Leadership and Management in NHS HR Department

This study focuses on the importance of leadership and management in the NHS HR department. It discusses models related to leadership and management, their application to the NHS, and the role and priorities of NHS management and HR function in supporting leadership and management. It also explores the internal and external influences on leadership and management and provides recommendations for developing leadership and management in the NHS. Additionally, it covers the areas of training and development and talent management in the NHS.

Portfolio for the Head of
England’s NHS HR
Department

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
AREA 1 Leadership and Management............................................................................................4
Models related to leadership and management and their application to NHS.............................4
Role and priorities of NHS management and HR function in supporting leadership and
management.................................................................................................................................5
Internal and external influences on leadership and management................................................5
There are some internal and external factors which can affect leadership and management
development in both manners. Some internal factors involve: strengths, weaknesses,
workforce of employees, strategy etc. Some external factors include: technology, political
situation, customers, changing needs of customers etc...............................................................5
Recommendations for developing leadership and management.................................................6
AREA 2: Training and development...............................................................................................6
Models related to training and development and their application to NHS................................6
Role and priorities of NHS management and HR function in supporting training and
development.................................................................................................................................7
Internal and external influences on training and development....................................................7
Recommendations for developing training and development.....................................................7
AREA 3: Talent management..........................................................................................................8
Models related to talent management and their application to NHS...........................................8
Role and priorities of NHS management and HR function in supporting talent management....8
Internal and external influences on talent management..............................................................9
Recommendations for improving talent management.................................................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Human resource refers a department of an organization which plays several roles and is
mainly responsible for company’s success by recruiting, selecting and motivating skilled
workforce (Findlay and Dutton, 2019). This present study is based on NHS which is the public
funded healthcare system in England as well as 1 of the 4 national health service systems in the
UK. This study is going to show importance of leadership and management as how some models
can help NHS in solving all problems which it is facing like work load, long working hours,
providing healthcare services to ageing population etc. Further, it also shows some internal and
external influences on main areas such as talent, leadership and management and training and
development.
AREA 1 Leadership and Management
Models related to leadership and management and their application to NHS
Leadership and management are main key of the success of NHS and other organization
as one of the main function of this is getting all level of people together in order to believe on the
vision and to work with them. It is stated that HR department of NHS UK is facing several
problems like ageing population, advance treatment which increase cost etc. For solving all these
problems it is important to focus on implementing some theories and models relevant to
leadership and management such as:
As per the Gopee and Galloway, (2017) leaders mainly focuses on 4 soft S’s model which can
help them out in contributing company in solving their problems. These 4 S’s are: style, staff,
skills, shared goals. Whereas, a manager should focus on 3 S’s model which is: strategy,
structure and system. By developing this model and by focusing all S’s leaders manager can

support HR department of NHS. As per this model, leader adopt their best style of leading such
as democratic or involving all employees in decision-making process, transformational in which
they guide all employees which improve their morale.
On the other hand, by focusing on organizational structure and by making a system where
all level of employees can work together and by using best strategy of motivating and managing
day to day operation, manager can also help HR in accomplishing their goals.
Role and priorities of NHS management and HR function in supporting leadership and
management
HR department plays several functions such as recruitment, selection, motivation nd
retention of employees. All these functions support in developing leadership and management.
For example: One of the main aim of leadership and management is to guide a group of people in
accomplishing their goals and strengthening their skills. Recruitment and selection function of
HR, allows leadership to get skilled workforces and make them more able to help NHS in
solving their all problems. Motivation is one of the main functions of HR, which helps NHS in
retaining their employees for the long run (Hofmann and Vermunt, 2017). Motivated employees
have willingness to support company and for that they even put extra efforts by working longer
hours and support company. So, it can be said that functions of HR support leadership and
management development and solving problems of NHS.
Internal and external influences on leadership and management
There are some internal and external factors which can affect leadership and management
development in both manners. Some internal factors involve: strengths, weaknesses, workforce
of employees, strategy etc. Some external factors include: technology, political situation,
customers, changing needs of customers etc.
It is stated that NHS is facing problems like work load, critical patients and lack of
skilled workforces. All these internal factors are affecting health care services. Due to lack of
skilled workforce, NHS is facing poor quality of service problem, heavy workload and distress
among employees (Jeon and et.al., 2017). Whereas, some external factors like advanced
technology, ageing population also affecting it in both manner. For example: with the help of

advanced technology, NHS has improved their services and decreased time but it is increasing
their cost. Ageing population, obesity and critical patients are making them frustrated by which
they cannot focus on their functions and it also increasing labour turnover rate.
Recommendations for developing leadership and management
In order to develop leadership and management, i can be recommended that NHS of UK
should focus on its organizational structure because it is one of the main factors which can help it
out in solving all problems. It can also be suggested that leadership of NHS should focus on
developing best leadership styles such as: situational by which they can adopt the best way as per
the situation. It can also be recommended to management that it should focus on defining vision
and broadcast it among all employees and should also focus on developing effective
communication. Communication is one of the main things which can solve many problems and
can improve relation of workers.
AREA 2: Training and development
Models related to training and development and their application to NHS
It is already stated that ageing population, advanced technology, political condition, lack
of skilled workforce are increasing work load, stress, on existing workers and manager of NHS.
So, it is important for HR department of NHS of UK to focus on training and development area.
BY providing training to employees, it can strengthen their skills and make them able to perform
any king of work and improve their productivity.
With the help of system mode of training and development, HR of NHS can solve all
problems. As per this model, they need to follow some steps which include: analysis, design,
development, implementation and evaluation (Callaghan and et.al., 2016).
As per the first step of analysis, they need to analyse the whole situation and the main
reason of providing training, after that they need to design teh main structure of training program
and then developing them by making an effective use of strategies. After development of training

