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HR practices in healthcare: Undergoing a sea change | Modernmedicare.co.in

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HR practices in healthcare: Undergoing a sea change

February 18, 2011 November 2009 Saloni Vora

Today, due to the emergence of multispeciality hospitals, India is being looked upon as an upcoming destination for medical tourism. In the midst of this, HR departments in various healthcare organisations face the challenging task of attracting, recruiting, training and retaining healthcare professionals. Human resources (HR) departments play a vital role in helping the organisation meet its strategic goals by managing the workforce effectively and efficiently. The HR departments in various healthcare organisations have implemented several functional changes by conducting a detailed review of the operations. Of these, talent management is of paramount importance. Hence, attracting and retaining the much-needed talent & preventing them from migrating to greener

Ankush Gupta
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HR practices in healthcare: Undergoing a sea change | Modernmedicare.co.in

pastures remain a major challenge for HR professionals in the healthcare sector. Agrees Ankush Gupta, Senior Manager Human Resource, P D Hinduja National Hospital & Medical Research Centre, Healthcare organisations are people-intensive organisations. Despite the influence of the downturn, the healthcare industry has not witnessed any rightsizing activity. This is due to the simple reason that despite all the technological advancements, service delivery is largely based on human intervention. Evolving HR practices in healthcare The past decade has witnessed a sea change in the functioning of HR departments. Today HR departments are impacting the organisation like never before they are not only recruiting the employees but also training them and ensuring that they are good performers. In addition, they are involved in the strategic planning process and formulating policies accordingly in order to ensure that the organisation attains its objectives. Besides, according to Gupta, the biggest paradigm shift that has taken place in the last decade in the healthcare sector is that the patient has now started demanding a complete service experience rather than just a clinical outcome regarding a particular disease or disorder. A popular workplace An individual spends maximum amount of time in his organisation. Hence, it is important to have an environment that results in high productivity and growth. Opines Gupta, Employees are looking forward to compensation at par with industry standards, good work life balance, a sense of equity & justice and a robust performance management system linked to a well-balanced reward system. It is important for HR departments to ensure that they regularly organise continuous

Vivek Thakur learning & development programmes and career advice sessions for them. Says Vivek Thakur, Manager HR & Administration, Dr L H Hiranandani Hospital, They should focus on areas like compensation benchmarking and effective on-job training programmes. Further, they should also introduce new types of awards effective grievance handling mechanism, welfare measures, a friendly atmosphere and safe & ambient working conditions. Challenges Managing human resources in healthcare set-ups like hospitals and clinics is a challenging task for HR departments. Says Gupta, The biggest challenge in the healthcare industry today is the rising salaries and acute shortage of trained manpower at all levels of the hierarchy. Moreover, with India being looked upon as an upcoming destination for medical tourism, it is essential to have the right talent in place at the right time. Further, the quality of the workforce in an industry where health services are rendered cannot be compromised. HR staff recruiting healthcare professionals need to continuously keep adopting novel ways of screening their candidates, conducting different examinations & tests to judge the skill of the professional and his/her ability to handle pressure situations effectively. Further, India records an extremely low nurse to population ratio. Many well-qualified & trained nurses are recruited by hospitals in countries like the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand, among others. Future outlook HR departments in hospitals, clinics and other healthcare set-ups face a major future challenge in attracting, recruiting, training and retaining this talent group. Gupta concludes, Today, there is talent pool deficit and cut-throat competition to acquire these limited resources. Hence, it is important for an organisation to develop their future leadership plan and train & groom talent in-house. Moreover, considering the future perspective, healthcare organisations should also concentrate on job or external training programmes. (mmedit@infomedia18.in)

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