Unit 13 Managing Human Resources in HSC Assignment

Introduction

There are few service sectors where only thing which can guarantee success is the high quality service. In this regard health and social sector is one such sector where complete focus remains on the quality of services, due to sensitivity of the sector, people working organisations related with health and care sector have to extra careful with their actions, as any type of carelessness can cost someone else’s life. That is why it is important for people associated with this sector ensure that they give their complete commitment towards the work (Munn-Giddings& Winter, 2013). This however can also be ensured from health organisation’s point of view. While recruiting a person for any particular responsibility in the health care, organisations should also double check about person’s potential and overall credential, that whether or not that person is actually fit for fulfilling the expectation which the organisation might have towards him.
Health care organisations need to be extra careful while recruiting the employees for the organisation. One important quality which the organisations should look for is the team spirit. Employees which are hired for the organisation in health sector, it is important that they should be able to work in teams, as in health care sector, people have to hand over their duty form time to time as their shift gets over. In order to ensure it is equally important for the organisation as well to inculcate team building exercises in its human resource management policy. Apart from having expectation from the existing and potential employees, it is important for the organisation to provide a positive and motivating work environment to its employees. Especially in health care sector this factor is highly relevant since there is lot of work stress over the employees. Kind of job benefits which is provided to the employees in this sector is also a critical factor for employee motivation. That is why organisations in this sector should focus on improving various benefits and perks which it offers to employee from time to time. This will not only further motivate the employees, but will also ensure that they work with complete commitment towards achieving the organisational objective (Reeveset al, 2011). Organisations should also promote individuals who are proactive and take ownership of any particular situation. Such employees can then be groomed for further leadership roles within organisation

1.1 Explain the factors that need to be considered when planning the recruitment of individuals to work at King’s Nursing Home

Recruitment and selection is a complex procedure that is why it is always important that there should be proper planning for the recruitment and selection procedure which has to be done. Recruitment is an important activity which decides the quality of human resource which will join an organisation. Considering the fact that in health care sector there is no margin of error from the employee, it is firstly important to ensure that there is no element of favouritism in the process of recruitment, hence only thing which needs to be the core basis of the recruitment is the skill set of the potential employee, and whether those skillsets maps with the job responsibility which has been decided by the organisation (Aveyard, 2010). It is also important for the organisation to understand that apart from searching for the core skillsets, it should evaluate the candidate on the basis of certain common skillset which are required in the job. For example skillsets like good communication, team player, leadership etc. should also be searched for. From organisation’s point of view, it is essential that it should also publish a well-structure job description before the process of recruitment, so that people who are applying for the job are clear with the expected skillsets, and the responsibility there are expected to fulfil. Organisation should ensure that the compensation which are they are planning to offer to their potential candidate should be as per the current industry standard in the health care domain, because it has been often observed that employees quit organisation when they realise that the compensation they have been offered is relatively less than what has been offered by similar organisation and is not as per the industry standard. This kind of situation can be easily avoided by the organisation, so that in later stages it should not have to re-recruit new candidate, which will only increase the operational cost for the organisation (Moule&Hek, 2011). Apart from the compensation aspect, another important factor is the working environment. This is why organisation in the health care sector should be specific on the aspects such as working hours expected from the employees. While people are recruited, organisation should explicitly mention that people once recruited should be completely committed towards fulfilling their job responsibility. Hence above mentioned factors which cover both recruiting organisation which is King’s Nursing Home as well as the perspective employees, should be accordingly considered before execution of the recruitment and selection process.

1.2 Explain how relevant legislative and policy frameworks of the home country influence the selection, recruitment and employment of individuals to work in King’s Nursing Home

Process of recruitment and selection even though is managed by the organisation which is conducting it. However, it is definitely influenced by various policies which are set up by the government as well. Some of the important policies are:

• Employment policy & legislation employment relations act 2004
• Employment policy &legislation employment act 2002
• Sex discrimination act 1975
• The Race relation act 1976

Apart from the above mentioned important acts there are several other acts as well which collectively impacts the recruitment and selection process. This can be further understood by the example such as Employment Policy and Legislation employment act of 2002, this act focuses on various factors which can be the reason of dispute between an employer and his employee, and then based on the analysis this act focuses on protection of the employee rights. Similarly Sex Discrimination Act insulates an employee from being discriminated on the basis of their gender. This act has classified sex based discrimination in three types:

