Human Resource Management Report: Healthcare Industry Analysis

This report provides an in-depth analysis of human resource management (HRM) within the healthcare industry, focusing on the implications of demographic changes. It examines how factors such as globalization and the multigenerational workforce are impacting HR planning and job design. The report explores the challenges related to employee mobility, workforce capacity, and generational differences, offering insights into the application of Kurt-Lewin's change management theory. Recommendations are provided for addressing these challenges, including strategies for effective HR planning, employee retention, and management of a diverse workforce. The report emphasizes the importance of job design, communication, and motivation within the healthcare sector to ensure organizational success and employee satisfaction, drawing on relevant research and industry practices.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human Resource Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors note

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Executive Summary
This is a report on the human resource management of the health care industry. HRM plays
key role in organisational progress and employee management. The human workforce is the
back bone of health care organisations. They should be provided with all kind of support for
better productivity and work efficiency. The demographic changes in the countries could
effect this sector immensely. This report talks about the impact of these changes on health
care industry and how the HRM could help authority to face the challenge effectively.
Analysis has been made about this impact on job design and HR planning. The
recommendations are made from the discussion that states the demographic change
management aspects of the selected industry.

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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................3
Analysis of the potential impact of changing demography on the HR planning and job
design of Healthcare Industry........................................................................................3
Demographic Changes in the HR Practices...............................................................3
Effect of the changes..................................................................................................5
Theory related to the change management.................................................................6
Recommendations..........................................................................................................7
Conclusion......................................................................................................................9
Reference List..............................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Healthcare industry is one of the fastest and largest growing industry in Australian
and all over the world. Also known as medical industry or Health economy, this industry is
an integration of many sectors and services. This includes treating the patients with
preventive, curative, palliative and rehabilitative cares. The healthcare sectors commercialise
and generate goods and services that are used for the re-establishment and maintenance of
health. This industry is divided into many sectors according to their role and working process
to meet individual and community healthcare requirements. With the growing business of
healthcare services the revenue that this industry generates in the Australian countries are
more than $150bn. More than 785800 people are employed in this industry all over Australia
(Bradley et al. 2016). This massive outcomes shows the need of having an effective
management strategy for healthcare business. Human resource are the backbone of this
industry and managing them properly could be a challenging task. This report will talk about
the main demographic issues that could influences the future job design and HR planning.
Major demographic influences are discussed in order to understand the changing context of
healthcare business management.
Analysis of the potential impact of changing demography on the HR
planning and job design of Healthcare Industry
Demographic Changes in the HR Practices
Demographic change and the societal shifts have intensified the pressure on
healthcare HR system. Demographic factors are the socio-economic characters in a
population. These factors determine the labour condition, GDP and other economic aspects of
a country and an industry as well (Tummers et al., 2015). In the healthcare sectors, the

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demographic changes might impose some challenges in job creation and management. The
influential environmental factors in recent demography are discussed below-
Globalisation
Globalisation has its impact in all the business sectors and healthcare is not exception
to it. The hospitals and care centres has faced some challenges in their workforce
management due to the globalisation context. Human resources and employment
management is an important factors for competitive advantage. Organisations involve in this
industry are facing the scarcity of skilful professionals for international movement of the
workforce (Cooke & Bartram, 2015). Globalisation has gave the freedom to people to move
to any country or workplace according to their convenience. This is effecting the sectors both
positive and negative way. The skilful people are moving to other countries getting better
opportunity for work. The concept of ‘brain drain’ is actually affecting the work process of
the health sector HRM.
The labours and professional that are trying to come to the country to join the
Healthcare industry of Australia has the requirement of temporary visas. The whole process is
time taking and complicated. Sometimes the local unions are also against these temporary
employment and that effects the human resource availability (Sahir, Phulpoto & uz Zaman,
2018). Besides temporary visa recruitments are not quite convincing for the job sectors.
Multigenerational Workforce
Another important factor that is impacting the healthcare industry of Australia is the
multigenerational workforce. Australian demographic has huge variation of age components.
In present day workplace, there are five generations of workforce. These five generations
consists of traditionalist, Baby Boomers, generation X, Y and Z. Having a multigenerational
work force have its own positive sides. The knowledge and experience could be helpful in

