HealthReach: HR Consultancy Proposal for High-Performance Work Systems

This report presents a consultancy proposal for HealthReach, a private healthcare company facing challenges such as increased absenteeism, high turnover rates, and low employee morale. The proposal recommends the implementation of a High-Performance Work System (HPWS) to address these issues. The report details four key components of HPWS: Autonomy, Skill-Development, Employee Motivation, and Opportunity Enhancement. For each component, the report provides a description, a rationale based on HR theories, and an analysis of the predicted outcomes, including both attitudinal and performance improvements. The proposal emphasizes the strategic collaboration between company leaders and HR managers for effective implementation, with the goal of improving patient care and overall organizational success. The report draws on current research to support its recommendations.

Running head: PROPOSAL
Assessment task 2: HR Consultancy Proposal
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1PROPOSAL
Executive summary
High-Performance Work Systems (HPWS) are the necessity of the modern workplace.
Companies facing various workplace issues in particular need to give attention to HPWS. This
study discusses HealthReach, which is one of the most renowned private healthcare company in
Australia. HealthReach faces a few issues as reported by Dr. Livingstone. According to him, the
Company faces increased absenteeism and turnover among its nursing staffs. Moreover, they
have low morale to work. The level of motivation is also being affected. The study recommends
and explains that the four components of an HPWS such as Autonomy, Employee Motivation,
Skill-Development and Opportunity Enhancement, can help overcome the issues such as those
being highlighted in the study.

2PROPOSAL
Table of Contents
Case Background.............................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Component 1: Autonomy............................................................................................................3
Component 2: Skill-Development...............................................................................................5
Component 3: Employee Motivation...........................................................................................7
Component 4: Opportunity Enhancement...................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

3PROPOSAL
Case Background
This is a proposal report to be presented to the Board of Directors of HealthReach
regarding what can be done to overcome the issues faced by the Company. As reported by Dr.
Livingstone, HealthReach faces issues such as increased absenteeism and increasing turnover
rate among nursing staffs. This has affected the quality of patient care at this private healthcare
center. What is more worrying is s fact that the morale of the staffs is also being affected. These
are some serious issues. The falling quality of the treatment is questioning the level of safety that
HealthReach offers to its patients. Bad reviews will float from one patient to another leading to
bad publicity of the quality of treatment they offer (Buchanan & McCalman, 2018). Hence, the
management needs to look into this matter and do the needful to control the issues such as those
being highlighted by Dr. Livingstone. The quality of patient care will fall further if these issues
are not addressed on an urgent basis. Indeed, a High-Performance Work System (HPWS) should
be the appropriate answer to these issues. However, the implementation phase will require
strategic collaboration between the company’s leaders and the human resource managers.
Indeed, the role of human resource managers in implementing the system is highly needed
(Boxall & Winterton, 2018).
Discussion
This section discusses the four distinct components of a High-Performance Work System
(HPWS) to be used as strategies against the ongoing issues in HealthReach. These components
are:
Component 1: Autonomy

4PROPOSAL
 Description
Autonomy means giving a kind of freedom to employees to drive them for developing creative
ideas and participating in decision-making. Autonomy can be promoted in numerous ways. It
begins with the trust that managers show in their people. This makes employees feel they are
valuable to the Company. The moment they begin thinking this way they develop a different
perception of things that happen around them daily. As a result of this process, they see
challenges as opportunities coming their way (Thoman et al., 2018). Such employees are the
most valuable asset to a company.
 Rationale
The rationale of recommending autonomy to HealthReach has already been highlighted in the
above section. Autonomy will benefit HealthReach in various ways. Employee morale, which
has been low in recent times will find a boost to it. The nursing staffs at HealthReach will have
increased morale and so, their motivation level also. They will have more reasons to do their job
seriously (Khoreva & Wechtler, 2018). This is something, which the management at
HealthReach expects from its nursing staffs. On the contrary, they have been least effective with
their current strategy to ensure their nursing staffs are productive.
 Analysis
HealthReach is facing increased absenteeism of and low interest for work from its nursing staffs.
Due to the hectic work schedules at private healthcare, managers rarely have time to look into
these issues. They are reported of such issues through emails and other possible ways from the
line managers and the human resource department. However, they can do nothing than just
taking strict actions against such people due to a fact they have less time to spend on assessing

