Strategic HRM Challenges & Recommendations for Kirkwood Hospice

This report examines the strategic human resource management challenges faced by Kirkwood Hospice, a non-profit organization heavily reliant on volunteers. The report identifies key issues such as lack of control over volunteers, limited financial resources, fewer options for employee motivation, and the risk associated with investing in employee training. It recommends strategies to address these challenges, including diversifying revenue streams, improving communication with volunteers, conducting regular review meetings, and leveraging crowdfunding for employee development. Furthermore, the report discusses the limitations of traditional HR theories, such as Maslow's hierarchy of needs and employee engagement theory, in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises and volunteer-based organizations. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of implementing the recommended steps to ensure the long-term sustainability and effectiveness of Kirkwood Hospice.

Running head: STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Strategic human resource management
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Executive summary
The aim of this report is to discuss about the strategic human resource challenges being faced by
Kirkwood Hospice in their operation. There are various challenges being discussed in this report.
In addition, various recommended steps that should be implemented in the Hospice sector are
also being discussed in this report. There are various limitations also being identified of the
existing human resource theories for the small and medium organizations and for the volunteers.
This report concludes that it is important for Kirkwood Hospice to effectively implement the
discussed steps in this report.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Strategic HRM challenges for Kirkwood Hospice..........................................................................3
Lack of control over volunteers...................................................................................................3
Access to fewer financial resources.............................................................................................4
Fewer options to motivate the employees...................................................................................5
Risk in equipping the employees.................................................................................................6
Recommended steps........................................................................................................................6
Limitations of human resource theories..........................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
Reference.......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The present business scenario is posing huge challenges and threats for the contemporary
business organizations mainly in relation to the management of their human resources. This is
due to the fact that human resource is the leading source of gaining competitive advantages for
the business organizations. However, apart from the commercial business organizations,
volunteering service or the nonprofit organizations face more difficulties and complexities in
managing their employees (Vachon, 2014). The key reason behind this is that commercial
business organizations are having hired employees in place while nonprofit organizations mainly
works on the base of the volunteers. Thus, the intensity of the control on the hired employees
will be more as compared to the volunteering services.
It is identified that Kirkwood Hospice is also facing the similar issue with the
management of their employees. Their major section of the employees is volunteers and thus
they do not have the direct control over them. On the other hand, they are in the need of
professional practices in order to enhance their business sustainability. This report will discuss
about the challenges that they will face in the management of their human resources. In addition,
the recommendations will also be discussed in overcoming these challenges.
Strategic HRM challenges for Kirkwood Hospice
Lack of control over volunteers
One of the major challenges in relation to the human resource management of Hospice is
having less control over the employees. As in the case of the Kirkwood Hospice, there are more
than 800 volunteers are working and this forms the largest portion of the total workforce of them.
Therefore, the key challenge in this case is controlling and directing these volunteering

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employees. This is due to the reason that employees are bound to follow the regulations and
direction of the organization only when they will be hired for a value. On the other hand,
majority of the employees in Kirkwood Hospice is volunteered and they are doing their job as
social work and free of cost. Thus, they are not bound to strictly follow the organizational
formalities. Moreover, in this case, the probability of attrition rate of the employees will more.
Volunteers tend to stop their services if they are no more comfortable with the organizational
processes (Jain & Kaur, 2014). The strategic initiatives taken by Kirkwood Hospice may not be
accepted by all the volunteers and the organization will also not be able to force them to follow
the approaches.
Access to fewer financial resources
Kirkwood Hospice or Hospices in general are having less access to the financial
resources. This is due to the reason that compared to the commercial business organizations, the
sources of gaining revenue are less for the Hospice. As discussed in the case of the Kirkwood
Hospice, their main revenue is being generated from donations and sales of their merchandise.
Thus, they do not have any fixed and extensive sources of generating revenue (Mayer et al.,
2014). In addition, it is also to be noted that the key objective of nonprofit organizations such as
Kirkwood Hospice is social welfare rather than the profit maximization of the commercial
business organizations. Therefore, with having fewer and less extensive sources of generating
revenue, Kirkwood Hospice is having the issues with access to more finances. In the case of the
strategic human resource management, not having extensive access to the finances is restricting
the activities of managing the employees.

