The Rationale for the Development of Employment Arrangements that are Supportive of Health Workforce Reform as a Strategic Workforce Issue
Healthcare Service Organisation is a challenging task which requires commitment from the topmost, middle, and junior management. Healthcare organisations are entities which, like any other organisation, are made up of stakeholders such as employees, management, clients, and the general public. Each of these stakeholders should be fused into the system and managed well because they play a significant role in propelling the facility to the next level. After all, no organisation wants to progress because none of them wants to be static. For example, employees who are relied upon to provide labour the facility should be adequately supported to ensure that they are motivated to deliver their best services for the sake of accomplishing the organisation’s goals. When it comes to the employee management, each facility should have an organized Human Resources Department which is responsible for the hiring and retention of the workers within the organisation. It should be done at an aged care service facility in which competent nurses should be made available to attend to the demanding needs of the ageing patients. This paper presents a detailed report on the workforce plan which should be adopted by an aged care service facility to encourage recruitment and improve the retention of the nurses.
The Rationale for the Development of Employment Arrangements that are Supportive of Health Workforce Reform as a Strategic Workforce Issue
An aged case service facility should have a team of competent, highly-trained and experienced nurses to help in delivering services to the patients (Koller, Fenwick & Fenwick Jr, 2013). The elderly differ from the younger generations because they have so many challenges which need to be addressed. For instance, research has proven that the elderly patients are prone to multimorbidity. Meaning, unlike their younger counterparts, the elderly are more likely to experience a multiple of conditions at the same time. Such challenges have been discouraging the nurses from serving at the aged care facilities. A large number of the nurses have been quitting the facility because of the feeling that it is quite demanding because of the nature of the patients it serves (Rosak-Szyrocka, 2015). The high rate of transition of the nurse at the aged care facility is not proper because it interferes with the quality of services. It creates an instability which hinders the delivery of the services to the patients.
The rationale of this workforce issue is therefore to promote the stability of the nurses in the facility. Stability is an important aspect of organisational management which needs lots of caution. The management should always ensure that the facility is properly managed to ensure that all the activities are carried out as expected. The failure of the management to retain its workforce has been a great mistake. It has made the nurses o keep on moving from the organisation every now and then (Hornstein, 2015). The movement of the nurses out of the organisation has been negatively impacting on the progress of the facility in many ways. However, with the implementation of new strategic plan, the problem will have to come to an end because there will be no more transition of the nurses. The nurses will have to be retained within the organisation for the longest time possible (Koller, Fenwick & Fenwick Jr, 2013). At no one time will the nurses think of quitting the facility in order to look for greener pastures.
Goals and Objectives
The rationale of the strategic plan is to improve the capability of the organisation of hiring and retaining a pool of ideal nurses. Aged care facility is a sensitive area which requires highly trained and competent practitioners who are able to understand and address the diverse and demanding needs of the elderly patients. To accomplish, the management should do two things. First and foremost, it should reorganize its recruitment process and ensure that it is done in a transparent and accountable manner. Although all the potential employees should be given an opportunity to tender their application, only the best-qualified nurse should be hired and given an opportunity to serve the facility (Koller, Fenwick & Fenwick Jr, 2013). Besides, all the nurses should be motivated by providing them with all the deserving incentives. This is the only way through which they can be retained in the facility. Otherwise, they can continue quitting the organisation in pursuit of greener pastures or any other organisation in which they can feel accommodated (Koller, Fenwick & Fenwick Jr, 2013).
