Executive summary
Qualified and motivated human resources are vital for sufficient health care service provision. People need to be well managed to so that their effort could be geared toward realizing the goals and the objectives of the organization. Human resources are the collective term that is used to refer to all the people that work for the organization. This research addresses the approach to human resource planning and management that is adopted by BUPA international, a health care organization for the elderly. The report also investigates whether the organization has a current Workforce Plan, workforce profile and how it analyses future workforce supply and requirements, the analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the organization’s present and future human resource planning strategy. The research recommends strategies for improving the organization’s approach to planning and human resources management, including reference to development (or update) of a Workforce Plan and finally Determine the level to which the strategies have been implemented (European Observatory on Health care systems, 1999, 1).
The data has been searched through exploring published date and secondary data. I have also used databases, journals and other materials that are relevant to the subject of study. This report has been compiled from information gathered from relevant literature of international organizations and institutions involved with research or interventions in performance.
The findings show that BUPA international has a well organised work force which they have collectively based on skills and competencies. The human resources therefore been well managed and planned; they have ensured the right people for the specified jobs in the organisations.
The organisation has proofed to have a well organised workforce plan and profile though it is still wanting to some extent. This article discusses how well BUPA has implemented this plan and laid down its profile.
Introduction
The most valued assets in any organization are the people who work to achieve the goals of that organization. People need to be well managed so as to gear their effort toward achieving the vision of the organization. Human resources are the collective term that is used to refer to all the people that work for the organization. These human resources therefore need to be well managed and planned. Human resource planning is a strategy that is applied by most organization in ensuring that the organization has the right people to work for it in the specified jobs. The concept of human resource planning entails planning on how to retain the best employees, how the company plans to source the best candidates for the jobs and analysis of the skills possessed by the candidate and the relevant training. Related to human resource planning is human resource management that entails managing people in an organization by employing them, enhancing their skills and capabilities and applying them to the needs of the organization. HRM also deals with compensating the employees for their work and in keeping with the policies of the organization. The changes in the organization are the factors that define the approach that the organization adopts for planning and managing human resources.
The objective of this research is to review a health or aged care organization’s Human Resource Planning and Management strategy. The health care organization under consideration in this case is BUPA international which is a leading health care organization in the United Kingdom. The report of this research addresses the approach to human resource planning and management that is adopted by BUPA international. The report also investigates whether the organization has a current Workforce Plan, workforce profile and how it analyses future workforce supply and requirements, the analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the organization’s present and future human resource planning strategy. The research shall also recommend strategies for improving the organization’s approach to planning and human resources management, including reference to development (or update) of a Workforce Plan and finally Determine the level to which the strategies have been implemented.
Methodology
The information presented in this report was gathered from the literature materials relating to the human resource planning and management strategy and also what has already been written concerning BUPA international. The organization’s website was also of paramount use in gathering the information. The books, journals, web pages and articles concerning human resource planning and management strategies and those relating to BUPA international were used in compiling this report. Besides the written materials, the report was polished with well thought out ideas concerning the subject of study. Personal opinions were enriched with written literature and the current trends in the organization’s human resources planning and management to compile this report.
Research Findings
The following sections discuss the findings of the research concerning BUPA international in relation to the objectives of the research mentioned above.
BUPA international approach to human resource planning and management
With increased need for health care insurance, BUPA international human resource planning and management has been growing at an alarming rate. This has been necessitated by the need to offer the clients the best services and also the need for the best qualified staffs to work for the organization. The organization serves over 10 million customers and the work force is over 50000 people serving in more than 190 countries around the globe. This huge number of employees calls for proper human resources planning and management strategies in order to ensure that the right people are employed and retained. To respond to this, the organization.
