Essay on HRM Challenges in the Healthcare Sector: HRMT20024

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HRMT20024 Assessment 3
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Key Challenges in attracting and retaining staff in the health- care sector.....................................4
Recommendations............................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10
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Introduction
The human resource management is considered as an important strategic approach which is
being used for the effective and efficient management of the people within an organization in
order to achieve a competitive advantage for the business. This is helpful in maximizing the
performance of the employees and achieves the strategic objectives of an organization. This
essay is written in order to identify the challenges in retaining the existing staff as well as
attracting the new candidates for the specific sector industry which is the healthcare sector. The
healthcare sector is continuously emerging and there is a need for highly talented and skilled
people to work in this particular industry. The patients are required to be handled with due care
and for such purpose, there must be responsible professional taking care of them. This essay will
highlight the challenges as well as the issues of retaining and attracting the staff members in the
healthcare sectors and different HRM practices will also be used in order to provide the
recommendation to solve these particular challenges.
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Key Challenges in attracting and retaining staff in the health- care sector
The HRM is the most important part of any business regardless of the industry or sector in which
the company is operating its business. The HR managers are responsible to oversee the
administrative affairs of the employees within the health care organizations. The advantages
arising from the HR department have gradually increased and gaining their recognition within
the health care sector. It has become very essential for such sector to have the skilled employees
working within such an organization in order to ensure that the quality services are provided to
the patients within a hospital. There are different challenges faced by HR managers within the
healthcare industry in order to attract and retain such talented employees. Human resource
managers are held responsible for the staffing and recruitment practices within an organization. It
has been identified that the health care facility is generally staffed with the most suitable
personnel and it is the duty of healthcare managers to select the most appropriate candidates to
fulfil such positions (Koeijer, et. al., 2014).
The personnel working within the hospitals or the health care industries are required to perform
their duties with a great sense of care because the lives of patients remain in their hands. They
must also have good communication skills and a feeling of empathy so that they can be able to
maintain a good bond with their patients or clients. It has become very tough for the human
resource managers of the healthcare sector to retain the employees and attract the new employees
to work with such sector.
One of the main challenges faced by the employees of a hospital is that they cannot find time
about their personal lives as they are always busy with their work. There are night shifts too
within the hospitals which may lead to the frustration among employees of the organization. This
causes the problem for HR to manage the frustration level of the employees. This is a major
challenge for HR to manage the work as well as keeping in mind the stress level of the
employees. There is a problem in maintaining the work-life balance by the employees of these
organizations. Such a problem is creating a high turnover rate of employees because the skilled
employees only want to work in a chilled and stress less work environment. It is not possible for
the employees to work without stress within a hospital or any other clinics.
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This is highly essential for the business organizations to manage the employment relationships
within the organizations. It has been identified within the healthcare sectors that there are
problems in maintaining good employment relationships because the employees or the staff
members have no enough time to maintain good employment relationships with their colleagues.
This is a major challenge the employees are not satisfied with their workplace and they are
tending to leave their jobs for some change. This problem is the reason why new talent is also
not getting attracted to the healthcare sectors. There is needed to make changes in the work
structure or the way the employees are working non- stop within a health care organization
(Nankervis, et. al., 2016).
One of the major challenges the HR managers are facing to attract and retain the staff of
hospitals is the monetary dissatisfaction among them. They are not being paid enough for the
hard work they are doing and being so attentive all the time regarding the patients. Everyone
works for money and if it is not enough for satisfying the routine lives needs, there is no point to
continue such work. The employees find some changes when they are not able to satisfy their
monetary needs while working within the healthcare sectors. HR managers in healthcare
organizations are not able to find and recruit talented and skilled staff due to their high demands
of money. This is a major challenge faced by the employees and the HRM department of
healthcare organizations.
In the market, there are already several numbers of the opportunities regarding the jobs as every
organization is striving for hiring the best people to achieve the strategic objectives of the
organization (Nankervis, et. al., 2016). They do not leave a single opportunity to attract new
employees or employees working in their competing firms. This is the reason why the employees
leaving their current companies and the employee turnover rate is so high within the healthcare
organizations. It is quite difficult for HR managers to retain the staff and attract the new
candidates to work within such organizations. There is a need for developing great human
resource management practices within the business to ensure that the employees are being
retained and are being attracted to work within such healthcare settings.
There is a continuously changing environment in hospitals and clinics. This is essential for the
human resources managers to adopt such changes and convince the employees to respond to such
changes in an appropriate and positive manner. If such HR planning falls within the management
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of such change in the businesses, it may lead to the case of employee dissatisfaction and they
may also leave the organization and start working somewhere else. This is highly important to do
a great HR planning in such changing environment of the healthcare organizations in order to
attract the employees from outside and also retain the existing employees within the company
(Nankervis, et. al., 2016).
One of the main reasons identified in the market to attract and retain the staff is that there are
already high job opportunities for the employees. If a person is skilled and has talent then he may
easily get a job in this competitive market. In such a competitive market, it is a very big
challenge for the human resources managers to retain those employees and stopping them to go
somewhere else. All the organizations in the market are doing all the efforts to keep their
employees satisfied and also attracting the employees of other sectors by providing them good
salaries and incentives. In such a situation, it has become very challenging for the HR managers
of healthcare organizations to attract the right candidates to fulfil the positions of the jobs at their
organizations. These challenges are creating a lot of problem for the HRM in this changing
dynamic world (Veth, et. al., 2015).
