Effects of Changing Demography on HR Practices

This study examines the effects of changing demography on HR practices in the healthcare industry. It discusses the impact of demographic changes on HR planning and job design, including the challenges and recommendations for managing a diverse workforce. The paper focuses on Progressive Medical, Inc. as an example and provides insights for HR practitioners in sustaining in the changing environment.

Running head: EFFECTS OF CHANGING DEMOGRAPHY ON HR PRACTICES
EFFECTS OF CHANGING DEMOGRAPHY ON HR PRACTICES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1EFFECTS OF CHANGING DEMOGRAPHY ON HR PRACTICES
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
Impact of changing environment on HR planning and job design:.......................................2
Recommendations for the Impacts of changing demography:...............................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9

2EFFECTS OF CHANGING DEMOGRAPHY ON HR PRACTICES
Introduction
The study of population on the basis of factors such as age, sex and race. The
demographic changes reflect direct impacts on Human Resource practices and strategies.
Organizations are adopting significant changes in order to sustain in the changing external
and internal environment in an industry (Smither, Houston & McIntire, 2016). The changing
environmental factors are affecting Human Resource practices the most as the HR
practitioner are involved in hiring, training, managing and retaining a completely different
generation of workforce (Smither, Houston & McIntire, 2016). The purpose of the paper is to
identify and assess the impact and the circumstances faced by organizations or industry in
regards with job design and Human Resource planning. The industry, which is being selected
for the assessment, is healthcare industry. Healthcare industry is the integration of products
and service providers for the purpose of treating patients with preventive, palliative care,
rehabilitative and curative care. The healthcare industry is comprised of hospitals, doctors,
nursing staff, public, voluntary and private organizations as well as it includes health
insurance organizations and medical supplies, pharmaceutical, medical equipment
manufacturers. The paper will include the example of Progressive Medical, Inc., which was
founded in the year 1986 for fulfilling the mission of identifying and providing medical
products which specializes in cost effectiveness and safety. The paper will also present
recommendations for the identified impacts of demographic changes. The paper will be
concluded by summarizing the effects and recommendations for the HR practitioner for
sustaining in the changing environment.

3EFFECTS OF CHANGING DEMOGRAPHY ON HR PRACTICES
Discussion
Impact of changing environment on HR planning and job design:
Changes in the demographics of external and internal environment include changing
family structure. The impacts of the ageing population reflect high demand on welfare and
healthcare services. The changing dynamic due to labour force diversity and increasing level
of women participation as well as religious and ethnic groups (Smither, Houston & McIntire,
2016). The impact the changing environment on Human Resource practices includes:
 The older or non-traditional workforce- Organization scenario is changing with the
change in the demographics. Healthcare industry is known for their main resource
capability, which is human resource. With the motive of having a diverse workforce,
the healthcare industry is encouraging different age groups and/or the factor of
employment relationship, which marks the need for improved human relation
practices by using the expertise of Human Resource (Bieling, Stock & Dorozalla,
2015, pp.10). High awareness is required for understanding the needs of various
stakeholders groups as well as the Human Resource competencies for resolving the
possibility of potential conflicts by adopting creative human resource solutions. The
organizations operating in healthcare sector needs to analyse the changing
requirements as well as the competencies of non-traditional form of employment
relations (Stankevičiūtė & Savanevičienė, 2019, pp.5). The non-traditional form of
employment relationships depicts the deviation from a usual practice. The usual
practices include lateral careers, employees joining an organization at a later stage in
their life as well as the phased-in concept of retirement (Sammarra et al., 2017,
pp.172). The demographic factor, age can reflect significant impact on the pension
costs as well as the risks associated with the plan. Organizations operating in
healthcare sector, for instance Progressive Medical of Western Australia impose