5PROPOSAL
each such cases (Macdonald, Burke & Stewart, 2018). Indeed, promoting practices to boost
employee empowerment should not be a handful to the managers. However, the managers and
human resource managers can both sit together to devise some strategies to promote autonomy.
In this process, the role of Senior Medical Officers and Principal House Officers will be crucial.
They get the opportunity to interact to staff on a frequent basis. Hence, they will be the best
people to let employees understand the change. They can assist staff in any change related
process. By allocating the required resources to staff and by assisting them in the process should
help develop the change over a certain period (Macdonald, Burke & Stewart, 2018).
Component 2: Skill-Development
 Description
Skill-development programs are one of those few initiatives that are often adopted to fight low
motivation in employees. Such programs can help employees to learn new skills and develop a
good understanding of their job demand provided if handled properly. There can be many
reasons for low employee motivation. Incompetency is one of these reasons. Employees are
incompetent when they lack relevant skills or in case they struggle to learn new skills. There is
no better way to deal with staffs lacking relevant skills than to fire them. On the contrary, staffs
struggling to learn new skills create a manageable situation (Xian, Atkinson & Meng-Lewis,
2019). It just requires the attention of the managers towards the situation. They can utilize their
leadership skills to identify and facilitate a structured and content-based skill-development
program (Xian, Atkinson & Meng-Lewis, 2019).
 Rationale

6PROPOSAL
One can see many reasons behind issues currently faced by HealthReach; however, undoubtedly
lack of skills is one of these issues. It is the lack of skills in staff that makes them struggle to
figure out potential opportunities for working in the healthcare industry. By developing new
skills the staff can see the opportunities that await them in the industry. The skill-development
programs along will also groom their understanding of the opportunity in moving to higher job
ranks. Moreover, they should be able to generate a consensus on the fact that their effective
presence is highly required to the business and patients visiting the center (Vlachos & Siachou,
2018).
 Analysis
Skill-development programs will require HR assistance on the process. The managers can
contribute by identifying the skill-sets to work upon in the skill-development programs. Of
course, the HR managers will have less knowledge of the people and their professional capability
as compared to the managers (Ogbonnaya & Valizade, 2018). Hence, the managers and the HR
managers together can design the skill-development programs that suit to target people and that
fulfill the business demands with such programs.
Skill-development programs if held effectively and if its objectives are entirely attained
can result in numerous benefits to HealthReach. Nursing staffs at HealthReach will have an
increased understanding of their job roles and responsibilities being the employees of this
company. By learning to new skills they will grow in confidence and hence, will start seeing
opportunities for them by being in the same company (Ogbonnaya & Valizade, 2018). The
moment they start thinking this way their working style will change as well. They will be more
serious while being at work. The level of motivation will increase and will compel them to work
hard for extra payments or bonuses.

7PROPOSAL
Component 3: Employee Motivation
 Description
Employee motivation is one of the most talked-about topics in the organizational context.
Industry experts and business leaders often see this as a strategy to drive employees to perform.
They use various ways to drive performance. The monetary benefit is a type of motivation that
works in a few companies; however, not so in many other companies. In some companies, the
non-monetary benefits work the most (Boxall & Winterton, 2018). It is up to the leaders to
identify what best suits for their workplace. They can adopt strategies to identify the most
feasible form of motivation. Employee feedback is one of these strategies that help to gather
honest opinions of employees on a change. Additionally, one-to-one discussion with the tenured
people should also be a handful in reaching out to the most suitable form of motivation (Boxall
& Winterton, 2018).
 Rationale
The reason why employee motivation is needed to lift is a fact that HealthReach faces low
motivation in its nursing staffs. There is no other way to overcome the issue than working upon
improving the motivation level of staffs with relevant motivational strategy (Thoman et al.,
2018). Dr. Livingstone has himself reported that its nursing staffs have less motivation for work.
This is affecting their tendency to practice honestly. As a result, the quality of treatment care is
being affected.
 Analysis

