The Role of HR in Creating Sustainable Organizations Report

This report examines the role of Human Resources (HR) in fostering sustainable organizations, using a case study of two hospitals—one with a dedicated HR department and one without. The report recommends that the hospital lacking a separate HR department establish one to address challenges such as staff grievances and absenteeism. It emphasizes the importance of HR in manpower planning, training, and employee development to improve operational efficiency and employee commitment. Furthermore, the report outlines key features of building sustainable HR capabilities, including a focus on sustainability, meeting employee expectations, encouraging employees, long-term employment, continuous development, and understanding HR competencies. It concludes that effective HR management is crucial for organizational growth, employee satisfaction, and addressing future challenges. The report stresses the need for an integrated approach to HR, emphasizing transparency and fairness to foster a positive work environment and enhance employee commitment.

RUNNING HEAD: The role of HR in creating sustainable organisations
Managing Human Resources
The role of HR in creating sustainable organisations

The role of HR in creating sustainable organisations 1
Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Recommended course of action to the CEO in the first hospital to improve the operation of HRM.....3
Key features of building a sustainable HR capability.............................................................................5
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................6
References.............................................................................................................................................7

The role of HR in creating sustainable organisations 2
Executive Summary
The report is about managing Human resources in the hospitals which are given in the case
study. Two hospitals are given from which one is having a separate HR department while the
other one is managing the HR functions on its own with the help of managers and CEO. It is
seen that the hospital which does not have a separate HR department is facing challenges. So,
the recommendations are provided tho that hospital as to how it can improve the operations
of HRM to face the challenges and the key features of building sustainable HR capabilities.
Introduction
Managing Human Resources includes performing the functions related to the human
resources of the organisation which is to be taken care by the Human Resources manager. It
includes functions like planning and allocating resources, training and development activities,
motivating and encouraging employees, managing the demand and supply of employees in
the organisation and many more (Guest, 2011). The report is based on the case study where
two hospitals are mentioned. One has a separate HR department while other does not have an
HR department and the functions of HR are handled by the managers themselves along with
CEO. It will be recommended that what actions should be taken by the CEO of the hospital
which does not have separate HR department so that the operational improvement can be
made in the hospital. The report further discusses building capabilities of sustainable HR in
the organisations. It will help the hospital in developing the sustainable HR practices

The role of HR in creating sustainable organisations 3
Recommended course of action to the CEO in the first hospital to
improve the operation of HRM
As per the case study, the first hospital does not have any dedicated HR department and the
CEO himself with the support of finance manager runs the functions of an HR which
involves recruitment and selection, training & development and other functions. Because of
no specific responsibility assigned, the hospital is facing challenges of disputes, staff
grievances, absenteeism and more.
It is recommended to the first hospital that proper Human Resource department needs to be
settled to manage the growing concerns and issues among the staff and management. It is
because the Human resource department focuses specifically on planning the management of
Human resources of the organisation for their betterment and development in the future. It
also aims at making the employees committed to the organisation and providing their full
potential in the hospital so that the users feel satisfied and prefer the services again in future.
According to Bloom and Van Reenen (2011), Human resource management is the
management of the human capital of the company. It aims at maximising the performance of
the employees in order to meet the strategic objectives of the company (Schroeder, 2012).
The first hospital needs a separate human resource department in order to improve the
operations of HRM. It will plan the right mix of manpower in the hospital so that the
services, their volume and quality can be maintained in the hospital. It will also plan about
training the individuals to make them more competent and to develop positive attitude in
them for the hospital. This will let the CEO and other managers to focus on their core
operations. Also, it is not the job of the middle managers to handle the functions of HR but
they should have an option to access the HR department in case of any dissatisfaction from
the management. This satisfies the employees because they know they will be taken care of in
the hospital. A clean and professional working environment will create positive attitude in the
employees and this will ultimately improve their performance (Tiwari & Saxena, 2012).
The HR department of the hospital will focus on manpower planning, recruitment and
selection, training and development, Health care of employees and working environment of
the hospital and future growth and development of employees (Sendogdu, Kocabacak &
Guven, 2013). The development of HR policies and practices will make the procedures

The role of HR in creating sustainable organisations 4
transparent which will make the hospital capable of meeting the challenges related to human
resources which includes the staff problems, disputes and increased absenteeism which
ultimately affects the quality of care and increases the accidents in the hospital which
includes the staff and patients. The implementation of HR policies by a separate HR
department will definitely improve the HR operations and overall business of the hospital.

