HRM Challenges and Solutions: A Comparative Report on Two Hospitals

This report focuses on human resource management (HRM) within a hospital setting, highlighting the critical role of HRM in organizational success. It presents a comparative case study of two hospitals, one with a dedicated HRM department and the other without, to illustrate the impact of effective HRM practices. The report identifies key HRM challenges, such as inconsistent policies, staff grievances, absenteeism, and shortages, and proposes actionable solutions. It also explores the concept of sustainable HRM, emphasizing its importance for long-term business growth. The report outlines strategies for building sustainable HR capabilities, including leadership development, talent management, workforce engagement, training, and ethical governance. It further examines strategies based on time, culture, information, and financial incentives for effective HRM implementation. The conclusion emphasizes the need for a dedicated HRM function to drive business growth and successful corporate strategy implementation.

Running Head: Human Resource Management
Human Resource Management
Executive Summary
This report relates to human resource management which has the most vital role in an
organization. It clearly examines the case study which is related to hospital in which there is no
dedicated HRM and a similar sized hospital is compared with it which has an HRM function. It
explains various courses of action applied in the former organization for improving its HR

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function. It also establishes basic understanding relating to sustainable HRM and its features and
strategies for its establishment

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary.....................................................................................................................................1
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Human Resource Management and its objectives........................................................................................3
Courses of action for improving HR function..............................................................................................4
Building a sustainable HR capability...........................................................................................................6
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................7
References...................................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Human Resource plays a vital role in an organization. In order to achieve the
organizational benefits it is important to bind the people and organizations together. It may be
defined as a set of policies, procedures and practices designed in an organization to maximize its
benefits and achieve its goals. It is said that it is an essential but unique part of management
which brings together men and women enabling them to contribute in success of the organization
(Lengnick-hall, Beck, & Lengnick-hall, 2011).This report critically examines a scenario of a
hospital which does not have a dedicated Human resource department and the functions of HR
are performed by the CEO and finance manager of that organization. The case study also
includes a similar size hospital with HR function. This report communicates the comparison
between the two and establishment of the sustainable HRM in the former organization. It also
describes building a sustainable HRM including its key features and strategies.
Human Resource Management and its objectives
Human resource management is defined as planning, organizing, staffing, controlling and
directing human resources of an enterprise. These functions lead to the achievement of
organizational, personal and societal goals (Guest, 2010). Primary objective of HRM is to ensure
objectives of both employees and organization and this is achieved by integrating the interests of
employee and management with an overall achievement of organizational objectives.
According to Scullion, Collings & Gunnigle (2007) ,Objectives of HRM are categorized as
under -

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 Personnel Objectives- This includes keeping employees motivated and providing them
job satisfaction. Organization objectives cannot be achieved until and unless quality of
work life of employees is stable.
 Organizational Objectives- a long run perspective can only be established after
achieving organizational goals, Human resource should work for effectiveness and
efficiency of this objective.
 Societal Objectives – Organization should manage its human resources in an ethical
manner which includes following the ethical and legal standards and minimization of
negative impact on societal demands.
 Functional Objectives- For proper utilization of resources it is essential to have an
appropriate level of HR function. Efficient employment of resources in various functions
of organization which results to most productive and beneficial for organization.
Courses of action for improving HR function
There are various challenges faced by the hospital due to which improvement is required in
HR function. The following points shall highlight the challenges in hospital and course of action
to improve the same –
 Inconsistent application of policies and practices – To overcome this issue Hospital
should set up a separate department for formulating policies and a written document
should be provided for effective implementation and the document should be reviewed
time to time by department for improving reliability and resolving issues relating to it.

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 High level of staff grievances – In the course of job when an employee faces
dissatisfaction it is called as grievances. Best way to address this issue is establishing a
system in which a central location is made to place complaints and one person addresses
the grievances and resolves the same in confidential manner and a schedule made to
address the issues so that timely grievances are resorted. To make this system more
efficient categories of complaints for easy identification of problems (Wright &
Mcmahan, 2011). Complaints should be addressed in simple 4 step process, which is
Acknowledgement, investigation, decide and act. Reviewing is an ongoing process which
should be done after every stage (Reenen & Bloom, 2011).
 Employee Absenteeism and Turnover- It is most common problem faced in
organization. This can be dealt by introducing various laws such as Family and medical
Leave act or workers compensation and also by enforcing a proper attendance policy ,
programs designed for improving wellness of employees , different employees needs be
accommodated by changing schedules time to time and also keeping employees
motivated (Marler & Fisher,2013). Turnover can be reduced by appointing right people
who fit with the culture of organization, providing recognition and rewards to employees,
bringing flexibility in work culture and encouraging appreciation and kindness.
 Staff Shortages – Shortages of staff can be addressed by considering hiring, offering
raises in pay address the reasons of reduction in turnover ratio, improvements to be
brought forward in management skills, re- evaluating the manner of recruiting staff,
making tie-ups with various recruitment agencies and most important is to apply
workforce in different way as per their needs (Scroggins & Benson, 2010).