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developing an overall powerful human resource base. But there are challenges as well. The
lack of powerful leadership in managing this diverse workforce may result in huge problems
of operations. The aging population is cutting down the workforce capacity (Connell,
Nankervis & Burgess, 2015). The diversity in the workforce is throwing some challenges in
the HRM system. Every generational people have their distinctive characteristic of working
within healthcare industry. This change in demography has influenced the HR planning in
this industry.
Effect of the changes
Mobility Issue is the main challenge in the HR management planning. Healthcare
sectors are facing challenges to improve their economic performance as huge number of
skilful employees are moving to other workplaces. The educational system of the health
professional have already mobilised as the health care students migrate to other countries for
their education more often (Fitzgerald & McDermott, 2017). This is happening for the
internationalization of education system. This has impacted the mobility factors in this
sectors.
Effective job design and recruitment planning could be the solution to the problem.
The multigenerational work force also need to be managed. Plus the aging workforce is
reducing the work force capacity in Australian organisations. The different age group is
known for their distinctive features. The traditionalists are hard-working and they value the
law and regulations more than anyone. Boomers are optimistic and self-confident, yet they
are not much comfortable to the changes happen around them. Generation X, Y and Z have
their own of working and job satisfaction plays the central role in their work choices. The
millennial are mostly demanding and tech-savvy. All these diverse workforce are to be
managed carefully according to their individual work characteristics (Currie et al. 2017).

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Theory related to the change management
Kurt-Lewins Theory
The change theories have been working for the industries for a long time. Among
other theories the theory of Kurt-Lewins is most effective for the demographic changes in
health care sectors of Australia. This theory states that any kind of change in the
organisational set up could be managed through three steps. These steps are unfreeze, change
and Freeze.
Unfreeze is the step where the managers require to plan for the changes they mean to
bring in the HRM. In the health care sectors, the planning for the job designs and employee
retention along with the recruitment process is to be done at first. For this, the HR may have
to break some of the structures that are already there in the organisation. Some research in
the field is necessary to understand the changes and their effect in the industry (Alvesson &
Sveningsson, 2015). The timelines and deadlines for the changes are to set at this stage. For
example, if a hospital is suffering because of reduced workforce, there may be the need of
some changes in the HRM. The recruitment process need to go through some of the steps that
would fulfil the requirement of the organisation. All these planning are to be done by the HR
department for unfreezing of the regular work process.
Next step in theory is bringing the change in the set up. HR has to provide all the
required support to the employees to cope up with the changes. Changes in the operational
system of a hospital, if required, need proper to handle with proper strategies (Noe et al.,
2017). The authority need to communicate the reason of change to the employees and train
them to new aspects. Like if there is a new machine in the hospital for better service, the
workers and professionals need to know its operations correctly.

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The last step is refreezing. In this step, after making the change, stability to the
process is provided. It is to be kept in mind that changes take time to work. The HR
management have to be patient with the professionals while refreezing the change in
organisation. All the doubts of the workforce related to the change need to be mitigated. At
this stage the authority need to make sure that the changes are been embraced by the
individual in the organisation. These three steps help the human resources in the organisation
to cope with the changes and work for the attainment of set goals.
Recommendations
 Approaches to the change is to be set by the HR professionals so that the
challenges could be met properly. The main demographic factors affecting the
healthcare in Australia is the globalisation impact. An effective HR planning
could be effective to solve this problem. HR need to examine the total demand
of the human resources in a particular organisation. The supply demand
parameters of that specific hospital or health care centre need to be
determined. This will help in arranging the resources for long ad sort term
requirements.
 There could be some qualitative and qualitative methods of research done by
the HRM. Use of statistical data about the industry workforce to analyse the
future need of the organisation is always a scientific way. Information could
also be gathered form the company records and up-line managers. Employee
performance records and development records are another means of finding
out the future challenges and trends in health care business.
 Employee retention is the biggest challenge in the era of globalisation and IT.
The employees have the power to use their experience and skill to go for better
organisation. The only way to retain the employees in the organisation is to

