BHA FPX 4104 Assessment 4 Human Resources Strategy and Competitive Advantage

Human Resources: Strategy and Competitive Advantage

The Human Resources department (HR) is a key player in the organization as they are charged with recruiting healthcare professionals. HR interacts with the employees and addresses their concerns by complying with the organization’s policies and procedures or rules and regulations (Minghua, 2022). This assessment entails the Vila Health Human Resource media simulation, which describes the staff shortage and budget issue in St.Anthony Medical Center (SMAC) (Capella University, n.d.). SMACs strategic goal is to integrate the new staffing plan to improve the organization’s performance in the healthcare industry.

Comparing Current Workforce to Future Needs

According to Capella University. (n.d.), SAMC is one of the leading healthcare centers in Minneapolis. The nursing shortages in SAMC prevent hospitals from delivering care to patients optimally. The chemical spill caused by the train derailment incident increased the patient influx in hospital staff, shortage posed challenges for the hospital. The emergency room and pediatric intensive care unit have patient upsurge, and the nurse manager and chief nursing officer use the services of available staff to cope with the situation. Additionally, the unavailability of a multilingual workforce also contributes to worsening the situation. As the patient has other cultures and low English proficiency were unable to explain the healthcare needs. Likewise, the staff failed to comprehend that it also prevents providing optimal care in need of time. Additionally, the hiring budget needed to be higher, which hampered SMAC hiring new staff, and made the work environment challenging.SAMC faced workforce challenges, particularly a shortage of nursing staff and a low budget.

SAMC need to hire diversified staff to fulfill the need of diverse people. SAMC must implement a staff training program to enhance their cultural competency skills, which help provide culturally appropriate care to the people (Stubbe, 2020). Integrating technology-based language interpreter applications to comprehend patients’ needs will also help provide care to patients (Narang et al., 2019). In addition, the training for using technology also helps in using language interpreting applications to easily communicate with low English proficiency patients (Hwang et al., 2021).

The rationale for altering the workforce is to fulfill the needs of patients in SMAC. The shortage of nursing staff in the current situation provides low-quality care to patients. The increased workloads also led to burnout among existing staff, and SMAC underwent more staff shortages. The low budget for new hires also contributes to tight staffing, so there is a need to address the issue through other measures to improve patient care in SMAC. 

Ideal Staffing Plan

The ideal staffing plan for SAMC, according to future needs, would be a diverse and inclusive workforce. SMAC needs a diversified workforce, including hiring diverse staff to manage diverse patients in the healthcare setting. According to Enders et al. (2021), the model used for the staffing plan in SMAC is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). To create a diverse workplace  DEI framework helps the organization retain a diverse workforce by valuing and respecting their work. DEI also helps in enhancing employee as well as consumer satisfaction.

According to American Hospital Association. (2023) Another model is the Workforce Planning Model (WPM), which relates staffing strategies with organizational strategic goals. The model helps identify the workforce gaps and invest in staff training programs to utilize the preexisting workforce. SMAC must invest in cultural competency training for existing staff to reduce the expense of hiring new staff. Cultural competency helps enhance the preexisting workforce’s clinical expertise to ensure optimal care will be provided to the patient according to cultural and linguistic needs. The model helps in prioritizing the ideal staffing plan for SAMC. Including a diverse workforce using the DEI model and investing in training for existing staff utilizing WPM help improve patient outcomes in  SMAC.

Measures to Evaluate the New Staffing Plan

The evaluation is important to determine the efficacy of SMAC’s newly implemented staffing plan. The assessment helps determine whether the staffing plan fulfills the organization’s needs. The metrics used to evaluate the plan’s efficacy are patient outcome measures, employee retention rate, and financial performance (Stanford, 2020).

Patient Outcome Measure

The new staffing level’s main agenda is to improve patient health outcomes by providing effective and culturally appropriate care. The patient outcome measure will be examined to determine the efficiency of the new staffing plan (Twigg et al., 2021). The reduction in readmission rates shows improvement in patient health outcomes and satisfaction. Additionally, the patient satisfaction survey also helps determine the staffing plan’s efficacy (Karaca & Durna, 2019).

Employee Retention Rate

The staffing plan improves employee retention as the diverse culture increases employee satisfaction in healthcare (Stanford, 2020). The rate can be measured by analyzing the organization’s workforce data and comparing the results with the previous data. Employee retention determines whether the new staffing plan enhances organizational efficiency and employee satisfaction and retention in a healthcare setting (Moore et al., 2021). 

Financial Performance

The organization’s financial performance is another metric that can be used to evaluate the worth of a new staffing plan. The organization’s revenue and return on investment will be increased by providing care to more patients. The influx of more patients leads to profitability and improved financial performance (Akinleye et al., 2019).

