Managing Human Resource In Health And Social Care Setting

Introduction Employees represent one of the most valuable assets of any organization. Research has indicated that proper management of employees in an organization is one of the major determinants of organization success. In a health and social care environment, the delivery of quality care depends with how well people are managed. This essay explain the process, techniques and procedure for managing human resources in a health and social care setting with special reference to St Patrick nursing home 1.1 An explanation of the factors that need to be considered when planning the recruitment of individuals to work at St-Patrick’s Nursing Home Human resources management refer to the management function that is responsible for ensuring a health and social care organization has the required manpower and is getting the best from it. One of the primary functions of HRM is recruitment. Recruitment refers to the activities done to attract potential applicants to apply for a job opening in the organization (Bratton and Gold 2007). Recruitment if well done, leads to a large pool of applicants where there organizations pick the most competent and talented individual. To carry out the process of recruitment effectively several factors needs to be considered. These includes The manpower gap in the organization- the numbers of staffs shortage need first of all to identify as it guide the recruitment process. It helps identify the number of candidate needed to fill the cap and their qualifications. As noted by Heneman and Judge (2004), recruitment can only be successful if the numbers and the required skills and knowledge of potential candidate are identified. The source of candidates- there are two main source of recruitment .i.e. internal and external recruitment. When carrying out recruitment, it is important that   the sources of recruitment are identified (Heneman and Judge 2004). Internal and external policies of recruitment- Recruitment should be done in a manner that adheres to organization policies as well in accordance to applicable legislation. The employments laws must be followed which include non-discrimination on any ground (Bratton and Gold 2007) 1.2 Explain how relevant legislative and policy frameworks of the home country influence the selection, recruitment and employment of individuals The process of recruitment, selection and management of employees in health and social care setting is guide by several employment laws. The aim of these laws is basically to protect the interest of worker as well as that of organization. On part of the organization, it is important that these laws are adhered to as failure to do so can attract costly legal litigation. The employment laws applicable in St Patrick nursing home are many and includes; The equality Act 2010 is one of the legislation that affects the Human resource function. This law prohibit an organizations in it operation not to promote discrimination on ground of sex, gender, race, disability and ethnicity. The selection and recruitment as well as other human resource management function in St Patrick nursing home should be done in a manner that give equal opportunity to all especially the minority group including disabled, female and the minority ethnical group. Employment act 2002/2008- this piece of legislation contain the right of employees that organization must adhered to .the law protect and guarantee right such as maternity and paternity leave, right for representation among other.. It also lay down procedure for conflict resolution between employer and employees especially in dismissal. Other important legislation to consider when carrying out Human resources management activities in St Patrick nursing home includes Human right Act 2000, The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, European Working Time Directive 2005, The Employment Rights Act 1996, Sex Discrimination Act 1997, Equal Pay Act 1970, Disability Discrimination Act 1995/2005, National Minimum Wage Act 1998, Care Standards Act 2000 among others. 1.3 Evaluate different approaches that may be used to ensure the selection of the best individuals for work in health and social care Employees’ selection is a very important function of human resource management. It refers to the process of selecting the most suitable candidate out of a pool of applicants (Kehoe 2000). If done properly, the selection process lead to competent and talented human resource in an organization. However, if done improperly it can have costly impacts in the organization which include loss in productivity, increased contractual cost in case of dismissal, increased recruitment cost to replace wrongly selected individual among other. To maximize the chance of hiring the best candidate there are several selection approaches that are used. These include the personality test, employment interview, aptitude test, application form among other. Personality test- This is a selection method which is bases on the beliefs that certain job requires certain personality. The key aim of the approach is to match individual personality with job requirement. The most tested traits include conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience and emotional stability. The strength of this model is that it had been widely backed by researches. Studies have shown that some personality traits are good predictors of job performance (Ree, Earles and Teachout 1994). Structured interview – interview is the most common selection method used. In structured interview, specific set of questioned are set to measure applicant key skills and abilities that are required to perform the job effectively. These skills and ability include communication skills, leaderships skills, critical thinking among other. The strength of these methods is that it focuses on the key skills and abilities needed to perform the job and thus enhancing the change of the organization hiring the most competent employees. However, this approach has been criticised on the ground that it can leave out the most competent individual not because they lack the required competency but they failed to prepared or perform well during interview(Pulakos 2005). Work sample test- this is a selection approach whereby the applicant are given a sample work to test how well they can do it once hired. The strength of the method is that, selection is based on real work performance of the applicant. This make it easier to predict the performance of individual once employed. However, this approach has been criticised for ignoring other predictor of performance such as support of others, familiarity with the job, individual learning ability among other (Pulakos 2005). To get the best out of these selection approaches, St Patrick nursing should use a combination of methods. The method chosen should be KSA (key skill and ability) based as well as task- based. 