Amidst all the developments taking place to make India one of the leading destinations for cost-effective quality healthcare, Human Resources (HR) departments in various healthcare organizations are facing the challenging task of attracting, recruiting, training and retaining healthcare professionals. With India being looked upon as the upcoming medical tourism hub, we try to get an assessment of the challenges faced by the HR department in the healthcare industry and some feasible solutions to overcome them.
Evolving HR practices in healthcare
HR departments play a vital role in helping the organization meet its strategic goals by managing the workforce effectively and efficiently.
The past decade has witnessed a paramount change in the functioning of HR departments. Today HR departments are not only recruiting the employees, but also play a major role in training them. Arranging for technology & management workshops is an increasing trend throughout the healthcare industry, which largely depends on the operational efficiency of the staff. It is primarily a responsibility of the HR department to ensure that the employees develop requisite skills & remain updated on latest technology and innovations through such workshops. In addition, they are involved in the strategic planning process and formulating policies accordingly in order to ensure that the organization attains its objectives.
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 and thus the work of HR today has expanded beyond just recruitment.
Creating better working environment
With work pressures increasing, an individual spends maximum time in his organization, in fact more than he spends at his home. Hence, it is important to have an environment that results in high productivity and growth. Employees today look forward to compensation at par with industry standards, productive work culture, good work life balance, good leadership, system linked to a well-balanced reward system etc.
Especially in the healthcare industry that deals with life, the work pressure is more in comparison to the other industries and thus employees go through a lot of stress. It is important therefore for HR departments to ensure it focuses on all the above areas to ensure employee satisfaction and reduce attrition rate. Further, they should also introduce new types of awards, effective grievance handling mechanism, welfare measures, a friendly atmosphere and safe & ambient working conditions.
Overcoming the challenges
The biggest challenge in the healthcare industry today is the rising salaries and acute shortage of trained manpower at all levels of the hierarchy. Also, 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.
Attracting and retaining the much-needed talent & preventing them from migrating to greener pastures still remains top most challenge for the HR professionals in the healthcare industry.
Future outlook
Conclusively, today, there is talent pool deficit and cut-throat competition to acquire talented resources. Hence, it is important for an organization to develop their future leadership plan and train & groom talent in-house. Moreover, considering the future perspective, healthcare organizations should also concentrate on job or external training programs.