The business organizations operating in the global environment in the healthcare sector, it is
important to have a great job design to meet the requirements of the employees as well as
employers. This is a very big problem in front of the managers of the company to maintain a
structured job design for the employees so that their demands can be satisfied and they can be
kept happy while working with such organizations. This is being a very critical issue in the
retention of the employees in today’s market. The other important concept or the challenge to be
considered in the attraction and retention of the employees is the diversity management. It can be
identified that the employees working within the organizations are from different places having
different backgrounds. There is being identified the diversity among the employees within the
healthcare sector too. At such time is becomes challenging and important for the HR managers of
such organization to manage such diversity at the workplace and respect the point of views of
each and every employee working within such healthcare sector organization. Managing such
diversity at the workplace can be difficult but it can bring satisfaction among the employees.
Attracting the new employees is a very big task for any sector and this is only possible when the
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existing employees are satisfied with the current work settings of an organization (Srinivasan &
Chandwani, 2014).
It is necessary for the HR managers to look forward towards the training and the development
programs of the employees working within such healthcare organizations. This is a big challenge
in front of such sector because these training and development programs may increase the cost of
the business organizations which may lead to the loss within the business. In order to retain the
employees, the HR managers are required to ensure that the employees are continuously being
developed and they are also able to learn new and creative things from their jobs. It is quite
tough for healthcare organizations to bring the creativity within the workplace and create a fun-
loving environment (Bartram, et. al., 2017).
In the hospitals and other clinics, there is identified the lack of rewards as well as the
compensations for the employees working there. These rewards bring benefits for the employees
and the employees are also motivated due to such rewards and incentives. This is a major
problem or the challenge for the employees of the hospitals and medical professionals to work
within such a work setting where there are no extra benefits for working so hard. This brings the
frustration and stress among the employees and it leads to the resignation of the existing
employees within an organization (Shantz, et. al., 2016). Due to the high costs involved, the
employees are not able to get the rewards from their organizations which is causing to their
dissatisfaction at work. The candidates looking for the job also get influenced negatively due to
such reasons and find themselves in such a position not being attracted towards working in the
healthcare organizations (Vermeeren, et. al., 2014). In such circumstances, it becomes very hard
for the HR managers of the company to retain the staff members and attract the new employees
to work with such an organization.
It has also been identified that there are several numbers of the unrealistic expectations of the
employees from their organizations while starting the work within a healthcare sector company.
They start expecting more and do not get exactly the same in return. These expectations further
cause the employees to be frustrated and then leave the organizations. They do not find an
appropriate way to handle their stress at work and start looking for the new job opportunities
where they can be able to enhance their skills as well as being able to work with due satisfaction
(Mahboobi-Ardakan, et. al., 2017). This is one of the problems the HR managers are facing
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while attracting the employees to work in healthcare sector company and employing the great
human resource management practices within the businesses for such reason (Bondarouk, et. al.,
2016).
The success of any organization completely depends on the performance of the employees of
such company. In order to manage the performance of the employees, the HR managers are
required to adopt effective HRM practices and good training and development programs for
them. An organization is required to deal with the employees in a good manner such as providing
them the expert professional support as well as the good assistance whenever they need then it
may lead further to the job satisfaction, employee wellbeing as well as their commitment at the
work. This is a challenge in front of the managers of the healthcare organizations to provide
great assistance to the employees and to manage their performance within the organizations. The
employees are continuously leaving their companies to find some creativity and good work
culture and. It is a problem in front of healthcare sectors to create such a creative culture for the
employees (Cooke & Bartram, 2015).
One more major challenge for healthcare companies is that there may be conflicts among the
point of views of the employees. The conflicts in the workplace create a stressful environment
for the employees working there. The employees generally leave such places where they cannot
find mental peace and are needed to involve in the conflicts as well as the arguments. In order to
retain the existing employees, it is necessary to manage all this stress and conflicts at the
workplace. Employees generally get bored while working with the same organization and
working in the same process. They need a change in their life due to such reason they tend to
leave their companies and start working somewhere else (Schopman, et. al., 2017).
All these challenges are important to be solved in an appropriate manner by the HR managers of
healthcare organizations so that it can be easy to retain and attract the employees within the
companies (Clarke & Hill, 2012).
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Recommendations
These increasing challenges in the healthcare sector are causing to the huge downfall in the rates
of attraction of new employees and retention of the existing ones. The very first step that must be
taken by the companies is to provide the creativity and professional development opportunities to
the employees working within such sector. There must be provided the continuous training to the
employees so that they can be able to realize that the company is looking forward to their
professional and personal development. The employees will also be loyal towards their
organization and will not look forward to leaving such organization (Tomar & Dhiman, 2013).
The other suggestion that can be made is the introduction of the stress management practices
within the organization. This practice can be helpful for the employees to release their frustration
and they will also feel good while working. There is a lot of work pressure in the health care
organizations and such work pressure can be reduced through the stress management programs
and further, there can also be maintained the work-life balance of the employees.
The last recommendation that can be made is effective diversity management within the
organization. There must be provided respect to each and every employee of the organization
regardless of their backgrounds. This will help in creating a good working environment within
the organization.
Conclusion
This essay has highlighted all the challenges faced by the HR departments in the healthcare
sector in order to attract and retain the employees within the company. There is a need for
making effective decisions regarding performance management and HRM practices for the
employee’s management. The good performance of the employees will lead to the success of the
company.
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References
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