Human Resource management Training Proposal
Every Organization has a typical work culture and processes that may be unique. Any new comer to the industry needs to be trained to adjust with the organizational culture and processes. Training the new employees is a key function of the Human Resource Management apart from Human Resource Planning, Recruiting, selecting and hiring of employees. The HR manager decides on the basis of Organizational strategies the number of personnel that is to be recruited in each functional area and the positions that need staffing. This function of assessing the requirement of personnel at various positions in different stages and the eligibility criteria of the candidates to be recruited and developing a proposal for recruiting, selecting and hiring within a given time frame is known as human resource planning. Once the candidates are hired, the HR manager has to develop a training proposal for induction of the new employees. The training proposal covers all aspects of the job like learning the specific skills of the job, understanding the responsibilities associated, understanding organizational goals and objectives and familiarizing oneself with the organizational culture, policies and systems. All these issues need an intensive training program designed with the intention of fulfilling all requirements.
Overview
This paper deals with the recruitment and training proposal of a healthcare unit that specializes in manufacturing healthcare equipments needed to monitor the clinical conditions like Blood Pressure, Heartbeats, blood Glucose etc. Recently the company has also included mobile X – ray machines in the product range. This has necessitated recruitment of new staff in the production and quality control department. The HR department is assigned the task of designing a post recruitment training program for these personnel. Health care being a very quality intensive area, where medical equipments have to adhere to the specifications with minimum tolerance to accurately gauge patient condition, the HR training program should emphasize on areas like quality, ethics and accountability. It also has to inform the employees about the policies regarding, quality control, performance appraisal and the motivational tools like rewards, promotions and incentives. Also it has to effectively communicate to the new comers about the company’s stand to OB issues like absenteeism, counterproductive behavior and negligence.
Planning
Adding a new product – a mobile X- ray Machine to its range of products has made it necessary for the healthcare company to recruit staff in the positions of 1 production manager, 1 marketing manager, 2 sales executives, 2 production engineers, 2 production supervisors and 8 technicians and 2 sales representatives. The Manager, Engineers and supervisor must have a technical background with specialization and experience in the field of Healthcare. The 8 technicians should also have the necessary qualifications, skills and experience needed for their assignments in production and quality control departments. Sales Executives and sales representatives should have necessary specialization in marketing and selling healthcare products. Fixing a timeline for recruitment and selection, beginning from vacancy notification to appointment is a part of HR planning. Keeping this in mind the manager has initiated the process of recruitment and selection which consists of the following stages.
Advertising- Once the eligibility criteria is determined, advertisements for the respective positions are posted in media channels such as newspapers, employment websites and employment periodicals, specifying educational qualifications, specializations and experience. A tentative remuneration package is included in the advertisement. Applications are invited for the posts in the necessary format from potential candidates.
Interviewing - After receiving the applications in response to the advertisement the HR personnel sort out the resumes of potential candidates fulfilling the eligibility criteria. Intimation is sent to them for appearing for interview at the specified venue on a particular date. Experts are consulted for framing the interview questions and related officials and HR manager are made part of an interview panel.
Selection- For senior level posts final interviews may be preceded by preliminary interviews or other screening tests. On the basis of performance in interview candidates are finalized that fulfill certain predetermined criteria like knowledge, confidence, attitudes, expectations etc. A tentative offer is made; in cases of recruitment for senior positions or for extraordinary candidates, compensation packages may be negotiable.
Hiring – If the finalized candidate accepts the terms and conditions of the job, he is given an appointment letter which is a formal contract of employment informing him about the date of joining the company, the location and department where he is supposed to join along with the terms and conditions of the job.
