People Management in the NHS: Key Models and Recommendations

This report provides an in-depth analysis of people management within the National Health Service (NHS) in England. It explores key theoretical models in leadership, training and development, and talent management, and discusses their practical application within the NHS context. The report examines leadership traits, behavioral and contingency leadership theories, and various management approaches. It highlights the roles and priorities of NHS management and the HR function in supporting these roles, detailing the functions of HR in recruitment, training, and maintaining the workforce. Furthermore, the report identifies and analyzes the internal and external influences on these areas, including political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors. The report concludes with specific recommendations for enhancing people management practices within the NHS, focusing on training approaches, financial sustainability, social engagement, and improvements in diagnostic equipment and cancer treatment provisions. The report also addresses the shortage of healthcare providers and the need for strategic planning to ensure the long-term viability of NHS services.

INTRODUCTION
TO
PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK...............................................................................................................................................1
1. Key theoretical models within the 3 areas and their application to the current NHS scenario
................................................................................................................................................1
2.The role and priorities of NHS Management and the HR function in supporting
Management...........................................................................................................................3
3. The different internal and external influences on the 3 highlighted areas.........................5
4. Recommendations for the portfolio....................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Managing people is the responsibility of HR personnel in the organization. Specially in
vast organizations, it mainly depends on the type of leadership style, efficiency of management,
training and developing productivity of employees (Eriksson and et.al., 2017).
The presented study has undertaken National Health Service for England, established in
1948 for accomplishing the given tasks. NHS requires effective management team and personnel
to cater all kind of patients. This report will highlight the description of leadership and
management, Training and development and Talent Management of NHS by the application of
various theoretical approaches. The report has also mentioned specific recommendations for
selected organisation.
TASK
1. Key theoretical models within the 3 areas and their application to the current NHS scenario
Organizations must involve different approaches and models for effective staffing, increase
productivity and management of workforce(Deery and Jago, 2015)). Some key approaches of
leadership and management, Training and development and talent management are described
below.
Model of Leadership
Leadership Trait: It depends upon the core attributes of an individual.
Leaders of NHS have all the above mentioned traits. The leaders at NHS are mainly healthcare
professionals are responsive enough to cater the patients. They are well informed regarding job
1
I
llustration 1: Attributes of trait theory
(Sources: Trait Theory of leadership, 2018)

protocols and standards for effective delegation of tasks to subordinates and progressive care to
patients.
Behaviour Leadership theory: It depends upon the fact that leadership strategies can be taught to
an individual unlike the trait theory(van den Broek and et.al., 2018) NHS deliver different
training to the healthcare providers regarding managerial skills and leadership qualities.
Contingency Leadership theory: This theory of leadership is based upon the situations that are
arises within any organisation(Deery and Jago, 2015). Leaders of NHS are extremely prepared
and prompt to handle the healthcare emergency crises.
Management approaches
Management is based upon different theories based on significant concepts. These theories are
classified as follows-
Behavioural approach Quantitative approach Modern integrative
approach
Henry Fayol theory includes
14 principles of management.
These principles are precisely
followed by the management
team at NHS. From Division
of work to Esprit de corps, all
the principles are adopted
while implementing different
workplace strategies.
Management of Sciences,
Operation and Information
system incorporate the
management of all the
quantitative aids. NHS being a
public heath system of UK
need to manage all the relative
operations, Health informatics
and services through advanced
quantitative approach of
management.
Contingency Theory depends
upon the alteration of
leadership styles according to
the situations.
NHS team of managers are
quick decision maker and
efficient enough to alter their
managerial skills according to
the situations at healthcare set
up.
Training and Development:
“ADDIE model” must be utilized for implementing proper training programmes.
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Organizations must ANALYZE the need of training, DESIGN a feasible plan for training,
DEVELOP the designed model, IMPLEMENT the developed training plan and EVALUATE
the existing plan for further requirements(Bakar and et.al., 2016).
NHS has proper segments for training and development of its workforce. It has its in house
induction program for the development. It provides sufficient Skill based learning. It also
provides external educational facilitate to its employees by giving them financial support.
Talent Management model:
This model has number of specified steps to follow. It starts with Planning, Attracting, Selecting,
Developing and ends with Retaining and transitioning(Talent Management,2018)
Organizations like must undergo for effective training management model. NHS has
effective talent management system for its employees. The Talent Management is conducted by
NHS learning academies in collaboration with different academies to strengthen the NHS
workforce.