BUPA is a health care group that extends elder care service and medical insurance. It is a leading company as far as nursing services to the elderly is concerned in the UK, Spain and New Zealand. They take charge of 300 care homes and have an employees turn over of 27,000. The top managerial of BUPA is inclusive of head of property, compliance and quality director and four regional directors. BUPA organizes it workforce under two categories those who see the mobile patients in their clinics and those who go for home visits for the sake of the less mobile patients (BUPA, 2010, 1)
In human resource planning, BUPA are very strict on the kind of individuals they put on board. They look for people who are flexible during the programme. They need people they can rely on when projects arise that require people to migrate to other places. They also value skills so much for depend on people who can deliver. They therefore deploy people with strong academic record that means a degree or an equivalent. They also don’t take any skill they take those which match with the required competencies. One is also expected to affirm that they have numerical reasoning and are excellent verbally. BUPA looks for individuals who believe and have a passion of what the organization deals with. This is in term of mission, vision and values. For example understanding well that the heart of everything the organization undertakes is their customers this automatically implies any one who sets his mind to joining them should have the customer at the heart of every undertaking. BUPA seeks for innovative individuals who can comfortably challenge the status of the organization by developing new working strategies (Buchan, 2000, 322).
In their human resource management, they have a high focus to trainings and development. These are meant to enhance the productivity of their employees. Several opportunities for professional trainings are offered through sponsorship. They also encourage team work and team building by enabling closely knit team with other graduates. In conclusion they offer very good salary package and a benefit package. This package is very competitive in comparison with those of other organisations (House of Commons Health committee, 2007, 2).
BUPA international work force plan
BUPA international workforce plan aims at getting the right people who have the desired skills and experience and are available to take up the right jobs as they arise. It also entails getting the right number of people to fill the required positions. For this organization, the work force plan acts as the framework for staffing and is determined by the desired skills, strategic plan, the staffing budget allocation and above all the mission of the organization. Every employee in the organization must be inducted with respect to the workforce plan where the skills and the experience needed are specified. The plan suggests that the employees should be assigned duties depending on their qualifications relevant to the post they were employed to work in. this workforce plan ensures that the company employs the right group of people according to the needs of the organization. This plan is importance as it guides the head of the human resources on the correct criteria for selecting the right people according to skills and experience.
BUPA’s work force plan is channelled to attract, retain and even motivate the employees. Among their policies on strongly held attribute is the offering equal opportunities and diversity as a competitive tool which they take advantage of. Their plan in work force is collectively strategic in that they take advantage of all categories of people not discriminating on terms of disability, religion or belief, gender, sexual orientation, age or sexual orientation. This gives them a wide range of operation for the stigma that arises from discrimination is conquered (BUPA, 2010, 1)
BUPA’s current and future workforce supply and requirements
BUPA international workforce is highly representative though we may not conclusively say that it is sufficient. This is because considering their wide coverage and the number of employees they have, the outcome is they have been able to offer the best within their limit and have successfully been representative. The out of hospital care having become a very agenda in the government following its modernization this has led to increased opportunities for both public and private who offer primary health care.
These opportunities put a challenge on the company to get more employees to meet the increasing needs as time goes by. The qualifications of the employees get challenged with time. For example with the 2006 in line with BUPA vision there was a project need for phlebotomy services which were to be extended to the UK. Due to some inconsistencies which were actually feared and were as a result of inadequate practitioners in that field, restructuring had to be done and trainings incorporated to meet the needs of the customers.
BUPA is known of seeking a country’s brightest heads whenever it establishes itself. It has therefore attracted the young students who are seeking employment. Impressing enough they are interested with quality and qualification which has attracted most of the young professionals (Kabene & Orchard et al, 2006, 16).
The future plan of the work force as a principle of BUPA should be based on the competencies of the people been brought on board. With its highly expanding career scope the future strategies they are laying are those which support more trainings for their new recruits who will help have more effective work out put. This is why there new opportunities within the company whereby they are putting more people on board to catch up with the increasing demand for service providers.
Workforce profile
The workforce profile reflects the job characteristics and individual characteristic. It also looks at the variances or the changes in the two characteristics. The workforce profile assists the organization in the workforce planning and also benchmarking the organizations and its employees. BUPA has a very high workforce profile that deals with the graduates who are ready to be movers and make change in the environment of the organisation. The organization also seeks to improve the profile of the employees through continuous training, team building, and seminars among other activities. These activities are aimed at ensuring that the employees are updated to suit the growing technology. Their skills are enhanced and their experience boosted. There is also well defined promotion strategies where the profile of the employees is further improved. Promoting people to a higher rank gives him a chance of growth by employing his skills to a more challenging working environment.
