One of the ways in which organizations in the healthcare field can gain competitive advantage is through the effective management of human resources. That is why most of the companies in the healthcare field go to great lengths to ensure that they have well-equipped HR departments. Some are actually known to go to the extent of headhunting the best HR management professionals, and to pay them top dollar salaries – just to ensure that they get the HR management function right.
The reality is that we are living in an era when healthcare companies can’t afford to take the HR management function for granted. Gone are the days when ‘personnel management’ was viewed as a ‘by the way’. Today, Human Resource management is one of the core business functions. And any company that cares about its long-term success can’t afford to take it (the HR management) for granted.
There are at least 5 key things that the companies in the healthcare field do, so as to get the HR management function right. In this article, we will be looking at those 5 things that companies in the healthcare field do, in an effort to get the HR aspect right. These are the things you too would need to do, with regard to HR management, if you are setting up a new business in the healthcare field.
In order to get the HR management function right, companies in the healthcare field are known to:
Hire the best HR management practitioners
How well a company’s human resource is managed depends on the caliber of people running the HR department. That is why, as we alluded earlier, the companies in the healthcare field are known to go to great lengths, to get the best HR management practitioners. Just to be clear, the best HR management practitioners in this regard are those who have solid qualifications in the field. Further, the best HR management practitioners are those who have solid experience — complete with track records.
To be in a position to get the best HR management practitioners, the companies in the healthcare field are known – as alluded to earlier – to go to the extent of headhunting. Others opt to enlist the services of recruitment consultants, when it comes to hiring the HR management practitioners. Others still advertise the HR management jobs widely, sometimes internationally, so as to get the best possible people.
Act on the advice given the HR management practitioners
Hiring the best HR management practitioners is one thing. Acting on the advice given the HR management experts is another challenge altogether. That is especially the case when you consider the fact that the HR management experts sometimes give advice that is counter-intuitive. Yet when all is said and done, there is no point in hiring the best HR management practitioners, and then failing to act on the professional advice they give. So this is why the most successful companies in the healthcare field tend to have a policy of always implementing the strategies they are advised to implement by their HR managers. And they do so even when that entails making difficult decisions.
It is therefore possible for a company to have top-notch HR management practitioners, but still fail in its HR management function. This would be on account of failing to act on the advice given by the HR management practitioners. On the other hand, it is possible for another company to have HR managers who are nowhere near the ‘top notch’ – yet it still manages to get the HR management function right. This would be on account of acting on the advice given by the HR management practitioners (which, as we just saw, sometimes entails having to make very difficult decisions).
Invest in the best HR management software systems
In a bid to get their HR management function right, the leading companies in the healthcare field are known to invest in the best HR management software systems. These are software programs that are designed to automate most aspects of HR management. Sometimes, the HR management software systems are included in the integrated ERP suites that most of the healthcare companies are increasingly deploying. In other cases, the HR management software operates on ‘stand-alone’ basis.
This is also where the question of having HR portals, accessible by the employees over the Internet, arises. Today, you find that pretty much every major healthcare companies has taken the trouble to establish some sort of web-based HR portal for its employees. All these things are done with the objective of ensuring that there is efficiency in the management of the human resources.
Allocate adequate funds to the HR management function
In a bid to get the HR management function right, the companies in the healthcare field are known to allocate adequate funds to the function. It is through these funds that they are subsequently able to pay the top dollar salaries demanded by the top notch HR practitioners they have to hire. It is also through these funds that they are able to invest in the latest HR management software systems… and do the whole range of other thing that are necessary, if HR management is to be done right.
Outsource the HR management function
Having realized that HR management is not their ‘core function’, some businesses in the healthcare field are increasingly opting to outsource it to specialist companies. So you may find a healthcare company that has opted to contract another firm (one that specializes in recruitment), to be doing recruitment on its behalf. Some actually outsource both the recruitment and day to day management of support staff to other firms. So you find that the people doing support tasks in such healthcare companies are actually working as ‘contractors’ — as opposed to them being directly employed by the healthcare companies in question. Or you may find a healthcare firm that has opted to hire a HR consultant (rather than an in-house HR director), to be advising it on the best human resource management policies to use.
In some cases, calculations reveal that it is more cost-effective to outsource the HR management function, rather than trying to do it in-house. It is after such calculations that we tend to see some companies in the healthcare field opting to outsource the HR management function.