HSA320 Healthcare Human Resources Essay

HSA320 Healthcare Human Resources

Healthcare Human Resources HSA320 Wk 7 DQ

Walker, J. R. (2018). The restaurant: From concept to operation (8th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John

Wiley & Sons.

DQ1:

HSA320 Healthcare Human Resources

Training Programs” Please respond to the following:

· Evaluate two differences between various training and professional development programs in terms of the effects that each difference has on health care human resources management issues.

· Analyze at least two reasons for implementing an organizational and personnel assessment program. Provide specific examples to support your rationale.

DQ2:

HSA320 Healthcare Human Resources

Employee Motivation” Please respond to the following:

· Compare and contrast two of the five types of employee training presented in the textbook. Then, suggest one situation that would merit each type of training for various health care employees.

· Select two motivational theories as they apply to health care. Then, assess the impact of the chosen theories on related health care human resources issues.

Chapter 7

Training, Developing, and Motivating Healthcare Employees

HSA320 Healthcare Human Resources

Introduction
The goal of healthcare organizations is to provide quality care to their patients. Nurses, physicians, and other healthcare providers have direct contact with patients. There are also different types of healthcare employees that provide indirect care to patients. Laboratory technologists and technicians have a major role in diagnosing disease, assessing the impact of interventions, and applying highly technical procedures, but they may never see the patients directly.

Regardless of their roles, employees that underperform could risk the lives of their patients. Research on high-performing organizations, including healthcare organizations, reveals that employees are motivated to perform well by the quality of the work environment. A quality work environment includes initiatives such as employee empowerment, training and career development programs, pay for performance, management transparency and support, and work–life balance (Lowe, 2002). This chapter will describe different motivational theories and different organizational strategies to motivate employees to perform.

How to Motivate Employees
What Is Motivation?
Motivation is composed of two major factors: the ability of the employee to perform well and a work environment that encourages the employee’s performance. If an organization has a quality selection process in place that will lead to hiring of employees with the appropriate knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs), the second component of motivation is the processes that the organization has established to motivate an employee’s performance. According to Hitt, Miller, and Colella (2006), employee performance is a combination of ability and motivation. Two employees may have the same ability, but their performance may differ because they are motivated by different forces. In order for an employee to be motivated, the employee must view the process or environment as a reward that he or she values. Motivational theorists have analyzed several theories over the past 100 years to explain employee performance differences.

HSA320 Healthcare Human Resources

Motivational Theories
Employee rewards can be extrinsic or intrinsic. Extrinsic or external rewards are outcomes that have been developed by the organization that encourage high performance. An employee is motivated by the possibility of achieving a bonus or a promotion. Intrinsic or internal rewards are the positive feelings of employees that are the result of an action such as performing a job well (Knicki & Kreitner, 2009). An employee experiences a positive emotional experience because of his or her positive job performance. Regardless of whether an employee is motivated by either intrinsic or extrinsic rewards, the employee should receive recognition. To ensure that the rewards are valued by employees, the human resources (HR) department should survey employees to assess preference.

There are several motivational theories that have been discussed over the past decades. Four theories will be explored: expectancy theory, equity theory, goal-setting theory, and a four-prong model of intrinsic motivation. They focus on how employees’ feelings or emotions influence their performance. Expectancy theory states that motivation is a function of an employee’s expectation that his or her efforts will lead to a certain level of performance. If an employee works overtime to care for a patient or a laboratory technician works overtime to analyze emergency test results, the employee would expect praise from his or her supervisor and possible overtime pay. As part of expectancy theory, the concept of valence of value is addressed. Any outcome must be considered valuable or have valence to an employee or the outcome will not be a motivator.

Equity theory focuses on employer fairness. Employees expect to be paid fairly in comparison with other employees in the same position and to receive the same rewards if both employees work similarly. If protected class employees are not treated fairly, legality issues of discrimination can result. Equity theory is important in healthcare because of the continued nursing shortage, which creates unequal staffing levels and job dissatisfaction. This is particularly true in hospital settings because there is a higher patient to nurse ratio, which results in emotional exhaustion (Aiken, Clarke, Sloane, Sochalski & Silber, 2002).

