Managing Human Resources in Health and Social Care

1. Introduction
Human Resource Management (HRM) is the function within an organisation that focuses on the recruitment of, management and providing direction for the people who work in the organisation.Managing human resources is an important part of an organisation to understand the process for recruiting and designing strategies for building an effective team. The report will explain the systems for monitoring and promoting the development of individuals, and to understand the approaches for managing people working in the health and social care (Armstrong, 2006). The introduced policies and practices will be explained with respect to the organisation related to employment that will aim to maintain the well being of the employee and good relationship between the staff and the management. This plays a major role in an employment setting as the staff will be realise that they have responsibility and needed that the company would benefit from.
In considering the factors when planning a recruitment of individual who works in the health care setting,the HR Director has to increase staff retention in order to reduce future training, and whether the organisations need an improvement in the future and also identify if staff needs training in health and social care setting (Reward,2014).The director has to focus on recruitment cost such as external and internal recruitment, time, experiences, numbers of employees, location, organisational structure, flexibility, quality and quantity of the job, the legislation, policies of the home, retention, roles and responsibilities. The two main factors are cost and time.The HR should plan the budget, in to how much money they have to spend in terms of managing the needs of the home and how to cut down on spending.The use of strategies by manager requires time planning for recruiting staff, as it takes time to arrange interviews and training, therefore planning time is important for the organisation as different aspects can be covered in a short period of time if planned correctly.

Job Analysis includes collecting information necessary for the development of an organisation. “A job analysis is the process used to collect information about the duties, responsibilities, necessary skills, outcomes, and work environment of a particular job. It includes collecting as much data as possible to put together a quality job description, which is the frequent outcome of the job analysis. Additional outcomes include recruitment plans, position postings, advertisements, and performance development planning within an organisation’s performance management system (management concepts, 2014).Job Description entails roles, responsibilities, duties, reporting and structuring and Job Specification are skills, experience, qualification, salary, full time or part time.
There are number of factors to consider before and during the recruitment selection, pre-selection, post selection and advertising.Advertising is the best way to reach the target mark for applicant for an organisation; some of the ways to advert are by newspaper, radio television, magazine and online.The purpose of selection is to identify the most suitable applicant for the job; this can be done by interview, presentations, short listing and aptitude testing, these are the most common methods that can be used to select the right candidate.In the interview, an employer would make a decision if the candidate has given more information in a standard way, and the most suitable applicant can be chosen from the short listing, interview, application form and references.Short listing allows managers to chose candidates from the pile of applicants that has been shortlisted for an interview, and should be the ones that the manager has gone through their application form and reading their CVs and covering letter to pick the best out of the rest to know if they have the qualification, skills and experience for the job that they applied for (Torrington at el, 2009).Interviews can be face to face where the manager will cross check with the individuals and decide if they have sufficient skills that will persuade the employer to make a decision of employing the individual (ibid).The references can be obtained from the individual’s previous job that the employer will use as an evidence to support the application. Also,aptitude testing can be done by assessing skills of the applicant such as numeracy skill and cognitive skills and other skills that job demands.
Understanding the legislative framework which is relevant to the recruitment process will allow individuals in the St Patrick’s nursing home to empower and select leadership and co-workers that can develop effective teams that influence understanding to these policy which relate to the health and social care settings Armstrong (2006).The purpose of home country laws is to protect human rights of individuals especially in the care settings. Employers and supervisors have to understand the responsibility and must ensure that the workforce provides equal opportunity for different races, genders and religion.The Equal Act 2010 is suitable for the health and social care settings which cover Equal Pay Act 1970, Sex Discrimination Act 1975, Race Relation Act 1976, Disability Discrimination Act 1995, Employment Equality (religion or belief) regulation 2003, Employment Equality (age) regulation 2006, Equality Act 2006, Equality Act (sexual orientation) regulation 2007.In the case where St Patrick’s nursing home have a low pay facility, equal pay act 1970 can be considered; this act is an effective legal framework for preventing discrimination against low pay. In the area where the nursing home fails to provide a good atmosphere, poor working conditions and working long hours; this comes under the law of health and safety act 1974; this act is provision for securing the safety and welfare of the person at work and to protect individual against risk to health. The area of favouritism will come under race relation act 1976, it is unlawful to treat individual less favourably than another on racial ground and also it also covers colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins.