2.1 Explain theories of how individuals interact in groups in relation to the types of teams that work in health and social care Group is defined as a collection of individual who coordinate their own efforts. On the other hand team is defined as team is defined as a group of individual with common purpose and who also share the same challenging goals (Bratton and Gold (2007). The so many people-related problems in St Patrick nursing home can be dealt with by encouraging group and team works. For instance, the increasing cases of staffs errors, customer complaints and miscommunication in the nursing home can be avoided by encouraging teamwork. According Bratton and Gold (2007), working around team not only increase effectiveness and efficiency but also improve communication within the organization. According to Tuchman (1965), any group or team goes through a various stage before it become intact and effective. In these stages members interacts in different ways with each other until they finally form an effective team or group. The following are the stages of group development as per Tuchman. Forming- this is the first stage of group development. In this stage, members are positive in working in group. Anxiousness is also one of the common characteristic of this stage due to ambiguity and unclear role and objectives of the group (Eyre 2015). The management have very important role to play in this stage, they need to clarify the objectives and the role of the team. Storming – this is the stage where most groups fails. In this stage, conflicts always arise as members bring their own individuality to the group. Each member tries to work thing in his own way using his own management style (Eyre 2015). To enhance the effectiveness of the team at this stage, the leader needs to ensure all conflict are solve amicably and help member find a unified way of doing thing. Norming- this stage is characterized by unity of purpose and unified approach. In this stage before start to solve their differences and also agree on the norms of the group (Eyre 2015). In this stage the leader can help the group by setting target, establishing rules of the group Performing – this stage is where people start working hard to the attainment of the group objectives (Eyre 2015). To enhance the team effectiveness at this stage, the leader should delegate a lot, empower team member and provided the needed support. 2.2 Evaluate approaches that may be used to develop effective team working in health and social care For St Patrick nursing home to solve the major problem it is facing with human resources management such as lack of proper communication, high labour turnover, lack of motivation, poor staff performance and customer complaints it needs to develop effective teams. There are several approaches that can guide it in developing effective team. The Berlin’s team role theory  can be helpful. According to this theory, the effectiveness of team depends on how well the manager match role with individual preferences. Berlin argues that, individual have the most and the least preferred role they would like to perform. Individuals have an internal desire to work when allocated role they like performing and a such group effectiveness can be enhanced by allocating individual in team role they like playing(Belbin 2015). Based on this theory, the most preferred and least preferred role of individuals in St Patrick nursing home should be assessed and team formation should be guided by the result of the assessment. Individual should be given role they personally like in their team. 3.1 Explain ways in which the performance of individuals working in health and social care can be monitored Monitoring performance in St Patrick nursing home is of greater important if quality of care is to be improved and the overall performance of the nursing home. In this case, Monitoring refers to the act and process of measuring employees and group performance and continually communicating the feedback to them to help them improve their performance toward the targeted objectives (Spence 2011). The performance of worker in St Patrick can be monitored in various ways. The simplest yet very effective to do so is by watching them as they perform their works. According to gradshark.com (2023), watching employees with own eyes as they perform a task will tell you more about their performance more that data can do. Additionally, Employees mistake can be easily identified and corrected to avoid further damages. This method is not only effective but also cheaper both in time and cost. Performance review is another method that can be in monitoring individuals and group performance. In this approaches, the performance of the individual or group is reviewed periodically. In performance review, data is collected relating to performance employees and group and used to improve on the performance. In performance review, the area of weakness are identified which the manager help the individual or the group improve on. There are various techniques of collecting information for performance appraisal. These include self-appraisal, 360 appraisal, customer appraisal, MBO among others (Hakala 2008). 3.2 Assess how individual training and development needs can be identified For delivery of superb quality of care in St Patrick nursing home, employees need to keep on updating their skills and knowledge. The management of the nursing home have a very significant role to play in this. They should assess the training and development needs of its workforce and facilitate the acquisition of the required skills. Assessment of training needs basically focus on identifying knowledge and skill gap required by employees to excel in their current role. On the other hand assessment of development needs refers to identifying skills and knowledge that employees will needs in taking new role in future (Brown 2002) The training and development needs of employees at St Patrick nursing home can be assessed at three level; Organizational level, task level and at individual level. At organizations level, the analysis is done to determine the skills, abilities and knowledge currently and in future in order to meet organization goals. At task level, the analysis focus on identifying skills, abilities and knowledge needed for successful performance of specified task. At individual level, the analysis focus on identifying the knowledge and skill gap between what employees have and their career aspiration (Miller and Osinski 2002). Training and development needs at St Patrick nursing home can be assessed by collecting data from diverse source including from employees themselves, their supervisor, client, etc. Data can be gathered in several ways including through surveys, interview with employees and their supervisors, through the use of performance appraisal feedbacks, through test among other techniques (Brown 2002). 