Human Resource Planning Processes in Armidale Hospital, Qantas Airlines, University of New England - Case Study Example

Running Head: Human Resource Management HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING PROCESSES BY: PRESENTED TO: UNIVERSITY: CITY: STATE: DATE DUE: CASE OF ARMIDALE HOSPITAL Introduction Health care system in Armidale hospital is of key importance in improving overall health of patients. Human resource management is essential to any health care system. We have overcome problems through proper implementation of human resources planning processes. A deeper understanding has been created over the role of those processes. High quality of health care is needed hence management of human resources is desirable (Kirby, Paul 2008, P.15). Ibarra and Herminia (2003, P.76) stated that new policies are developed to achieve better health care in all the departments in a healthcare institution. Attention is always focussed on human resources planning process in any organization. This is because investment decisions in Armidale hospital are generally irreversible. When it comes to health, human resources are clinical and non clinical staff, taking care of health intervention. For all those individuals to work properly they all need knowledge, skills and motivation. For the system to succeed there ought to be a well planned working environment between the health promoters and caregivers (Zurn 2004). Hence handling of the human capital is done differently with that of physical capital. There exists a relationship between human resources and health care which has always been put to consideration. The cost of treatment in Armidale hospital has increased. This is led by the increase of the number and cost of health care products. McNamara and Carter (2005) suggested that human resource planning processes are maintained to allow for a balanced workforce and for all of them to work effectively. The ability to hire is sometimes affected because of the funding system of the hospital. The processes allow equal distribution of health care workforce. In Armidale hospital the variation of size, of its working practitioners is of great concern. This is because we always check delivery and intervention measures using these indicators. All the workers are always trained to ascertain skill categories of all the workers. To meet the hospitals’ future and current needs all the workers are trained. Hence competence is always maintained in all the departments of the hospital (Kirby 2008, P.34). Workforce movements usually create imbalances in the hospital hence the need for better planning processes. Health professionals are given incentives in addition to housing and infrastructure. They are retained and others recruited as part of job rotation. Since the country has a higher gross domestic product per capita, they spend more in the hospital. This leads to a higher number of individuals employed by the hospital. This is because there is a correlation between the economic position of a country and the number of human resources for health. There is an increase in demand for health services and personnel because of the ageing population. Young workers are trained to take up the positions of those that are retiring (Zurn 2004). The climate of the country is conducive, these allows for no hindrances in the ability to delivers services in the hospital. Geographical factors are always considered when administering health services in the hospital. Cultural and political values of the country have in the past influenced the demand and supply of human resources for health. All these are checked to ensure efficiency, equity and quality objectives. I have initiated various processes to maintain high level of efficiency. Outsourcing of services has always been made use of. This has made conversion of fixed labour expenditures into variable costs possible. Ibarra and Hermana (2003, P.87) found out that other measures like contracting out and performance contracts are other measures that are employed. In the move to increase equity and fairness human resource planning processes have been employed. These included the introduction of financial protection mechanisms. This allows the human resource professionals to use other measures that are available to increase equity. Patient’s satisfaction has been on the top list agenda of the hospital and its human resource management team. To improve and distinguish health care, Armidale hospital has differentiated between techniques affiliated to quality and their social impacts. The available technical qualities refer to results of health care to the population. Socio-cultural measures the patients satisfaction to the services provided. Human resource professionals at times find problems while delivering services to the hospital. These obstacles hinder the smooth implementation of all the designed policies. The obstacles include budgets, high rates of turnover and lack of congruence between different stakeholders. Better coordination of patient services has been employed as part of policies to provide quality services. Since people are involved in the ultimate working in the hospital, human resources planning processes play a vital role in the success of the hospitals’ overall policies. Human resources professionals have in the past examined and shaped the hospitals’ structure. These were done to improve the standards of service delivery. Zurn (2004) argues that all the human resource teams have always empowered employees to be more creative and innovative. A new way of nursing care was introduced where decentralization of nursing staff was done. Treatment centres were made afresh to make them more accessible and approachable. Human resource team also enabled the workers to work internally or outside the hospital. New challenges were recognized such as intense price competition and payment reform. Since a cultural reformation was needed the human resources planning team was enacted. The team came up with a strategy that consisted of five major aims. Through staffing, corporate profiles were developed for each department. The idea of performance management developed where all workers were accountable. Learning was emphasized to allow all workers to be involved in the organizations’ development. All the workers were valued, these led to the best talents retained. McNamara and Carter (2005) observed that the issue of migrant health workers has been hard to deal with. Through generous incentives the individuals are always allowed to work in the hospital. As opposed to other countries living conditions of people have always been improved. The international journal for Equity in Health (2003) suggested that individuals usually move to places where they are rewarded heavily. Professionals desire to work in places where their families will get all they desire. Hence the many policies of Armidale hospital human resources department ensure the comfort of all its workers. All the issues raised above are very common to other hospitals too. But the approaches taken to address them are very different. Example Armidale hospital has taken into account the importance of all its workers and their families. All the factors discussed represent health care issues surrounding