The different approaches to be used when selecting the most suitable applicant for the job are interviews, application forms, presentations, references, CV and aptitude testing.Interview can be face to face which can be cross checking with the individual and this is how manager will decide if they have sufficient information that persuades them to make a decision of employing the individual (ibid).The references can be obtained from the individual’s previous job, which the employer will use as a form of evidence to support the application.During interviews, the candidates would be observed, aptitude test would be given, and candidates would have the 6 C’s, which is the Quality Care Commission Standard for Health and Social Care Setting: Care, Compassion, Commitment, Courage, Communication, and Competency.To select the best candidate after interview, it must be one or two candidate that clearly stand out, and to select one of the them, the manager should involve the deputy manager to discuss the outcome in the interview of the candidate and also share the results of any comments from references, and other background checks, and this process can be repeated for each candidate; after all has been discussed, then the best can be listed, also vote can be carried out between the managers to select the right candidate (Hunt, 2007),
According to Tuchman’s (1965) theories, team communication is a method of development In a good team player, a good personality, self awareness, self development and motivation to carry out their responsibilities and roles perfectly and which is progressing are measure into 4 stage which are:
In Forming, a leader will prepare to take their responsibilities, roles and read to build relationships and process with other member of teams and also be tolerant as the team will be meeting for the first time and they will be highly dependent on their leader for guidance and direction.
The next stage will be Storming, this is where decisions do not come easily within a group as team member would want to use position to establish themselves which can bring challenging behaviour, conflict, uncertainties, disagreement from other team members and can ultimately result in some loss of focus on the goals or task.
The other stage is Norming, this is where goals are clarified and accepted by the leader and teams, here decision are made and group members are strong and show commitment and unity.
In the last stage which is the performing, this is where the team in St Patrick’s home could put in place as they will need to use strategic awareness, because at this stage they know clearly what to do as to improve in the area of working performance. In addition, group members’ disagreements should have resolved and achieved their goals.
To met the performances and satisfaction of the organisation depends on collaborative team-working, it is a process of working together in a group in order to achieve a goal, put together their knowledge, skills and give accurate feedback and also able to manage their conflicts without affecting the job
It is important to manage effective teams work in St Patrick’s Nursing home as staff members were often blamed for not communicating important messages to one another whilst on shift and also not handing over effectively at the end of their shift, and coming to work “just to do their shift and go home”.Building a team requires effort, knowledge, skills and it is an ongoing cyclical process. It is important as a group to lookout for things that could stop the members not to achieve their goals, for example, lack of clear goals can effect the team performance in the case where staff members fail to pass an important message to one another, this could cause problem in the case if an individual medication was changed during the shift and the staff was told to pass it on to the next person in charge, the ignorance to pass an important message can put an individual health at risk.The interpersonal conflict and distrust can cause lack of trust, oppressiveness and communication and it can also slowdown day-to-day activities. It can stand in the way of resolving conflict that might arise as the group makes decisions. This can be overcome if the team focuses on the work and improve interpersonal skills in order to complete their task effectively; the team needs to appoint a team player that can be in charge to the supervisor and be accountable for the group performance, and this team player should be able to listen to members and be open to constructive criticism.
In the area of handover, with good communication and cooperation, full details of all that happens in the shift must be discussed to the next person in charge to avoid risk to health. For example, giving proper handovers on each shift. In the handover, nurse in charge should give clear information and all members of staff should be present, and mandatory training for updating new skills on a yearly bases should be practices at at all times. (Armstrong, 2009).
performance that can be monitored individual in the health and social care, can be managing team rate and performance of employees by meeting and improved target or goal that can meet in the area of team management, staff performance and individual care.