2.The role and priorities of NHS Management and the HR function in supporting Management
NHS management have segmented roles to facilitate patient care at different levels. It has
different managerial roles in the field of clinical management, operational management,
management of healthcare informatics and delivering appropriate data regarding health status of
the community. Basic roles of NHS management deals with all the clinical assessments,
healthcare sustainability, planning and development of healthcare beneficiaries to communities.
Roles of NHS management are as follows:
 To provide comprehensive health care services to public, community.
 To deliver quality of critical and non critical services.
 To improve current and future health status of the population.
 To improve the educational opportunities.
 To promote equality through its services.
Priorities of NHS:
 Is to work with local healthcare providers and related systems to deliver healthcare
facilities.
 To improve the work performance of employees, healthcare workers and ground level
staff.
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 Priorities of NHS includes, developing different strategic diagnostic tools to cater
patients.
 Keen observation of medical data to design different healthcare plans and policies based
on the legislative structure of UK is the major priority of NHS.
 To align with NHS improvement to collaborate with care givers and different authorities.
HR function in supporting management
The HR management team at NHS comprised of different managers at significant levels. It
includes: Human Resource Manager, Staffing manager, Workforce development manager and
divisional human resource manager. These authorities of HR department are responsible to
conduct various activities that directly or indirectly linked with the NHS management.
Human Resource Management at NHS is responsible to support the overall functions of
NHS in terms of operational management, practice management, clinical management, finance
management etc. Functions of HR department that supports the management are:
 Recruitment and selection of suitable candidate for the job role
 Conducting induction programs to let the new employees know about the general
policies, goals and working standards of NHS.
 To conduct training and development programs for the workforce.
 To comply the practices of healthcare system with designed UK healthcare laws.
 To maintain the work culture.
 To develop strategies for reducing employees turnover and to attract talent pools.
 To deliver regular and effective education to the employees specially the non- clinical
staff at regular basis.
 Human Resource management is responsible to maintain the medical records and its
releasing its updates for communities.
 HR has a role to generate strategic compensation and perks for the employees as well as
senior professional grade staff.
All these activities and functions by Human Resource Management strongly supports the NHS
management team. HR functions are responsible for the selection of healthcare providers
including doctors, nurses, ground level workers, housekeeping staff for proper deliberation of
tasks(Eriksson and et.al., 2017).
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3. The different internal and external influences on the 3 highlighted areas
Analysis of different external and internal factors is crucial for the development of any
organisation.
The external factors are highly depends upon the political conditions, economic conditions,
sudden legal and governmental regulations disruptions, terrorism, civil wars etc.(Moeller and
Dabic, 2016).
While, internal factors highly depends upon the internal strength, weakness, threats and
opportunities of the organization. These factors must be improved and reduced according to its
positive and negative impact on organisations(Renz, 2016). For National Health Service of
England, these factors need to be highly measurable for smooth functioning of internal services
as well as to receive desired outcomes.
External Factors
Political factors Leaders and Managers of NHS must be attentive enough to
tackle different crises and situations. For instance, in 2017,
NHS faced problems due to political crises because parties
didn't provide sufficient funds that adversely affected patient
care.
Trainings must be provided to the staff to manage such
conditions.
Economic factors NHS is highly depends on the economy of its country. It
requires utmost support from social bodies and local
authorities. Hence, leadership, management, training and
development and talent management are highly depends on
external sources for funds and gathering learning aids and
different resources.
Social Factors Leadership and management styles in NHS varies with the
lifestyle, education, age, gender.
Trainings to NHS workers also need to be altered to sync in
with different class, age, lifestyle of patients.
Technological Factors NHS has introduced an extensive range of technologies to its
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healthcare system. NHS digital Academy facilitate leaders
and managers to receive effective workforce. Advanced
clinical trainings are given to care givers. It also utilizes
effective talent management software to reach and attract
talent pools in healthcare sector.
Legal Factors Leadership and Management at NHS turns out to be
extremely difficult to comply with specific healthcare laws.
These laws directly influence the recruitment, selection
methods. The laws of
Environmental Factors Environmental factors influences the work flow of managers
of NHS, they need to comply with environmental policies in
healthcare set ups.
