There is a lot of pressure in today’s organizations. Identification of a few of these pressures includes globalization, technology changes, competition, alliances, changes in organizational structure, methodologies of work assignments, employee priorities, capabilities, abilities and demographic factors. These factors call for the Human Resource function to help navigate the company during the transition in the organizations and the same function, finding ways of propelling the organization forward even further. The real plus the perceived value of the HR function will have to be upgraded. The HR function has been shifting from the personnel aspect to that of Human Resources because organizations are placing the value of employees as being important resources for the organization. HR function is at the moment forming strategies with the business leaders in pursuit of creating a sound business decision on the organizational transitions that the organization is going through.
There are work- life initiatives that have been put in place to address the emerging challenges and opportunities in the first place. These initiatives respond to changes in the society set up and the changes that encompass the fields of technology, economy, health and environmental factors (Kossek, Lewis & Hammer 2009). Some of these issues are discussed below:
The insurgent of epidemics has made it possible for employees and their employer to determine ways of mainstreaming work supports that are flexible and reliable. Exemplary examples include the HIV/ AIDS pandemic, as well as some lifestyle diseases, which have had a reducing impact on the number task force. Apart from the task force reduction, the incidence of illness has increased the number of employed task force that double in function as caregivers and who would really work well with support facilities. With the advent of diseases including viruses which are highly contagious has resulted in the development of virtual workplaces. Employers who have embraced virtual workplaces are well positioned to thrive during epidemic attacks. Environmental factors responsible for pollution promote teleworking. With the rise in the pressures from the society, it has been noted that mainstreaming alone may not offer the solution to organizational integration where there is fuller employee utilization, gender equity, reduced stress levels and promotion of employee retention and recruitment (Kossek, Lewis, & Hammer 2009).
It is important to examine the policies and cultural acceptance as the recognition of norms and values to expand the work-life support. Noteworthy, the success rates of policies and cultural acceptance is variable. These are variable depending on the organization and the diverse workers in the given organization. If there is tolerance of the diversity, then an impact would be felt on the implementation of the work-life support as well as the work-family ingenuities as the novel ways of going into the near future. The initiatives would be incorporated as part of the employer policy and result in their operation as mainstreams for the organization as well as the society as a whole.
With the advent of new technology applicable in the healthcare sector, employees are currently working around the clock. The technology utilized in health care is referred to as Health Information Technology that has various subtopics under it. Electronic heath records (EHR) and Electronic medical records (EMR) are just but some of the advances in technology that the healthcare facilities are slowly adopting (Jayanthi, 2014). In such occurrences, the work-life support would be a requirement for offering support for the employees who are working full time rather than the initial intended use of the initiative to promote organizational integration. When dealing with the ever changing technology in the health care, organizations must arrive at variable, flexible patterns that ensure that diversity is well catered for and that there is a fusion/ blend of the family and work roles on a particular work day or even a work week. In the quest to accommodate diversity, employers ought to come up with ways that adapt the organization in such a manner that work-life preferences are addressed for all employees (Kossek, Lewis, & Hammer 2009).
The healthcare industry is a major component of the economies in the US for instance as well as other countries. Pressures on the supply of care providers, suppliers, delivery systems are imposed as a result of medical technology innovations, economic instabilities, public policy shifts and labor markets in the local sense. Recession affects changes in both access to and the delivery of health care facilities. The recession has impacts on practitioners as well who opt for private practice or end up working in public facilities longer than they had earlier intended. The healthcare workers, therefore, end up reviewing their retirement plans (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2009).
Low income, unemployment, economic uncertainty and loss of insurance cover lower the possibilities of access to care. It has been noted that retrenchment procedures on healthcare professionals result in a lower number of jobs in health field like nursing in some segments. Staff retrenchment linked to a reduction in hospital admissions, coupled with an increasing number of nurses seeking to return to work, resulted in the shortage of job opportunities for nurses for the first time in a long while. Temporary influx of healthcare professionals in the market is bound to be followed by exits from the job market once the economy picks up which is a concern (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2009). Structural changes are one of the way outs for financial pressures in health care and the healthcare professionals. Human resource management should put the structural changes (which encompass the fields of growth and consolidation) as the core function of the organization in the quest to address the financial factors with respect to the above factors.
With the rise in globalization, workplaces and organizations are becoming culturally diverse (Stevens, Plaut, & Sanchez, 2008). Population minorities and women are becoming part of the workforce in today’s organization. There have been ways that have been brought forth to address the diversity noted in the workplace. Organizations have embraced this emerging trend and are reacting by offering diverse training programs, consultancy, hiring, and initiatives. The aspect of viewing diversity not as a threat but an opportunity is a plus which creates a proper understanding of the organization and the task force therein. The all-inclusive multiculturalism (AIM) approach is applicable when dealing with diversity in the organization. The AIM approach reconciles the traditional multiculturalism aspects and the colorblind approach which were initially used to address multiculturalism in the workplace (Stevens, Plaut, & Sanchez, 2008). In the AIM approach, all employees are similar in that non-minorities and minorities are viewed as being alike. The AIM approach is implemented using communication, organizations cultures, and the policies therein. Abolishing of the possibility of cultural bias is an important aspect for HRM.