Effective communication is seen when team progress can be established through well decision making. The team that makes the right decision at the appropriate times will able to make the best decisions that can be of help. They must emphasise on advantages and disadvantages that will help them meet their goals.Supervision can be seen when individuals assess their own personal effectiveness and line managers are closely involved in decision-making enabling them to have a clear target.Reflective is seen when a staff is able to reflect on its own thought; it the best way to develop the area that was not met. With this practice, staff is able to gain new skill and knowledge that they can be applied in their day-to-day work.An observation is where note will be taken into what has happened to the tasks that were given, whether it is going on the right direction or according to plan, in the case where the plan has not achieved the goals, there should be a feedback to strengthen the standard practice in place in order to enable self reflection and open dialogue between employee and management. ..
Assessing individual training and development is an event that provides a learning and practice in order to prepare the workforce to motivate to jobs that will benefit the employees and employers. Training will help individuals understand their role, their responsibility in order to maintain skills and experiences in using the system, equipments and handling serviced users in the area of caring.Training and past experience can also help develop talent, capabilities and ability.To identify training and development needs, it can be information through colleagues or attitude on the responsibility on jobs role lack of ability to complete taskin the positive way the organisation can encourage employees by empowering them in the area of development to become independent, self motivating and self development.
In order to promote continued development, it is the responsibility of the work place and it is an empolyee’s hard work in the organisation that can lead to increased performance and satisfaction and the ideal is to commit and creates a willingness that can build up exert effort for the organisation. An employer should create a way to encourage employee by providing learning aid and training to promote development (Armstrong and Baron, 1998).
Leadership is a process of influencing the activities of an organised group in its effort towards goal setting and goal achievement” (Stogdill, 1950). Formanaging work relationship, it is important to have a good relationship with your boss and also colleagues. Staffs need to communicate effectively and socialise with one another in the workplace. Communication is defined as the passing along of information and understanding from one person to another person or group, and this requires good listening which can sometimes be difficult as people intend to do the talking and to be a good listener, there is a need to look at the person face and body language. (Sussman, 1984).
Making better relationship in St Patrick’s Nursing Home, the HR manager has to organise events such as christmas parties, staff meetings where they can discuss about work issues and socialise at the end of the meeting.In most organisations, staff relationship affect the work as it is part of their life which makes them earn a living. (Lectures in Class).
In health and social care setting, staff care about their clients and they still have to work home searching about illness or new information which they have come across or they phone their colleagues doing the same job communicating with them whether they knew this new information or they have heard about it. If they find anything relating to this topic it would be passed on during handovers, or study days or staff meetings (Lectures in Class).
Travers. W., A. (1998), states that group meetings benefit employees as they would have better understanding of organisation and have greater influence on the decisions.A form of job enrichment and enlargement would improve morale and errors can be prevented
My own development at my workplace has been influenced by management by actively participating in areas that will boost my confidence and skills at work:
Effective communication is management-arranged training for all the staff based on improving communication skills among staff and clients under our care. Also, documentation was made effective as a means to remind staff of their responsibilities and to create awareness of the need to communicate effectively.
Reflective account empowered me to reflect on how effective my job role means and how to meet up with the work expectations. It allowed to reflect on my strengths and areas of weaknesses that needs support from the management.
Medication competency: This is the gained knowledge during my studies and improved greatly working with others and management supports through training on medication competency. It includes how to minimise errors and undertake quarterly medication audit to make sure staff is working according to NMC and company guidelines.
Supervision, this has been a great area for me to help and keep me on track with the company policies and procedures, awareness of my strength and weaknesses, to express my concerns regarding the job and most especially to discuss my personal development plans.
These sessions had really helped me to improve my skills, Knowledge and awareness of changes for future development. In mydevelopment Plan, my goal is to excel from being a staff nurse to achieve a higher qualification in the future. With the aid of the management during supervision, I raised my concern and the management encouraged me to progress ahead. I also had the opportunity to work flexible hours and source some information from the work place.
Also he has to plan for recruiting and what are the reason for the expansion of St Patrick’s Nursing home and also to put in place plans for retirement, death, sickness holiday, termination, dismissal, materity.
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