Strategy for Training of new employees
As discussed before, the health care industry is a very quality intensive industry. A small error in specifications may become life threatening and result in litigation, fines, compensation and in some cases a ban on some products. Since this company manufacture clinical equipments designed to measure and monitor clinical conditions of patients, it has to be very accurate in function and this is possible only if standard manufacturing and quality control procedures are practiced. New comers recruited in production department must be made acutely aware of this fact through a well designed training program. For senior position like a production manager who will be heading both manufacturing and quality control functions and Engineers who will be responsible for installation, maintenance, monitoring and control of the processes, the training process will have different dimensions from those of supervisors and technicians. For senior level position the emphasis will be more on accountability and decision making.
The Training program starts with a tour of the shop floor is where the processes are explained and trainees’ expected contribution is communicated. Sometimes suggestions are invited for improving performances as part of the training process after the tour. Meetings with seniors are also arranged to get a feel of organizational hierarchy and leadership where the incumbent’s role and responsibility in the hierarchy is highlighted. This part of the training is common to both executive and lower level positions. Some additional training activities for executives may include (1) Meetings or addresses from corporate members where the prospects of the executives within the company are discussed with inputs on performance appraisal methods and career advancement policies. An informal welcome session over lunch or high tea may also be arranged to make the new comers comfortable and to encourage interactions. (2)Workshops or seminars where speakers highlight the importance of ethical and responsible performance, organizational values and sustainability can be organized. Being a health care unit, the significance of precision, accuracy and checking should be stressed to the new executives.
(3)Training sessions for executives may also include Presentations and Simulation Techniques. The importance of simulation technique has been explained in relation to healthcare as a technique which replaces or amplifies real situations in healthcare with guided experiences that evoke responses by the participants to replicate similar features of real world (Gaba, D.M, 2004) The interactive sessions are followed by brain storming exercise to suggest solutions to a problem or written reports may be requested to assess the assimilation, decision making and analytical skills of the trainee. (4) Team training or Crew Resource Management (CRM) techniques has been recommended by researchers as an effective method of reducing human errors in healthcare industry (Musson, & Helmreich, 2004). CRM techniques are useful to train individuals to work as a team in case of equipment failure during operation.
After workshops and classroom sessions are over the trainees may be assigned individual mentors who will brief the executive about the specific tasks and will pair him with an older employee as part of on the job training. This gives him a practical training and an opportunity to learn the day to day contingencies that he may be subjected to. After the training period is over the executives may be asked to give a detailed report about the company profile, its strengths and weaknesses, the organizational culture, values and its core competencies.
For middle level managers like supervisors or shift in charge and for technicians, On the Job training Methods like apprenticeship and job rotation is the best where the new comer learns about the practical aspects of the process by observation and doing it himself. Apprenticeship is a term used for assisting a skilled operator to understand the nature of the job perfectly. In a healthcare unit where extra attention has to be given to precision and accuracy, it is crucial that the newcomer learns the job specifications thoroughly before attempting to do it independently. Training sessions may be arranged where the trainees are instructed about organizational values and culture and the role of the trainees in the organization.
The Training Program can also include Motivational strategies to inspire the trainees to perform efficiently. The three motivational Strategies are outlined as follows
Motivational Strategies
All such training processes that aim towards inspiring the trainees to put more efforts and involvement in their roles are termed as Motivational Strategies. Motivational strategies should be formulated keeping Maslow’s Need Hierarchy in mind where senior level employees are more likely to be inspired by the feeling of self esteem and self actualization whereas lower level employees can be motivated by monetary rewards and group affiliations. The three most useful motivational strategies are as follows
Rewards – Rewards are tokens of acknowledgement and recognition of exceptional performance that surpasses the standards of normal performance and is a motivational tool for all levels of hierarchy. However rewards may take various forms depending on the seniority of the employee. Executives feel more motivated if the rewards increase self esteem as compared to receiving material rewards. For Technicians and supervisors rewards may be in form of token prizes like badges, trophies or mementos or even monetary gifts.