The workforce plan should not just be adopted for the sake of it. The management should have a well-outlined goals and objectives which should be accomplished by it. If there is a focus on what should be achieve, the change process will be of great value to the facility (Gopee & Galloway, 2017). However, since it has been stated that the major issue of concern will be to reform the management of nurses within the organisation, the strategic plan will therefore seek to fulfill the following objectives:
The strategic plan will bring economic benefits to the organisation. For a very long time, the organisation has been losing lots of money due to the high rate of employee transition. Whenever employees quit the organisation, a replacement has to be done. However, this has proven to be a costly affair because huge sums of money are used in the recruitment and induction of the new nurses into the system (Ybema, Thomas & Hardy, 2016). This is a challenge that will be ultimately addressed if the new changes are adopted because the organisation will have to apply the most appropriate strategies to retain the nurses. The nurses will no longer have to leave the organisation because their issues need a redress. For example, since it has been established that the employees are quitting because they feel demoralized, the management will have to device strategies to use in enhancing the morale of the nurses and make them feel content to serve the facility because it is concerned about their welfare (Rosak-Szyrocka, 2015).
The Development of Employment Arrangements that is Supportive of Health Workforce Reform will be of great contribution because it will enable the facility to improve the quality of the services rendered to its customers. The fact that the nurses feel demoralized makes it difficult for them to provide high and satisfactory services to the patients. Demoralized employees are not productive because they keep on thinking about their troubles and inefficiencies (Rosemann & vom Brocke, 2015). The poor performance of the de-motivated nurses has been negatively impacting on the development of the organisation because it cannot appeal to customers as expected. However, this challenge will have to come to an end if the strategic plan is adopted. The motivation of the nurses will make them to improve the quality of their services (Qureshi & Syed, 2014). All the patients can be happy if they get to know that the facility has improved the quality of its services. This is a clear justification that the adoption of the new strategic plan should be taken seriously because it will benefit the organisation.
Evidence-Based Strategies that would Address the Workforce Issue
Finally, the new strategic plan should be adopted because it will help in improving the performance of the organisation and enabling it to accomplish its short and long-term goals. When the management reforms its recruitment and retention strategies, it will succeed in hiring and retaining a pool of experienced and competent nurses. Should this be the case, the facility will have to benefit because it will manage to rebuild its lost reputation and start enjoying a competitive over its rivals (Flynn, Mathis, Jackson & Valentine, 2015). The success of a healthcare organisation heavily relies on its image. Therefore, by adopting the plan, the organisation will appear as a reputable brand with which everyone will be aspiring to associate. The good reputation will enable the organisation to appeal to the public, win the confidence of the clients, and increase the number of clients. The result will be high profitability and accomplishment of the set short and long-term goals (Rosak-Szyrocka, 2015). Therefore, the management should go ahead and adopt the strategic change because its aim is to benefit the facility.
Strategic planning is an important process which should be undertaken by all the organisation. In the healthcare sector, strategic planning can be used to identify the weak areas before implementing the new changes which can help in improving the face of the organisation. In this organisation, it has been established that the transition of employees is an issue of concern (Flynn, Mathis, Jackson & Valentine, 2015). The management should therefore feel free to apply the following strategies because research has proven that they are the most appropriate in the management of the hiring and retention of nurses.
The recruitment process can be effectively managed by reforming the human resource strategies so far applied by the management. The management should strengthen its Human Resources Department and provide it with the necessary support it can use in hiring the new nurses. The hiring process should be done by collaborating with an external Human Resource firm which can be used to provide consultancy services for the organisation (Langley, Smallman, Tsoukas & Van de Ven, 2013). The facility can subcontract the firm to hire nurses on its behalf. Should this be the case, the organisation will definitely get to employ the best nurses in the market because the consultant is experienced at hiring employees. For the new nurses to be hired, they should possess the required academic, professional and experiential qualifications. At the same time, they should be ready to fit into the organizational culture and operate with fewer constraints. If the organisation hires competent nurses, it will be assured of quality service-delivery (Mohammad, 2014). Therefore, all the necessary measures should be taken to ensure that the organisation hires the best of the best nurses. This is what will help the facility to achieve its goals.
