The human resource department is one of the most fundamental sectors in an organization. The unit highlights an organization’s basics, such as hiring, training, compensating, setting policies, and devising employee retention tactics. Effective management of the department equals a desirable output in the organization. Thus, to achieve the needed outcomes, the management implements flexible and precise policies adhering to the company’s norms. As a result, it will boost employees’ morale, ensuring maximum output to compete with the ever-advancing technology and outclass competitors. This article will expound on the Baptist Health Organization at large; further, it will explore relevant human resource policies that ensure desirable outcomes when critically analyzed and implemented. Finally, it will also betone the implications and recommendations of the highlighted policies.
The Organization’s Overview
Baptist Health South Florida is a non-profit, faith-based hospital in South Florida. The organization is governed by the President, the chief executive officer. Other lower departmental heads from the top hierarchy follow finance, operations, nursing, revenue, and many others. The hospitals see over one million clients annually and offer world-class treatment with 11 hospitals, more than 4,000 physicians, approximately 100 outpatient centers, and 23,000 employees physician practices and urgent care facilities (Boo, 2021). Primarily, the organization operates diversely, and it conclusively deals with inpatient, outpatient, and virtual treatment via a digital platform known as Baptist Care on Demand. Therefore, enabling patients to chat with the hospital specialists through the digital platform directly (Ogunmoroti et al., 2017). Henceforth, the demand grew higher, which inevitably led to an increased number of clients. Ultimately, the organization accomplished its work projects through research on the 200 clinical studies throughout its hospitals, working on the sophisticated field of orthopedics, neuroscience, oncology, and other areas.
Baptist Health is an international company since it deals with patients from all corners of the globe. Moreover, they have a digital platform where patients can acquire services without physically being in the hospital. The hospitals are diverse across the region, as some are located in Monroe, Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties; the health facility is the region’s largest healthcare business. The organization has achieved considerable growth that has been catapulted by trust, maximizing employees’ potential, upholding core values, effective leadership, and innovation. Baptist Health operates in a very dynamic and competitive environment as a health company. The competition from companies such as UHS (Universal Health Services), ChenMed, Larkin Community Hospital, and ProMedica (Ogunmoroti et al., 2017). However, with its 25 ranking on the Fortune 500 Finest Places to Work, the health facility has achieved a considerable edge over other competitors, thus placing the hospital in the top 25% percentile of best organizations to work for (Defne Gencler, 2020). Due to the fact that Baptist Health has increasingly explored new technological advances in curbing diseases and in challenges in longer waiting time in getting appointments, they have overwhelmed their competitors. Notably, human resource management influences competitive advantage in any organization through its role in defining the talents and motivation of its personnel. Moreover, through comprehensive Human Resources strategy and implementation, Baptist Health South Florida has gained a competitive edge.
The culture in Baptist Health is an inclusive hybrid workplace, the drastic changes in the environment, for example, the rise Covid-19 pandemic. In that way, Baptist Health has engineered restructuring its working culture to a diverse one that supports inclusion and equity (Place, 2021). In addition, the organization is in constant demand; therefore, effective information communication is vital. Consequently, during the Covid-19 pandemic, where in-person meetings have been impossible, they most likely use social media platforms like Zoom calls, and phone calls; hence it has broadened capabilities to be in touch with patients (Place, 2021). Furthermore, working in such an organization is a dream for anyone seeking employment since it ensures the physical well-being of personnel, enabling one to have a balance in work and social life.
A robust Human Resources Department and mission statement are required while hiring 23,000 individuals. Every member of the Baptist Health family is aptly ingrained with a culture of devotion and excellence, which contributes to the organization’s prosperity (Hastwell, 2021). The outstanding quality workers’ commitment, compassion, and kindness to clinical and service equal brilliance. Moreover, their devotion towards the pineapple logo ensures welcoming and hospitality in the organization. The logo emblem in pineapple is a sign to create a friendly and pleasant ambiance, such as at a luxury hotel. In addition, all staff members are provided with a pineapple pin to symbolize their unwavering dedication to the hospital.
