Human Resource Management in Health Care - Term Paper Example

Assessment of Human Resource Department Human Resource Department is one of the most crucial departments in an organization. The department is mandated to ascertain accomplishment of policies and set goals through proper management of the workforce. It is responsible for recruitment of staff, formulation of daily activities, and plans future goals and ventures. The department endeavors to get the best out of its employees. Human Resource Department must perform its recruitment process effectively to ensure that an organization gets the most competent candidates with the right qualification and prowess. The department does a thorough evaluation of applicants from a pool of potential employees to get the right pick. In addition, the department provides the relevant training to the employees in an organization. Training guarantees quality workforce in an organization. Effective execution of duties in this department furthers the performance of organizations (Fallon and Ma, 2007). To get a deeper insight on the Human Resource Department, this research project will explore Johns Hopkins Health Care Organization. First, the report will give an overview of the organization. In this section, the project will focus on organization history, number of workers, and the population it serves. Second, the report will survey the organization of the department and how it performs its duties. Third, it will provide information on methods used to evaluate employees’ performance, their safety in course work, and the available compensation initiatives. Fourth, the report will assess how Johns Hopkins manages cultural diversity among its employees. Lastly, the report will recommend on the steps that Johns Hopkins health care needs to take to improve its services. General Overview Johns Hopkins is among the largest healthcare organizations in United States. The organization is located in Baltimore city in Maryland. Johns Hopkins health care Organization opened its doors in 1889. In the year 1893, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine was established. The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine ushered in a new period of scientific research. John Hopkins, through his philanthropic character, founded the organization. Since its establishment, Johns Hopkins Health care is a leader in provision of quality health care. Many people acknowledge the excellent staff that specializes in medical care. Johns Hopkins has expanded its services through out United States. Currently, the organization has four uptown health care and surgery centers, and six teaching and community hospitals. In addition, it has over thirty outpatient sites and both international and local patients’ activities. The organization has more than 47,000 employees. The organization specializes in many human diseases, from minor infections to surgery in the theaters. Johns Hopkins healthcare wins many local and international awards. The management of Johns Hopkins Healthcare attaches this success to its best workforce. The healthcare center embraces cultural competence, inclusion, and diversity. In the year 2008, they organization was awarded the Department of Labor Opportunity Award. Other prizes were given to individual who contributed much towards achieving a sound healthcare. The organization ranks the best healthcare ranking for 21 consecutive years in U.S. In addition, it prides in producing the best medical professionals in the world. Johns Hopkins healthcare organization leads in innovations and research in medical field. This is in pursuant to be the best in the world (Fallon, 2007). Organization of Structure of Human Resource Department The Human Resource Department comprises of benefits/service center, office of compensation, and community education projects office. Other offices housed in this department include office of human resource consulting and labor relations. In addition, the department has pension office, office of organization Development and Training, and Human Resource Administration. The benefits office works to ensure there is a competitive and affordable program to grant benefits to the Hopkins Organization. The office assists the employee in tackling concerns related to health. Some of the question this office deals with includes child/elder care and payments of off times. The office gives services to promote wellness, which encompasses educational, motivational, and health assessments. The benefits office receives feedback from the employees and act on them on regular basis. Any benefit changes must comply with market conditions. The office gives a detailed review of annual re-enrollment information. The consultation hours for employees are between 7.am to 5 pm. This is from Monday through Friday (Fallon and McConnell, 2007). Through community development and education programs, John Hopkins healthcare organization seeks to build a pool of ready workers. The office collaborates with community members to improve the lives of the vulnerable youth, residents, and Baltimore community in general. They provide the youth with the exposure needed in healthcare. These programs focus on in equipping the youth will right skills and relevant advice on in their academic pursuits. The support programs comprise of internships, mentoring, scholarships, and occasional tours to the John Hopkins health organization. The office of Human Resource Consulting and Labor Relations creates and sustains positive and safe