Assignment: Developing Organizational Policies and Practices part 2

Daniela Duran

09/15/2022

Employees' High Workload

Healthcare organizations throughout the world are affected by a variety of healthcare concerns or stress. All issues must be addressed immediately to prevent further escalation; however, some are more pressing and important. One of the key stressors in this scenario is high employee workload, which appears to be the most severe difficulty in the healthcare sector. A high workload happens when the quantity and intensity of one's tasks exceed the limits of what can logically be handled in a specific function (Gu & Itoh, 2020). Additionally, the workload may result from a particular corporation attempting to minimize expenses or how work is managed or allocated to an individual. Recognizing a high workload in a healthcare firm is a critical first step toward achieving one's career goals and seeking work-life balance.

Impact of Employees' High Workload in the Healthcare Organization

In a healthcare facility with few employees, the overwhelming workload has several effects that, if not immediately addressed, could result in inefficiency. Employee stress and burnout are a few effects. According to reports from the American Institute of Stress, 80% of workers and managers in the healthcare industry report feeling stressed out at work (Shenje & Wushe, 2019). An excessive workload and extended workdays are among the primary sources of stress.

As a result, workplace stress causes other issues like competitiveness among coworkers and a hostile work atmosphere. Burnout is a side effect of workload and job stress. Burnout, a form of ongoing job pressure that reduces effectiveness and depletes one's energy, is described by the World Health Organization (Shenje & Wushe, 2019). Because they feel they have no control over their workload, overworked workers become burned out. Employees lose mental contact with their coworkers and become pessimistic about their situation.

Furthermore, a heavy workload harms one's career in the healthcare industry. While it may seem contradictory, work overload might harm an otherwise promising career. According to the Harvard Business Review, when employees are given more work than they can logically handle, their work performance suffers (Gu & Itoh, 2020). Working long hours at high speed may garner applause initially, but the work mode quickly becomes the expected norm and performance benchmark. A little inability to consistently deliver high-quality work may harm merit pay eligibility, performance assessments, and promotions. Furthermore, workload negotiations may fail if the employer is not sympathetic and believes the employee is inefficient, sluggish, or a complainer.

A summary of Articles Discussing Employees' High Workload

(Zarei et al. (2019) explain that a growing issue in the healthcare industry, particularly among primary healthcare workers, is burnout, which is caused by increased employee burden. Younger, unmarried, and less experienced employees were more likely to experience burnout. Therefore, avoiding employee burnout requires preventative measures like copying, communication, social skill development, and stress management techniques.

Additionally, according to (Angioha et al., 2020), there is a link between employees' well-being and their level of overworking. The findings showed that seminars and training programs were needed to encourage a healthy lifestyle, a healthy working environment, and conduct among health professionals.

Strategies for Addressing the Issue of Employees' High Workload

Most businesses in industries other than healthcare, including transportation or industry, have found creative solutions to the problem of excess employee workload. Utilizing the skills of coworkers and team members is an effective tactic. Freeing up time to provide each project with the highest concentration, strength, and energy is the most straightforward and most successful technique to handle a particular assignment. To ensure the actual completion of tasks, it is crucial to allow for teamwork rather than remote work (Gu & Itoh, 2020). Every time a task is assigned that does not fit the individual's unique skills, they are allowed to execute one that does, giving everyone at work more power.

Competing Needs Impacting the Selected Issue

Employees need to feel supported in their work in order to maintain high levels of productivity. This may include feeling like they have the adequate resources to do their job, feeling like their work is meaningful, and receiving feedback that their work is valuable.

2. Employees need to have a manageable workload in order to avoid burnout and keep up morale. This means that the workload is not excessively demanding, that there is a clear sense of what needs to be done and how to do it, and that there is sufficient time to complete the work (Visser et al., 2021).

Relevant Policy in the Organization

Our organization's policy on employee workloads is that employees should not be overloaded with work to the point where it negatively impacts their health or well-being. This policy is designed to protect employees from being overworked and to ensure that they are able to maintain a healthy work-life balance. This policy may influence the healthcare issue of employees' high workloads by ensuring that employees are not given excessive amounts of work that could lead to burnout.

Critique of the Policy.

The policy on employee workloads is ethically sound in that it seeks to protect employees from being overworked and to maintain a healthy work-life balance. However, the policy may be challenging to implement in practice, as it can be difficult to gauge what constitutes a "manageable" workload for each individual employee (Pihl-Thingvad et al., 2021). Additionally, the policy may be difficult to enforce if managers are reluctant to lighten employees' workloads for fear of decreased productivity.

Policy Change Recommendation

One policy change that could be implemented in order to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients is to create a task force that specifically addresses employee workloads. This task force could be responsible for assessing employees' workloads on a regular basis and making recommendations for changes that need to be made in order to ensure that employees are not being overloaded with work (Muhsin & Budaya, 2019). This task force could also provide support to employees who are struggling to manage their workloads. Another policy change that could be implemented is to give employees more control over their workloads by allowing them to choose which tasks they want to focus on and when they want to work on them. This would give employees more autonomy over their work and would help to ensure that they are not feeling overwhelmed by their workload.

References

Angioha, P. U., Omang, T. A., Ishie, E. U., & Iji, M. E. (2020). Employee Stressors and Well-being of Healthcare Workers in Government owned Hospitals in Calabar, Nigeria.  Journal of Public Administration,  2(4), 2020.

Gu, X., & Itoh, K. (2020). A comparative study on healthcare employee satisfaction between Japan and China.  The International Journal of Health Planning and Management,  35(1), 171–184.

Shenje, J., & Wushe, T. (2019). An analysis of the relationship between occupational stress and employee job performance in public health care institutions: A case study of public hospitals in Harare.  SA Journal of Human Resource Management,  17(1), 1–11.

Zarei, E., Ahmadi, F., Sial, M. S., Hwang, J., Thu, P. A., & Usman, S. M. (2019). Prevalence of burnout among primary health care staff and its predictors: A study in Iran.  International journal of environmental research and public health,  16(12), 2249.