Human resource plays a very important role in managing healthcare systems. The Healthcare system involves complex structure of physical and human resources, maintaining a fine balance between these resources help minimize costs and bring more efficiency in the organization. The practice entails activities that an enterprise undertakes to ensure there is the effective utility of employees towards the achievement of the set goals. It is as a result of the various types of both clinical and non-clinical staff that seek to intervene for the public and individual health when applied in healthcare. Well, the world is in constant change and so is the healthcare environment. Such changes prompt the human resource managers to develop means of coping with their effects as they have numerous effects on the approaches of these managers for the future (Kabene, 2006). The following paper discusses the influence that changes in the healthcare environment have on the approaches of the human resource manager has for the future.
HR manager setting up a clinic in a rural community can face below challenges
Human resources: Any healthcare organization is as good as skills of its human capital. Both medical staff and non-medical staff needs to have adequate skill to play role in the organization. Hiring these staff, training them and retaining them possess a challenge for HR professional. Physical resource is another challenge that HR mangers face this is core because the medical organizations are deeply dependent on physical resources (Kabene, 2006). The practitioners need medical equipment in order to perform jobs and responsibilities. Human resources without physical resources are as good as physical resources without human resources. It is very important to maintain a balance between physical and human resources to bring efficiency in the organization.
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Cost of healthcare is another handle that is faced by the HR managers especially where a clinic is being set up in rural areas. Maintaining healthcare costs with respect to demographics of the population and not compromising on the quality of healthcare services will be a major challenge.
Communication is also another challenge, maintaining connectivity between people using regional language and Doctors can prove to be difficult for HR professional. Lodging and other facilities: Health care organization requires doctors and patients to be in close proximity to reduce costs and time taken for any emergency (Kabene, 2006). Bringing modern facilities to rural areas can prove to be a major hurdle to bring quality doctors to those areas.
Moreover, there are more technical challenges to the human resource manager while setting up a clinic in a rural area. The major significant challenge that managers face in such areas is the hurdle of adapting to a different worker profile. It becomes extremely hard for the manager to educate, integrate, and retain both a changing and working for the population. The clinic will need to adapt to a new workforce with the influx of new personnel and the existing being permanently present (Rashid, 2007). All these issues pertain to a cultural diversity growth and management of a multi-generational taskforce proving a major challenge for the manager in the future. The manager faces the challenge of planning on how well to organize structures of incentives that will ensure proper workforce remains in the business. It will also be the responsibility of the manager to ensure that new talent is utilized without clashing with the old generation present.
One thing that is constantly changing in the healthcare environment is the demographics of the task force. Expectations and motivations of people always change making an evolutionary pattern. Therefore, how best does a manager maintain and retain a quality workforce. The manager is charged with the task of looking into methods of how he or she will maintain a consistent workforce. The possibility of losing personnel to other firms or locations rather poses a major issue for the manager (SHRM Foundation, 2016). Moreover, recruitment remains minuscule of a problem but rather ensuring that the hired staffs remain committed to the clinic. In fact, the demographic environment asks the manager to find the best ways of keeping the workforce so that they do not leave in a short time thus leading to the failure and collapse of the clinic (Rashid, 2007). It is imperative that both financial and other motivational strategies be in place to ensure that the demographic change hardly leads to the break-up of the clinic.
Technology has proved vital in the health care system allowing easy access and reach of people such as patients and physicians. Well, similarly to all other factors in the world, technology is regularly changed, and this is true following the immense change in the past twenty years. A manager has the task of ensuring that technological change affects the clinic positively in all aspects from connecting to the transfer of services (SHRM Foundation, 2016). Therefore, it remains of utter importance to ensure that a well-established ICT department is in place to keep up to speed with the change. The manager is at the forefront of all this and will thus need to approach the future with this in mind. In fact, the strategies of the human resource manager will immensely have to focus on ensuring that technological change remains upbeat with the systems of the clinic.
Conclusion
Change is investable and remains a crucial factor in the health care environment. A human resource manager is responsible for ensuring that he or she has a workforce that is dedicated and efficient. It becomes a major challenge for the manager to facilitate this with a changing environment. However, with proper strategies and mechanisms in place, the manager can be able to achieve the set goals amidst the change.
References
Kabene, S. M. (2006). The importance of human resources management in health care: a global context. Hum Resour Health , v.4: 20. Retrieved 21 October 2016, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1552082/
Rashid Al-Abri, M. D. (2007). Managing change in healthcare: Oman medical journal, 22(3).
SHRM Foundation,. (2016). Challenges for human resource management and global business strategy - Future HR Trends. Future HR Trends Retrieved 20 October 2016, from http://futurehrtrends.eiu.com/report-2014/challenges-human-resource-management/