HR Practices at Baptist Health South Florida
Human resource policies and practices that accentuate individuals’ significance in organizations, developing initiatives to increase the working environment’s quality, talent development, future leadership and measuring the effects of programs. In addition, the department also offers clear and concise performance management policies and remuneration policies representing the organization’s values and objectives. The department further conducts other critical duties as answering queries and request from executive staff, facilitating the onboarding of new leaders and ultimately interacting with all staff and having the opportunity to make a difference.
Statement of Management Philosophy
Employees that are unmotivated and disengaged will be unable to give the highest level of productivity to the organization’s demands. Management has a significant influence on employee feeling about their job and the company. As an impact, they have a responsibility to act in the company’s best interests when the situation calls for it; in spite of that, they do, however, have a responsibility to establish a safe and happy work environment in which their workers can adequately do the tasks assigned to them. Making employees feel appreciated is one of the most critical aspects of establishing this atmosphere. This aim may be achieved by management developing, adopting, and enforcing policies that foster a good, employee-centered company culture.
Policies of Baptist Health organization
Economic output, service standards, inventiveness, and confidence are far lower than they should be at Baptist Health. Each of these policies influenced or still is doing so by the present poor workplace culture. Furthermore, all of these aspects have a detrimental consequence on a company’s prosperity in cases where they are not fully and timely implemented in the corporation. Therefore, the following guidelines should be revised or introduced to reflect an employee-centric approach in order to strengthen Baptist Health’s organizational culture and eventually achieve its long-term mission.
Sexual Harassment
Establishing a harassment-free environment is critical to ensure that workers are able to execute their tasks in a safe atmosphere. Adopting a zero-tolerance harassment policy constitutes an essential step in demonstrating to employees that their protection is paramount to their organization. Harassment policies should have the following features: A description of harassment, a complaint mechanism, an investigation process, confidentiality and non-retaliation rules, and disciplinary consequences for policy infringement (Becton et al., 2017). Baptist Health will develop a Workplace Harassment policy, which will consist of Sexual Harassment (see Appendix A), to ensure that workers understand their rights and obligations and the employer’s rights. Hence, it is crucial to include Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Harassment policy for legal reasons, but it also has significant job ramifications. Agreeing to Hörnle (2017), taking a stand against sexual harassment and assault will help employees experience high levels of psychological safety, allowing them to focus on and fully engage in their job, which will increase performance.
Promotion
Every company’s hiring and maintenance efforts are critical for its success. When internal roles become vacant, it may be beneficial to promote an inside worker. Internal workers, for example, are already aware of the company’s standards and culture, but external personnel are not. In fact, a better percentile of employees with the organization’s knowledge are able to accomplish job requirements as compared to just a few who are solid culturally fit and finding difficulties in task completion. According to Chandler and Krajcsák (2021), if an external employee does not match the company’s culture, he may depart, necessitating the start of a new recruitment campaign. Baptist Health will adopt an Internal Hiring Policy (see Appendix B) to ensure that workers are precisely wary of their rights and obligations regarding internal promotions.
Dismissal
Change is difficult; for instance, where beneficial changes require implementation, certain employees may find adjusting to the different working styles challenging. As Alon-Beck (2020) underscores, sometimes, personnel may opt to quit due to the corporation’s modified statement of management philosophy and policy modifications. As a result, Baptist Health will adopt an Employment Separation policy to ensure that employees are informed of their rights and the employer’s when it comes to terminating employment (see Appendix C). The policy mentions that Virginia is a free state for any individual seeking employment. Furthermore, employees have the right to quit at any time. They have the right to terminate a contract without cause at any time unless the reason for termination is discriminatory.
Drugs Screening and Background Check
Owing to the nature of Baptist Health, it is in the company’s best interests to perform background checks and drug tests on all new staff. Moreover, Frederic (2018) accentuates that the organization has a responsibility to safeguard its clients, patients, and workers, and failing to accomplish will jeopardize the firm, at risk of irresponsible recruitment allegations. Therefore, Baptist Health will establish a background check and drug screening policy (see Appendix D) to ensure that workers are aware of the employer’s expectations and the repercussions for breaking the policy.
