Strategic staff development (SSD) has not gained a specific meaning and it is unlikely considered having one soon. On the other hand, development gives suggestions of a particular change in an organizational format towards achieving its objectives, goals and key concerns. Strategic staff development is the concept or rather strategies laid down and implemented by an organization in case a health facility is working on to ensure that it attains effectively its goals and objectives to the latter. These developments revolve around the workforce as it is the main capital resource in the organization and with proper strategies on how to manage it ensures that the organization becomes successful. This essay is going to survey the strategic human resource management (SHRM) through staff development and its practical applications to the workplace (Blackwell & Blackmore, n.d.).
Human resource management (HRM) is described as a coherent and strategic technique towards the management of a company and in this case health care organization’s most valued and respected assets — the man power or rather the employees working in that organization. The employees collectively or individually contribute and assist in achieving the organizational set goals and objectives. The main objective of a health organization is to provide timely and effective healthcare to the society and this goal is achieved through the efficiency work done by the health personnel in that organization (Kramar, 2010).
HRM can also be defined as a combination of interrelated policies which have philosophical and an ideological underpinning objective in it. There are four aspects which give HRM its meaningfulness and they include a specific set of assumptions and beliefs, a strategic ambitious decision pertaining people management, the pivotal engagement of line managers and moral pressure to build up the employment relationship (Kramar, 2010).
HRM works through systems which articulate together to bring out its full functionality. These systems include HR strategies which define the path of HRM, HR practices which consist of informal techniques applied in managing employees, HR philosophies which describe the guiding principles and structural values chosen in managing employees, HR policies which act as guidelines in applying and implementing these principles, strategies and values in specified places of HRM, HR programmes which enhance the implementation of HR policies, practices, and strategies in accordance with the laid down plan, HR processes which compose of formal methods and procedures employed to put into effect HR policies and strategic plans (Victoria University, 2010).
Role of HRM Department in a Nursing System
The roles of HRM in Australian nursing system include management of human capital which is composed of all the employees working in that healthcare organization to ensure that its objectives and goals are achieved. This human factor makes use of combined expertise, skills and intelligence to help in giving distinctive character to the organization. The sole asset in any health organization is the human capital and they need to invest extensively in it so as to enhance their growth and survival. HRM is aimed at ensuring that nursing system gets and maintains the skilled, well motivated and committed workforce. Therefore the HRM takes initiatives at assessing and satisfying future patients’ needs and in developing and enhancing the attributed capabilities of the employees, their employability, potential and contributions by offering continuous and learning development opportunities (Kramar, 2010).
This body is responsible for creating employee relations and good atmosphere between employees, trade unions and the management by coining partnerships and harmonious relationships which enhance the organizational productivity (Victoria University, 2010).
Knowledge management: this entails the processes of capturing, acquiring, sharing, creating and using knowledge to improve the performance and learning in the nursing system. It aims at supporting the growth of hospital- specific skills and knowledge that emanate from learning processes of the organization (Kramar, 2010).
Organizational effectiveness: distinguishing human resource performances and practices help in shaping the central competencies which assist in determining the operational effectiveness of the organization. Strategies carried out by HRM are objected at supporting the organizational programmes so as to improve its effectiveness by laying down essential policies in areas like talent management, knowledge management and overall ensuring that they create conducive workplace (W.H.O., n.d.).
This body assists in bridging the gap between rhetoric and reality by employing all attempts to ascertain that all the nursing aspirations are directly translated into effective and sustained action. Reward management: this department aims at enhancing job management, commitment and motivation by bringing into use processes and policies aimed at making sure that employees are valued and rewarded according to their efficiency, achievements, skill levels and competency they have attained (Kramar, 2010).
Meeting varied needs: HRM has the responsibility of developing and implementing laid down policies that adapt and balance requirements of its stakeholders and offer the management of the varied workforce, putting into account the group and individual differences in personal needs, aspirations, employment and providing same opportunities to all.
Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM)
A major characteristic that defines the human resource management is that of being strategic. This distinctive feature is shown by the general notion of strategic HRM which is described as an integrated technique in developing HR strategies that help the nursing system to attain its goals (Armstrong, 2006).
Strategy has been described as the scope and direction taken by an organization in this case the nursing sector on a longer term, to match its available resources to the changing surroundings like its clients, customers and markets so as to meet the expectations of the stakeholders. Strategy is the determinant to which direction the nursing system is taking in connection to its surroundings. It is the process which defines intentions (strategic intent) and matching or allocating the resources to needs and opportunities (resource based strategy). Any nursing system strategy is aimed at attaining competitive advantage amongst others. The effectiveness of developing and implementing of strategy is determined by the strategic capability of the health care managers (Becton and Schraeder, 2009).
