Solution Development
Primary Solution
The primary solution for this project involves a thorough reformation of the Belmont Village HR strategies and methods based on internal research. The research will be aimed at analyzing the current management strategy, workforce organization, and patient quality levels, as well as at collecting information regarding the factors influencing the employees’ intentions to leave.
Based on the research, the management will be required to come up with an effective strategy for retaining existing workers and attracting new professionals into the company. To present extensive information that would allow making conclusions regarding the required approach, the research will have to involve at least four key stages.
First of all, it is necessary to perform a chronological analysis of the organizational changes that occurred before the beginning of the high turnover period. The problem seems very prominent, as even the new workers leave shortly after completing their orientation, which means that the main reason for high turnover most likely lies in the organizational structure or management issues. Since the issue has become prominent in the last four months, it is apparent that the turnover was driven by a change that occurred to the organization.
By analyzing the chronological order of the organizational changes within the past year, it would be possible to identify new policies, practices, or other changes that have led to higher rates of employee turnover.
Secondly, the team would have to review the HR methods and organizational practices that are currently in place at Belmont Village. The data collected as part of the second step should involve information on how the personnel of different levels is managed, the organizational structure of the organization, management theories used to support the HR practices, constituents of the benefits package, and more. This information would represent the organization’s point of view on its HR management, which will be valuable in developing a solution as a result of research.
Finally, it is crucial to collect and analyze the employees’ opinions on management practices and work at Belmont Village. This part of the research should take the form of anonymous questionnaires to be filled by all the workers, which would enable the employees to express their opinion without fear of being penalized. The survey should address the possible causes of high turnover, as identified in the literature review, including burnout, workload, job satisfaction, empowerment, and other predictors. This phase of the research would provide the company with the employees’ view of the problem and would thus be useful in planning the new approach to management.
The second part of the proposed solution is to analyze the information obtained through internal research to identify common patterns and issues and to reform the current management approach to eliminate the problems that could have caused high turnover in the first place. This should be complemented by devising a new recruitment strategy to attract new workers: for instance, an expanded benefits package or flexible scheduling options could be appealing to prospective workers.
Alternative Solution
Although the primary solution will yield guaranteed results, it is costly and time-consuming, as it requires extensive research and many changes to the current management and operations. An alternative solution that will most likely be effective is to promote management practices that improve employee engagement and job satisfaction, as well as introduce new recruitment approaches that would attract a diverse range of new employees to ensure higher rates of retention.
For instance, offering part-time positions would enable the company to recruit nursing students, which would alleviate the workload of full-time workers. Moreover, part-time workers could potentially shift to full-time positions as they gain experience and get rid of other commitments. Improvement of employee engagement, on the other hand, can be achieved through employee empowerment. For example, establishing quality circles would give the management insight into the workforce issues that could be triggering high turnover, while at the same time making workers feel more valued. Overall, taking these small steps could help the company to avoid large organizational reforms while at the same time decreasing the rate of turnover.
Theory Focus
The primary focus of the project is on management and HR theories that promote employee retention and increase motivation. For instance, the primary solution is based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory and the job characteristics model, invented by Hackman and Oldham. According to Maslow, high turnover occurs due to the fact that some of the employees’ needs are not met, which lowers their job satisfaction and motivation.
There is a variety of needs that may be at stake at Belmont Village. For instance, if working conditions are inappropriate (task overload, small rest periods), this means that the workers’ basic security needs are affected. However, if the work environment or the relationships between the co-workers are weak, this affects the social needs of employees. Furthermore, the specific characteristics of the job can make it unappealing to workers.
According to Hackman and Oldham, the work should include five core characteristics, including task identity and significance, skill variety, feedback, and autonomy. If these characteristics are low or lacking, job satisfaction will be affected, and turnover levels will rise. Thus, the primary solution is built in accordance with these theories and aims to identify the particular gaps in the organization’s practical framework that have to be addressed.
Similarly, the alternative solution is based on the theory of Maslow and the model of Hackman and Oldham, as it is focused on addressing the suggested gaps in management practices to ensure that all employees’ needs and job preferences are supported. In addition, the alternative solution proposes the introduction of quality circles. Although these were originally developed as a quality control tool, they are still applicable to Belmont Village, as they would allow employees to participate in HR decisions, thus increasing their engagement and empowerment.