• Direct discrimination
• Indirect discrimination
• Victimisation

Discrimination such as direct discrimination takes place when attitude towards a person is made on the basis of factors such as sex, marital status, race, nationality etc. In fact it has been reported across globe, that at times during the recruitment process as well consideration is given to looks of a particular employee (Twigget al, 2011, pp.171-188). Thus, in example of King’s Nursing Home, such laws can help in ensuring that no such issue comes up during the selection process itself and any sort of favouritism is avoided in the entire recruitment and selection process.
These legislations plays a major role in guiding the employers as well as employees, as it guides them with appropriate set of actions to be taken in different human resource management situations. It is important to understand that every home country has its specific set of legislative frameworks and policies which influences the selection, recruitment and employment of the individuals. For example, Sex discrimination act 1975, prohibits the employer to discriminate on the basis of gender of an employee. Hence, HR officer in the King’s Nursing Home, has to ensure that there is equal balance of gender in the organisation. For example, he cannot discriminate two candidates for the post of administrator profile just because one candidate is female and other is male. That is why organisations should focus extensively on setting up evaluation methodology through which comprehensive evaluation of candidate can be derived. Similarly, HR officer cannot discriminate between two candidates on the basis of their race. Such kind of guideline has to be followed through the race relation act 1976. These guidelines mainly help in establishing a framework for an HR, within which he has to ensure that no racial discrimination is being done during the process of selection.

1.3 Evaluate the different approaches that may be used to ensure the selection of the best individuals, and make recommendations for King’s Nursing Home

Following are the steps which can be used to ensure that only best and deserving candidates are recruited in King’s Nursing Home:

• Personal interview:
• Complete assessment of the candidate
• Skill based test or assessment
• Psychological tests

Thus interview should serve as the first selection process, which means that before any other thing, there has to be one round of face to face interview with the candidate. This will help the organisation to get a basic understanding about the candidate, his general profile etc. However, it is important that interview should be conducted by expert in the field for which job has been published. This will help in eliminating non-deserving candidate in first round itself; also the panel given responsibility for conducting the interview should be unbiased in nature. Interview should focus on aspects such as interpersonal skills of the candidate, whether the candidate is able to understand about the job profile or not, and moreover whether a candidate is willing to work for the nursing home with complete dedication or not. If the interviewer is then sure about the candidate’s preliminary assessment, then next round related to skill based test should be conducted. Under this test, the primary objective of the nursing should be to judge the candidate about his primary skills. In order to achieve so, a time bound test should be conducted which should consist of both theoretical as well as situational case studies to be answered. This will enable the nursing home to evaluate candidate’s primary skill set as well which will be required to fulfil the primary job responsibility. Once a candidate clears this round of selection as well, then nursing home should conduct a final HR round which should be basically conducted to explain nature of duty to the candidate, along with explaining the compensation offered to the candidate. Hence it can be said that overall process of selection procedure should be such that it should be able to evaluate various aspects of a candidate such as his IQ status, psychological situation, primary skill sets etc.

2.1 Explain the theories of how individuals interact in groups in relation to the types of teams that work in health and social care

The process of group formation by individuals, and how their interaction takes place can be analysed by theory such Tuckman’s model of forming, storming and norming performance model. Team dynamics and leader of the team, these are two critical factors which governs the factor that how individuals interact within the group. It has been observed that during the initial time when group or team is formed, people are generally reserved, polite and observe the other group members. Thus, first stage as per the above model can be defined as the storming stage. In this stage member of the team or group try to focus on the group and try to solve the problem by themselves. This stage is important for formation of the overall team dynamics, because this is the stage where each member of the team wants to make his/her presence felt in the group by his contribution, and can often lead to numerous differences. In health and social care sector somewhat similar situation exists. Norming is the next stage where people are more open to discussion with other people and try to analyse and understand each-others perspective on range of subjects. This stage marks the situation where individual start accepting other’s thought perspective as well. It is necessary that in order to protect the individual creativity of team members, this stage should never be too strong. Once this stage is over, there is better bonding among the team members and they know their team members in a better way in terms of each other’s personality. Last is stage as per the model is of performing stage. By this stage, largely team has achieved the desired team dynamics, people are aware of each other’s strength and weaknesses and accordingly they try to resolve a particular issue by considering individual suggestions as well.
Another important theory which can be applied is known as Kurt Lewin’s Individual Change Process. This theory is considered the first systematic study of group development, which was carried out by Kurt Lewin. This particular theory is based on three-stage processes:

• Unfreezing: this phase focuses on ensuring that members of the group overcome their existing mind-set. In other words, members of the team have to overcome their existing minds set.
• Change: Second phase is focused on implementation of the change. This period is marked by confusion and transition. Even though the group members might be aware of the fact that change is taking place, however they are not sure of the clear picture, which will emerge after the complete change.
• Freezing: This stage marks formation or crystallization of the new mind set, and comfort level of the team members return to the normal level. This stage is also termed as re-freezing.