The role of HR in creating sustainable organisations 5
Key features of building a sustainable HR capability
In the opinion of Kramar (2014), there is a strong relationship between sustainability and
Human Resource Management. HR is not just about the expansion of personnel management
but also the organisational development for enhancing the effectiveness of the same. The
organisational capabilities can be explained as the factors which drives the results for the
organisation. Every company have their own capabilities. If the company has the ability of
managing its people, it gives competitive advantage to the organisation and these capabilities
are gained through the people and their collective efforts. A sustainable HR capability
involves the following features:
Increased focus on sustainability: For building the sustainable HR capabilities, the focus has
to be given on sustainability. The employees need to be made understand about the
sustainable business practices and how they can create long term value for the human
resources as well as for the organisation (Stankeviciute & Savaneviciene, 2013)
Meeting the expectations of the employees: If the expectations of the human resources of
hospital is met effectively, it will ensure the positively in the employees for the hospital and it
will also ensure the long term gains for all.
Encouragement in employees: if the employees are encouraged through different methods
like training, rewards or compensation, the sustainable HR capabilities can be built (Mazur,
2009).
Long term employment: long term employment helps in providing security to the employees
and avoids the absenteeism and disruption in employees which builds sustainable human
resources and their capabilities.
Continuous development and learning: This should be well planned which includes training
programs and other evaluations which promotes the transfer of knowledge and builds
sustainable HR capabilities (Breznik, 2014).
Understanding HR and working on the competencies: The key feature of sustainable HR
capabilities is how well the HR department of the organisation understand its human
resources and work on their competencies.

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Assessment of strengths and Weaknesses: one of the important aspects of sustainable HR
capability is that the strengths and weaknesses of the human resources should be assessed to
work on their weaknesses and turning them into strengths (Khandekar & Sharma, 2005).
Future requirements of HR: the future requirements of HR need to be assessed in order to
create value for future.
Providing value: providing value to the human resources and adopting the powerful approach
of being proactive for the employees builds up capabilities in HR sustainably (Shipton,
Budhwar & Crawshaw, 2012).
For building sustainable HR capabilities the organisation needs to have integrated approach
of handling the issues and providing solutions by keeping all the factors in mind. This will
develop a fair and transparent culture in the organisation and will benefit in providing
satisfaction to the employees. This will develop the employee commitment in the
organisation for longer term benefitting the organisation and the future challenges of HR will
be met (Tan & Nasurdin, 2011).
Conclusion
It can be concluded that human capital is the key part of the organisation which is to be
handled well in order to grow and develop the business in future. It is clear from the analysis
of case that the hospital which does not have any separate HR department is losing its
employees commitment, performance and growth. It is HR department which takes care of
the most powerful asset of any organisation and improve their functional competency. The
sustainable HR capabilities can be built by taking care of the needs of HR, valuing their
contribution to the firm and continuous development and training.

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References
Bloom, N and Van Reenen, J (2011). Human resource management and
productivity, Handbook of labor economics, 4, pp.1697-1767.
Breznik, L (2014). Deploying human resource capability for sustainable performance: a
dynamic capabilities framework. In Human Capital without Borders: Knowledge and
Learning for Quality of Life; Proceedings of the Management, Knowledge and Learning
International Conference 2014 (pp. 561-570). ToKnowPress.
Guest, D E (2011). Human resource management and performance: still searching for some
answers. Human resource management journal, 21(1), 3-13.
Khandekar, A & Sharma, A (2005). Managing human resource capabilities for sustainable
competitive advantage: An empirical analysis from Indian global organisations. Education+
Training, 47(8/9), 628-639.
Kramar, R (2014). Beyond strategic human resource management: is sustainable human
resource management the next approach?. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 25(8), 1069-1089.
Mazur, B (2009). Sustainable Human Resource Management in theory and practice.
Economics and Management .
Schroeder, H (2012). The importance of human resource management in strategic
sustainability: An art and science perspective. Journal of Environmental Sustainability, 2(2),
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Sendogdu, A A, Kocabacak, A & Guven, S (2013). The relationship between human
resource management practices and organizational commitment: A field study. Procedia-
Social and Behavioral Sciences, 99, 818-827.
Shipton, H, Budhwar, P S & Crawshaw, J (2012). HRM, organizational capacity for change,
and performance: A global perspective. Thunderbird International Business Review, 54(6),
777-790.

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Stankeviciute, Z, & Savaneviciene, A (2013). Sustainability as a concept for human resource
management. Economics and Management, 18(4), 837-846.
Tan, C L & Nasurdin, A M (2011). Human resource management practices and
organizational innovation: assessing the mediating role of knowledge management
effectiveness. Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management, 9(2), 155-167.
Tiwari, P & Saxena, K (2012). Human resource management practices: A comprehensive
review. Pakistan business review, 9(2), 669-705.