In the health care sector, professionalism and application of attained skills through education is the main aspect required for the effective operation of that sector. New skills crop up every now and then due to emergence of new inventions and discoveries in the medicine field therefore the staff members need to be in line with these new inventions. Therefore this nursing system carries out staff learning majorly to the medical professionals occasionally so that they are kept updated to the current medical inventions and literature (Bratton, 2003).
The organization carries out talent management which institutes a set of integrated activities to make sure that the hospital motivates, retains, develops and attracts the talented workforce which it requires for the present and future. The main purpose of carrying out talent management is to make safe the stream of talent, remembering that ability is a key corporate resource. Since everyone in the organization has talent, therefore the process of talent management is carried on all employees (Bratton, 2003).
In this nursing system talent management begins with creating the industry strategy which is signified by expressions of the talented workforce needed by the health care system. Eventually its main objective is to build up and sustain a pool of talent composed of committed, engaged and skilled workforce.
The organization carries out attraction and preservation programmes and policies so as to ensure that it gets and retains the talent it requires. Attraction policies show the way to programmes for carrying out external resourcing which include selection and recruitment of workforce from external sources. The preservation policies are intended to make certain that the nursing employees stay put as dedicated members of the whole organization. These policies include talent audit which is aimed at identifying those employees with potential and then offer the foundation for career development and planning. This ensures that professional and talented workforce have the series of experience in line with the growing medical sector by supplementing it through learning and coaching programmes fitting them in carrying out ever increasing demanding roles in future. These talent audits are also employed by the organization in indicating the probable dangers to be experienced if the talented workforce leaves the organization (risk analysis) and possible actions to be taken so as to retain them (Buchan, 2004).
As a measure to retain employees there should be carried out the talent association management which is aimed at creating helpful relationships with everyone in the organization together in their specific roles. This is achieved by treating every employee fairly, offering them voice or rather freedom of speech, recognizing and appreciating their value and giving opportunities for their growth. This helps in attaining talent engagement throughout the organization which ensures that everyone is dedicated to the system and their work (O’Neil and Riemann, 2009).
The organization also goes further to ensure that workforce is retained by carrying out performance management which offers a way of construction up associations with employees, identifying potential and talent, planning development and learning activities and applying into use all the talents found in the organization. Line managers undertake separate risk analysis for all or specific staff in order to evaluate the possibility of them leaving or rather quitting. This strategy helps in rising motivation and engagement of the employees by giving positive recognition and response (Seiden & Sowa, 2011).
Another effective strategy applied by this health organization is total reward system which offers both non-financial and financial benefits, gifts and rewards to the employees. This contributes towards commitment and engagement of the talented workforce by showing that they are appreciated and valued for each of their tireless contribution towards attaining of the organization’s goals of providing state-of-the-art health care to the society. They carry out initiatives like the employee of the month which is aimed at boosting the morale and effectiveness/ efficiency of the employees. Also payment of the competitive enumerations and salaries helps the nursing system to retain the existing employees and also attract others to join.
The Learning Process
The learning progression or rather education development is a continuous activity which helps in updating and developing the employees’ knowledge and talent in their field of work. This ensures that they enhance and acquire new skills, capabilities, knowledge and competencies required in medical application. This organization employs several learning theories so as to enhance its performance culture which includes social, experimental, cognitive and reinforcement learning.
Social learning involves the social interaction of workmates and at the same time sharing expertise (DeSilets, 2010). In experimental learning the employees gain their knowledge through their practice and making reflections on it so as to understand and apply it in the field. Cognitive method of learning is whereby the health care workers gain knowledge and perception by gripping information in type of facts, concepts and principles and after that internalizing all that information. The organization carries out motivations so as to attract many employees into engaging in learning processes. The main motivation package is that when an employee participates in the learning processes he/she is rewarded by either job promotions or payment rates increased (DeSilets, 2007).
Training is a major format applied by the management to ensure that effective learning is achieved. The types of training experienced in the organization include IT skills, management training, personal skills, interpersonal skills, manual skills, organizational procedures trainings and supervisory or team leader training. The training techniques employed include carrying out discussions, case study, role-playing, simulation, group exercises and lectures (Cekada, 2010).
Recruitment and Retention
Recruitment of new employees is a major and very important activity in the organization as it is aimed at obtaining the best people for the vacant jobs and the human resource department has the responsibility of conducting this process. Stages undertaken by the HR in recruiting and selecting applicants include first defining the requirements of the job vacancy, attracting viable candidates by advertising through the media and sometimes using consultants and agencies and selection of candidates by testing, interviewing, sifting applications, assessment centres, assessing candidates, obtaining references, offering employment and preparing the contracts of service (Armstrong, 2006).
