Role of Human Resources in Creating Sustainable Organisations

Question: Describe about the Role of Human Resources in Creating Sustainable Organisations. Answer: Introduction A hospital, operating in a geographically dispersed location in Australia, is having issues with the management of human resources. The hospital has an approximate workforce of 400 employees and is working at multiple sites. The hospital does not have any focused human resource management department and relies upon only the CEO of the company and the finance manager for the management of the human resources. A human resource specialist visits the hospital on a weekly basis to look into the human resource practices. The result of the set-up is that the hospital is experiencing higher number of employee grievances, absenteeism turnover, staff shortage, etc., which in turn has been having adverse effects on the quality of health care provided to the patients. On the other hand, a similar kind of a hospital, in the same location, is performing exceptionally well due to the passion for HR that the CEO of the hospital has and also because of a directed human resource management team. The second hospitals human resource management team has developed a number of key performance indicators to measure the performance of various departments and practices. As a result, the second hospital experiences high employee morale, employee retention and quality of health care given to the patients. Recommendations For Ceo Of The First Hospital In the past few decades, the importance of human resources in business organisations has increased exponentially. Business organisations have come to realize that their best option for achieving market competencies and to outperform the competitors. As a result, companies are giving a lot of priority to the management of their human resources and are trying their best to improve the work conditions for the employees and to establish better employee employer relationship to increase their performance and effectiveness. The CEO of the first hospital needs to understand the important of managing the human resources in the right manner and should not merely rely upon his own understanding or the view points of the financial manger as they are not capable enough to deal with the human resources (Deadrick and Stone, 2014).. Some important recommendations that would help the CEO of the first hospital in improving the work conditions and the performance of the human resources are discussed b elow: Firstly, the CEO the company should be aware of the fact that human resource management is a continuous approach and it cannot be carried out efficiently by just asking a professional to visit the premises once a week (Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2016). The CEO of the company needs to develop a full-fledged department that would look after the human resource functions and practices on a daily basis. If the CEO feels that the organisation does not require a full-fledged human resource management department at present or it would add up to the operational costs then the least he can do is to formulate a small team of people who have the right skills and mind-set that can be used to identify the needs of the human resources and improve the work conditions for them (Vermeeren et al., 2014). Secondly, the CEO of the hospital needs to realize that the lack in performance and results shown by the human resource management is due to lack of motivation or favourable working conditions. The CEO of the company, along with his human resource management team, should start to gather feedback from the employees using various tools, such as regular surveys and interviews. One of the most effective ways of getting accurate information is to call a third party that would anonymously conduct a survey and would gain workplace information from the employees (Mondy, Noe, Premeaux, 2002). The third party can then share the collected information with the CEO and the CEO can then use that information to improve the faults and improve the work conditions. Another advantage of survey and feedback, to the management, will be in the form of increased motivation in the employees as they would feel the concern that the management of the company has for their well-being and opinions (Wyse, 2016). Thirdly, the CEO of the company needs to hold training and development seminars for the managers working at mid-levels in the hospital. The managers working at mid-levels in the organisation need to understand that it is the responsibility of the managers to look after the human resources that is working under them and they cannot merely consider it as something that is not in their job description or specification. The seminars would also help them in gaining some important knowledge that would help them in managing the human resources so that even they can help the senior management in optimizing the workplace performance. Lastly, the CEO of the company, with the help of various departments, should design a performance management system as soon as possible. The performance management system can be based on a number of key performance indicators that would help in measuring the right behaviour and performance aspects. As the CEO of the company would establish a new human resource management team in the organisation, it is important that he knows the difference that the team is able to make in the work conditions as compared to the past (Hassan, 2015). Performance indicators, such as employee grievances, employee turnover rates, attrition rates, retention rates, training and development programs completed, average employee tenures, cost of hiring new employees, etc. can greatly help the CEO in measuring the success of the hospitals human resource management (ClearPoint Strategy, 2016). How To Build A Sustainable Hr Capability The management of human resources of an organisation is not an easy task and takes a lot of professionalism and efficiency to achieve a sustainable human resource capability. A human resource capability can only be built when there is a team of human resource specialist that are able to design and implement the human resource functions in the right manner. If the management is not efficient enough to carry out the human resource functions properly, the damage caused to the work conditions or the employee behaviour can be severe and a company might start to lose its productivity. Some of the key features of building a sustainable human resource capability are discussed below: First of all, the senior management in business organisations should be aware of the fact that in the present business world, the competition has reached a global scale where material and processes can be easily replicated. In such a scenario, business organisations can only rely upon their human resources as a means of outperforming their competitors. Therefore, every business organisation should have its own human resource management department that works continuously to solve the problems related to human resources and provide them with a better workplace to work in. Secondly, the senior management of all business organisations should understand that the workplace environment plays a key role in the condition of human resources and their commitment towards their work. The seniors in the organisations should efficiently understand the role that they have to play in communicating the behaviour that is expected from the employees by leading them by examples. In order to achieve a certain kind of behaviour from the employees, the senior level management should demonstrate the same type of behaviour and dedication so that the employees can follow their leaders. Further, people working at managerial levels in business organisations should also consider it as an important responsibility to look after the workforce that is working under their supervision and try to improve the work conditions for them so that the productivity can be increased and a sustainable human resource capability can be built up in the organisation. Thirdly, to build a sustainable human resource capability, it is very important that business organisations work towards the establishment of workplace environment where the work conditions motivate the employees to perform better and help the organisation in achieving its goals and objectives (Gollan, 2016). By improving the work conditions in the workplace, business organisations would be able to bring down the employee turnover rates, employee grievances, absenteeism, sick leaves, etc. and an increase in the level of employee motivation, job satisfaction, job commitment, organisational commitment and loyalty, etc. (Phillips and Connell, 2003). By improving the work conditions for the employees, business organisations would also be able to establish a better reputation in the market and attract a large pool of talented employees to join their companies and help them in becoming more competitive. Lastly, business organisations should understand the importance of introducing changes in the workplace. Business organisations should have focused departments that can analyse and identify the changes being introduced in the global market environment. These changes should be carefully analysed and the human resource management of such companies should plan and implement adequate training and development programs that would help the employees in coping up with the changing market trends and becoming more competitive by learning new skills and technicalities. Further, the senior management should always try to foster a workplace environment where the employees are ready to accept workplace changes without offering resistance to change programs that are intended towards the overall betterment of the organisation (Kramar, 2013). Thus, by analysing the changing market trends and keeping the workforce prepared for accepting any changes also plays a key role in building up a sustainable hu man resource capability in business organisations. Conclusion The business world is changing at a very fast pace and only the fittest of all can survive the competition in the long run. The CEO and the senior level management of the first hospital should understand the importance of the role that the human resources can play in the achievement of organisational goals and objectives and should invest more into the management of human resources. By following the above recommendations, the CEO of the first hospital can definitely expect better results and outcomes from its workforce in the near future. As a result, the CEO should take the recommendations into consideration and should work towards establishing a sustainable human resource capability in the hospital. References 10 Reasons HR Is Important to an Organization. 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