working environment. The office works closely with managers to incorporate sound policies, best practices, and insights for smooth operations in the organization. The consultants in this office conduct assessments to needs of each department. They work with the clients to develop plans with an aim of improving and ensuring adoption of better practices. To provide effective services, the office works in conjunction with the other human resource team (Fallon and McConnell, 2007). The human resource consultants work together with the office of Human Resource Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, Affirmative Action, and Diversity. The office liaises with Legal offices to forge and keep consistent and proper application of workforce and labor policies, procedures, and practices. They make sure the practices comply with local employment, federal, and state laws. The Consulting office endeavors to promote safe and friendly working environment. In addition, the office and the entire human resource department trains, and provides invaluable pierces of advice to employees and mangers. Moreover, the Consulting office has the mandate to educate the workers to interpret the written policies. It uses the past experience of the Organization to formulate and implement effective procedures and feasible alternatives. This puts John Hopkins Healthcare versed in new technology in the Medical arenas. Training and Development John Hopkins organization understands the challenges linked to work and workplace environment are factual. In the light of this, the human resource department ensures that the employees get relevant training. Training is integral part of Hopkins planning process. The organization recognizes that their success or failure is subject to employees’ abilities. Training prepares the staff to accomplish tasks successfully. The Department of Human Resource notes that their survival in the competitive healthcare sector depends on their effectiveness to deliver through training. In the light of this, the organization has an extensive training program to cater for medical staff and non-medics. According to Human Resource Manager, the organization has invested a lot of resources in employee training programs. The Department knows that it will reap the benefits in the long run. Through training, the workers motivation remains high always. Dissatisfied workers get into practices that doom every good turn that any organization makes. Through training and developments, John Hopkins maintains the quality of services they offer always beyond the expectations of clients. Johns Hopkins aims to equip its staff with up to date skills to respond to disasters when they occur. John Hopkins re-evaluates its disaster plans and incorporates new disaster drills. This is in the spirit to devise prudent methods to mitigate an eventuality in the healthcare. With increased exposure of many patients to nuclear, chemical, and radiation, through training the hospital has a strong pool of competent health workers. Most of the training focuses on the roles of patients the Hopkins Healthcare organization. The Human Resource manager invites health professionals to give talks to the Johns Hopkins staff about new diagnostic methods for proper management of diseases. The nurses are also coached on the importance of good relationship with their patient. The Department realizes that it is only through close ties with clients that they can give full information of their ailment. The training attracts all the staff from each and every department at John Hopkins Organization. The training programs ascertain that every staff member is aware of the strategic plans and objectives of the organization. The Human Resource Department designs excellent training programs that capture the needs of the organization. At Johns Hopkins, the Human Resource Department conducts regular researches that assist in designing up to date training programs. Before the department comes up with an employee training program it first determines the skills missing in the workforce. Accomplishment of this survey task welcomes the designing process. Readiness, level of motivation, and urgency of skills direct the designing process (Swayne and Jack, 2006). After careful analysis of the urgent skills required, Johns Hopkins Human Resource Department puts in writings the expected outcomes of the training programs. The expectations are based on the performance-set goals. The department also devises methods to evaluate the tangible achievement of the program at the end of each training sessions. Nurses from Nursing Department provide training to the incumbent nurses. This training centers the clinical education. The training aspires to equip the new medical professional with hands-one experience before they embark on the medicine profession. The Human Resource personnel give coaching on the aspects that do not have clinical orientations. The Human Resource Department does not only lay a lot of emphasis of training but also it gives equal attention to development. At Johns Hopkins Organization, the Hr Department revises the mission, vision, and mission. This enables it to tackle challenges come with changes in health care delivery, social and economic environments. The department deals with the new demands through preparing all staff to potentially future medical challenges. The department incubates and readies its staff to assume bigger position when employees become incapacitated to work or quit the job. This is the mandate of