from letters of references that are addressed to the Chairman of the facility in confidentiality to copies of various certificates that were obtained during a candidate’s career. The King Faisal Specialty Hospital & Research Center follows a stringent practice of recruitment especially in the document stage. This enables the center to recruit only the best and individuals of the highest standard. In preparation for the candidature, the recruitment office requests the candidates to send across a set of documents that consists of an updated and complete CV, the duly filled application form, letters of reference addressed to Dept Chairman dated within the past six (6) months only, copies of the Medical Degree Certificate, the Internship certificate, Residency certificate, Fellowship certificate (if applicable), Specialty board certification (if applicable), Subspecialty board certification (if applicable), completed and signed clinical privilege application form , signed Release of Information, completed Visa biodata form (for physician and any accompanying family members), scanned copy of passport (for physician and any accompanying family members), scanned color picture (passport size on white background), Completed Professional Experience form (to be completed by Dept Secretary) and the medical questionnaire. The recruitment process is almost all the time a process that enables the filtration of candidates and in addition, allows the organization to discover potential candidates that may be suitable for the organization. These strategies can also help the organization build a pipeline of individuals in anticipation for expected vacancies. Recruiting has been defined as a process that generates a collection of candidates and reaches out to the right audience that is appropriate enough to fill up a vacancy (Leopold, 2002). In the initial step of the recruitment process, a job analysis is prepared. The job analysis is critical to organization and the candidate. Since the entire process is quite time consuming, it is important that there is sufficient specificity built into the process so that it does not waste the time of either the recruiter or the candidate. Post this, a job description for the position is compiled, which helps everybody understand the exact nature of the job. The job description consists of details such as the job title, the location of the job, key purposes of the jobs, main duties and the roles it plays to ensure the success of the organization. Recruitment has always been an integral part of Human Resource management. These theories are essentially a set of strategies that focus on ways and methods of recruiting and selecting candidates. In addition, it also highlights the benefits of interviewing, general assessment and psychometric testing as a part of the employee selection process. There are several ways in which the recruitment process could be done including internal or external and sometimes even online. These involve several stages which include policy development, advertisements, JD preparation, and employee training and so on (Korsten 2003, Jones et al, 2006). There are several instances of recruitment policies within the healthcare sector that provide valuable insights into the policies that are followed and the objectives of managerial requirements that are defined. Post the documents being filed by the candidate, begins the most critical part of the recruitment process at King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre. The reference check is undertaken in the beginning with the education institution that the candidate was a part of. Since the job description asks for qualifications up to a subspecialty level, there are a total of six certifications that have been requested for. Six different reference checks need to be completed with the education institutions that the candidate has attended. Once this is done, the entire package of reference check documents are sent to the MCO office for a line approval authorization of the candidate and the issuing of a number on the Physician Staff Transaction (PST). This number and the package are then forwarded to the MSCC Secretary for an approval within 24 hours, by including in the next MSCC agenda. Post this, the credentialing of the documents is done and the candidate gets an approval based on his credentials. In case, the candidate is not approved at this stage, a memo is sent out to the agency or the candidate directly informing him of not being selected. In case the candidate is approved then the MCO recommends the candidate to the EDMCO for a further approval of the candidate. After the EDMCO approves the candidature, it then moves back to the MSCC Secretary, who then forwards the approved PST form to the CED for a final approval. Post this, the Department Secretary informs the candidate that his candidature has been approved and now, the files are passed on to the international recruitment division so that it can be taken in for further processing. International candidates are also given the web link for the hospital manual and the DVD to acclimatise themselves to the requirements of the hospital. The candidate is then asked to provide his expected date of joining to make appropriate arrangements. The department secretary then takes the completed package that contains the approved package and PST form, the passport copy, the visa bio-data form, scanned pictures, and the PTA/visa request forms to the international employment services. Once this is done, the International Employment Services liaise’ with the candidate to ensure that he accepts the job offer, provides the medical check-off form, the visa process forms, and the PTA and mobilization. The process now splits into two parts wherein the first part, the Employee Department forwards the complete file to the Employee Relations department, prior to the candidate’s arrival in the country. Which usually