HSA320 Healthcare Human Resources

Goal-setting theory states that establishing performance goals for employees encourages employee performance. Setting challenging and specific goals that are realistic to obtain are a motivator for high performance. Employee participation in goal setting may also have a positive impact on job performance (Hitt, Miller & Colella, 2006; Buchbinder & Shanks, 2007).

Thomas (2000) developed a four-prong model of intrinsic motivation: sense of choice, competence, meaningfulness, and progress. A sense of choice is the opportunity an employee feels when selecting tasks in his or her job. This sense of choice is tied into employee empowerment. The employer provides autonomy to the employee when making decisions. A sense of competence is the feeling that occurs when an employee performs a challenging job well. The challenge level of the job relates to the competence level. This sense is related to job enrichment and job rotation. A sense of meaningfulness is the feeling an employee experiences when performing a task that contributes to organizational goals. For example, many healthcare employees experience a sense of meaningfulness because their tasks are directly related to patient welfare. Finally, a sense of progress, which is tied to a sense of meaningfulness, is the feeling that an employee’s tasks are progressing forward and that the employee is not wasting time in performing tasks. In health care, an employee that is managing the chronic disease of a patient feels a sense of progress if the patient physically or mentally feels better.

In general, if employees feel they are being treated unfairly, their performance will suffer. It is important that an organization demonstrate both procedural and distributive justice. Procedural justice occurs when the process or procedures of allocating outcomes is perceived as fair or equitable. Distributive justice is the employees’ perception of how rewards are allocated. Interactional justice focuses on how employees are actually treated by an organization when outcomes are distributed (Knicki & Kreitner, 2009). This is particularly important if an organization has to downsize and reduce the number of employees: If an employer sends an e-mail informing employees without notice or tells one employee personally and tells other employees via e-mail, the employer is not practicing interactional justice.

Motivational Strategies for Employee Performance
Thomas (2000) also developed four building blocks for his four types of intrinsic rewards. For his sense of choice, employers should (1) delegate authority to encourage employee decision making, (2) establish an organizational culture of worker trust, and (3) provide employees with adequate information to make decisions, and finally (4) employees should feel secure if they make honest mistakes as long as they do not compromise the safety of patients or other employees. This is important in healthcare organizations because much of the workload is often fulfilled by teams. Therefore, developing a culture of trust for each of the employees and teams can result in high team performance.

HSA320 Healthcare Human Resources

For a sense of competence, an employer should provide employee training to ensure an adequate level of knowledge for employees to perform their jobs. Supervisors should also provide positive feedback when an employee performs at a high level, recognizing his or her skills. Employees should also be challenged by establishing attainable goals to encourage a high level of performance. Health care is constantly changing with increased use of technology and changing regulations, therefore continuous training provided by the organization is needed. For example, the healthcare industry requires extensive safety measures for many employees’ activities. There are traditional approaches to employee motivation for safety such as speakers, posters and signs, punitive action, and/or awards and incentives. They all have value, but, based on the theories described in the previous paragraphs, employees must value the motivation for promoting safety success. Regardless of the chosen approach, employees should be engaged in the safety improvement process. Asking for employee participation in developing and maintaining a safe work environment increases and encourages employees to achieve these goals because they participated in the process and attached a valence or value to the process (Krause, 2000).

To achieve a sense of meaningfulness, an employer establishes a motivating strategic vision that encourages employees to perform. Employees are given tasks that contribute to the organizational goal. A sense of progress should be supported by a collaborative organizational culture that celebrates milestones and employee accomplishments. A system measures employee performance. In 2009, the National Quality Forum contracted with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to establish performance measures for improving healthcare quality. These measures focus on patient conditions that account for more than 90% of Medicare costs (HHS Performance Measurement, 2011). Based on these measures, strategies will be developed to improve performance.