Their profile of the workforce does not allow people who are not willing to utilise their skills and knowledge they have gained (Personneltoday, 2008, 1). The organisation looks up to build up the careers of every individual they incorporate and do not allow the individuals to stay stagnant. The work force profile has been categorised into two which makes it fit well in the field for it combines the community interest and those of the employees. The employees are helped to build their experience and advance what they have in terms of knowledge and be well grounded (NSW Government, 2000, 2).
Challenges and strengths
BUPA in UK being in a country where there is centralised way of planning with workforce to an extent of controlled intake in university has a big challenge. This is a crisis that has made the organization fully incorporate extensive training for every member they deploy in the organisation.
According to Proctor & Doukakis, (2003, 269), having a proper and good human resource in the health sector increases the organizational capacity to retain the staff and achieve its goal’s. This is due to increased employee performance and efficient use of the employees’ skills and knowledge. As a result, the worker will focus their attention towards achieving the vision of the organization. For they are able to specialise in their areas of expertise and they are not overworked hence they are able to distribute their available time to attend to the duties pertaining to their areas of performance.
A challenge that may face the workforce in future is that the well trained young professional may demand for motivation and incentives in future (Antonio & S. R, 1998, 76). This may occur after they have well established themselves in their career which may cause them leave the organisation. Especially where they have got greener pastures they may leave the company; this will call for the organisation to train other young professional. This is a dangerous aspect that is very common once individuals get skills they leave to utilise it else where and can change the vision of the organisation and affect it set objectives in that the people who started they leave the projects unaccomplished.
Implementation of the work force plan
The concept of human resource planning entails planning on how to retain the best employees, how the company plans to source the best candidates for the jobs and analysis of the skills possessed by the candidate and the relevant training. In many nations where they have branches they have managed to get the best workforce (Imison, Buchan & Xavier, 2009, 23).
The organisation is left with the biggest responsibility of retaining its work force after getting them on board and also training them. They need to implement incentives which would allow them have a more dependable work force especially with the increased rise of other similar organisation. Having a longer time in the field it has enable them have an advantage over other organisation hence their implementation of the work plan is easier due to the workforce confidence in the company (BUPA, 2010, 1)
Recommendations
The organization should be able to develop an Enterprise resource planning which would hep it man all it data from a central point by controlling all the departments from a central point. It would be worthwhile if they would get a trainee for their company who would be able to man this data. This would enable them be able to operate more effectively in terms of management of the workforce due to their wide coverage.
The incorporation of the technology would make work easier and very effective for such a company. This is because they will be able to monitor their work force and also encourage a higher work force profile to work in their organisation for efficiency and also for high work out put. The workers will therefore have a global focus, which would give them competitive advantages (Management science for health, 2009, 2)
Conclusion
Human resource planning and management are of paramount importance in any given organization. It is through the effort of the two departments that the goals of the organization are realized. Organizations should focus on human resources planning and management strategies that are aimed at achieving the vision of the organization by bringing in and retaining the right people in the organization.
Reference List
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Buchan J, (2000). Health sector reform and human resources: lessons from the United Kingdom. Health policy and planning. 15; 319-25
BUPA. (2010). Careers. UK: bupa-intl.com. Web.
European Observatory on Health care systems (1999). Health care systems in transition. London: EOHCS.
House of commons Health committee, (2007), Workforce planning. Fourth report of session 2006-07, vol 1.HC 171-1 London: The stationery office
Imison C., Buchan J., Xavier S, (2009), NHS workforce planning; limitations and possibilities. London: Cavendish square
Kabene, S., Orchard, c., et al (2006). The importance of human resources management in health care: a global context. London: BioMed Central Ltd. Web.
Management science for health. (2009). strengthening human resource management to improve health outcomes. Cambridge: The eManager.
NSW Government (2000), Workforce Profile. NSW: Department of premier and cabinet arms. Web.
Personneltoday (2008). Network Rail extends partnership with BUPA to enhance health services. UK: Reed Business Information. Web.
Proctor, T. & Doukakis, I. (2003). Change management: the role of internal Communication and employee development’, Corporate. 8 (4): pp 268-77.