2.2 Evaluate the approaches that may be used by staff at different levels to develop and promote effective team working at King’s Nursing Home

There are various approaches which can be used by staff of the King’s Nursing Home in order to make, develop and promote effective team working. For example, there should be more personal interaction promoted, which means that staff should frequently interact with fellow members, which will help them to have basic information about each other. Team members in the nursing home of various teams should frequently indulge in activities such as brainstorming, so that not only then can interact with each other by they can also understand the plan of the group and how a task can be completed. In order to complete any particular activity it is important that timelines for achieving a plan should be identified and accordingly it should be followed. Also, team members should meet frequently, rather than meeting only when situation demands. This will maintain continuity in the team dynamics. Group members should encourage knowledge sharing with each other, so that knowledge enrichment process remains active which will further improve the skill set of other team members. From time to time members of the group should also interact with the nursing home management where they should their concerns, or ideas for improvement of the nursing home. This will ensure that management participation is not restricted only till taking high level decisions, but they are also aware of the ground level functioning of the nursing home (Thistlethwaite, 2011). There should be a sense of job delegation as well, which means that if required one team member is ready to delegate the job responsibility of the other team member. It can be said that by following these activities, effective team work in the King’s Nursing home can be promoted and nurtured.

3.1 Explain the ways in which the performance of individuals working in health and social care can be appraised

Performance based appraisal is an important component of the human resource management. In health and social care sector training of employees is one of the most popular and common method used for appraisal. Thus, by providing proper and extensive training, employees can be trained for the skills which they lack, or they believe they need more training in that area. Performance monitoring is also an important activity which the management of the nursing home should focus upon. Thus each employee’s performance should be monitored closely so that their strength and weakness can be tracked as well. This will ensure that during the time of performance appraisal, employees can be given justified reasons for their success or failures, and suggestion can be made on their performance. In this regard, constructive criticism has also an important role to play as it will help an employee to overcome his weaknesses or drawback and focus on achieving the objective. As part of this process, employees should be conveyed about their individual strength and weaknesses in such a way that they should not feel demotivated. Based on the performance accordingly employees should be rewarded. Regular feedback apart from the appraisal should also be focused upon so that employees remain aware of their performance on regular basis.

3.2 Assess of how individual training and development needs can be identified at St-King’s Nursing Home

Training and development is an integral part of the HR management function. Thus, need for training and development can be identified on the basis of the analysing the employees who are not performing well in their respective area. At times it has been observed that in a nursing home team dynamics is missing, due to which there is lack of coordination among the team members. As a result of this people often do not hand over their shift in an organised manner, and they also do not fulfil their basic responsibility which they are expected to do. Such kind of attitude cannot be changed at an individual level, and to rectify such situation proper and dedicated training in his area should be conducted. It has also been observed, that at times many employees lack proper knowledge (Glasby, 2012). This can partially attributed to their lack of knowledge and partially to the fact that their mangers do not supervise them effectively. All such situations can be rectified and improved further by giving proper training to the employees. Training and other types of workshops in health and social care sector is also important due to the fact that it helps in keeping the employees aware with the latest changes taking place in the sector, so that accordingly employees can also upgrade their skillsets and improve their own performance. That is why proper assessment of employee is important by the manager, so that it can be ensured that whether the employee has training need or not.

3.3 Analyse the different strategies for promoting the continuing development of individuals in the health and social care workplace

There are various strategies which can be implemented in order to ensure that continuous development of an employee can be promoted at the workplace. In this regard, one of the most commonly used strategies is recognition of performance and efforts made by the employees. This recognition can come in various forms, it can be monetary incentives, or it can be award etc. Incentives can also include further training for skill enrichment. Regular performance feedback is also critical for employee’s continuous development Timely feedbacks ensure that employees are well aware of their performance, and accordingly make adjustment to suite the organisational objectives. Awards and incentives needs to be innovative in nature. It is not necessary that it should be in form of some sort of monetary incentive only. These days, organisation in health and social care sector organise various types of training program, purpose of which is to update the knowledge skillset of the employee. These can be provided to the employee in recognition of his efforts.