Training and Professional Development Programs
Training and professional development programs for employees are implemented to increase the knowledge of an employee. Training programs are typically developed to increase employee performance (Byars & Rue, 2006). Employees are trained to develop specific KSAs that are used in their jobs. Like training programs, professional development programs are targeted to employees, but the programs have broader knowledge goals, which can be applied to an employee’s career goals. In addition to these types of training programs, other training programs are often implemented that are more behavior based. Such training programs include diversity in the workplace, business ethics, workplace safety, correction of performance issues, teamwork training, and cross-cultural training.

Organizational and Personnel Needs Assessment
Prior to implementation of any training initiatives, a needs assessment or evaluation is completed to determine types of training needed (Mathis & Jackson, 2006). The first component of the needs assessment is organizational analysis. The organization’s corporate strategy must be assessed to determine the training needed. For example, if an organization is expanding its operations overseas or is increasing the number of foreign employees in its domestic operations, then cross-cultural and diversity training should be provided. If an organization must downsize, the remaining employees may need to be cross-trained in different jobs.

Another aspect of the organizational needs assessment is to determine what training infrastructure is in place. Some organizations have the ability to provide simulations and e-training rather than traditional class lectures. Some organizations offer in-house training, and others contract or outsource the training. These parameters must be assessed prior to development of a training structure.

Employee Analysis
The second component of the needs assessment for training is the assessment of individual employees, or employee analysis. The following questions should be answered: (1) Does an employee lack the skills or knowledge to perform his or her job well? (2) Does the employee need training in other areas such as diversity, safety, or cross-culture? Then, based on the answers to the first two questions, a list of employees is prepared.

Task Analysis
The third component of the needs assessment is task analysis (i.e., analysis of specific activities that are part of a job). Several tasks are part of a job position. Managers need to identify the skills and knowledge needed to perform a task well. The task analysis is used as the benchmark to compare with the employee assessment to determine what training is needed for the employee to complete the tasks well.

Training Versus Professional Development Programs
Training was identified earlier as a program that is specifically given to employees to improve their job performance by improving their KSAs. Professional development programs are more general and target employees’ career goals, not just specifically the jobs they are currently performing (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart & Wright, 2011). The knowledge gained in a professional development program may be used when an employee is promoted or if he or she is moved to another position. If your employer asks you to attend a professional development program, it may mean the employer believes that you have the qualifications and potential to be promoted, and the offer should be accepted.

Planning the Training and Professional Development Programs
The healthcare industry has varied environments that require different training programs; therefore goals are established for these training programs. For example, a hospital training program may have varied levels of training because of the different employees hired such as physicians, nurses, and technicians, whereas a physician’s office training for employees would be less complex because the office is a smaller operation.

Participants must be identified for training programs. All new employees would require training; however, existing employees might also need training. A readiness for training determines whether an existing employee is interested in participating in the training and has the ability to learn (Dessler, 2012).

The healthcare organization must decide whether the training will be provided by the organization itself or outsourced to another company. Does the organization have the capabilities within to provide training?

Finally, the type of training methods must be identified. These decisions should be made based on employee input and surveys of other organizational programs. Evaluation of past training programs can be used to evaluate current programs.

Succession Planning
Organizations need to implement succession planning before they offer professional development programs. Succession planning consists of establishing a long-term plan for the replacement of important employees (Thompson, Strickland & Gamble, 2010). As stated earlier, professional development programs are offered to employees that have potential for promotion; therefore it is important to assess the strategic plan of the company to determine long-term labor needs and to assess potential labor shortages due to employee turnover, both voluntary and involuntary. Establishing a time frame for professional development programs will enable the organization to have employees at the ready to fill future vacated or new positions.

Training Methods
Once an employee is hired, his or her first training session is an orientation, which consists of an introduction to the organization and its policies and procedures (Mathis & Jackson, 2006). The length of the orientation program is dependent on the complexity of the organization. An orientation can be 1 day or 1 week. Orientation consists of an overview of the organization and the department of the new employee; HR issues such as employee benefits, policies, and procedures; and an introduction to the employee’s job. Most employees are provided specific computer training. During an orientation, an employee will often receive an employee handbook, which the employee may sign for to indicate the receipt of the material. Orientation is an important introduction to the new employee’s career at the organization. Anonymous evaluations of the orientation should be obtained to determine its effectiveness. Surveying existing employees about the orientation may also provide important feedback.