8PROPOSAL
Employee motivational programs will again require input from the company's HR managers.
They will contribute to it by identifying and designing the programs by giving special care to
employment-related policies and frameworks (Macdonald, Burke & Stewart, 2018). Managers
will identify when and how to organize such programs. Some of the elements of the programs
can happen on a frequent basis while many others cannot. For example, performance-based
bonuses may or may not happen on a regular basis. The managers will only decide whether this
will be in practice over the year or only during peak times (Macdonald, Burke & Stewart, 2018).
Component 4: Opportunity Enhancement
 Description
Opportunity enhancement means providing more opportunities for employees. If managers can
make its people realize the opportunities they will be able to drive them to perform. Few
employees will have self-interest for accessing the opportunities. Opportunity enhancement will
require HR managers to work upon its strategies for job rotation, work flexibility and others
(Vlachos & Siachou, 2018). For example, if one person is on a leave his or her work can be done
from one of the staffs possessing similar skills. However, this will only work when the company
has programs to groom people on multiple skills (Vlachos & Siachou, 2018).
 Rationale
The nursing staffs at HealthReach probably assume they have fewer opportunities in this
company. It may be due to because they know less about the promotion opportunities or they are
not fit for it. It is therefore important to let them realize the opportunities, which are there. Once,
it starts happening their style of working will also change (Buchanan & McCalman, 2018).

9PROPOSAL
 Analysis
As stated above, both managers and the HR managers at HealthReach will need to collaborate to
do something wonder in regards to create more opportunities. There is a need for a thorough
assessment of individual performance. By assessing the performance the managers will be able
to select a few of the nursing staffs for the skills-development programs. These few selected
people will be allocated different tasks or assigned new job responsibilities on a demand basis.
This will enhance their understanding of new skills. Along with it, the managers should
communicate the benefits of working on different skills. These people should be shown the
chances of being promoted to higher job ranks (Khoreva & Wechtler, 2018). All these could help
drive these people one-inch closer to the desired destination. Nevertheless, the others who were
not chosen earlier for the job rotation process will also have motivation for learning new skills.
As they could see a few of their colleagues benefitting from learning new skills (Khoreva &
Wechtler, 2018). In this way, the job satisfaction level in nursing staffs should improve;
however, in the long-term process.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be said that the issues highlighted in the context of HealthReach are
manageable. The managers and the HR managers together can bring a difference to the
workplace. It just requires the effective utilization of strategies to implement four components of
a High-Performance Work System (HPWS). These components are Autonomy, Skill-
Development, Employee Motivation and Opportunity Enhancement. However, the benefit of
implementing these components of an HPWS is a long-term process.

10PROPOSAL
References
Boxall, P., & Winterton, J. (2018). Which conditions foster high-involvement work processes? A
synthesis of the literature and agenda for research. Economic and Industrial Democracy,
39(1), 27-47.
Buchanan, D. A., & McCalman, J. (2018). High performance work systems: The digital
experience. Routledge.
Khoreva, V., & Wechtler, H. (2018). HR practices and employee performance: the mediating
role of well-being. Employee Relations, 40(2), 227-243.
Macdonald, I., Burke, C., & Stewart, K. (2018). Systems leadership: Creating positive
organisations. Routledge.
Ogbonnaya, C., & Valizade, D. (2018). High performance work practices, employee outcomes
and organizational performance: a 2-1-2 multilevel mediation analysis. The International
Journal of Human Resource Management, 29(2), 239-259.
Thoman, P., Dichev, K., Heller, T., Iakymchuk, R., Aguilar, X., Hasanov, K., ... & Fahringer, T.
(2018). A taxonomy of task-based parallel programming technologies for high-
performance computing. The Journal of Supercomputing, 74(4), 1422-1434.
Vlachos, I., & Siachou, E. (2018). An empirical investigation of workplace factors affecting lean
performance. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management,
67(2), 278-296.

11PROPOSAL
Xian, H., Atkinson, C., & Meng-Lewis, Y. (2019). Guanxi and high performance work systems
in China: evidence from a state-owned enterprise. The International Journal of Human
Resource Management, 30(19), 2685-2704.