program, HR needs to implement that program and providing training about telling ways of
dealing with critical patients, communicating with them. After providing training, finally HR
needs to evaluate that employees have learnt all ways or not.
Role and priorities of NHS management and HR function in supporting training and
development
Training and development is one of the main functions of HR which can help NHS in managing
all its functions and day to day operations in an efficient manner. There are several programs
related to training and development which are being given in NHS such as: graduate
management training schemes, middle management training and others. Training all staff in the
basics of NHS finance, the current climate and the job in hand can definitely help them out in
contributing to a better understanding of how this impacts their daily roles and patient care
(Scanlan and et.al., 2018).
An effective training and development programs and functions of HR makes employees
able to tackle the demand for practical as well as effective support from professionals in NHS. It
also develops confidence among employees as they can deal with any type of problem and can
increase their productivity.
Internal and external influences on training and development
There are several internal and external factors which can trigger training and
development function to the great extent in a critic manner such as: High rate of absenteeism
increased labour turnover, poor job performance, old machineries, increased number of
complaints from customers’ etc. All these factors can create barriers in the path of the success of
training and development. All these functions can become the reason of increasing poor quality
of services which can direct affect health of people (Hampson and et.al., 2017). So, it is
important for HR department of NHS to consider all these factors and remove them.
Recommendations for developing training and development
In the context of training and development, it is stated that high rate of absenteeism and
labour turnover rate are creating several problems. So in this regards, it can be suggested to NHS
that it needs to focus on providing formal training which includes: skill acquisition, skills

development, attitude changes of employee, motivation. By considering all these factors with the
help of implementing formal training, HR of NHS can change mindset of employees and make
them able to adapt changing situations of NHS.
AREA 3: Talent management
Models related to talent management and their application to NHS
Talent management is one of the main functions of HR or it can be said that it is a full
scope of HR processes to attract, develop, motivate, select as well as retaining high performing
employees within NHS for the long run. Talent management is a group of some activities such
as: planning, attracting, developing and transforming. With the help of an effective talent
management strategy and model, HR of NHS can improve business performance, making it
competitive and make all employees productive (Turner, 2018). One of the best model or
strategy of talent management is: hiring promising specialists and develop them. It is one of
the best strategy according to which, HR can find talent faster and feels job roles immediately.
By doing this they can save cost and well as time of searching people,. Other main advantages of
this strategy is it can help HR of NHS to make their specialists potential as they have abilities
and willingness to become loyal professionals.
Role and priorities of NHS management and HR function in supporting talent management
In the context of roles and priorities o HR in talent management, it can be said that all functions
of HR help NHS in managing their talent. One of the main functions is motivation and
performance management. With the help of performance management, it increases morale of
employees and make them able to perform any kind of task. It increases overall productivity of
NHS. An effective performance and career management function also allows HR to retain
their employees and increase loyalty. This improves image of NHS which directly affect talent
management in a positive manner (Wigens, 2018).

In addition, it can also be said that performance appraisal and motivation by providing
feedbacks and rewards to employees, HR contribute to NHS in talent management. HR makes
employees aware about their actual position and performance which push them to work with
concentration in order to take advantages of opportunities.
Internal and external influences on talent management
There are some factors which can influence and affect talent management in NHS such
as; age level of education, seniority. In the context of NHS, one of the main factor which affects
the most to talent management is working environment. Due to work load and higher factors of
risk, people do not want to work in NHS and it is increasing labour turnover rate ad problems in
talent management (Hukkeri and Ramani, 2020). Due to working environment like increasing
rate of critical patients, critical disease like COVID 19, employees feel unsafe to work with
NHS. So, it can be said that company needs to develop some safety tools within their
organization in order to make their employees feel secure.
Recommendations for improving talent management
There are several ways by which HR of NHS can improve talent management and can
solve all problems which it is facing. In this context, it can be recommended to NHS that it
should focus on considering career development offering to employees, prioritizing results and
motivating them by providing financial and non-financial rewards. All these ways can help HR
in motivating employees and influence them to retain within an organization and contribute in
accomplishing their goals. By celebrating success of employees, providing promotional
opportunities on the basis of performance, bonus can motivate employees. When employees get
rewards as per their needs than they are more likely to live with the company and deal with
critical problems.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of above discussion it can be concluded HR functions in NHS played a vital
role. Due to ageing population, NHS faces several problems but with the help of an effective
leadership and management, they solve all problems. Further, it has also shown importance of

developing or implementing models related to talent management and training and development.
All relevant models helped NHS in accomplishing their goals and improve healthcare services
which they provide to vulnerable people. This study has also shown some internal as well as
external factors which influence talent management, leadership and management and training
and development areas.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Hampson, J. and et.al., 2017. Role of clinical practice educators in an integrated community and
mental health NHS foundation trust. Nursing Standard. 32(7). pp.49-55.
Hukkeri, S.V. and Ramani, D., 2020. Talent Management in Higher Education–A Conceptual
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Jeon, Y.H. and et.al., 2017. Optimising the residential aged care workforce: leadership &
management study.
Turner, P., 2018. Talent Strategy: Alignment and Integration. In Talent Management in
Healthcare (pp. 127-155). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Hofmann, R. and Vermunt, J.D., 2017. Professional development in clinical leadership:
Evaluation of the Chief Residents Clinical Leadership and Management
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Scanlan, G.M. and et.al., 2018. What factors are critical to attracting NHS foundation doctors
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