On-the-Job Training
On-the-job training is informal training that involves the new employee and colleagues who provide advice about the workplace and job. A new employee will observe an established employee while he or she performs the daily tasks. Internships and apprenticeships are types of on-the-job training. Internships are often established through relationships with academic institutions. Upper-level students in colleges or universities are assigned as interns in an organization. Depending on the length of the internship, students may receive credit for the internship or may receive a small stipend. Internships provide an opportunity for students to learn what it is like to work in a specific industry. In many academic programs, internships are required. Internships may lead to full-time employment.

Many medical students serve as interns at different healthcare facilities to assist with their career preference by providing on-the-job exposure (Byars & Rue, 2006). Many healthcare graduate and undergraduate students are required to perform internships as part of their degree requirement. As for medical internships, healthcare internships provide a glimpse into healthcare organizations. Some organizations hire individuals who have participated in internships because the organization already is familiar with the performance of the individual through his or her participation in the in-house internship program. An internship represents a wonderful opportunity for an individual to experience, on a short-term basis, different job aspects. It may help an individual to decide if the job or the career path is actually the correct one for him or her.

Apprenticeships are skilled trade programs such as carpentry and plumbing. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Apprenticeships, Registered Apprenticeship Model, has 40 programs that address labor shortages and increased demand for skilled workers. The model is a “learn while you earn” method that combines on-the-job training, instruction, and wages earned while on the job. Upon completion of the apprenticeship, the apprentice will earn a certificate that can be applied nationally. For example, a certified nursing assistant level 1 certificate requires 150 hours of training; level 2 requires 1000 hours, resulting in wage increase and an advanced certificate of training. Level 3 apprenticeships focus on hospice care, geriatrics, and dementia (U.S. Department of Labor, 2010).

Classroom Instruction and Computer-Based Training
Classroom instruction is a common method of providing information to employees. Traditionally, employees would attend classroom instruction in the organization’s building. However, with the advent of computer technology, classroom instruction can be delivered electronically. Distance learning programs allow employees to train at different locations via video conferencing. Employees can take webinars (web-based classes) via an organization’s distance learning programs. Many of these electronic offerings can be taken at the convenience of the employees outside usual work hours (Dessler, 2012). Participants may learn in interactive courses online, take exams, and participate in chat rooms. Computer-based training is less expensive and can be more easily customized to employees.

Audiovisual Training
Audiovisual training is another electronic offering that uses classroom material, but it is provided on CDs, DVDs, or as podcasts, which are downloaded lectures for iPods. There are many quality videos on YouTube that can be used for instruction. An advantage to offering portable electronic information is the ability of the participant to review the material for further clarification.

Simulations

HSA320 Healthcare Human Resources

A simulation is a training method that imitates real-life situations and enables employees to make decisions that would mirror real-life situations but without the risk. Simulations are very important in the healthcare industry because many decisions may be life threatening. Simulations allow employees to practice their decision making. In 2004, the Society for Simulation in Healthcare was established to support the increased use of simulation. Simulations that are offered online enable employees to create avatars, which are simulated people that the employees manipulate to reflect their knowledge while performing a task (About SSH, 2011).

Virtual Realty

Virtual reality (VR) is a computerized three-dimensional learning experience. It has become a key feature in training for minimally invasive surgical procedures in understaffed departments and for the completion of those procedures in actual operating rooms (Virtual Technologies Find Real Life Applications in Healthcare, 2011). The three-dimensional nature of VR allows the employee to view an object or environment from all sides and from its interior. A participant uses specialized equipment or can view an interactive environment three-dimensionally on a computer screen. A surgical unit of a hospital can use VR to practice surgery or to view the human body to assist with diagnosing a disease. A Healthcare IT report found that between 2006 and 2010, the U.S. market for health-related VR applications experienced a compound annual growth rate of more than 10%, reaching about $670 million in sales in 2010 (Market for Healthcare Virtual Reality Systems to Grow, 2011).

HSA320 Healthcare Human Resources Essay

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