Acknowledgements and recognition – These motivational strategies are more effective with senior level employees. A verbal or written acknowledgement of exceptional performance or inputs that enhances functional efficiencies by corporate heads increases the self esteem as well as contributes to his feeling of self actualization. Applauding the efforts of the trainee publicly on company notice board, website or get together boosts the morale as well as inspires others also to participate in the program more actively.
Autonomy and Responsibility – Conferring more autonomy to the trainees and assigning them responsibilities as appreciation of his contributions in the program is another strategy that motivates trainees to respond to the training inputs. Autonomy may be in the form of giving the power to make decisions regarding ones job preference. They may be also given additional responsibility of heading a team or be made members of committees. Another motivational strategy is to give the freedom to decide the training method to trainees. It was observed by experts that those trainees having a choice did have greater motivation to learn, compared to trainees allowed to choose but whose choice was not granted or not asked to choose at all (Baldwin, et al, 1991).
Issues in Health Care Business
Human Resource Management encounters many issues that are typical of health care sector. Healthcare sector is governed by legislations on quality, marketing, animal testing and other safety issues. Negligence to confirm with any of these regulations may result in crisis for the company. Human Resource Management is assigned the responsibility of communicating these facts to the new comers so that they are aware of the consequences of the actions taken by them.
Another issue that is typical of healthcare business is confidentiality. This unit that makes instruments having unique technological system to record clinical readings has an edge over its competitors. The testing methods employed to ensure accuracy and physical safety gives it a high reliability rating among users. The training program must deal with these issues while preparing the newcomers to adapt to the organizational values and culture.
The Ethical dimensions of a Health care unit and its internal and external effects have to be addressed in a training program. The term health care ethics used as a term to encompass ethical aspects included in medical-, bio medical-, bio-pharmaceutical- and ethics of different stakeholders involved in the providing health care services (Chatterjee, & Srinivasan, 2013).The new comers have to be made aware how their behavior can affect the organization’s image both internally and externally. Negligence of ethical values may cause overlooking of quality specifications resulting in failure of medical equipments causing grave concern from all stake holders.
Therefore the training program must be designed to include legal, Organizational and Ethical components and provide inputs for addressing these issues through instructions. All three components are interdependent and have to be addressed in relation to each other because legal and ethical negligence will affect Organizational performance both internally and externally.
The instructional Strategies used will comprise of visual instructions such as power point presentations and printed handouts of legislations to safe guard the interests of customers and patients.
Consequences of negligence of these issues should be highlighted and the role of trainees should be explained regarding reporting of such behaviors.
Evaluation of the success of the training program can be inferred from the degree of participation of newcomers in the training activities. Promptness of response, written reports and responses in case analysis questions can also be used as indicators of success of the training program. Monitoring performances and behavior after training also gives a fair idea about the effectiveness of training. The trainee themselves can be requested to review the training process on the basis of learning outcomes.
Conclusion
Healthcare is a specialized industry and requires specialized training programs to adapt the new employees to a unique organizational culture and processes that provides the organization its image both internally and externally. The HR personnel has to take many factors into account when preparing a training proposal for new employees to teach them the issues attached with the organizational processes of an healthcare industry apart from instructing them about organizational values, culture and leadership. Right from the planning stage, the focus should be on the specific functions that are to be carried out by the new comers and the qualifications that match the roles keeping in mind the specialized nature of healthcare industry.
References
Baldwin, T. T., Magjuka, R. J., & Loher, B. T. (1991) The perils of participation: Effects of choice of training on trainee motivation and learning. Personnel psychology, 44(1), 51-65.
Chatterjee, C., & Srinivasan, V. (2013) Ethical issues in health care sector in India. IIMB Management Review, 25(1), 49-62.
Gaba, D. M. (2004) The future vision of simulation in health care Quality and safety in Health care, 13(suppl 1), i2-i10.
Musson, D. M., & Helmreich, R. L. (2004) Team training and resource management in health care: current issues and future directions Harvard Health Policy Review, 5(1), 25-35