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For instance, Kirkwood Hospice is initiating a new strategic plan for the next three years.
However, in order to have effective implementation of the new strategic plan, employees of them
should be given training in order to make them equipped according to the current business trend
and requirement. On the other hand, initiation of the training and development program for the
employees will involve good cost for the organization, which may not get afforded by Kirkwood
Hospice due to their limited access to finance. Thus, this is also one of the major challenges for
the Kirkwood Hospice or the Hospice industries in general to initiate the activities in relation to
the employee training.
Fewer options to motivate the employees
In the case of Hospice, options are less for motivating and engaging the employees. This
is due to the reason that majority of the employees are providing volunteering services. Thus, in
the case of social service, employees are majorly self motivated without having the requirement
of any external influences or motivating factors (Smith & Shields, 2013). However, on the other
hand, in the case of the commercial business organizations, employees are being motivated by
providing additional benefits in their workplace. Kirkwood Hospice is mainly facing two issues
in further motivating their employees.
One of the key reasons is the lack of motivating factors for the employees in the social
service. Employees are working based on their self motivation and without any pay. Thus, they
cannot be motivated with the offerings of more financial benefits. On the other hand, another
major reason faced by Kirkwood Hospice in motivating their employees is having fewer
resources. They are not having enough access to the financial and other resources in order to

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motivate their employees. This is another challenge faced by Kirkwood Hospice in relation to the
strategic human resource management.
Risk in equipping the employees
In the earlier section, it is discussed that Kirkwood Hospice is having different difficulties
in providing training to the employees. However, providing of training to the employees will also
have some sort of difficulties for Kirkwood Hospice. This is due to the reason that if the
employees are being given proper training in order to equip them and enhance their skill sets,
then there will be a probability of switching the organization by the employees. If the employees
become more skilled and trained then they will have more career options, which will reduce the
retention ratio of Kirkwood Hospice (Gialuisi & Coetzer, 2013). Moreover, in the case of
Kirkwood Hospice, risk of employee attrition will be more due to the fact that it is difficult to
recruit volunteers compared to the professional experts. Thus, the more training will be given to
the employees, the more will be equipped and will tray for better opportunities.
Recommended steps
The above sections discussed about the strategic challenges that are being faced by
Kirkwood Hospice. Thus, they should have some steps to follow in order to overcome these
challenges. The following sections will discuss about some of the recommended steps, which
will help to overcome these issues in the next five years.
 It is recommended that the major step should be taken by Kirkwood Hospice is to
increase the source of generating revenue. As discussed in the case study of Kirkwood
Hospice, they are having their merchandise stores and donations as their major options to
generate revenue. Thus, it is recommended that Kirkwood Hospice should increase the

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number of their merchandise stores in order to cater to more number of customers. In this
case, one of the major advantages that will be gained by them is the positive impression
regarding their brand in the society. This is due to the reason that Kirkwood Hospice is
nonprofit organization and they mainly offers last life services to the critical patients.
Thus, having more merchandise stores of them will help to attract more customers and
this will increase the sales and as well as revenue for Kirkwood Hospice.
 It is also being recommended that volunteers interested in serving with Kirkwood
Hospice should be communicated about the policies and processes of the organization.
This will ensure that the volunteers working with them are comfortable with the
organizational policies and practices of Kirkwood Hospice. Thus, the issues of directing
them according to the organizational policies will be less.
 Another effective recommended step will be conducting review meeting with the
employees periodically. This is due to the reason that volunteered employees in
Kirkwood Hospice cannot be controlled by force. They should be consulted in every
decision making process in order to aware them regarding the change in the
organizational process. This will ensure involvement of the employees in the
organizational process and will also ensure determination of the feedback of the
employees. Organizational processes should be designed in accordance to the feedback
being generated. Having more favorable workplace environment will motivate the
employees to perform better for Kirkwood Hospice (Dwyer et al., 2013). This will be
more effective due to the reason that volunteered employees tend to get more motivated
with having favorable working environment and the environment, which will provide
them the option to fulfill their social responsibilities.