4EFFECTS OF CHANGING DEMOGRAPHY ON HR PRACTICES
exclusion of certain group of employees on the basis of age. However, this action will
result in a conflict with improved Human Resource strategies, which is designed for a
diverse workforce (Myerson & Bichard, 2016). Focussed concentration for managing
the requirement of the older generation will require the Human Resource department
to change the training and recruitment strategies as well as employee benefits as well
as the occupational health (Smither, Houston & McIntire, 2016). The changing
demographic responses may arise conflict in workforce as the younger generation
may feel blocked in moving up the hierarchy in healthcare sector. Human Resource
managers needs to introduce effective policies and practices for encouraging positive
work environment with effective collaboration of all age work groups (Myerson &
Bichard, 2016).
 Generation Y- Population other than aging group have another set of impact on the
Human Resource Department. In the Asia-Pacific regions, around 60 percent of
working population is under the age group 15-24 years. Younger workforce has
specific expectations regarding HR policies and rules. They are more focused on their
short-term objectives than future plans as well as they reflect the need for work-life
balance (Galanaki et al., 2019, pp.2). They function better in a creative and innovative
space, which includes free flow of opinions and ideas. This requirement results in a
rapid progression in the career graphs. Employee retention for this generation is
difficult as they are constant in look for a better working environment where they can
share their ideas as well as to have effective involvement (Myerson & Bichard, 2016).
 Globalised workforce- Another demographic changes is people movement factor,
which reflects the movement of employable population. Movement of employable
population is causing increased variation in religion, ethnicity as well as the cultural
backgrounds (Hatipoglu & Inelmen, 2018, pp.970). The changing homogeneity in the

5EFFECTS OF CHANGING DEMOGRAPHY ON HR PRACTICES
work place is causing challenges in regards with Human Resource management.
Challenges are experienced in the areas of inclusion and equality (Nair, 2018, pp.18).
This will require the managers to be aware of the cultural diversity and the ability of
managing employees with different faiths and ethnicity (Hatipoglu & Inelmen, 2018,
pp.970). Migration also affects the composition as well as the size of the talent pool,
which requires changes in recruitment practices (Cascio, 2015). The changing
demographics of the business environment affect the activities of healthcare services.
Progressive Medical, being a health care product manufacturer and service provider,
have to manage the inclusion policy effectively through the Human Resource
Department as they can determine the effectiveness in the offerings of a service sector
organization (Smither, Houston & McIntire, 2016).
 Rise in female employment or participation in the workforce- Statistical data reflects
that more than 856 million women will be entering in the economic contribution,
specifically in the healthcare industry. The Human Resource department of
Progressive Medical have to introduced various policies for the women employees for
sustaining on a global scale. (Myerson & Bichard, 2016).
Recommendations for the Impacts of changing demography:
The recommendations for addressing the impacts of changing external and internal
environment are as follows:
 Organizations operating in healthcare industry can offer extended career opportunities
for facilitating the opportunity of a diversified workforce. The extended career
opportunities will reflect a new retirement ages. This Human Resource practice will
allow the department to deal with increasing demand for skilled labour in healthcare
industry. The employment relationship in the additional years before the retirement
has to be differently structured than the early employment years. This can be

6EFFECTS OF CHANGING DEMOGRAPHY ON HR PRACTICES
facilitated by motivating employees for phased-in retirement, which includes project
based or part-time employment. The companies operating in service sector should be
restructuring the Human Resource strategies (Ogunfowora, 2014). The strategies such
as mandatory retirement policy, various personnel development policies need to be
restructured. The focus should be based on the pension amount, which can be used as
a Human Resource strategic tool for influencing the behaviour of employee’s
retirement phase (Hassan, 2016, pp.18). For enabling the extended career program,
the Human Resource professionals of healthcare sector will have to construct a
mentoring culture, as it will enable better client handling. Mentoring programmes or
extended job opportunities will enable the knowledge transfer. It can be treated as a
‘buddy system’ or ‘on the job mentoring’ in the service industry in which young
generation or new recruitments will be trained by the experienced employees.
 Another Human Resource practice for responding to the changing demographics of
healthcare industry can be reviewing job descriptions of various functional
departments in the organization to identify as well as to understand the lag between
the actual and communicated requirements of a job role. Restructuring the
employment criteria by changing the job description structure can attract employees,
specifically the young generation to have prior understanding of job expectations as
well as the career growth. Millennial contributes a different set of values in the
healthcare sector (ahri.com.au, 2019). To attract and retain the young generation, the
Human Resource Management of service sector have to adopt various strategies like
paid internship programs, which has a greater possibility in turning full-time
(ahri.com.au, 2019). The programmes in relation with on boarding and training of
new employees will have to be structured lengthy as it will contribute towards
eliminating the preparedness gaps of the employees. The Human Resource managers