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There were various other challenges such as compromises in quality leading to serious incidents
which will be automatically improve after implementation of above courses of action. CEO and
finance manager should implement above actions for resolving the issues without establishing a
dedicated HR function organization.
Building a sustainable HR capability
For building a sustainable HR capability it is important to understand the term
sustainability which can be defined as meeting needs and demands of organization without
sacrificing the future. A new concept is introduced after strategic human resource management
which is known as sustainable human resource management which aims at linking the humans
and sustainability (Rompa, 2011). It is very important to build a sustainable HRM for business
growth and effectiveness in functions performed by employees in an organization.
For creating a sustainable HRM in an organization it is required to ensure sustainability
effectiveness in following areas –
 Leadership Development- For building sustainable HRM it is required to
provide unlimited capabilities of leadership to employees who have high
potential. It is an effort to reach the corporate goal.
 Talent Management – Significant contributions are done by HR in talent
management (Farndale, Scullion and Sparrow,2010).
 Workforce Engagement – It is a major challenge in the organization to enable
workforce engagement because it is essential to gain customer satisfaction and
business growth (Gollan,2017).

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 Training and development – It is very important to train staff for effective
implementation of the department. Educating people lead to sustainable
development.
 Ethics and governance- Ethics is very vital for business growth. For
establishing a sustainable HRM it is a pre-requisite for the same.
 Creation and training of values - it is the most essential foundation for the
company.
 Health and Safety – HR should be responsible for health and safety of
employees. For creating sustainability of employees it is very important to take
care of health and safety.
 Strategies relating to time, culture , information and money based – Various
strategies are established for effective implementation and building of HRM.
Time based policy includes flexible timings and part time work cultures , Culture
based includes understanding issues of staff to achieve employee satisfaction,
Information based relates to systems and provides internet and intranet services
and lastly money based strategy includes peak time incentives and benefits for
employees (Chuang & Liao 2010).
Conclusion
This report has critically examined the two scenarios of hospital in which one is with
HRM and the other is without HRM function. In HRM practice and research, sustainability is an
emergent occurrence. The challenge which an organization is facing is developing business and
world stability. This report has made contribution to both the courses of action to improve

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organization and a building a sustainable HRM. . Overall picture is also presented. Since the
organization was facing difficulty in its work a new HRM system and its capabilities for creating
a sustainable HRM along with various features and strategies implemented are defined. It can be
therefore concluded that CEO and finance manager should segregate the function of HRM by
establishing its own department as this could lead to business growth and successful
implementation of corporate strategy.
References
Chuang, C. & Liao, H. (2010). Strategic Human Resource Management in Service Context: Taking
Care of Business by Taking Care of Employees and Customers, Personal Phycology, 63(1),
153-196.
Farndale, E., Scullion, H. and Sparrow, P. (2010). The role of the corporate HR function in global
talent management , Journal of world business ,45(2), 161-168.
Gollan, P. (2017). Human Resources, Capabilities and Sustainability. London school of economics,
UK.
Guest, D. (2010). Human resource management and performance: still searching for some answers,
Human resource management journal, 21(1), 3-13.
Lengnick-hall, C. Beck, T. & Lengnick-hall, M. (2011). Developing a capacity for organizational
resilience through strategic human resource management, Human Resource Management
Review, 21(3), 243-255.

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Marler, J. & Fisher, S. (2013). An evidence based review of e-HRM and strategic human resource
management, Human resource management review, 23(1), 18-36.
Reenen, J. & Bloom, N. (2011). Human Resource Management and Productivity, Handbook of labor
economics, 4, 1697-1767.
Rompa, I. (2011). Explorative research on Sustainable Human Resource Management. VU
University,.Amsterdam.
Scroggins, W. & Benson, P. (2010), International human resource management: diversity issues and
challenges , Personnel review , 39(4), 409-413.
Scullion, H. Collings, D. & Gunnigle, P. (2007), International human resources management in the
21st century : emerging themes and contemporary debates , Human resource management
journal , 17(14),309-319.
Wright, P. & Mcmahan, G. (2011). Exploring human capital: putting ‘human’ back into strategic
human resource management, Human resource management journal, 21(2), 93-104.

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