There are few ethical considerations that have to be examined in relation to the proposed solutions. The primary goal of the practices that will help to reduce turnover is to eliminate workforce issues such as increased stress, lack of empowerment, and poor morale. As a result of the propositions, the quality of care will improve, and so will the job satisfaction of employees. When analyzed by the Four Lens model, the decisions made as part of the solution are most beneficial to all parties and have few risks or undesirable consequences. One possible ethical concern is the creation of quality circles.
The circles are usually comprised of a relatively small number of employees, which means that some workers may feel left out. According to John Stacey Adams’ equity theory, this may cause other employees to feel unfairly treated, especially if they believe that they have more expertise or knowledge required to participate. Another ethical concern is the expansion of the benefits package, which will require the organization to increase the HR funding.
This may have an effect on treatment quality, particularly if the management chooses to cut the service costs. Finally, flexible scheduling may also lead to undesirable consequences. For example, it may cause some shifts to be understaffed, which will require hiring more part-time workers, who are less experienced in providing high-quality care. To balance these ethical considerations, the management will have to analyze the risks of every decision and to find pathways to lowering their effect on treatment quality.
Analysis of Key Issues
As a result of the literature analysis, four main issues were identified as factors that have a positive correlation with employee turnover: employee engagement, empowerment, job satisfaction, and workload-related issues, such as stress and burnout. These issues are not only organizational but also ethical, as they contradict the employees’ needs and threaten the quality of services rendered to patients.
Job Satisfaction
Low job satisfaction is among the key predictors of turnover intentions, according to Cicolini, Comparcini, and Simonetti (2014). Low job satisfaction is usually the result of a faulty management strategy, which is why it is usually viewed as an ethical issue: in most industry areas, decreased job satisfaction is associated with low performance and service quality. Analyzing the job satisfaction levels of the employees may be useful in predicting their turnover intentions. Moreover, it can help to outline the most crucial areas for improvement that have to be targeted promptly to prevent the loss of more employees.
Employee Engagement
Employee engagement describes the workers’ affiliation with the company and outlines their sense of value and belonging. Promoting employee engagement has long been viewed as a useful tool in improving productivity; however, it can also be used to promote retention and decrease turnover rates. Although engagement strategies on their own would not solve the issue of high turnover at Belmont Village, they could have a mediating effect (Collini, Guidroz, & Perez, 2015), thus allowing the company more time to solve the core problems and causes of high turnover.
Empowerment
Empowerment was identified among the key strategies to decrease turnover rates (Currie & Hill, 2012; Cicolini et al., 2014). First of all, some empowerment strategies, such as a shared governance model and quality circles allow employees to participate in the decision-making process and to contribute their solutions to the issues faced by the organization. In the case of high turnover, employee perspective is especially crucial, as it could allow the management to develop a creative solution to the problem based on the workers’ comments and ideas.
Secondly, empowerment contributes to the sense of responsibility, thus prompting the workers to ensure better service quality. Furthermore, empowering the workers to perform other duties can enhance their expertise and abilities, making them possible candidates for future managerial or leadership vacancies.
Workload-Related Issues
The increased workload is both a consequence and a cause of high turnover, which makes it one of the core issues to be addressed in Belmont Village’s strategy. High workload usually results in other issues that affect the workers’ turnover intentions. For instance, Laschinger (2012) states that burnout and emotional exhaustion can lead to higher rates of turnover. Increased stress levels are also among the workload-related issues that can cause retention issues in medical companies (Currie & Hill, 2012). Finally, depression is also an important factor to be considered in research and solution implementation, as it is highly prevalent and leads to increased turnover (Chiang & Chang, 2012).
References
Chiang, Y. M., & Chang, Y. (2012). Stress, depression, and intention to leave among nurses in different medical units: Implications for healthcare management/nursing practice. Health Policy, 108(2), 149-157.
Cicolini, G., Comparcini, D., & Simonetti, V. (2014). Workplace empowerment and nurses’ job satisfaction: A systematic literature review. Journal of Nursing Management, 22(7), 855-871.
Collini, S. A., Guidroz, A. M., & Perez, L. M. (2015). Turnover in health care: The mediating effects of employee engagement. Journal of Nursing Management, 23(2), 169-178.
Currie, E. J., & Hill, R. A. C. (2012). What are the reasons for high turnover in nursing? A discussion of presumed causal factors and remedies. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 49(9), 1180-1189.
Laschinger, H. K. S. (2012). Job and career satisfaction and turnover intentions of newly graduated nurses. Journal of Nursing Management, 20(4), 472-484.