2.2 Human Resource Strategy: is a method by which a business forecasts how many and what type of employees it needs now and in future with the intention to achieve their corporate aims and objectives.
Workforce planning involves finding the gap between present skills levels; as shown by a skills audit and estimated need. Human resources managers might carry out a market analysis to find out what skills do the workforce need to ensure successful achievement of the business’s aims and objectives as well as enabling the business to be ahead of the competitors. They than draw up a workforce plan to match the actual skills of the workforce to those required.
3. Steps a business takes when planning its workforce
3.1 Forecasting demand for employees
Midshires Hospital is part of the National Health Services (NHS) run and funded by the government; free for the public; ensuring good health and prosperity for the country. To successfully cater for the health requirements of the county town of Middleton; the hospital which is now consolidated with Maternity Unit and the Burns Unit; has to make sure that there are enough qualified; high calibre employees available to effectively execute the organisation’s targets and contribute towards achieving the organisational aims and objectives. One way to make sure that the business is supplied with adequate staff is through forecasting future demand for employees. This means the HR should analyse the business’s aims and objectives; rate of expansion, rate of staff turnover and staff retirement factors to predict future employee needs and provide replace for retired staffs. If Midshires Hospital has a high staff turnover and or expanding its services; the number of staffs needed for future will be higher; therefore the business might start planning when to start recruiting new staffs. However, effective prediction of staff might turn to be very difficult if the future direction of the business is not well defined.
3.2 Analysing current employees
A good starting point for Medshires Hospital’s HR team to prepare a workforce plan is to analyse the current position of its employees. This may involve calculating the number of employees working in particular jobs i.e. nursing, doctors, admin team and etc. Gathering information on their age, length of service, qualifications and performance might turn to be vital so for the organisation to know who wide reduce the workforce through retirement. To decide on the number and type of employees it needs in future, the HR should ask and answer the following questions to make a successful future plan
- How many new employees needed?
- What type of employees needed?
- Where are they needed?
- When are they needed?
The information obtained from these questions should enable the Hospital’s HR to make prompt decisions and take prompt actions on providing the most suitable workforce at the right time in the future.
3.3 Planning internal supply
3.3.1 Definition: Internal supply: This is when a business fills a vacant post from people who already work for the organization. This is usually done when a business already have the right people with the right skills to do the job, particularly if the training and development programme has been effective. Factors that influence business future workforce requirements from existing employees are:
3.3.2 Promotion: A promotion is the advancement of rank or position in an organizational hierarchy system. A promotion can involve advancement in terms of salary and nature of the job or what the job can be described as. This will motivate the employee because they will know a higher position will usually mean a higher income. Midshires Hospital is consolidating and or merging with the Pathology Laboratory and the Mental Health Unit in the next 12 months; having already merged with the Maternity and Burns Units under the authority of Central Rivers NHS Trust. The consolidation and future planned expansion means the organizational structure and hierarchy is getting bigger. This could create new jobs which the hospital might want to fill with internal employees. Jobs such as facility maintenance jobs, patient care and nursing, operations department jobs as well as new admin jobs are very likely to be generated due to the merging. To fill these vacancies, the Hospital is more likely and should promote existing employees as they already know about the business’s practices and culture. They may also be able to adapt more easily to a new job than the outsider.
However, despite the fact that promotion reduces high staff turnover and might help the organization to retain existing employees; it actually generates a vacancy further down the hierarchy which needs to be filled from outside. This could be costly for the business; however, with the existence of a university in the town, Midshires Hospital could get the new vacancies filled with new graduates from the university.
3.3.3 Staff development and training: Medshires Hospital should provide training to its employees to make sure that they are familiar to the organisation practices and culture. New employees might find it hard to carry out a job effectively with a brief induction. Therefore the availability of a training programme is vital for ensuring success to the business. Medshires Hospital is a major employer in the county of Middleshire in Greater Manchester, however due to some difficulty in recruiting staff; 50 Spanish nurses were recently recruited as well as some doctors having re-located from Eastern Europe to work in the hospital. This means they might not be totally familiar with the organisation’s practices, legal requirements and culture as they have previously worked in other European countries. This means it is vital to train them and give them a brief induction of how to use the medical equipments. In addition, they might not be able to speak perfect English which means to remove the barrier of language problems, a short course in English language could be funded which can take place in the Middleshire University. The university also offers and provides nursing training and degrees in its Department of Nursing which could prove beneficial for the new Spanish nurses in order to make them work more efficiently.
3.3.4 Flexibility: Female nurses, doctors and admin workers with family; might need to be able to take their kids to school and or be allowed time-off for pregnancy. This means the business should change its workforce practices in order to meet its labour supply requirements. By making some jobs part-time, shared jobs and full time, they can be flexible with the female workers. They can also generate jobs for the university graduates and internship programmes for the secondary school students.
3.3.5 Legal factors: The Hospital might not be in demand for some workers in the future; to cut costs, they may decide to make some workers redundant. If they do so, there are some legal conditions which affect the redundancy process. Some workers might be entitled to redundancy payments.
4. Definition: External supply:
This is when a business fills a vacancy with people from outside the business. Businesses nowadays engage in external recruitment frequently, mainly those that are growing. When recruiting from outside, businesses usually advertise their vacancies using two methods: Traditional methods or Internet-based methods.
There are local and national factors that have to be taken into account by the Midshires Hospital when planning its external employee requirements.
4.1 Closeness to transport: The Midshires Hospital can prove to be popular for some workers; due to its location and the ease and availability of public transport for commuters. The Middleton area has good road and rail links with neighboring towns and London is only one hour away by fast train with plenty of people commuting there daily. As per the local residents of the area, it has two major bus routes through the town which pick up and drop off at the hospital and the station. For the Hospital stuffs that live locally, it is very easy to commute to their workplace; just by catching one bus.
4.2 The availability and price of housing in the area: The re-located doctors from Eastern Europe and the recruited Spanish nurses might need accommodation while working for the hospital. This means the availability and price of housing in the area can affect their decision of where or not to work for the organization. Cities such as London might prove hard for new recruits to have an economic accommodation.
4.3 Population and demographic trends: Changes in the structure of the population can affect external recruitment. Currently in the county of Middleshire; the Midshires Hospital found it difficult to recruit new people. This may have been due to the lack of high- caliber, highly qualified and certified to effectively do the job. Therefore, the hospital had to recruit employees from outside the UK which means they might have to do the same in the future; due to lack of qualified workforce in the area.
4.4 Government legislation: When recruiting from either inside or outside of the UK; the hospital needs to abide by the UK legislations which act as the employment law. Acts such as National Minimum Wage Act 1998, Employment Act 2002 and Data Protection Act 1998 automatically apply to the Hospital recruitment process; to protect the employees from being paid less and being treated badly.
I have used the following websites and book to do my assignment.
4. Bibliography
BTEC National Business Book 1 by Roger Lewis & Roger Trevitt 2007 (2nd Edition)
Websites