capacity building program (Swayne and Jack, 2006). The Recruitment and Selection Process of Employees The Department of Human Resource at Johns Hopkins health care organization knows the importance of selecting the right candidate for a job. Competent and experienced incumbent employees help to advance the organizations goals and objectives. To keep the organizational stability and maintain its reputation, Johns Hopkins hires highly qualified staff with the most needed prowess in the organization. The policy of John Hopkins requires that the Human Resource Department to exploit possible chances of getting the right employee within its staff. The policy emphasizes on internal promotion of staff when a position falls vacant. This is a good strategy to tap the skills provided by training and development office to Johns Hopkins employees. The policy asserts that the recruitment process should disregard race, religion, sex, veteran status, creed, sexual preference, marital status, and country of origin. In addition, the policy stipulates that the internally recruited employees to remain in the new position for a period of ninety days. The Human Resource invites external application when the floating pool of the staff is not eligible. The hiring department that wishes to fill a vacant position whether in full time or part-time basis initiates a Personnel Requisition Form. The department them forwards it to Office of Career Services housed in Human Resource Department. The Human Resource Department posts a notice on Job Opportunity Board. This notice stays there for five consecutive working days. Similarly, the Human Resource Department advertises the new job opportunities electronically and in print. Up on receipt of applications the career specialist in the HR Department assesses the applications. After perusing through overwhelming applications, Career Specialist shortlists the best qualified candidates for the interview. Stereotypes and any prejudice are highly condemned at Johns Hopkins Health Care Organization. The career specialist forwards the qualified and unqualified candidates to the hiring department. The hiring department in conjunction with the Human Resource Department establishes a panel to interview the candidates with the stated minimum qualification. To reduce the number and the cost of recruitment process, Johns Hopkins recruitment team conducts screening interviews. The team uses phone calling in most of the times to interview prospective employees at this initial stages. However, the recruiters invite face to face interrogation occasionally. In this interview, the recruitment team does not concentrate on academic qualification. The team focuses on non-academic qualification such as the ability of candidates to express themselves explicitly. The recruiters ask for some clarification of the resumes that the individual candidate submitted. This interview establishes the suitability and fitness of potential employees in John Hopkins Organization. It selects the most capable candidates. After screening interview, the recruitment team embarks on the selection of the candidate to occupy the vacant position. This is the in depth interview and John Hopkins recruitment team puts emphasis on it. In this second stage, the recruitment team comprises of seven panelists. Each panelist asks a couple of questions to the prospective candidates. The design of the questions ranges from common knowledge to the specific description of the job requirement. The panelists score the responses from the candidates and decide on the appropriate picking through a collective outcome (Swayne and Jack, 2006). Performance Evaluation of Employees The Department of Human Resource at Johns Hopkins encourages close-knit relationship between different departments and employees. This is because the department recognizes the fact that regular touch of the management through positive feedbacks motivates the staff. Johns Hopkins organization policy requires all departments to assess the performance of employees. The evaluation process entails development of Performance Plan, an annual Performance Review, and Progress Check. The principal objective of performance Evaluation in John Hopkins is to enhance achievement of the target goals. The process is designed to measure the employees’ effectiveness at job and to identify the areas of improvement. The criteria to evaluate employees’ performance involve initial assessment, performance plan, progress check, and the performance review. Initial assessment happens to all new hires, promoted, and transferred employees. The managers inform the fresh staff of the proficiencies that they need to meet during the appraisal time. This takes place immediately after the orientation of the employees ends. In this evaluation stage, managers use skills checklists to serve as Assessment Forms. This is normally for the positions that have the Skills Checklists. For those positions without the Skills checklist, managers employ the actual job descriptions together with Essential Job Functions and Service standards. The supervisor signs the Initial Assessment Form at the end of the exercise. The performance plan requires the supervisors to meet with their employees to devise an assessment plan. This occurs at the start of a performance cycle. With this plan, John Hopkins Organization aims to capture the commitment of employees to perform within the confines of supervisors expectations. The supervisors provide some training to enrich the skills of their