HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT TRAINING 2

Human Resource Management Training

The success or failure of a healthcare company, like any other company, depends largely
on its human resources. Having high quality employees, in sufficient numbers is the first step
towards making an organization successful. To get such employees, all the steps that lead up to
hiring from the recruitment stage must follow a plan that is well thought out and which aligns to
the overall strategic goals of the organization.
Process overview and steps involved

Figure 1: Summary of steps involved in the process

The process that leads to hiring of new employees involves multiple steps that are meant
to ensure that the organization gets the most qualified employees possible for given jobs. The
steps involved are planning, recruitment, interviewing, selection, and hiring (Noe et al., 1).

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT TRAINING 3
Planning process involves ensuring that there is optimum use of an organization’s human
resources, the most important resource in an organization. Planning ensures that all the jobs
available in an organization are filled by the most qualified people (Toterhi & Recardo, 2). It also
ensures that at no time does the organization suffer surpluses or shortages (Toterhi & Recardo,
2).
There are four steps that are involved in the planning process. The first one is analyzing
supply of labor in the organization (Toterhi & Recardo, 2). This step involves determining
whether current employees are in sufficient quantities that allow the organization to perform its
functions in an effective manner. It also involves looking at their skills and performance levels
(Toterhi & Recardo, 2). With regards to human resource management department, this step will
involve determining whether current employees are enough and whether their skills and
performance levels are at the required levels.
The second step is forecasting of labor demand (Toterhi & Recardo, 2). The question to
be asked here is whether there are going to be enough employees in future to carry out the
functions of the department in an effective manner (Toterhi & Recardo, 2). Some of the factors
to look out for at this stage include possible transfers, retirement, and promotion of current
employees. It is only by carrying out such an extensive labor demand forecasting that the
organization can avoid the need to frequently hire new people which is costly and time
consuming.
The third planning step involves balancing supply with projected labor demand (Toterhi
& Recardo, 2). Determination of the number of employees required, their skills and strengths is

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT TRAINING 4
made at this stage. The last planning stage is to integrate the determined requirements with the
values, goals, and mission of the organization.
After planning the second step is recruitment. This step involves finding then best
candidates for given positions in the organization (Noe et al., 1). The candidates can either be
found within or outside the organization. In the case of new human resources management
employees, all the candidates will have to be sourced from outside the organization.
Recruitment starts with analyzing the requirements of the human resource management job that
the new employees will occupy (Noe et al., 1). After the requirements have been determined the
second step is to write a job description that is detailed. This description will inform prospective
candidates the duties of the job that they will be applying for as well as the qualifications, skills,
and experience required for the job (Noe et al., 1).
After making a detailed description of the jobs to be filled and the quality of candidates
required for the jobs, the jobs are then advertised. This can be done by placing the adverts on the
company websites, LinkedIn, recruitment forums, and other platforms including social media.
The platform chosen should one where the most qualified candidates are likely to be found (Noe
et al., 1).
After the advert placement qualified candidates are selected for interview. The interviews
will be divided into sections. The first section is phone interview. Such an interview gives the
organization an opportunity to determine whether the candidate is truly qualified for the
advertised human resource management position. Candidates who perform well in the phone
interview will then be invited for face to face interview. After the face to face interview the
candidates that perform well will have their references checked and then hired.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT TRAINING 5
Comprehensive training strategy

Figure 2: Training Strategy Components

Training of new employees helps in improving productivity and efficiency. It is
particularly important for newly hired human resources management employees. The training,
however, can go awfully wrong if it is not planned and executed properly. To make the training
worthwhile to both employees and the trainer there is need to develop a comprehensive training
strategy (Noe et al., 1).
The first step in the development of the training strategy will be analysis of the business
needs of the healthcare facility (Noe et al., 1). The healthcare company, as a business
organization, has its goals and objectives. The human resources management needs to have
employees with knowledge and skills that help the healthcare company achieve its goals and
objectives, both in the short and long term. These skills and knowledge will be clearly

