Strategic Human Resource Management Report for HealthReach Hospitals

This report examines the strategic human resource management (SHRM) practices at HealthReach, a healthcare organization facing declining nurse performance and high absenteeism. The report identifies key issues, including the high number of part-time nurses, lack of incentive programs, and centralized decision-making processes. It recommends several solutions derived from research on high-performance work systems (HPWS). These include reducing the reliance on contract nurses to improve job security and employee satisfaction, introducing financial and non-financial incentive programs to boost motivation, decentralizing decision-making to empower nurses, and improving information sharing to foster teamwork and communication. The report emphasizes the importance of treating nurses as trusted partners to enhance patient care and organizational effectiveness, concluding that implementing these SHRM strategies will help HealthReach improve its operational performance.

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

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Executive Summary
Human resources are the base of a company’s work culture. The management of these
resources is challenging yet important. This report has the purpose of understanding the
problems that HealthReach is facing in the context of their nurses and their management. The
organisation has gained its reputation in the long run but is suffering from weak performances
of the nurses. In this report, the key problems of this organisation are identified, and their
solutions are recommended after some research. The recommendations are derived from the
current researches been done on the HWPS context. The aim of this report is to increase the
work efficiency and performances of the nurses that have been declined in the past two years.

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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................3
Concerns of HealthReach...............................................................................................3
Recommended solutions................................................................................................4
Ensuring Employee Security......................................................................................4
Introducing incentive programs.................................................................................5
Decentralized decision making..................................................................................6
Key Sharing Information............................................................................................7
Conclusion......................................................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Trends are changing in every sector of business regarding the employee-employer
relationship and workplace environment. The workforce is the main asset of any industrial
venture and managing the workforce effectivity is important for company performance.
Health care industry has evolved in the past years. It is one of the industries that demand high
and consistent performance from the employees. The high-performance work system has
certain requirements to be fulfilled. Health care is a serious business and nurses are the vein
of it. A health care organization could only gain reputation if the nurses, doctors and other
staffs of the hospital work in a synchronized way. In this report, the declining status of
HealthReach hospitals would be addressed, and the possible solution would be
recommended.
Concerns of HealthReach
After evaluating the case of HealthReach, it is quite obvious that the [problem lies in the
management of the nursing staff. The hospitals of healthReach have some drawbacks in their
performance and profit gaining. It is one of the reputed health care providers in Australia. But
currently, this organization is going through some rough conditions for the declining
performances of the nurses. The absenteeism among the nurses has increased in huge
number, and the quality of patient is diminishing as well. The company now hires about 48%
of nurses on a contract basis, and they do not enjoy any incentive plan at any aspect of work.
The nurses have minimum training, and they do not have any say in the decision of the
authorities regarding the patient. In short, they are least involved in the health care operations
and management of the organisations. This system is not new in the organization, but the
problems have recently been encountered. The old regulations of this company seem to be
obsolete as they are not able to deliver better results to the health care group.

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Recommended solutions
Ensuring Employee Security
The first problem that is to be addressed in this context is the higher amount of part-
time nurses in the organization. It is quite a fact that the casualization of the workers has
increased in every sector of business. The trends of hiring the nurses on contract basis are not
new in the Health care sector. This cuts some budget of the hospitals and increases the profit
line for the organization. Health Reach has also tried to incorporate this practice in their work
culture. In spite of this fact, the researchers say that this casualization has hardly been useful
to any organization in creating their long-term financial asset and reputation. The
casualisation might help the company to gain some profit and avoidance of obligations in the
short term, but it would definitely affect the production and performance of the concerned
workers after a time (Gkorezis, Georgiou & Theodorou, 2018).
Job security is directly linked to employee satisfaction and performance attitude. This
affects the high-performance workplace even more than any other. In hospitals, the
employees are required to be well-connected and develop a partnership to serve the patient
efficiently (Andersén & Andersén, 2019). The nurses have to be committed to the teamwork
to go the extra mile in patient care whenever needed. Casualization is a barrier in this high
performance as the part-time nurses experience extra pressure and anxiety for their work
instability.
HealthReach should reduce the number of part-time and contractual nurses in their
hospitals and appoint more full-time nurses. According to Andersén & Andersén (2019), the
organisation that provides a commitment to the employees get better performance from them.
Full-time nurses would serve patients with more confidence and concentration. They would
definitely show more inclination towards their work by taking responsibilities. Also, the

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management would have more say to the performance of the nurses if they are recruited on a
permanent basis. Management and authorities could have better communication with their
full-time employees, and they could supervise the work easily.
The policies in full-time recruitment build the trust bond between the employee and
the employer, which is effective for high-performance goals. The number of absenteeism
would also decrease as the full-time nurse would be more committed towards the
organizational success (Barnes, 2015). In this way, HealthReach could address both the
problems of low performance and absenteeism in their hospitals.
Introducing incentive programs
HealthReach should try to implement some complementary incentives to keep their
employees motivated. Nurses have to do extensive labour at times. They also invest more
time than the shifts in emergency cases. They are the connection between the patients,
doctors, staffs and families. The organisational heads have to understand the importance of
performance and motivation.
Most of the time, these high-performance work situations make the nurses
demotivated and stressed. Even after performing extra-ordinarily in such tensed situations,
the nurses of the organisations are not being appreciated. This is the reason that they are
experiencing a negative attitude towards their performance. This is casting a wrong
impression in their mindset about their work effectiveness. Some sort of simple appreciation
through incentives could encourage them in their work. According to Barton, Bruce &
Schreiber (2018), an HPWS or high-performance work system needs their employees to be
motivated and reinforced all the time to do their duty.
Healthcare is serious business as the life-and-death of a patient is connected to it. The
nurses have strenuous and intensive jobs to perform. If HealthReach introduces financial