The other factor that is almost similar to the aspect of culture awareness and diversity is that of having a good corporate culture as an organization. With a healthy organizational culture, the organization would use that aspect as a means for attracting employees from a global standpoint. As a result, the organization would be an employer of choice and so embrace of sound corporate culture and governance serve as a win-win situation. Retaining and rewarding of employees is another change in the HRM function that ought to be considered (Society for Human Resource Management, 2012).
Employees who are skilled are desirable in any given organization. Having to retain talent is important to ensure productivity and also to tap full potential from the employees of a given organization. The element of strategic talent management comes into play when tackling the issue of employee retention. With the above, organizations have incorporated good HR processes which are employee centered and as a result promote good experiences for the employee. Being relevant in the market and having an edge over the competitors is paramount. This is an example of a transformation in the HRM where organizations become competitive by incorporation of healthy corporate culture and governance, talent retention, good employee experiences, work-life initiatives that offer support to employees. Consequently, employees are motivated to work full throttle in their organizations (Society for Human Resource Management, 2012).
Challenges in HR Management
Professionals in the HR fraternity concur that there will be future challenges in the field of HR Management. The challenges would be drawn majorly from three factors which are retaining of employees and rewarding them, development of corporate leaders for the next future generation, and the creation of a corporate culture that attracts employees who are both internal and external (Kabene et al., 2006). Other challenges that are yet to be pronounced in the future of HR Management are relevance in the market, identification of employees with the right skills, HR processes that promote desirable employee experiences. Others are, acquiring employees from the global market, employee centered HR organization and elimination of cultural barriers.
The topics of concern in this paper are five, and they are discussed in the sections below.
One major challenge in HR management is the changes that occur in the demographics and those of disease emergence. These are points of concern given that organizations would have a large number of employed staff who are caregivers (Society for Human Resource Management, 2012). This may weigh a toll on the employees who may have some emotional problems in the process. Employees are also aced out by both terminal and chronic diseases which claim their lives and as a result, take the organizations back to the drawing board.
The other challenge is with respect to changes societal norms and values. In this case, social meaning shifts especially in an industrialized setting and as a result, employees are noted to have strains and tensions which may progress into a mental health issue.
The other issue touches on the emergence of technology which is moving the healthcare sector into a boom. Technology applicable to the healthcare industry requires a lot before it can fully be operational. Training on the usage of the technology is but an example of the hurdles that affect the adoption of the technology in health care facilities. This affects the HRM function because training is part of the duties of the department. The healthcare industry is a major component of the economies as earlier mentioned. Pressures on the supply of care providers, suppliers, delivery systems are imposed as a result of medical technology innovations, economic instabilities, public policy shifts and labor markets in the economic sense.
Recession affects changes in both access to and the delivery of health care facilities. The recession has impacts on practitioners as well who opt to leave for private practice.
Globalization as earlier mentioned has a lot to do with cultural diversity. Minority groups are present in the workforce and as a result integration of these groups is paramount. The previous methods of dealing with diversity i.e., colorblind and multiculturalism had some deficiencies, and this posed a major challenge in cultural awareness which comes with the diversity (Society for Human Resource Management, 2012).
Conclusion
The human resource function is important in any given organization. As earlier mentioned, changes in the healthcare environment have facilitated the changes that occur in the HRM functionality. There are challenges that affect the HRM, and these originate from various fields including disease, technology, demography, financial pressures, cultural awareness and diversity. Interventions to address the challenges are in order given that this management is bound to change in future.
References
Jayanthi., A. (2014). 10 Biggest Technological Advancements for Healthcare in the Last Decade. Retrieved from http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/10-biggest-technological-advancements-for-healthcare-in-the-last-decade.html on 15/06/2016
Kabene, S. M., Orchard, C., Howard, J. M., Soriano, M. A., & Leduc, R. (2006). The importance of human resources management in health care: a global context. Human resources for health, 4(20), 1-17.
Kossek, E., Lewis, S., & Hammer, L. B. (2009). Work–life initiatives and organizational change: Overcoming mixed messages to move from the margin to the mainstream. Human relations. Available at https://intra.krannert.purdue.edu/faculty/ekossek/Documents/PDFs/003-009HUM-352385.pdf
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (2009). The impact of the Economy on Healthcare. Retrieved from https://www.academyhealth.org/files/HCFO/findings0809.pdf on 15/06/2016.
Society for Human Resource Management. (2012). Challenges Facing HR Over the Next 10 Years. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/research/surveyfindings/articles/pages/challengesfacinghroverthenext10years.aspx on 15/06/2016s
Stevens, F. G., Plaut, V. C., & Sanchez-Burks, J. (2008). Unlocking the benefits of diversity all-inclusive multiculturalism and positive organizational change. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 44(1), 116-133.
