HR planning for healthcare
Jul 24, 2011
THE World Health Organisation defines human resource for health planning as the process of estimating the number of persons and the kinds of knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to achieve predetermined health targets and ultimately health status objectives.
HR INSIGHT With Paula Kyabaggu Mukama
THE World Health Organisation defines human resource for health planning as the process of estimating the number of persons and the kinds of knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to achieve predetermined health targets and ultimately health status objectives.
HR planning in healthcare is a dynamic process, involving three stages; stocktaking, forecasting and designing temporary workforce.
In stocktaking, there is recruitment and selection of the key employees in line with the strategic business plan to achieve specific targets.
The stage of forecasting is sub-divided into two phases, forecasting future people needs (demand forecasting) and forecasting availability of people or supply forecasting.
The third phase involves flexible strategy to recruit temporary employees as per need assessment and cost-effective benefits.
In stocktaking, the principle is to identify how many people are needed at every level of the organisation to achieve business objectives in line with overall strategic plans. It also looks at what kind of knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics these people need.
The optimal staffing of modern health services requires many different types of staff. They include clinical workers, like doctors and nurses, technical staff for diagnostic services, such as laboratory and radiology and pharmacy staff.
Others are environment health workers, such as health inspectors, and the preventive and promotive staff, who include community health workers and administrative staff.
In a healthcare organisation, traditional quantitative approaches are used to make enumerative judgments based on managers’ prediction to allocate certain budgets for employee’s payroll expenditure and need assessment of key employee to fit the organisation’s system and design.
Resource allocations are best executed with the help of activity-based cost management, which controls cost and labour required for a specific job or event to reduce wastage.
For example, comparative rates of healthcare activity.
Acute care bed days per capita, acute care staff ratio, staff per bed, acute care nurses ratio or staff per bed and doctors consultation’s per capita.
The types of health staff in a particular country are dictated by the kinds of health services provided and level of technology available.
For example, nature of health organisation; primary, secondary and tertiary, type of sector like public, private, non-profit funded organisation, infrastructure such as the size of the hospital, and general (multi-specialty) or specific care providers like for cardiovascular, cancer.
With demand forecasting, planning for the medical workforce is complex and determined by relatively mechanistic estimates of demand for medical care.
Supply forecasting, forecasting human resource supply involves using information from the internal and external labour markets.
The calculation of staff turnover and workforce stability indices measures internal supply for HR planning say, looking into succession planning.
The external labour market gives detailed spectrum on tightness of supply, demographic factors, and social or geographic aspects.
Temporary workforce planning. Temporary workers classified as contract employees, consultants, leased employees and outsourcing.
High social costs have initiated work sharing strategy, which is flexible and provides more benefits. For instance, part-time temporary worker numbers and hours can be adapted easily with low maintenance cost to meet organisational needs,
In today’s work environment, outsourcing can be added as a temporary worker planning technique.
Outsourcing requirement is assessed and evaluated on cost and benefit decision.
Ambulatory services, pathological or diagnostic testing services, laundry, catering, billing and medical transcription are most commonly outsourcing services promoted in any healthcare organisation.
eresources@consultant.com
THE World Health Organisation defines human resource for health planning as the process of estimating the number of persons and the kinds of knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to achieve predetermined health targets and ultimately health status objectives.
HR planning in healthcare is a dynamic process, involving three stages; stocktaking, forecasting and designing temporary workforce.
In stocktaking, there is recruitment and selection of the key employees in line with the strategic business plan to achieve specific targets.
The stage of forecasting is sub-divided into two phases, forecasting future people needs (demand forecasting) and forecasting availability of people or supply forecasting.
The third phase involves flexible strategy to recruit temporary employees as per need assessment and cost-effective benefits.
In stocktaking, the principle is to identify how many people are needed at every level of the organisation to achieve business objectives in line with overall strategic plans. It also looks at what kind of knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics these people need.
The optimal staffing of modern health services requires many different types of staff. They include clinical workers, like doctors and nurses, technical staff for diagnostic services, such as laboratory and radiology and pharmacy staff.
Others are environment health workers, such as health inspectors, and the preventive and promotive staff, who include community health workers and administrative staff.
In a healthcare organisation, traditional quantitative approaches are used to make enumerative judgments based on managers’ prediction to allocate certain budgets for employee’s payroll expenditure and need assessment of key employee to fit the organisation’s system and design.
Resource allocations are best executed with the help of activity-based cost management, which controls cost and labour required for a specific job or event to reduce wastage.
For example, comparative rates of healthcare activity.
Acute care bed days per capita, acute care staff ratio, staff per bed, acute care nurses ratio or staff per bed and doctors consultation’s per capita.
The types of health staff in a particular country are dictated by the kinds of health services provided and level of technology available.
For example, nature of health organisation; primary, secondary and tertiary, type of sector like public, private, non-profit funded organisation, infrastructure such as the size of the hospital, and general (multi-specialty) or specific care providers like for cardiovascular, cancer.
With demand forecasting, planning for the medical workforce is complex and determined by relatively mechanistic estimates of demand for medical care.
Supply forecasting, forecasting human resource supply involves using information from the internal and external labour markets.
The calculation of staff turnover and workforce stability indices measures internal supply for HR planning say, looking into succession planning.
The external labour market gives detailed spectrum on tightness of supply, demographic factors, and social or geographic aspects.
Temporary workforce planning. Temporary workers classified as contract employees, consultants, leased employees and outsourcing.
High social costs have initiated work sharing strategy, which is flexible and provides more benefits. For instance, part-time temporary worker numbers and hours can be adapted easily with low maintenance cost to meet organisational needs,
In today’s work environment, outsourcing can be added as a temporary worker planning technique.
Outsourcing requirement is assessed and evaluated on cost and benefit decision.
Ambulatory services, pathological or diagnostic testing services, laundry, catering, billing and medical transcription are most commonly outsourcing services promoted in any healthcare organisation.
eresources@consultant.com