7EFFECTS OF CHANGING DEMOGRAPHY ON HR PRACTICES
can also introduce policies as well as the offers regarding support for continuation of
education (Veth et al., 2017, pp.20). The leave policies designed for supporting the
continuation of education of new recruits as well as the employee benefit policy of
tuition reimbursement for an existing young generation employee who wishes to
pursue distant learning courses. Human resource strategies like peer-mentoring
program. Flexible arrangements for work, which will support the work-life balance of
new age employees (Stankevičiūtė & Savanevičienė, 2019, pp.5). The young
generation working population reflects the desire of experiencing fast career growth
opportunities along with the expectations of freedom for views and opinions.
Introduction of the merit-based policy will act as an influencer by challenging the
young working population in improving their workplace engagement (Rubin &
Edwards, 2018, pp.15).
 Fair and inclusive policies should be introduced by the Human Resource Department
for ensuring the effectiveness of diversified workforce. The Human Resource
Managers should be engaged in fair recruitment policies rather than focusing on the
identification as well as the understanding of the associated complexities. Human
Resource programmes for building a common connect in a diversified population can
be beneficial in managing a diverse working population (Greene, 2019). Actions like
integrating employees from different backgrounds and ethnicity in a team with the
support of functional mangers can develop productive working environment.
Healthcare sectors should encourage the practice of building cross-cultural team,
which will allow the organization to offer the benefits from various competencies and
skills (Baker & Kelan, 2018, pp.117). Structuring the job design on the basis of
global recruitment policy will encourage the practice of workforce diversity as well as
will support the fair inclusion policy of the organizations in healthcare industry

8EFFECTS OF CHANGING DEMOGRAPHY ON HR PRACTICES
(Guillaume et al., 2014, pp.783). Constructing a common vision towards for the
workforce can collate the various offerings of the employees towards achieving a
productive work culture. Human Resource department can introduce Behavioural
Influence strategies like affinity group appreciation, which can contribute towards
building positive attitude of the employees towards the diversified culture of the
organization (Mortimer & O’Connor, 2014, pp.48). For the example of healthcare
industry, the teams needs to be designed with cultural diversity for offering a
comprehensive service to the patients or healthcare product buyers from around the
world (Baum, 2015, pp.204).
 Increasing women participation in the healthcare services will require the introduction
of Human Resource policies like, maternal leaves as well as work from home
facilities for supporting the family responsibilities of a working mother. Human
Resource manager should introduce equality practices in regards with employee
appraisal and recognition, which will contribute towards the job satisfaction of the
women employees (DeNisi & Murphy, 2017). Human Resource managers of an
organization operating in healthcare service sector should ensure conventional
working hours for women employees. Work-life balance policies need to be
introduced for valuing the contribution of the employees in the service sector
(Stankevičiūtė & Savanevičienė, 2019, pp.5). Human Resource Management should
start reviewing existent policies as well as the job requirements for eliminating the
cause of unconscious biases in the service industry. The earlier policies of co-located
teams, management of culturally uniform teams, managing working environment
majorly composed of male employees as well as retirement plans in the healthcare
service sector have become redundant like the typewriter in offices. Introduction of
inclusive and fair policies needs to be the foundation in Progressive Medical for

9EFFECTS OF CHANGING DEMOGRAPHY ON HR PRACTICES
responding to the arising challenges as well as for compensating the globalization
challenges of healthcare service industry. For instance, Progressive Medical can
improve the recruitment policy for including more women employees especially in
the management team.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded by the paper that Human Resource management
policies and programs need to be restructured with the changing external and internal
environment of the working population. The changing dynamics of the working environment
requires the alteration of Human Resource policies as the population is aging, workforce is
diversifying, workforce is experiencing a rapid growth of women participation as well as the
organizations in service sector are experiencing a shift in the job role expectations from the
young employees. The Human Resource Management practices needs to be changed for
responding to the challenges occurring from arising demographic changes. Human Resource
Management have the responsibility of creating a positive and productive work environment,
which encourages diversity, creative ideas and opinions as well as the experiences of aging
employees. The role of the Human Resource manager should be focused on the
transformation of professional working environment for being a step ahead of changing
requirements of business.

10EFFECTS OF CHANGING DEMOGRAPHY ON HR PRACTICES
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