3.3 Analyse different strategies for promoting the continuing development of individuals in the health and social care workplace Development of employees at St Patrick Nursing home should be at the core of human resource management activities in the organization. This can be achieved by adopting the following strategies for Continuous development of employees. Job design- the way job are design in an organization do have impacts on development of employees. Redesigning job and expanding the role of employees especially give them more authority and responsibilities considered to be of superior rank that their position can help them gain skills abilities and knowledge that might help those takes higher role/position in future((Esen and collision 2005).) Involving work in decision making process- involving worker in decision making process is not only a powerful tool to gain cooperation and to motivate them but also a very effective of developing their capabilities as critical thinker and decision maker. According to Raelin (2003)and Esen and collision (2005), participative leadership give the worker especially those at lower level an opportunity to understand how decision are made and the reason employed behind decision making which enable them to be great decision maker. Training and development program-the human resource department at St Patrick nursing home need to establish a development program and encourage staff attend such program. The program can be developed in house or the nursing home can collaborate with a learning institution in development of such program the cost of such program should be incurred by the organization or jointly with the employees as cost is one of the barrier which prevent worker from upgrading their skills (Esen and collision 2005). 4.1Explain theories of leadership that apply to the health and social care workplace Leadership is defined as the ability to influence other to engage in certain behaviours in order to achieve certain objective. According to Raelin (2003), Leadership is all about inspiring other to do their best in achieving both personal and organization goals. According to the Behavioural theories of leadership, leadership skills can be easily learned. This theory believe that every individual stand a change of become a leader if he/she can learn on how to become one(Bolden et al 2003).St Patrick nursing home need to see leadership in this sense. It should therefore empower and equip it employees to assume leadership role in future. This would help the organization to have strong leadership in place making which is much needed in improving quality of care and the overall performance of the nursing home. The contingency theory of leadership is also another theory that can b e used to improve the quality of leadership in St Patrick nursing home. According to this theory, there is no single leadership styles is most suitable in all situation. The effectiveness of the leadership depends on how the leader will change the style of leadership according to the requirement of the situation. This theory argues that for effective leadership, the leader must identify his leadership style. I.e. whether task oriented or relationship based then assesses the situation to identify the extent to which it give importance to relationship and the task and then determine on the style to use. For instance, if people value the relationship very much, then performance can be improved if the leader focuses on building strong relationship with them (Manket low 2015). 4.2 Analyse how working relationships may be managed A good working relationship is very essential in achievement of organization. The scenario at St Patrick nursing home demonstrate a case of poor management of working relationship where communication between worker is poor and coordination of activities including shift handling is very low contribute to low quality of care. Proper management of working relationship in St Patrick nursing home is thus needed. Proper working relationship can be managed by encouraging respect for one another. When work feels respect by their colleague and management, they replicate the same enabling them to work in a very collaborative and respect manner (Hill 2015). Encouraging and facilitating for effective communication is another important thing do to encourage good working relationship. As commented by (QG 2015). communication is the basis in which relationship are established and maintained. Lack of proper communication in St Patrick has not only led to poor working relationship which is demonstrated by poor handling of shift but also affect staff motivation. Developing and maintaining a culture of trust is also important in establish and maintaining good working relationship. People only get motivated to work and collaborate with other if they can trust them (Hill 2015). The management at St Patrick Nursing home need to create a culture of trust for them to encourage and maintain good working relationship. Trust can be created by simply being honest and transparent. Furthermore,   proper management of working relationship requires superb mechanism of solving conflict with the organization. Conflict are unavoidable in any given environment where two more individual are working together but what matter is how those conflict are handle. Proper mechanism of handling conflict ensure that conflict do not damage the established working relationship (QG 2015). 4.3 Evaluate how own development has been influenced by management approaches encountered in own experience. The management approaches adopted do have an impacts on employees own development. There are those management approaches that encourage development of individual skills and knowledge while there are those that hinder such development (Postrel 2007). During my past employment where I work as intern in a care home, the leadership and the management style of the care home gave me the opportunity to upgrade my skill and knowledge. The leadership in the organization believed empowering work through delegation of activities. My supervisor, used to delegate his duties to me. This not only provide me with the change to apply the skill and knowledge I have learned but also to gain new one which has made me become a more competent and confident health and social care management practitioner. The leadership also believe in breaking job monotony as such I was rotated between different job with different roles, responsibility and in some instance with different authority. These help me in gaining more and diverse skills especially in area of human resource management, customer care, and record management and in social care. The skills and knowledge I gained during my previous employment courtesy of the leadership style in the care home have helped me become improve my skills, abilities and knowledge which make me more confident and competent healthcare person ready to assume managerial position in health and social care setting. Conclusion This essay aimed to explain how Human resource is managed in health and social care setting. Form the discussion above, it several conclusion can be made

• Proper HRM is the core for delivery of quality health and social care services
• Managing human resource in HSC should be done in line with established applicable legislation
• Training and development of employees is a very essential function of HRM that help solve wide range of problem including low productivity, seal the skill and knowledge gap in the organization hence improved performance
• Performance manage is key in planning and improving performance of both individual employees and that of organization as whole.