Introduction
For successful development, the organization must constantly identify the existing and potential opportunities concerning the most effective use of its internal resources – intellectual, informational, labor, material, financial, and other. However, Ji and Yoon (2021) suggest that “the source of organisational competitiveness has changed from existing systems and control mechanisms to the management and utilization of strategic human resources” (p. 39). In the context of constant health challenges, every healthcare worker must guarantee the population quality medical assistance, as well as an empathic approach. Thus, the study of different practices for proper leveraging of human capital reviewed in this paper is of crucial importance to the management lead of any organization in the healthcare industry.
Identifying Employees’ Strengths and Skills
Most organizations try at least from time to time to monitor the performance of each employee and the team as a whole. Evaluation presents a certain difficulty because staff performance is determined by many factors, and the identification of employees’ skills and strengths plays a crucial role in the process. The multi-factor model for measuring performance is a complex multi-level system that can be used to evaluate productivity and identify the possible zones of growth for every employee. This model makes it possible to cover all the factors of employees’ work processes and to link them with their skills and knowledge.
Another method of skill assessment that can be used for evaluation is the 360 method. Within this method lies an assessment of the professionalism of an employee by several parties simultaneously: management, colleagues, subordinates, clients, and themselves. This allows the manager to identify inconsistencies between a specialist’s self-esteem and how others perceive them, as well as the desired behavior that is considered most effective in the organization. Based on the estimates obtained, an individual employee development plan would be drawn up. Additionally, if required, adjustments can be made to the management methods and corporate culture of the organization.
Strategies to Improve Employees’ Performance
New technologies determine the need to improve knowledge crucial to a medic’s career. Healthcare workers with a high level of professional training have better chances to achieve high-performance indicators and be capable of introducing new modern technologies and methods of conducting the medical and diagnostic process. Education and vocational training occupy a special place among the factors of growth in labor productivity. Investing in human capital is an important means of increasing labor productivity. The most important indicator of the quality of the labor force is the level of education. Price and Reichert (2017) state that “adequate training and orientation when starting their career, and continuing education throughout their career, were of significant importance to student nurses” (p. 4). Thus, educational policies must be taken into account in order to conduct personnel policy and improve the qualifications and professionalism of personnel.
The first strategy that could help improve employees’ performance is interprofessional education, where healthcare workers from different fields can engage in each other’s education. Shinners (2019) explains that “during formal continuing education, conventional patterns remained – physicians would educate physicians, and nurses educated nurses” (p. 191). However, it would be wise to suggest that doctors and nurses exchange their experiences, too – it could lead to a greater amount of useful insights for both parties.
Another strategy for improving performance is the shared faculty – a setting in which a healthcare professional operates both as a clinical assistant and an academic educator. Shinners (2019) claims that “it helped to introduce clinical nurses to the role of adjunct faculty who can maintain clinical competence while teaching others, and provided a closer connection between clinical practice and academia” (p. 191). This practice can positively affect employees’ ability to continue their education as well as help with building a strong network of mutual help between professionals.
Lastly, changes in the global management paradigm have affected one of the most important components of management – the leadership process. In order to stimulate and inspire employees, a proper managerial approach should be adopted on every level of professional interaction. A great example of a modern model of ethical and effective leadership is the concept of servant leadership. Servant leader sees their purpose in the role of a helper, therefore, making the principle of service their leadership behavior base. Langhof and GĂĽldenberg (2019) claim that “this servant-led culture, in turn, positively influences team performance and employees work’ engagement” (p. 45). Thus, transforming the approach to leadership is an essential prerequisite for enhancing the performance of employees.
Integrating Rewards and Incentives
In modern conditions, organizations have the opportunity to choose among the developed ones or choose their own optimal models of material incentives and moral motivation, depending on their capabilities. That is why an important point is the development of a successful motivation system that would maximally encourage employees to work highly productively and contribute to the achievement of the organization’s goals. However, sometimes, it can be quite difficult to develop effective methods of motivation with a large number of employees. Each employee has their own needs, and an individual approach is quite laborious. For once, general career planning should be considered as an aspect of employee motivation. Allen et al. (2018) suggest that “empowering work conditions are associated with increased organizational commitment even when the employee does not experience the job as personally meaningful” (p. 13). The promotion of personnel up the career ladder, which determines the prospects for their growth, helps each employee to reveal their abilities and apply them for the good of the enterprise.
Stimulating labor can prove to be a rather complicated procedure. Implementing a rewards and incentives system requires certain features to be present: complexity, differentiation, flexibility, and efficiency. The concept of complexity unifies collective and individual motivation and establishes the basis for the system of approaching personnel management. Differentiation implies that there should be an individual approach to stimulating and rewarding different groups of employees. For example, the approaches to stimulating young and postgraduate employees should be different from the experienced ones. Finally, flexibility and efficiency refer to the constant reviewing of the motivation approaches with regard to the current financial and social situation, both inside and outside the organization.
A Vision of Organizational Culture
In the corporate motivational system, a healthy and proper culture establishes a rational and fair structure for remunerating employees’ labor depending on their professional level and qualifications, as well as their efficiency at work. It also gently pushes employees to constantly improve and develop, which is the central idea of the organization’s motivational policy. Complex interaction and integration of corporate concepts of motivation and organizational culture involve combining them into a single whole to carry out joint practical actions and educational activities that lead to a synergistic effect. Thus, a culture that connects employees’ inner ambitions and aspirations with the goals of the organization would prove to be the most prolific for the organization’s productivity.
Conclusion
To properly manage the changes needed for better performance, the managing lead has to establish a strategic framework for describing, predicting, explaining, and controlling phenomena associated with the professional activities of healthcare workers. The premise of such a framework is the assertion that the competence of staff depends on the continuous acquisition of experience, knowledge, and skills, encouraged by constant motivation in the form of rewards and incentives. Moreover, the organizational culture also remains one of the most effective levers of influence on the employees of an organization and a means of ensuring the required comfort for their labor.
References
Allen, S., Winston, B. E., Tatone, G. R., & Crowson, H. M. (2018). Exploring a model of servant leadership, empowerment, and commitment in nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 29(1), 123–140. Web.
Ji, Y., & Yoon, H. J. (2021). The effect of servant leadership on self-efficacy and innovative behavior: Verification of the moderated mediating effect of vocational calling. Administrative Sciences, 11(2), 39. Web.
Langhof, J. G., & Güldenberg, S. (2019). Servant leadership: A systematic literature review—toward a model of antecedents and outcomes. German Journal of Human Resource Management: Zeitschrift Für Personalforschung, 34(1), 32–68. Web.
Price, S., & Reichert, C. (2017). The importance of continuing professional development to career satisfaction and patient care: Meeting the needs of novice to mid- to late-career nurses throughout their career span. Administrative Sciences, 7(2), 17. Web.
Shinners, J. (2019). Continuing education and professional development: Making the connection. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 50(5), 191–192. Web.