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 Access to finance is important for having sustainability in every business sector
regardless of being nonprofit or commercial organization. Thus, it is recommended that
crowd sourcing programs should be more initiated in order to generate funds from the
market. These funds should be used in providing favorable workplace environment to the
employees. Moreover, these funds can also be used in conducting training and
development program for the employees. Having more investment option for the
initiation of the training and development program will help to enhance the skills of the
employees for Kirkwood Hospice.
Limitations of human resource theories
There are various human resource theories and models are being used by the
organizations in order to initiate human resource management activities. However, these theories
are having limitations in case of the small and medium enterprises and volunteer workers. One of
the major theories in human resource is the need theory of Maslow. According to this theory,
needs of the employees are being categorized in different sectors and the organizations should
met these needs in order to motivate and engage the employees in their workplace (Shahzadi et
al., 2014). However, in the case of the small and medium organizations, all the needs stated in
the need theory cannot be met due to their limited resources. On the other hand, all the needs
stated in this theory are also in terms of the need and wants of the volunteers. Volunteered
employees will not have the discussed needs as stated in the theory (Bidee et al., 2013). Thus,
Maslow’s need theory is having limited effectiveness in the case of the social organizations that
are having majority of volunteered employees.

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Another major theory in human resources is the employee engagement. This theory states
that it is the responsibility of the business organizations to design their organizational process in
order to enhance the engagement of the employees (Menguc et al., 2013). However, the theory of
employee engagement is more applicable for the professional employees rather than the
volunteers. This is due to the reason that elements for engagement of the employees are different
for the volunteered employees. In the case of commercial employees, financial benefits,
workplace environment and leadership approach of the organization determines the level of
engagement for the employees. On the other hand, employees in the social organizations such as
Kirkwood Hospice are engaged due to their self awareness about the social wellbeing (Shuck &
Reido Jr, 2014). They are working without any fixed payment and thus they cannot be made
engaged with providing added financial benefits and enhanced workplace environment.
In addition, in the case of the small and medium organizations, limited resources will
restrict them in initiating different activities in order to enhance the engagement of the
employees in their organization. Thus, the majority of the theories and models of human resource
are having limitations in meeting the requirement of the small and medium organizations and the
requirement of the volunteered employees.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be concluded that there are various strategic human resource management
issues being faced by Kirkwood Hospice and the entire Hospice community in general. This
report discussed about some of the major issues that are being faced by them in the current time.
In addition, this report also discussed about the probable steps that can be initiated in order to
overcome the identified issues. On the other hand, this report also discussed about the some

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limitations of the major human resource theories for the small and medium organizations along
with for the volunteers. This report concludes that effective implementation of these
recommended steps will help Kirkwood Hospice to overcome the identified challenges and
enhance their sustainability.

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Reference
Bidee, J., Vantilborgh, T., Pepermans, R., Huybrechts, G., Willems, J., Jegers, M., & Hofmans,
J. (2013). Autonomous motivation stimulates volunteers’ work effort: A self-
determination theory approach to volunteerism. Voluntas: International Journal of
Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 24(1), 32-47.
Dwyer, P. C., Bono, J. E., Snyder, M., Nov, O., & Berson, Y. (2013). Sources of volunteer
motivation: Transformational leadership and personal motives influence volunteer
outcomes. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 24(2), 181-205.
Gialuisi, O., & Coetzer, A. (2013). An exploratory investigation into voluntary employee
turnover and retention in small businesses. Small Enterprise Research, 20(1), 55-68.
Jain, R., & Kaur, S. (2014). Impact of work environment on job satisfaction. International
Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 4(1), 1-8.
Mayer, W. J., Wang, H. C., Egginton, J. F., & Flint, H. S. (2014). The impact of revenue
diversification on expected revenue and volatility for nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit
and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 43(2), 374-392.
Menguc, B., Auh, S., Fisher, M., & Haddad, A. (2013). To be engaged or not to be engaged: The
antecedents and consequences of service employee engagement. Journal of business
research, 66(11), 2163-2170.
Shahzadi, I., Javed, A., Pirzada, S. S., Nasreen, S., & Khanam, F. (2014). Impact of employee
motivation on employee performance. European Journal of Business and
Management, 6(23), 159-166.

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Shuck, B., & Reio Jr, T. G. (2014). Employee engagement and well-being: A moderation model
and implications for practice. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 21(1), 43-
58.
Smith, D. B., & Shields, J. (2013). Factors related to social service workers' job satisfaction:
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198.
Vachon, M. L. (2014). Team stress in palliative/hospice care. In Stress and burnout among
providers caring for the terminally ill and their families (pp. 87-116). Routledge.