the level of economic development. In Armidale the level of economic development has greatly increased. The relationship between the human resource management and health care in Armidale hospital is complex. Health information exchange is made use of through mobilization of healthcare information electronically. This is done comparing between organizations available in a certain region or medical care system, these comparisons provides the capability of movement of information electronically. The goal of health information exchange makes it possible for all the data required accessible. These enables management and human resource team plan appropriately. It is also useful to authorities to assist in analyses of many factors. The international journal for Equity in Health (2003) suggested that management health systems facilitate all practitioners meeting high standards of patient outlook. This is done through participation in a patient's continuity of being treated. Other health care provider benefits include reduced expenses associated with multiple tests. CASE OF QUANTAS AIRLINES This is one of Australia’s largest corporations. The nature of Qantas group creates a variety of ways to deal with the human resource issues. Quanta’s has approximately 37000 people working for the company. The human resource professionals usually work together with other business. Human resource strategy basically focuses on ensuring flexibility and adaptable workforce (Kirby 2008, P. 54). Human resource planning works in four ways in Quanta’s namely; corporate, business segments, shared services, learning and development. In corporate issues like remuneration and benefits are discussed. Human resource team most of the time merge with others to help deliver all their policies in an orderly manner. Back office functions are also done through shared services. Those in the back office perform functions like managing employee records and managing staff travel schemes. Programs are learnt through Qantas College, these programs enable employees to equip themselves with relevant skills. As professional with Qantas, all involved will be part of an organization access to tailored Business Partnering. The airline has had some incidences that have many times questioned its credibility (Kirby 2008, P. 90). These incidences have been due to problems that have occurred in the past. The airline assumes a free market economy. Various factors affect the demand and supply of goods and services in the market. In Qantas the law of demand is mostly used by the human resource department. These law states that as price increases demand declines and as supply increases, and as demand increases prices increase through human resource planning. The Board of directors have made use of policies formulated by the stakeholders. The policies are amended from time to time. The stakeholder communications policy is designed to promote effective communication. They usually encourage effective participation at general meetings with company’s leadership (Ibarra 2003, P. 66). Owners of Qantas shares are encouraged to contact the Qantas Share Registry. This allows them to arrange the direct receipt of stakeholder material and other necessities. Under its Constitution foreign purchasers are required to notify Qantas. This is done within ten days of becoming registered. Usually Qantas investigates foreign share purchases. Upon reconciliation and receipt of the relevant papers (Ibarra 2003, P. 79). CASE OF UNIVERSITY OF NEW ENGLAND  University of New England’s most important resource is its employees, most of its staff very loyal. The employers have a high level of integrity and honesty. All of them work together to achieve the total University goals. To enable all the workers work together for the institution the staff need clarity of direction, professional development and rewards. McNamara and Carter (2005) suggested that strategic workforce planning is where the employers come with strategies to enable the university achieve its goals. Human resources development is made use of under the strategic directions of the University of New England. The university knows very well that its future is determined by its entire staff. The human resources planning process enable them to meet their priorities (zurn 2004). The overall leadership of the university work actively towards full employee engagement. Employee population and experience are declining than the number of positions. Through these statistics many years to come demand for trained and capable workers will rise. There are strategies that have been employed by the human resource planning department to oversee the expected rise. The team suggested that it was better to maintain the existing people to meet future employment needs. Secondly, we have actively developed the organizational practices and working methodologies to ensure continual inflow of staff. These will necessitate the total change of employment structures. The new human resource practices will also enable attraction of new staff. The human resources team plan is to recruit appropriate staff. The team under the leadership of the General Manager will avail policies to support the infrastructure of the university. In conjunction with the human resource development plan is the teaching and learning plan and research development plan. Organizational Development usually is given the task of maintaining the database for all training. Organizational development is also given the responsibility of sourcing and coordinating training. All the plans require that the human resource planning team become responsive to current and future needs (McNamara 2005). All the changes and flexibility will allow for innovation. Such that all the projects and plans to be straitened and completed in shorter periods. These will allow them to respond to the demands and opportunities of other markets. The main results of this plan include managing and specifically addressing the structure of the organization. Achievement of these outcomes will enable University of New England to meet its strategic objective. The successful completion and usage of this plan depends solely on the leadership of the human resource planning team. The other aim of this plan is to create safe and friendly work environment that is conducive. to achieve all the desirable results all the staff are required to be accountable, more so they are to take responsibility and ownership for outcomes. All the staff members are to be committed to the university’s values and its strategic agenda. The human resources planning department urges all the staff to feel empowered to take control and be client focused. They are also encouraged to look for opportunities to add value and embrace and promote change (Kirby 2008, P.34). How to Source Appropriate Labour As reported by Ibarra (2003, p.64), there are internal and external sources of recruitment. Internal sources mean promoting workers while external sources are those that come from outside. Mostly in internal sourcing means vacancies other than the lowest level are filled by promoting its personnel. Thus it puts up a chain of promotions that are filled from those lowest in ranks. Since it is not always possible to get workers from