Implications for the Organization’s Future

If the workforce issue remains unaddressed can pose serious challenges to organizational performance and productivity. The implications can be serious such as financial downfall and burnout among staff and patient dissatisfaction, which affect the organization’s ability to achieve the set goal (De Hert, 2020). Inadequate staffing and a high workload on existing staff may burden the staff, which leads to the provision of low-quality care. Poor care quality increases the readmission rate and reduces patient satisfaction eventually (Džakula et al., 2022).

The workload decreases employee satisfaction in the organization, which reduces their commitment to work. The low efficiency and productivity reduce the organization’s overall performance (Moore et al., 2021). Additionally, the capability to compete with other healthcare organizations also declines, lowering patient satisfaction in an organization (Teisberg et al., 2020). The tight staffing in crisis can be managed by available staff and get paid for overtime, which affects the organization’s financial health. The higher income lead to reduced revenue and profitability, which deter an organization from providing high-quality care to patients (Akinleye et al., 2019). Hence, there is a need to address the workforce issue to facilitate the organization to achieve the set goal and improve the financial performance eventually.

Human Resource as Competitive Advantage

A competitive advantage is an organization’s unique advantage over its competitors. HR can be considered a competitive advantage if HR enables the retention of top talent in the organization and boosts employee commitment to work (Minghua, 2022). The retention of good employees improves the productivity and performance of the organization. For instance, HR offers competitive salary packages and other perks to capable people during hiring to improve the workforce productivity in the organization (Ali et al., 2022).

HR also proves a competitive advantage by measuring the effectiveness of its strategies and programs through HR metrics. Tracking the employee turnover rates and retention rate help in determining the need for new hiring (Frogner & Dill, 2022). Discussions with the policymaker help make data-driven decisions to improve the organization’s performance. For instance, integrating initiatives such as an employee recognition program by HR boosts employee confidence and improves employee satisfaction and commitment to the organization (Manzoor et al., 2021). HR remains a competitive advantage by addressing the employee’s needs and responding to their need promptly to enhance the organization’s overall productivity (Zhenjing et al., 2022).

Conclusion BHA FPX 4104 Assessment 4 Human Resources Strategy and Competitive Advantage

The assessment highlights the need for improvement in staffing levels to improve the organization’s performance. Vila Health describes the staffing shortage and low budget problem in SMAC. The new staffing plan will help enhance the organization’s productivity by utilizing the skills of the existing workforce. The DEI model also emphasizes a diverse workforce to meet the needs of all people in SMAC. HR plays a crucial role in recruiting highly capable staff, boosting employee engagement, and improving organizational performance.

References

Akinleye, D. D., McNutt, L. A., Lazariu, V., & McLaughlin, C. C. (2019). Correlation between hospital finances and quality and safety of patient care. Plos One, 14(8), e0219124. 

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0219124

Ali, H., Li, M., & Qiu, X. (2022). Employee engagement and innovative work behavior among Chinese millennials: Mediating and moderating role of work-life balance and psychological empowerment. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.942580

American Hospital Association. (2023). Developing an Effective Health Care Workforce Planning Model | AHA. Aha.org. https://www.aha.org/white-papers/2013-09-13-developing-effective-health-care-workforce-planning-model

Capella University. (n.d.). Vila Health: Human Resources. Capella.edu.

https://media.capella.edu/CourseMedia/VilaHealth/BHA4104/HumanResources/transcript.asp

De Hert, S. (2020). Burnout in healthcare workers: Prevalence, impact and preventative strategies. Local and Regional Anesthesia,13(13), 171–183. https://doi.org/10.2147/lra.s240564

Džakula, A., Relić, D., & Michelutti, P. (2022). Health workforce shortage – doing the right things or doing things right? Croatian Medical Journal, 63(2), 107–109. https://doi.org/10.3325/cmj.2022.63.107

Enders, F. T., Golembiewski, E. H., Pacheco-Spann, L. M., Allyse, M., Mielke, M. M., & Balls-Berry, J. E. (2021). Building a framework for inclusion in health services research: Development of and pre-implementation faculty and staff attitudes toward the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) plan at Mayo Clinic. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.1017/cts.2020.575

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Karaca, A., & Durna, Z. (2019). Patient satisfaction with the quality of nursing care. Nursing Open, 6(2), 535–545. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.237

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Stubbe, D. E. (2020). Practicing cultural competence and cultural humility in the care of diverse patients. Focus, 18(1), 49–51. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.focus.20190041

Teisberg, E., Wallace, S., & O’Hara, S. (2020). Defining and implementing value-based health care. Academic Medicine, 95(5), 682–685. https://doi.org/10.1097/acm.0000000000003122

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