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have an effective job design that would provide the workers with growing
career prospective and job satisfaction. Building a better work environment
and helping the employees to cope up in difficult situations could be helpful in
brain drain challenge.
 Diversified workforce could be managed by strategic planning so that it could
actually hep in hospitals growth and profit. For example, the traditionalists
could be assigned the job roles that are related to the administrative issues.
This portion of people are more experienced about the rules and laws. They
could implement their judgement in immediate decision making which is quite
a necessity in health care industry.
 Information about the job role and responsibility need to be on point for the
employees in health care sectors. Most of the time employees suffer from
confusion that creates work anxiety and job dissatisfaction. HRM have the
power of internet to communicate the job roles to the employees. In health
care industry, there are emergence cases each and every day. This sectors
deals with much serious job related to life and death. Therefore, to work
effectively, communication among the employees need to be strong.
 Health care professional often have to work for extra hours for patient
service’s needs. This job profile is often tiring and strenuous (Sharma & Dhar,
2016). The employees in this sector therefore, need to stay motivated. The HR
managers should design motivational events and remunerations to encourage
the workers. The wage payment system and dispute settlement have to be set
skilfully to retain the employees.
 The health care executes should have the knowledge of management laws and
policies of the government. This will help in managing the generational

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culture. The policies and programs of the organisation need to be set in a way
that could support all generations present in work set up. The focus of the
managers in the HR department would be in better understanding of the
employee work competence. The gap in age might have some impact in the
work environment that could be resolved through building generational
management practices. Team work culture in the organisation need to be
boosted with providing encouragement and showing sensitivity towards
generational understanding.
Conclusion
Human resource management is important to gain competitive advantage in a growing
market. Health care sectors are rapidly growing in Australia. This means the entry of a
number of organisations in the market and enhancing competition. It is only through effective
management of challenges, an organisation in this sector could fulfil their objectives.
Globalisation and multigenerational work force has been an impactful factors in Australian
organisations. The demographic changes has influenced the work place both positive and
negative way. Moving of workforces out of the country has resulted in the scarcity of skilful
medical professionals. The growing market have the need of more workforces and temporary
visa employees are not being quite effective in managing the situation. Therefore, the HR
departments of hospitals and other health care centres should act for the strategic planning of
managing the situation. It could be concluded form this discussion that these challenges could
be met if the job design and recruitment process is managed strategically. A
multigenerational workforce could provide the most effective clinical outcome and patient
satisfaction if their job description suits their experience and knowledge. The migration of
professionals could be managed with providing them positive and growing career
prospective.

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Reference List
Alvesson, M., & Sveningsson, S. (2015). Changing organizational culture: Cultural change
work in progress. Routledge.
Bradley, E. H., Canavan, M., Rogan, E., Talbert-Slagle, K., Ndumele, C., Taylor, L., &
Curry, L. A. (2016). Variation in health outcomes: the role of spending on social
services, public health, and health care, 2000–09. Health Affairs, 35(5), 760-768.
Connell, J., Nankervis, A., & Burgess, J. (2015). The challenges of an ageing workforce: an
introduction to the workforce management issues. Labour & Industry: a journal of
the social and economic relations of work, 25(4), 257-264.
Cooke, F. L., & Bartram, T. (2015). Guest editors’ introduction: human resource
management in health care and elderly care: current challenges and toward a research
agenda. Human Resource Management, 54(5), 711-735.
Currie, D., Gormley, T., Roche, B., & Teague, P. (2017). The management of workplace
conflict: Contrasting pathways in the HRM literature. International Journal of
Management Reviews, 19(4), 492-509.
Fitzgerald, L., & McDermott, A. (2017). Challenging perspectives on organizational change
in health care. Taylor & Francis.
Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2017). Human resource
management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
Education.
Sahir, M. I., Phulpoto, N. H., & uz Zaman, Z. (2018). Impact of intrinsic factors of
motivation on employee's intention to leave. New Horizons, 12(1), 99-149.
Sharma, J., & Dhar, R. L. (2016). Factors influencing job performance of nursing staff:
mediating role of affective commitment. Personnel Review, 45(1), 161-182.

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Tummers, L., Kruyen, P. M., Vijverberg, D. M., & Voesenek, T. J. (2015). Connecting HRM
and change management: the importance of proactivity and vitality. Journal of
Organizational Change Management, 28(4), 627-640.