Human resource managers ensure that an organization has a qualified workforce. Organizations that face staffing challenges may have difficulties delivering their services. Poor staff ratios may force them to overwork, facilitating poor services and increased mistakes. The staffing ratio should be based on an organization’s future needs. Organizations aimed at continuous expansion ensure that they gradually increase their workforce to ensure that they have skilled and enough workers in the future. Human resource managers should ensure that there is a qualified staff at the right time and place to avoid strain in service delivery and create a competitive advantage.
Part 1
St. Anthony Medical Center is one of the biggest hospitals in Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area. The hospital faces a challenge of staff shortage where one staff member is required to attend to many clients. The workers also have to extend their shifts to ensure they only leave when there is a staff to relieve them. For example, the emergency room has few staff members who are always busy. The staff are allocated to a specific number of clients and are instructed to maintain the positions until a staff for the next shift arrives. The staff also do not have enough time to communicate and sometimes leave voice messages for their colleagues to listen. Therefore, the staff may be exhausted and fail to deliver quality services if they are not allowed enough time to rest. The current staffing ratios in the organization cannot sustain the future because the level of benefits will continue to be poor if the right number of staff members are not employed. The best way to have the right people at the right time is by considering the future landscape and pre-emptying the organizational needs in the coming months and years (Williams, 2021). The hospital is competing with other hospitals that are well staffed and can deliver better services. St. Anthon Medical Center handles different cases of different kinds of people. For instance, handling some patients is hard because they speak a different language, and there are very few interpreters. One of the staff had to move from one place to another to answer calls from specific languages. The organization needs to employ more nurses with different skills and language diversity to ensure that it can thrive in future markets.
Part 2
St. Anthony Medical service needs an ideal staffing composition in line with future needs. Every organization needs an in-depth assessment of their staffs before making decisions on production procedures. The most important thing is first assessing the skills and capabilities of the current staff to have an accurate understanding of the manpower behind an organization (Williams, 2021). St Anthony has struggled to ensure the available staff can handle all the services. The organization deals with people from different locations, which may create a communication barrier. The organization needs to ensure that the staff is employed from different locations to ensure that patients do not lack someone to listen and understand them. The medical centre also needs to add the number of staff in each unit to ensure that they can deliver services effectively and cope with the competitive market.
Organizations need to ensure that they evaluate the effectiveness of their strategies to ensure that they are successful. St. Anthony Medical Center needs to determine its goals before implementing any changes. Organizations that have achievable and realistic goals can generate effective strategies to reach the goals. Organizations need to select the factors that impact their personnel availability. The factors would help St. Anthony determine the opportunities available in the organization to guide them on the number of staff to be employed. The effectiveness of the changes that need to be implemented can be evaluated by conducting a gap analysis. Gap analysis compares currently available staff or resources and the required number to easily identify the space to be filled (Wright, 2018). St Anthony health care has gaps in the number of staff in the units and diversity of language for translation purposes. The identified changes required may be effective if it addresses the shortage of caregivers and includes more staff from diverse languages.
Organizations work towards achieving the set goals. However, some organizations may be unable to reach their goals which may harm their progress. Organizations are likely to collapse or work under very low standards that have very little or no benefit to the company. Currently, the is very stiff competition in the business markets due to the increased pressure on innovation and reduced costs (Williams, 2021). Organizations that have weak development strategies may struggle to survive in the markets. St Anthony has a goal of ensuring that there is enough staff in the future who can handle different types of patients. However, the organization may fail to achieve its goals if the right strategies are not used. The organization may lose to its competitors who have adequate staff from different locations. Many patients may have a negative experience in the hospital if they receive poor services several times. The patients may seek to visit other health facilities that have better services. St Anthony may collapse if fewer patients visit it because it may lack supporting money.
Human resources in an organization play a crucial part in maintaining the success of an organization. Studies indicate that competitive advantage can be achieved through people practices in an organization. Companies that value human resources and consider them in achieving their objectives have more positive results (Bubenik, 2019). Human resources are likely to work for a longer period and positively contribute to financial performance. St Anthony can use the available staff as a competitive advantage if they are valued and are part of every goal. The organization may be able to retain its workers for a long-time, avoiding instances of staff shortages. The strategy is effective because it creates a strong competitive power within the organization that boosts production power.
Conclusion
Human resource managers ensure that there are enough workers in all operating units. More so, all workers should possess the required skills to enable them to work effectively. St. Anthony Medical Center faces a challenge of staff shortage that needs to be addressed. The staffing strategy aims to ensure that all units have enough care providers to attend to different types of people. The goals are achievable if the organization evaluates them correctly to ensure they are achievable within the required time. The organization may collapse if the goals are not achieved because it is at a high risk of losing to its competitors. There is high competition in the global market; hence every organization must keep improving its operation strategies for survival. Organizations may maintain their competitive advantage by putting more value on their staff and involving them in achieving their goals. Organizations that value their staff are likely to have positive results because workers will likely serve for a long time and provide the best services. St Anthony can maintain a competitive advantage by putting more support to workers and ensuring that they maintain their jobs for a long time to avoid gaps.
References
Bubenik. (2019). Can HR Strategies Create A Competitive Advantage For Your Company? Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/scholleybubenik/2019/02/18/can-hr-strategies-create-a-competitive-advantage-for-your-company/?sh=3dd3d53b5856
Williams. (2021). Human Resource Planning for Competitive Advantage. Leadership Coaching & Business Consulting | The Epiphany Group. https://www.theepiphanygroup.com.au/post/human-resource-planning-for-competitive-advantage
Wright. (2018, October 25). 5 steps to an optimal staffing plan. Spark. https://www.adp.com/spark/articles/2018/10/5-steps-to-an-optimal-staffing-plan.aspx
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