Training content must include standard protocols for
environment conservation.
INTERNAL FACTORS
Internal factors like use of advanced technologies is the strength of NHS. While, diversified staff
is one of the weakness of the organisation for leadership and management team.
Use of Advanced Technologies:
NHS has advanced technological platforms to cater the patients and providing healthcare at all
possible levels. These technologies help managers to gather different health statistics data to plan
medical facilities. It helps leaders to plan different training programs based on the assessments
and appraisals of employees. It provides sufficient facilities to design various strategies for
attracting talent pools.
Other than this, the internal leadership and management of NHS is greatly affected by type of
patients, suppliers, social groups, politicians and local authorities.
Diversified staff:
The leadership quality changes with the type of staff in the organization. Management team have
specific protocols to deal with the professional grades than that of non clinical staff. The training
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and development measures also varies with the type of workforce, clinical assessments they
perform, designations, roles and responsibilities of job role.
The management team need to assign different working conditions, beneficiaries to the
workforce depending upon their designations and post in the organisation. Since, NHS is a vast
healthcare system it needs to perform different responsibilities with the variations in clinical
departments also(Moeller and Dabic, 2016). For instance, staffing for Intensive care units will be
based on proper selection of surgeons, medical professionals and experienced supportive staff.
While, staffing for cafeteria area require professionalised dietician, nutritionists.
The talent management team of NHS is affected by the selection of required staff and
available vacancies. It becomes a hurdle for talent managers of the organisation to design
attractive strategies for talented healthcare workers.
4. Recommendations for the portfolio
According to the prepared portfolio of NHS, the recommendations that can be suggested are:
 It must applied different approaches for training of its workforce. It should effectively
adopt the ADDIE process for implementing its training programmes as suggested above.
 For strategic sustainability, it must not depends on finances and political and local parties
to gather the capital and funding. It should extends its social engagements to receive
desired support in the future.
 It must adopts and implement proper plan to reduce the perinatal and amenable mortality
in the country.
 The healthcare set up must improve the number of installed equipments for diagnostic
purpose. Like it has few CT Scanners and MRI machines to sufficiently cater the
communities.
 NHS do not have strong and effective treatments provisions for cancer patients.
 The organisation need to design long term strategic plan to maintain its services and
improve the safety measures for the public and community of UK.
 Shortage of healthcare providers, sufficient beds and feasible packages to the community
has delivered it a threat in comparison with the other existing health care systems. Thus,
it needs utmost planning, forecasting and funding analysis to fulfil the needs of patients.
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CONCLUSION
Based on the above report it has been summarised that organizations must adopt designed
theories for effective leadership and management. Along with this, the study has also suggested
some recommendations to NHS to handle the unfavourable situations. The study ahs also
mentioned that organizations must be prepared to overcome the crises arises due external or
internal factors. The organisation must strengthen its HR functions to develop effective
workforce. The report has clearly defined the dependency of NHS on external sources for
funding is its biggest weakness. Hence, Managers must forecast the needs and provide desired
support to the organization on time.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bakar, A. and et.al., 2016. Effect of Organizational Training on Organizational Commitment
through Ethical Development: An Empirical Study. Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences
(PJSS).36(1).
Deery, M. and Jago, L., 2015. Revisiting talent management, work-life balance and retention
strategies. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 27(3).
pp.453-472.
Eriksson, A. and et.al., 2017. Management and leadership approaches to health promotion and
sustainable workplaces: A scoping review. Societies.7(2).p.14.
Moeller, M. and Dabic, M., 2016. People management and innovation in emerging market
multinationals: A competency-based framework. Journal of Management development.
35(4). pp.530-548.
Renz, D.O., 2016. The Jossey-Bass handbook of nonprofit leadership and management. John
Wiley & Sons.
van den Broek, J., Boselie, P. and Paauwe, J., 2018. Cooperative innovation through a talent
management pool: A qualitative study on coopetition in healthcare. European
Management Journal. 36(1).pp.135-144.
Online
Talent Management. 2018. [Online] Available through: <https://businessjargons.com/talent-
management.html>
The principles of the NHS. 2018. [Online] Available through:
<https://www.myhealth.london.nhs.uk/faq/principles-nhs>
Trait Theory of leadership. 2018. [Online] Available through: <https://iedunote.com/trait-theory-
of-leadership>
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