within, we go for external sources of manpower supply. This is done for vacancies at lowest levels. Contacts through present employees are a method usually made use of for manpower supply. Many times the employees recommend their friends or relatives. It is always expected that the employees recommend people who have the potential and qualifications. This is done to allow the company meet its standards (Ibarra 2003, P.65). Former employees are usually considered if they had a good record. Former employees include those laid off or have left the organization for personal reasons. These will require less initial training since they previously worked for those organizations. Recruitment at the gate is made use of sometimes for casual labourers. They work and get to receive their wages after a week. These workers are recruited at the gate. Usually the type of vacancy, work and time of work is advertised at the gate. Through the use of un-solicitated applications we draw applications at the company’s office. All the applications are examined to locate good candidates. The human resource department mostly puts adverts on the local dailies and journals. All the particulars pertaining to the position are written to get the best candidate. This system attracts the applicants’ requisite calibre (Zurn 2004). Through liaison with universities and schools of technology, candidates are picked for interviews. Universities and technical institutions keep preparing young talents who are absorbed. Their names are sent to the prospective employers when required. Through employment exchanges jobs of semiskilled nature are sourced out. Private agencies play an important role as they specialize in a particular type of job like sales, office and engineers. Some professional bodies have a register of qualified persons. They recommend them to employers when they needed. Lastly we have personnel consultants who specialise in the overall recruitment of senior management. Organisations hire the services of these consultants at the time of recruitment of senior people at the organisation. Major Stakeholders McNamara and Carter (2005) suggested that for any project to succeed in an organization, stakeholders’ management is usually important. Right people are required for the right project. As I have become successful in my career I have affected more people positively. This has led to people who have power over all my projects to being impacted in one way or another. Hence Stakeholder Management is a very crucial part for success to be in any organization. It helps to make sure projects succeed even when there is politics involved. Stakeholder analysis ensures that a group of important individuals are worn over. We make use of stakeholder planning to maintain the standards required for our success. Since there are those stakeholders who are powerful, their input is often made use. These is done at initial stages of projects, hence quality will be emphasized. More resources are always brought to the projects, because of the influence the strong stakeholders. Theirs should be frequent communication with all stakeholders to ensure they understand the scope of the projects. All the people affected by our work in the organization or have roles to play are our stakeholders. Our stakeholders are mostly organizations but we make sure we do communicate with all our people. Almost all our stakeholder either wants the achievement of our goals or desires them to fail. Having information on all our stakeholders they are placed in a stakeholder map. Then we work on modalities of winning their overall support. Different time should be allocated to projects as per the thoughts of the stakeholders. As mentioned earlier human resource planning is the process of analyzing the individuals working for an organization. Always the organization evaluates the internal and external issues affecting its human resource requirements. Steps that are necessary are evaluated for the purpose of its long term goals. These steps may include recruiting, training or outsourcing. Senior individuals are made to anticipate change and provide other plans to address workforce problems. The human resource plan is compared to the organizations plan. The company policies and plan will determine what work activities are looked for both at present or in the future. After careful study is done on all the existing activities the organization can determined its requirements (Kirby 2008, P.98). Staffing assessment is determining the involvement and content of the current workforce. Also specifying the total workforce and knowledge needed in the future. Manpower inventory is mostly made use of to allow ascertain current and future needs of the company. Through a separated analysis the company then identifies the spaces between the current and projected human resource needs. The company creates strategies to close the identified spaces. It must take note of all the problems that can hinder staffing. These include laws of a government, innovations and the total population. Other projections can be training, employment of new staff members and looking for tenders. Kirby (2008, P. 39) suggests that succession planning, organizational restructuring are other strategies always employed. The company develops its staffing plan always. The implementation stage ensures that resources are in place. All the duties have been allocated to the right people. All stakeholders are always urged to work as a team to deliver on the company’s objectives. If the company decides to employ staffing or bringing new talents through training then it must always source and bring up those groupings. The evaluation stage requires continually monitoring on the progress of the plan. These include having a total view of defects in the original plan and making necessary corrections. The human resources department is usually given the responsibility to evaluate the effectiveness of the overall plan. CONCLUSION All the stakeholders will need to be organized through every phase of the plan, starting with involving them in the basics requirements of the company. Identifying all the solutions to the companies’ problem that the project is designed to solve. As the project begins a communication plan is made up. These will allow members to know how, when and what to communicate to the group. Part of all this involves project reporting. Different stakeholders will want to have a different approach to outcomes from projects. An important part of the stakeholder management is taking care of all these competing expectations. Finally, in the evaluation phase of the plan one has to find out from the stakeholders how well the project satisfied them (Kirby 2008, P. 54). Bibliographies List Kirby, Paul 2008, The Health reforms, 6th edn, McGraw Hill Publishing Company Limited, India. Ibarra, Herminia 2003, working identity: unconventional strategies for reinventing your career, 5th ed, Harvard Business Press. Zurn, P 2004, Imbalance in health workforce, Perth researcher finds’ , ABC online, viewed 10th april 2004, . McNamara, Carter 2005, Basic Guidelines to Human Resource planning, Philosophical research online, vol. 3, no. 3, viewed 19th Aril 2005, < http://management.orgWorld Health Organization>. Read More