When it comes to the retention of the nurses, the management should consider offering attractive remuneration packages for its employees. Just like any other workers, the nurses aspire to be working in an organisation which pays well. From the analysis so far conducted, it has been established that one of the major reasons why there has been a high rate of transition in the organisation is because of poor remuneration (Galletta, Portoghese, Pili, Piazza & Campagna, 2016). A large number of nurses have been quitting the facility because they feel under-remunerated. However, to address this problem, the management should consider revising its packages. It should increase the salaries, wages, and allowances offered to its nurses. If the nurses are given commensurate pay, they will continue serving the facility because it will be viewed as a motivating factor (Flynn, Mathis, Jackson & Valentine, 2015).
Conclusion
Besides, the management should retain the nurses by creating a conducive working environment for all of them. Many nurses have been complaining that the working conditions at the aged care facility are not favourable for their operation. The nurses have been accusing the management of overworking them, poor communication, and lack of involvement in the decision making processes. These problems can be resolved if the management decided to reform its employee management system (Kuipers, et al., 2014). The first action to take is to restructure the organisation by hiring adequate personnel to serve as nurses. If this is done, the workload will decrease because no nurse will have to be overworked any more. At the same time, the management should improve its communication system and be ready to realign its communication structure by fostering a cordial relationship with the staff (Hayes, 2014). At the same time, the management should boost the morale of the demoralized nurses by recognizing and seeking for their opinion before making any major decisions which directly or indirectly affect them.
Lastly, the management should retain the nurses by providing them with all the incentives which they deserve. For example, all the nurses should be promoted on merit and be given a chance to advance their careers. The promotion process should not be delayed, but done after serving for as little as three years (Flynn, Mathis, Jackson & Valentine, 2015). At the same time, any nurse who is interested in developing their career should be empowered to enroll for and supported to pursue higher degrees. This can make it easier for the nurses to rise to higher ranks such as Advanced Registered Nurse (ARN). On the other hand, the management should motivate the nurses by providing benefits, health insurance schemes, packing, housing facilities, and recreational facilities (Perreira, Innis & Berta, 2016). These are incentives which can motivate the nurses and retain them within the organisation without thinking of quitting in order seeking for better employment opportunities elsewhere.
Change is a process that does not always occur smoothly because it is subject to a number of challenges. Whenever a change in introduced, its implementation is derailed by the obstacles which act a as a barrier to its successful adoption (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). This is the same thing that will be experienced when the facility decides to introduce new changes in its employee management system. The most serious challenge that will be faced by the organisation is resistance from a section of the nurses. Some anti-change personnel will have to oppose the new changes (Perreira, Innis & Berta, 2016).
The nurses will have to resist the planned changes because of fear of the future. Just like any other employees, nurses can fear change to be introduced because of the feeling that it might negatively impact on them. Apart from leading to job losses, change process might hinder the promotion and career development of some nurses because they might fail to fit into and adapt to the new environment (Cameron & Green, 2015). Besides, some nurses might resist the new changes not because they prefer the status quo, but because of the feeling and conviction that the change process was introduced and implemented without seeking for their opinion. In this case, the nurses can resist the change because of poor communication and lack of involvement which make them ignorant of its benefits to individual employees and the facility in entirety (Booth, 2015).
Conclusion
The management of the organisation should consider introducing new changes which will enable the facility to accomplish its goals. However, the problem of resistance can be addressed if appropriate measures are taken. The first thing to do is to implement the change process in stages. Change should not be abrupt, but a gradual process organized in three phases: Phase One (preparation); Phase Two (management); and Phase Three (reinforcement). Each of these stages is important because it can give the management an ample opportunity to discharge the change process. The other strategy to adopt to eliminate resistance is to involve the employees in the change process (Lines, Sullivan, Smithwick & Mischung, 2015). The nurses should be adequately and timely informed on the reasons and benefits of the new changes which are to be introduced in the organisation. Right from the conception of the idea, all the nurses should be given enough time to make their contributions and give an opinion on how the change process should be executed. These strategies will enable the management to succeed in its plan of introducing the reforms in its hiring and retention efforts.
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