STAFFING ISSUES

Staffing Issues

Staffing Issues

Introduction

In this paper, I will discuss staffing issue for a selected 250-bed local hospital. With the dramatic growth in the capabilities of medical care over the past 75 years, hospitals frequently are the largest employer in their community. Today, hospitals are the largest employer of nurses in the United States and a major employer of all allied health professionals. Most costs in hospitals are for labor. Thus the industry is very sensitive to the periodic shortages that occur in the health professions. Clinical staffing is an ongoing challenge in all hospitals, which must maintain adequate numbers of qualified clinicians to meet the care needs of patients and do so within the reimbursement constraints of third-party payers (Harold, 2007).



Discussion

Staffing strategy flows from the organization (hospital in this case)'s (hospital in this case) mission, strategic plan, goals, and objectives that, in turn, influence human resource planning efforts. Human resource plans are developed for the organization (hospital in this case) as a whole and, in larger organizations, for each business unit (Gubman, 2006). From the staffing perspective, the human resource plan examines an organization (hospital in this case)'s demand for labor and the current labor supply to determine whether any gaps exist. Plans are devised to address the gaps and achieve the desired staffing levels (Ingram, 2008). Finally, the plan should address issues of diversity and affirmative action (Caruth, 2007).

Staffing Plan and Job Analysis

Human resource planning helps to identify gaps in supply and demand, but what specifically needs to be known in order to recruit, select, and employ new personnel? All staffing systems are essentially matching processes that evaluate the fit between individual and organizational characteristics. Traditionally, the fit between the individual and a particular position was examined, but increasingly the overall fit with the organization (hospital in this case) is most important (Bowen, 2006). The way in which organizations assess individuals to determine the suitability of the fit will be examined below in connection with recruitment and selection processes (Bechet, 2002).

Organizations assess jobs and job families through systematic study called job analysis, a process that describes and records job behaviors and activities. Job analysis is generally considered the backbone of an effective human resource management system, and it is particularly important in staffing functions of recruitment and selection, as well as assessing the level of job performance. Job analysis involves the collection of information about jobs in the organization (hospital in this case) (not the persons holding the jobs). As such, the analysis focuses on duties, responsibilities, knowledge, skills, and other characteristics required to perform the job (Arvey, 2008).

Job analysis information is used as a basis for job descriptions and job specifications. These written documents summarize the information collected during the analysis phase. Job descriptions include the job title, duties, responsibilities, task activities with relative importance of each, job context and working conditions, and the date of the analysis. The date is important, since jobs evolve and shift over time as organizational conditions and technologies change and ...