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incentive and rewards for the high performers in the organisation, they would be motivated to
serve the patients more cordially. Appreciation of good work not only rewards the performer
but also encourages others to give their best. As there is no incentive program for the nurses,
the organisation is suffering from the low motivational effect of the nurses (Ellis, 2018). It is
recommended that the management should introduce incentive plans and communicate them
among the nurses to encourage healthy competition. The incentive would infuse positive
reinforcement in the nurses and would showcase the appreciation of good work by the
authority.
Decentralized decision making
Every HPWS has its recognized and clearly identified objectives. The implementation
of these goals and objectives is possible only if the decision making process is delegated
throughout the system. The decentralization of the decision making empowers the employees
to do their jobs in a more efficient way. In the nursing occupations, most of the time, the
nurses have to take tough decisions on the spot in order to avoid further complexities (Barnes,
2015). The team of nurses who work in the hospitals need to have a certain amount of
autonomy so that they could feel themselves a part of the process. Besides a self-managed
team is a strong resource for any organisations’ progress.
The nurses should have some training so that they could understand their role and
e=be able to take decisions accordingly. HealthReach management could organise some y-
training programs to train their nurses and enhance their working skills. These training
programs could be information sharing tools, as well.
Authority could communicate their goals and objectives, train the nurses and take
feedback from them regarding the work problems. Even after the training, the management
has to extend all the supports that the team of nurses might need to execute their duties (Alim,

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Kawabata & Nakazawa, 2015). Most important things that HRM need to keep in mind while
empowering the nurses are- defining and explaining the role and responsibilities, giving
training to the nurses to fight stress and anxiety, enabling them to make important and instant
decisions and enhancing their work skills.
Key Sharing Information
Sharing information and keeping the team in the same loop is another component of
an HPWS. A team that is well-informed and well-trained is the best one. The sharing of the
information among the staffs is necessary to enable the nurses to contribute their best results.
The nurses of HealthReach should be able to work within a team, and they should be aware
of their responsibilities in the team.
Only a well-informed and confident team could overcome all the difficulties and
challenges. When the company decides to share important information with the employees, it
proves useful for their performance. They consider themselves and as an integral part of the
organisation and work hard for the commonly shared goals. The nurses must be informed of
the present situations and condition of the HealthReach. They should get the strategic,
financial and performance-related information. The management should arrange the training
in order to make them compatible to work in teams (Ellis, 2018). All these steps are
necessary to get the targeted outcomes of the hospitals. The information that could be shared
with the nurses is- number of patients, types of cases, individual history of the patients,
financial records of the company, expected outcomes from the staffs, mission and vision of
the company, departmental information and so on.
It is seen in the HPWS that lack of communication might cause severe damages. In a
profession like nursing, communication within the team plays an even more crucial role.
Other than that the management has to pass certain information of the patients and company

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rules to the nurses. This would enable the trained and self-managed nurses to take their
decisions with more insight (Karimi et al. 2015). The work responsibilities and roles are to be
allocated with care. When the nurses would understand that the authority is treating them as a
trusted partner, they would show interest in their jobs as well. Patient care would be more
effective, and the nurses would be more competent to handle adverse situations. Information
sharing is the only way through which the organization could avoid any miscommunication
and gap of performance in hospitals.
Conclusion
HealthReach has gained success in past times with their established rules abs
regulations. The organization completely controlled their staffs and nurses. But the work
environment must change with time whenever necessary. This is the high time for
HealthReach that they should reconsider their policies and regulations. If the company wants
to get maximum outcomes from its nurses, it has to understand the issues with it. The
problems of this company could be solved if it works on its incentive and job casualization
aspects. The organisation is also supposed to have strong communication with the team of
nurses in order to beware of current situations. All the four components of HPWS that are
suggested in this report would help HealthReach to operate more effectively. The nurses of
the organisations would be able to understand their responsibilities, and they would be
motivated to do better in their work profile. The attitude and outlook of the nurses will be
changed if they are treated as a trusted partner and not mere employees.

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References
Alim, S., Kawabata, M., & Nakazawa, M. (2015). Evaluation of disaster preparedness
training and disaster drill for nursing students. Nurse education today, 35(1), 25-31.
Andersén, J., & Andersén, A. (2019). Are high-performance work systems (HPWS)
appreciated by everyone? The role of management position and gender on the
relationship between HPWS and affective commitment. Employee Relations: The
International Journal.
Barnes, H. (2015). Exploring the factors that influence nurse practitioner role transition. The
Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 11(2), 178-183.
Barton, G., Bruce, A., & Schreiber, R. (2018). Teaching nurses teamwork: Integrative review
of competency-based team training in nursing education. Nurse education in practice,
32, 129-137.
Ellis, P. (2018). Leadership, management and team working in nursing. Learning Matters.
Gkorezis, P., Georgiou, L., & Theodorou, M. (2018). High-performance work practices and
nurses’ intention to leave: the mediating role of organizational cynicism and the
moderating role of human resource management-related educational background. The
International Journal of Human Resource Management, 29(3), 465-484.
Kalisch, B. J., Weaver, S. J., & Salas, E. (2009). What does nursing teamwork look like? A
qualitative study. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 24(4), 298-307.
Karimi, L., Cheng, C., Bartram, T., Leggat, S. G., & Sarkeshik, S. (2015). The effects of
emotional intelligence and stress‐related presenteeism on nurses’ well‐being. Asia
Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 53(3), 296-310.