Health Field Human Resource Management

HCA 5306, Health Field Human Resource Management 1

Course Learning Outcomes for Unit IV Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

2. Examine the role of human resources within health care organizations. 2.1 Explain the nature and uses of job analysis in health care organizations. 2.2 Discuss health care recruitment and selection.

Required Unit Resources Chapter 5: Job Design and Analysis Chapter 6: Healthcare Recruitment and Selection Unit Lesson There are multiple generations in the U.S. workforce today working side by side. There are Baby Boomers in their late 50s to early 70s, Generation Xers in their 30s to 50s, Millennials in their 20s and 30s, and Generation Z is now entering the work force (Robinson, n.d.). Each generation looks at work differently. Many employees are less willing to accept routine and monotonous work as their job. They want work that is challenging with measurable outcomes and work that makes a difference in the organization and organizational brand. Organizations that hang on to systems of the past (e.g., job analysis and job design) will continue to see conflict between the aspirations and talents of the different generations in the workplace. Human resource (HR) systems, particularly in health care today, need to be nimble and flexible to meet the demands of the global workplace and to be congruent with the organization’s strategic plan and direction. Health care leaders are finding ways of structuring jobs that work effectively for all generations in the 21st century health care workplace. The foundation of the HR system is the job analysis process. Think about the importance of this statement. If we do not know how the job is defined, how do we know who to recruit when looking for new employees? How do we know what measures of success look like in the performance appraisal? How do we know what core competencies may be needed in individual training? How do we know the relative importance of the job in order to compensate appropriately? Job analysis leads us to the redesign of work systems that are at the heart of employee satisfaction in today’s modern workplace. Health care organizations are becoming more and more challenged to integrate profitability with employee and patient satisfaction as a strategic process. At the same time, they must recognize the global marketplace, the tremendous social change that is occurring, and the significant impact on the workplace. Worker attitudes are constantly changing regarding the level of influence they desire in health care organizational decision-making. Generation Xers, for example, tends to want and need more influence in scheduling their work because they feel entitled to contribute to making those decisions. In the traditional health care workplace, employees are limited to performing in a narrowly defined and discrete task process. This has discouraged many health care workers from seeking other knowledge about the whole service that they are helping to produce. Job design in the 21st century health care workplace is about designing a system that has a clear relationship between employee and patient satisfaction outcomes and performance and the aspects of work that are structural in nature. In the 21st century, most health care organizations have focused on the relationship

UNIT IV STUDY GUIDE Job Design and the Recruitment/Selection Process in Health Care

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between work design and the work itself as well as personal outcomes that have become very important to worker satisfaction. As described previously, the job analysis process should result in sound job descriptions. These job descriptions provide the basis for the definition of the basic health care unit of work for each job. We do not, however, need a job description for every position; jobs should be grouped in a fashion so that there can be multiple positions based on a health care job category. For example, think about a nursing position. While this job can be defined in terms of the essence of the major tasks and requirements for knowledge, skills, abilities, competencies, and working conditions, there is not necessarily a need to have an individual job description by department. A nursing job should be consistent within each department. If there are significant differences in types of responsibilities, skills, competencies, or working conditions, that would be the time to consider a separate job description. With job analysis and job design “under our belt,” we move to the recruiting and selection process. As we begin our exploration of this topic, think about your experience with various recruiting processes. Are they all the same? Likely, they are not; however, they should be based on sound HR principles. Each health care organization typically crafts its processes based on HR principles but tweaks them to meet its own needs. Health care organizations may not follow each step according to the theory for each process. This is okay as long as they still follow the employment laws. Smart health care employers are beginning to realize that skilled employees are valuable assets and that it is costly to have to continually run advertisements, to interview and select new employees, to train and orient new people, and so forth. They are also realizing that the pool of skilled employees is shrinking, as large numbers of people are retiring from the work force and, again, the competition and costs are high. Not all selection processes are created equal. There are theories and models associated with what a valid and reliable selection process entails; however, not all organizations follow each of the steps in these processes. For example, there may or may not be employment-related tests involved in the process. If these types of tests are a part of the process, the organization needs to ensure that there is a job basis for these assessments. Let's take a look at this in action. As a human resources consultant, Rob spends a good amount of time thinking about the new trends in the assessment and pre-screening of health care applicants. He wants his health care clients to have the best and most up-to-date advice about selecting the right person in the health care setting. The better tools in the recruitment and selection processes, the better chance of selecting the person that is the right fit for the health care culture and has the best qualifications. No process is perfect, but with the right tools, we can reduce the possibility of error. After spending many years in human resources as an HR manager and director, Rob developed a good feel for what does not work well in health care pre- screening and assessing applicants, but job requirements and applicant wants and needs change. The challenge is to be on the cutting edge with the new tools that work because they are validated with the success factors on the job. Recently, Rob observed a business owner on a national television network explaining his interviewing selection process. The business owner said one of the questions he asks every applicant is “when was the last time you cried?” That may be a legitimate question, but what is the right answer? How is the question connected to the success factors for the job (validation)? Have you asked your successful employees the same question and correlated their answers to being successful on that job? The interview process is designed to probe areas of interest to the interviewer based on the job requirements (validation) and job fit (culture). Determining what would be a good question for job fit can be complicated because the corporate culture is complicated and changing based on leadership and the wants and needs of employees; it includes everything from the office decoration to the written and unwritten corporate culture that governs the day-to-day interactions of the employees (Fisher, 2014). It is important to remember that the first few days on the job play a huge role in future retention and individuals make a decision very early in their employment as to how long they see themselves staying with the organization (Sullivan, 2007).

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References Fisher, A. (2014, August 8). How to spot the right cultural fit in a job interview. Fortune.

http://fortune.com/2014/08/08/job-interview-cultural-fit/ Robinson, M. T. (n.d.). The generations: Which generation are you? https://www.careerplanner.com/Career-

Articles/Generations.cfm Sullivan, J. (2007, October 1). Retention problems begin during the hiring process. ERE Media.

https://www.eremedia.com/ere/retention-problems-begin-during-the-hiring-process/ Suggested Unit Resources In order to access the following resource, click the link below. Job design is an important factor in job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Please review the following article to gather a better foundation through competency-based expertise. de Jong, J. P. J., Parker, S. K., Wennekers, S., & Wu, C.-H. (2015). Entrepreneurial behavior in

organizations: Does job design matter? Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 39(4), 981–995. https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?dire ct=true&db=bsu&AN=108761883&site=ehost-live&scope=site