is about a week before the Hospital orientation. Once this has been completed, it continues into the orientation of the candidate into the hospital where he’s provided his pager number and the actual orientation. Post this; the Department Secretary will schedule ICIS training and Physician Orientation (locums for abridged version and permanent physicians for hospital and two (2 day) orientation programmes. At this juncture, the Department Secretary will arrange for Public Relations to prepare the welcome package to be given at the airport which includes welcome letter from the Chairman, adjusting to Life at KFSH booklet and the Secretary’s Contact Information. On Saturday before hospital orientation or on the locum’s first day of abridged orientation, the department secretary shall call physician to ensure he arrived safely and to remind him of process for the day, make arrangements for physician to visit department, get him/her to complete the Incoming Physicians Activation Sheet and circulate information as per secretary flow sheet, request Access Control during this visit, sign contract and relevant department paperwork, inform the Physician to pick up pager from secretary and give brief orientation to department, hand over the package with the following documentation: Clinical privileges, Work schedule, Phone list, Department IPPs, Smaller organizations follow the same principles as larger organizations; however, their processes might not be as extensive as the larger ones. But they too are focused on ensuring a comprehensive job analysis and recruiting people with high-quality and standards. There are other forms that are used nowadays in recruiting techniques such as exercises, role plays, group discussions or activities in order to test the aptitude and attitude of candidates. These are more prominent when recruiting a high number of people example freshers and are being used to fill up a large number of vacancies that have cropped up. Recruitment, as most organizations consider it is a (Fisher, Schoenfeldt and Shaw) management process and any failure in setting the right polices and processes can result in difficulties over a long period of time. These can adverse effects on the organization’s profitability and can cause an imbalance in staffing or skills. In addition, an imbalance has always been seen to lead to labor shortages, or challenges issues in management decision making. More importantly, the recruitment process can always be improved provided a few management theories are followed. There are several ways in which an improvement can be brought in to the recruitment process. These can be done through Munro-Frasers fivefold grading system, or Rodgers seven point plan and in addition, a combination of personal interviews, psychometric or psychological tests and so on.   When it comes to recruitment, one must remember that it is not only a simple and mere selection process, it also needs decision making on the part of the management and also extensive planning that ensures that the best suited manpower is employed towards achieving the goals laid down. With business organisations and companies, the world over, competing amongst themselves to recruit those with the most promising potential, there has been an increased focus on management decision making, innovation and the selector’s goal to recruit only the candidates that would be best suited to embrace the ethics, corporate culture and climate specific to the organisation. (Terpstra, 1994). This essentially means that the management specifically hones in on potential candidates who they believe will be capable of teamwork. The reason teamwork is a main focus is because when it comes to junior management positions, being a team player is a crucial component. The fact of the matter is that within any business organisation, the Human Management resource division is totally focused on realisation of strategic plans and meeting corporate objectives through personnel training aimed at ultimately enhance company profits and performance (Korsten, 2003). The entire recruitment process, one must remember, does not end with the application process and the selection of the right people but to a great extent it also involves the maintaining and training of the employees who have been picked and chosen by the organisation. Even if there is a well drawn-up plan on the recruitment, selection and involvement of a management team that is qualified, there is always the possibility that the company's recruitment processes meet with significant implementation obstacles. While there are several Human Resource management theories that can be referred to and that can provide insights on the best recruitment practices, companies have to employ their own in-house management skills to apply these broad and generic theories to best suit their specific organizational contexts. Works Cited Behling, Orlando and Chester Schriesheim. Organizational Behavior: Theory, Research and Application. Allyn and Bacon, 1976. Dessler, Gary. Human Resource Management. New Jersey, USA: Eighth Edition, 2000. Fisher, Cynthia D, Lyle F Schoenfeldt and James B Shaw. Human Resource Management. Boston, MA, USA: Second Edition, 1993. Hendry, C. Human Resource Management: a strategic approach to employment. London, Great Britain: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995. Jones, David A, Jonas W Schultz and Derek S Chapman. "Recruiting Through Job Advertisements: The Effects of Cognitive Elaboration on Decision Making." International Journal of Selection and Assessment (2006): 167-179. King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre Business Portal. 2008. 17 January 2010 . Korsten, A D. "eveloping a training plan to ensure employees keep up with the dynamics of facility management." Journal of Facilities Management (2003): 365-379. Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations. Metheun, 1776. Read More