4.1 Explain theories of leadership that apply to the health and social care workplace

Leadership is an important aspect of any organisation, irrespective of the sector in which it exists. Similarly in health and social care sector also leadership plays an important role in development of organisation as well employees. However, there are various leadership theories which can be applied to health and social care workplace so that better work environment can be promoted. Leadership theories can be either situational in nature, or it can be behavioural in nature. Thus in a behavioural leadership theory, the core concept is that behaviour of the leader is known to everyone. Thus based on years of research by theorists in the field of leadership, it has been found that leaders have distinct style associated with them, which means that they portray a unique set of behaviour at entirely different level which makes them a leader. These kinds of leaders are more of self-controlled in nature. In case of health and social care, behavioural type of leadership theory cannot succeed, as there might be different situation which might not sync with the behavioural pattern of a leader. However in case of situational leadership, leaders are moulded as per the situation. They are able to quickly adapt themselves as per the situation. Hence in health care sector especially in a workplace like nursing home there are many situations when unexpected cases come and a quick decision on treatment to be given has to be taken. Such kind of decision can be taken only by that leadership which is more of a situational leader rather than behavioural leader. That is why, in health and social care sector situationalleadership theory is more suitable (Pollocket al, 2012, pp.387-389).

4.2 Analyse how working relationships may be managed at King’s Nursing Home

One important way to manage the working relationship is by making the workplace environment more employee friendly in King’s  Nursing Home. Work environment often plays a crucial role in the management of work relationships. That is why it is important to ensure that there is no kind of biasness in the way nursing home functions. There should be regularisation of the working hours, and employees should be given fixed responsibility so that they are clear about their core task. However they can be asked to be flexible in order to accept new responsibility if required, but more or less they should be motivated to fulfil the responsibilities assigned to them. In order to have better working relationships in the nursing home, team building exercises also play an important role. This will help in better understanding of the employee-employer relationship, and equal opportunity should be given to the employees to prove their potential. Task allocation exercise by the managers and supervisors should also be done in a proper way, so that no employee should either feel left out or too much loaded with work. In order to have better working relationship, employees of the nursing home should be encouraged to come forward with new ideas and thoughts which can be used to improve the functioning of the nursing. Overall it can be said that in order to improve the working relationship a collective effort is required from both, management of the nursing home as well as employees working there.

4.3 Evaluate how your own development has been influenced by management approaches that you encountered in your own experience

Based on my own experience, I can say that I have faced several management approaches which have impacted the development of the individual as well as organisation. I have observed that in the workplace if the strategy is correct then there is a positive dynamics, where people are properly allocated to their respective teams, and feedback of individual members is given importance. Management approach has major influence on an individual’s development in an organisation. For example, a democratic management approach has influenced my decision making process in the organisation, which means that I feel empowered to take critical decisions, due to the fact that the management has empowered me and trusts on my decision making skills. It helps in boosting the confidence of a professional like me. However, if the management approach becomes autocratic in nature, then it might have negative impact as well, which means due to all the decision making process getting concentrated in hands of selected people of organisation, I might feel disconnected from organisation, resulting into poor affinity. That is why, it is always important to follow a management approach, which advocates involvement of employees at different levels of organisation.
I have also observed that how an efficient organisation ensures that proper standard operatingprocedures for its employees are set so that there is no confusion among employees related to their job responsibility. Another important aspect which I have observed is the role of manager. Manager plays a critical role in the development of organisation. If a manger is good and efficient, he will be able to motive his employees in positive way, whereas vice-versa is also possible which can impact the overall functioning of the organisation.

Conclusion

Overall it can be said that today there are several legislative and policy frameworks which impacts the way an organisation recruits its employees. On other hand, organisations like King’s Nursing Home should ensure that whatever employees they are recruiting fulfil the criteria of the job. They should have the required skill set in order to meet the job responsibility. Team dynamics and working relationships is also equally important for an organisation to maintain, as it improves the sustainability of the organisation. That is why it is important for the organisation that from time to time, management should come up with team workshops and other team building efforts. Ultimately, the way an organisation functions and achieves its objectives depends a lot on the way it treats its employees, and how it takes care of their requirements.

Reference

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