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT TRAINING 6
articulated. They may include knowledge of ethical codes governing healthcare worker, their
legal rights, safety measures in the work environment, and their general welfare.
The second step will be to identify gaps that exist between the skills, expertise, and
knowledge of the newly hired employees and the skills, knowledge, and expertise needed to
effectively perform the functions of a human resource management department in the healthcare
company (Noe et al., 1). Identification of these gaps will involve determining the knowledge and
skills that the newly hired employees possess and what they lack. This determination will be
done at the individual level so that the training is as personalized as possible.
Third step in the strategy is prioritizing. It may not be possible to train the new
employees in all the required knowledge and skills that the organization requires of them (Noe et
al., 1). This limitation may be due to lack of enough financial resources or time. As a result of
these limitations, it will be important to prioritize the knowledge and skills to teach during the
training. Certainly the knowledge and skills required for the employees to effectively perform
their functions do not have equal importance. There are some that are more important than
others. The training, therefore, will focus on the knowledge and skills that are most important.
For a healthcare organization, these may include the legal framework that healthcare workers
operate in, ethical issues in the healthcare industry, employee management, and how to take care
of the affairs of healthcare workers such as nurses and physicians.
After prioritizing the knowledge and skills to teach, the last step is execution. No matter
how good a plan is, it means nothing if the execution is not properly conducted. Execution
involves using the right mix of instructional materials, motivation, timeliness, and effective
delivery of concepts.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT TRAINING 7
Strategies for employee motivation during training
Training is important for the new employees to get the knowledge, skills, and confidence
required to perform their assigned duties. In spite of this importance, many newly hired
employees may lose interest in the training program if there is little that is done to motivate
them.
One strategy of motivating the employees is making the training to be as interesting as
possible (Noe et al., 1). No matter how important whatever is being taught is, employees are
likely to switch off and quickly lose interest if all they do is sit around and listen to some speaker
or read prepared materials. To keep them motivated, it is important to make the training sessions
as interactive as possible. The instructional materials should also be varied. For instance, rather
than just written notes, the training sessions should also use videos.
Another way to motivate the newly hired employees during the training sessions is to
emphasize the importance of the training to their careers rather than to the organization (Noe et
al., 1). When employees feel that whatever they are being taught will help them to advance
professionally even if they leave their current organization, they will be more motivated and take
the training more seriously.
Financial incentives can also serve as motivation. Even though the employees may get a
salary at the end of the month, giving them a little money for each of the training sessions will
show to them that the organizations takes their time seriously and views the training as very
important both for the employees and the organization.
Key human resource management issues in healthcare

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT TRAINING 8

Figure 2: Summary of HRM Issues in Healthcare

There are many human resource management issues that the new employees are likely to
face once they assume their roles. One of then is recruitment problems. There is currently talent
shortage in all disciplines involved in healthcare provision. As a result of this shortage there is
very intense competition for available talent (Ali & Aameed, 3). However, despite this
competition patient safety and care cannot be compromised. Thus, human resource management
are not supposed to just employ anyone who applies for a job just because there are shortages.
The employed person must have the necessary qualifications and experience to effectively take
care of patients. Human resource management personnel must, therefore, be ready to perform
very meticulous background checks and validations of licenses and certifications to avoid any
potential liability (Ali & Aameed, 3).

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT TRAINING 9
Another emerging issue is burnout. Burnout is a common problem in many industries.
However, in the healthcare industry is almost like an epidemic (Ali & Aameed, 3). Surgeons and
nurses are particularly affected by this problem. Apart from negatively affecting the job
satisfaction of the concerned workers, burnout is also a major danger to patients. It is, therefore,
important that human resource management personnel learn to detect signs of burnout early on
and develop intervention measures to prevent the problem from negatively affecting the health of
the worker and putting safety of patients at risk.
Wage competition is equally a major human resource management issue that new
employees may have to grapple with. As competition for talent has intensified, healthcare
organizations have been compelled to increase wages in order to attract the best talent, both
experienced and those straight from graduate schools (Ali & Aameed, 3). However, it is worth
noting that it is not just wages that healthcare organizations can use to attract talent. Having
flexible scheduling for employees and emphasizing on work-life balance may allow smaller
organizations with smaller wage budgets to still attract the best talent in the field. Thus, human
resources management personnel need to be conversant with the various strategies that they can
use to attract the best employees in the field.
To address these issues, employees will be provided with case studies during the training.
These case studies will be in form of videos and written materials. The employees will go
through the materials and discuss among themselves in groups where the various HRM
departments got right and where they got it wrong in handling some of the issues that have been
discussed. Through their groups, they will be required to provide lessons that they would have
learnt and add suggestions of their own. The exercise will be deemed a success if the employees
will be able to offer meaningful, creative, and practical solutions to the discussed issues.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT TRAINING 10

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT TRAINING 11

Sources

1. Raymond Noe, John Hollenbeck, Barry Gerhart, and Patrick Wright. 2017. Human
   resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage.
   https://scholar.google.com/scholar?as_ylo=2015&q=planning+recruiting+interviewing+selection
   +&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3Df-elYwWCTzoJ
2. Tim Toterhi and Ronald Recardo. 2019. Charting a new course for strategic planning in
   human resources. Global Business and Organizational Excellence.
   https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_ylo=2015&q=needs+analysis+ga
   ps+prioritize+execution+healthcare+hrm&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3Dkid2e4DPS3
   4J
3. Mohammed Ali and Abdul Aameed. 2016. HRM Issues and Challenges in Healthcare.
   International Journal of Management.
   https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_ylo=2015&q=hrm+issues+challe
   nges+in+healthcare+&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3D2ahEa3yXf98J