Benefits and Compensation
Baptist Health South Florida’s primary goal in enhancing policies will be to offer its workers a comprehensive wage and benefits package. Brigman and Bussin (2019) underscore that the Human Resources staff undertakes extensive compensation and benefit assessments to guarantee a competitive market rate for each position. New workers are given the wage range for their roles when hiring rules are set. Candidates with less experience are offered the lowest wage in the field, while those with more experience are awarded a higher rate depending on years of experience. Performance and tenure are used to determine salary increases. Indeed, Chapter 2 of the bill of rights stresses that compensatory time is time off given to an employee for work performed outside of the workweek for which no overtime was paid. Therefore, Baptists will emulate the constitution and uphold the policy, motivating employees.
Importance of the Policies
Productivity, quality of service, innovativeness, and morale are far lower than they should be. The existing, bad organizational culture has a detrimental impact on these elements. The goal of adopting and upgrading the above-described policies is to give Baptist Health workers an improved overall working environment. As Paais and Pattiruhu (2020) emphasize, employee trust in the organization and its leadership will improve as a consequence, leading to a more favorable corporate culture and more employee engagement. Therefore, organizational culture directly impacts organizational performance and employee commitment; also, firms with high levels of employee engagement have reported better corporate results. Hence, employee involvement and other characteristics such as job performance, service quality, creativeness, attitude, and prosperity should increase as the organization’s culture improves.
Impact on the Organization
The cost will be the most significant influence on the company. To effectively achieve this, the HR department will be subject the recruits to background and drug checks, hence accounting for most direct expenditures. In addition, the most recent Paid Time Off policy will result in additional spending since the enhanced vacation and sick leave levels will allow all staff to take more time off. Furthermore, if workers quit the company without using their vacation leave, they will be responsible for paying out the unused time. Finally, employee retention will improve, and employees will stay with the firm longer if efforts are made to promote organizational culture and, as a result, employee engagement.
Recommendations
Although culture cannot be suddenly changed, a company must begin somewhere. The organization’s first advice is that all workers be aware of and comprehend the new policies. The management should guarantee new legislation, and if they are not, the policies and the entire plan they support will be unsuccessful. Following the implementation of these new policies, Baptist Health should assess how the workers feel about the changes. The company’s overall mission is to boost productivity by improving organizational culture and employee engagement. As a result, the firm may ask workers what more projects they would want to see introduced to promote involvement and how they feel about organizational effectiveness to help achieve the aims. Subsequently, they may have consequences; some employees might come up with some fantastic ideas while also being acknowledged and respected by the company.
Plan of Communication
The most crucial communication component will be addressing the new policies with staff as soon as possible, as they all take action on February 14. Ultimately, due to the emergence of Covid-19 restrictions, it is prudent to use zoom meetings when necessary and use social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn. However, the existing model of disseminating information, an example of department managers speaking with their team, is sufficient. Executives could perhaps organize in-person conferences with their personnel, instead of releasing a memo, to be available to answer questions and address concerns due to the breadth of new information. In that way, its impact on employees and the organization will likely be detrimental. Finally, the policy is a critical component that may significantly influence company direction. In this scenario, Baptist Health aims to modify its corporate culture through an approach. Organizations may implement substantial adjustments that will positively impact organizational productivity by understanding the value of the suitable policy.
References
Alon-Beck, A. (2020). Times they are-changin’: When tech employees revolt! Maryland Law Review. 80(1), 120. Web.
Becton, J. B., Gilstrap, J. B., & Forsyth, M. (2017). Preventing and correcting workplace harassment: Guidelines for employers. Business Horizons, 60(1), 101–111. Web.
Boo, J. World’s Best WorkplacesTM 2021. Great place to work®. Web.
Brigman, N., & Bussin, M. H. (2019). Evaluation of remuneration preferences of knowledge workers. SA Journal of Human Resource Management, 17(1), 1-10. Web.