employees. This is a strategy to achieve great performance indices during performance evaluation period (Fried and Johnson, 2002). Progress Check endeavors to establish whether there is achievement of the set goals before the actual date of assessment. The supervisors discuss the evident areas of development with the employee. In addition, the managers provide relevant assistance that an employee requires to achieve the organization goals effectively. John Hopkins Organization conducts an overall assessment review annually. This happens within sixty days after employment, promotion, and transfers dates anniversary. This helps the employees who merit salary increment, documents the performance of employees during the year, and to spot areas of deficiencies. This becomes a benchmark to forge a sound way to run the organization. Safe and Health Work Environment Johns Hopkins Organization appreciates the value of safe and health work environment to its workers. The organization has a set procedures and rules for conducting all its operations. The department of Human Resource designs good programs to guide and direct all phases of safety and health. Some of the programs include environmental control, fire safety, and occupational safety and health. They have equipments that dispose hazardous material from the health care organization. The HR Department facilitates training of the staff on fire emergencies, radiations, exposure to blood borne pathogens, and work related accidents (Fried and Johnson, 2002). Compensation and Initiatives for Employees Johns Hopkins Organization has a very nice compensation program. This program motivates, attracts, and retains highly competent employees to achieve its goals effectively. Employees receive an acting pay when they assume the duties of job description that is higher than their positions. The promoted employees get promotional increases. This happens immediately after they start their new responsibilities. Johns Hopkins Organization recognizes exemplary work that individual employees perform. Thus, they give bonus to the workers to honor their efforts. In addition, the compensation office pays overtime to employees. The organization compensates the occupational injuries that occur in the line of duty. The affected workforce gets a comprehensive medical care at Johns Hopkins Organization. The organization provides basic and supplemental life benefits. Moreover, it offers relocation assistance to its employees. Cultural Competency among Employees Johns Hopkins Health care Organization enjoys a rich cultural diversity. The organization attracts a large pool of its employees from all over the world. Therefore, the workforce comprise of people from different ethnic groups and backgrounds. However, diversity in culture is an asset to Johns Hopkins Health care Organization. They capitalize on the richness in diversified views and skills to forge excellent strategies to tackle the organizational challenges. Respect and civility are central to all operations at Johns Hopkins Organization. The two virtues seek to create strong connections among the entire departments aiming at achieving and delivering quality health services. The organization puts emphasis on mentoring program for the new employees. This helps the organization to prevent the possibility of the expression of racial overtones in new hires. The organization has interpreters in order to manage the huge numbers of patients with different backgrounds. The service of the interpreters ensures that patients receive the right medical attentions (Fried and Johnson, 2002). The cohesiveness and respect between the staff and the human resource department is enough to generate an undying interest to work at Johns Hopkins Health care Organization. The organizations reputation goes beyond the boundaries of United States. Stepping at John Hopkins organization gives a sense of pride and belonging to any prospective employee. In addition, John Hopkins Organization is an abode of competent and bright health professionals. This is an adequate assurance of career growth for those wishing to join Johns Hopkins Health Care Organization. Recommendations The research project recommends that Johns Hopkins Health care Organization to embrace a number of things. First, it should increase the sharing of information on performances. Doing the assessment and evaluation of employees is not adequate enough. This should translate to tangible results when it is shared among the Johns Hopkins staff. Second, there should initiate a system to track and reward the most performing employees. This will keep the workforce motivated to carry out their duties effectively. Third, Department of Human Resource should involve the employees’ representatives in their decision-making process. This ensures wide deliberation of workforce issues to get a lasting solution. Lastly, Johns Hopkins Health care Organization should invest a lot in its Human Resource Department. It is a sound move for continuous improvement of organization performance and maintain it as the best in health care. References Fallon, L., and McConnell, C. (2007). Human resource management in health care: principles and practice Sudbury: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Fried, B., and Johnson, J. (2002). Human resources in healthcare: managing for success. Chicago: Health Administration Press. Swayne, L., and Jack, W. (2006). Strategic management of health care organizations. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Read More