The nursing system also carries out employee retention strategies aimed at preserving and maintaining the current workforce in the organization. These retention strategies are laid down basing on the factors which affect them. These factors include learning opportunities, rewards and performance recognition, selection, recruitment and deployment, organization’s image and leadership. This organization uses several initiatives to ensure that they retain employees like giving out awards and rewards for the high performance, ensuring a good working environment, giving standard salary rates amongst others (Kramar, 2010).
Orientation to Work
Staff in the organization preferably the newly employed ones undergo orientation so that they adjust quickly into their new working environments. Orientation checks on the reasons which are influential in directing each person’s choices in relation to the work. This is a vital rule which underlies the employees’ efforts to make the best out of their life. Therefore in this organization the workforce are assisted in defining their major aims and goals out of their jobs of which many of them range from material gains from getting a good pay, security, autonomy, intrinsic job fulfilment amongst others (Armstrong 2006).
Organizational Analysis
Every organization requires analysis of its existing conditions, processes and structure so as to evaluate the tactical issues that may influence the organization in the future. This analysis covers the internal environment of the nursing system which includes organization climate, technology, mission, processes, values and management styles. The health care facility makes use of technology extensively in keeping records; for instance, it makes use of electronic health records which increase the efficiency of the health workers, information analysis, retrieval, reporting and clinical management. The management of the nursing system is built on the responsibility and accountability of each and every employee towards achieving the overall goal of offering effective and state-of-the-art health care. Another management tactic employed by the organization is ensuring that they recruit and retain enough nursing staff; by so doing they ensure quality delivering of health care to the society. Consultative style of management is widely applied throughout the organization and this ensured that employees have a conducive and caring environment to do their work (Conway and Monks,2011).
The organizational external environment is also analyzed and this helps in determining the market, economic and competitive issues that affect it. There are many other healthcare facilities surrounding us but we make sure that we are the best in terms of providing good health care practices and giving our patients subsidized rates of payment for our services. This coupled with the fact that we offer all care services ranging from those of the young to the aged, hence we are the favourites in the region (Johnson, 2009).
Strategic objectives and issues come out during organizational analysis and they generally show its market standing and position, competition and growth of the facility. Therefore this analysis assists in showing the competition index of the organization whereby in this case it is at the helm of competition since it offers reliable and the best health care in the region. It has also grown considerably from holding a patient bed capacity of 430 to almost 3000 bed capacity. It has also installed the modern x-ray machine and an electron microscope station so as to enhance patient diagnosis (Braungardt and Fought, n.d.).
Analysis of the organizational structure is of importance as it shows the hierarchical levels throughout the organization and it indicates how authority is spread out and decentralized to other divisions. Departments like the human resource, finance and front office work hand in hand with the operational department to ensure that the work in the organization flows through smoothly. Control managers help in controlling and supervising all the activities although everyone carries his/ her duties without much supervision. Therefore organization analysis is a very important undertaking so as to check out and assess the operation of the nursing system and make adjustments possible so as to attain the laid down goals (Campbell, 2008).
Organizational Culture
Organizational culture or rather workplace culture is the set of norms, attitudes, values, assumptions and beliefs that may not be connected but form customs in which employees do things and how they behave while in workplace. Workplace culture is built on the norms and values that spread through the part or the whole organization. This organization dwells on values that aim at describing what is most important for the organization and are much influential as they are strongly embedded in its culture and the management reinforces them through their behaviour. These values are expressed through teamwork, innovation, performance, customer service, consideration and care for people, quality and competitiveness. Values are enacted through artefacts and norms and also articulated through rituals, myths, medium of language and stories (Khatri, et al.).
Norms are the oral rules of conduct that give informal guiding principles on the way to behave while at work. Norms notify employees what they are expected to be saying, wearing, believing and even doing. The norms in this organization include the current work ethic which states that everyone should work hard so as to achieve the laid down goals. Managers use consultative approach when dealing with employees’ issues, and they are easily approachable when something arises within the organization. Artefacts are described as the tangible and visible aspects in the health care facility that people feel, hear or see. This organization uses humble language and tone while addressing its workforce or in memoranda and amongst themselves, visitors are welcomed warmly (Khatri, et al.).
Conclusion
Strategic human resource management is aimed at creating processes and techniques to be put in place so as to ensure that the organization attains its objectives and goals. This is coordinated through strategic staff management like carrying out organizational analysis, occasional learning of the employees so as to sharpen their talents, effective recruitment of new workforce and ensuring that they are retained through motivational initiatives. This strategic staff development is of importance to each and every organization for it to attain the laid down goals.