Chandler, N., & Krajcsák, Z. (2021). Intrapreneurial fit and misfit: Enterprising behavior, preferred organizational and open innovation culture. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 7(1), 61. Web.
Defne Gencler. (2020). Baptist Health South Florida. Fortune; Fortune. Web.
Frederic. G. Reamer, ethical issues in integrated health care: Implications for social workers, Health & Social Work. 43 (2), 118–124, Web.
Hastwell, C. (2021). Employee Resource Groups: Company Culture Experts Answer Your ERG Questions. Great Place to Work. Web.
Hörnle, T. (2017). The new German law on sexual assault and sexual harassment. German Law Journal, 18(6), 1309–1330. Web.
Ogunmoroti, O., Utuama, O. A., Salami, J. A., Valero-Elizondo, J., Spatz, E. S., Rouseff, M., Parris, D., Das, S., Guzman, H., Agatston, A., Feldman, T., Veledar, E., Maziak, W., & Nasir, K. (2017). Association between self-rated health and ideal cardiovascular health: The Baptist Health South Florida employee study. Journal of Public Health, 40(4), 456–463. Web.
Paais, M., & Pattiruhu, J. R. (2020). Effect of motivation, leadership, and organizational culture on satisfaction and employee performance. The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics, and Business, 7(8), 577–588. Web.
Place, G. (2021). Employee surveys you can trust. Great place to work®. Web.
Appendices
Appendix A
Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment shall not be permitted if a colleague, client, or another person with whom an individual comes into touch at work makes an unwanted sexual approach. If these unpleasant activities influence the terms of employment or create a hostile work environment, it is deemed unlawful sexual harassment. These activities do not have to be sexual; nonetheless, if they are motivated by particular sex, the assaulter will be charged with sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is a kind of discrimination based on gender, and it is illegal under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Baptist Health follows all federal and state laws. If there are any differences in the legislation, the firm will follow them, and the policy will be effective on February 14.
Appendix B
Promotion
As Baptist Health associates, we are committed as a firm to attracting and maintaining qualified personnel and providing current employees with chances for professional growth. As a result, all job positions will be published internally for five working days before being promoted publicly. At the start of the five-day internal advertisement period, the job announcement will be emailed to all employees. Internal applications will be collected, and if internal candidates meet the position’s requirements, an internal recruitment effort will begin. In an event where internal applicants’ qualifications for the job, the work will be advertised externally, and external applications will be collected, the policy will be effective February 14.
Appendix C
Separation of Employment Policy
Baptist Health South Florida employs people on a regular basis. As a result, the employee has the option to resign at any moment. Furthermore, the organization has the right to end the employment relationship at any moment, for any reason. An employer may not terminate an employee’s employment for any cause that might jeopardize the company’s privileged status. If a worker wishes to end their job relationship, they should tell their management in writing as soon as feasible. The individual shall be informed of their reinstatement eligibility status following the termination of the contractual relationship. The Practice Manager should be contacted with any questions about separation of employment or rehire eligibility. On February 14, this policy will go into force.
Appendix D
Background Checks and Drug Screens
Only after the individual has agreed to an offer of a job would background checks, and drug tests be undertaken at the business’s cost. In all personnel offer letters, successful completion of a background check and drug screen will be listed. Minus the employee’s permission, background checks, and drug tests will be done. Your job will be terminated upon refusal to cooperate with a background check or a drug test. Discipline for failing a background check or a drug test will be assessed on a case-by-case basis and may include removal from the company. If an adverse employment action is required as a consequence of the background check or drug test, the employee has the right to appeal.
Appendix E
Development and Training
Training new and existing staff will be our major issue for a firm, especially in today’s fast-paced corporate world. Therefore, Baptist Health will invest in its workers’ training and development. Human Resource Development focuses on preparing people for present tasks as well as creating knowledge for future performances and responsibilities. Hence the company will realize that progress comes when people challenge their perceptions, strive for personal excellence, and commit to providing opportunities for ability and skill development.