Forces affecting workplace learning and employee development

Training

The forces that affect working and learning include macroeconomic forces, globalization, and technology. Companies need to adapt and change in response to these external forces in order to survive and thrive. Noe (2010) provides a wealth of examples for the various types of forces that can impact working and learning (such as the increased value placed on human capital and other types of intangible assets). One example not covered in the Noe (2010) text is the impact of electronic medical records on the health care institution. All health care organizations -- from a doctor's private practice to a pharmacy to a hospital -- will need eventually to adapt to electronic medical records in light of the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act. The Act has a provision by which patient records are to be digitalized. The measure will have a tremendous impact on all health care institutions, but only those who are capable of adapting to this change will be the forerunners of future growth and change in the industry.

In response to the transition to electronic medical records, some institutions are mobilizing and engaging their workforces. Others are not. Those that are engaging their workforce have devised methods by which employees like nurses and staff can learn the new technology seamlessly, painlessly, without missing work, or with receiving adequate compensation. There are many ways that organizations can encourage physicians to transition to the electronic medical records too, as many physicians will not be staff members that are subject to the employee training procedures impacting salaried personnel like nurses. Because the electronic medical records provision is universally applied, though, it will become necessary for physicians to learn the procedures of inputting patient data electronically. The health care institutions that can creatively offer incentives and easy ways for doctors to do this are the ones most likely to reap the rewards of the improved delivery of care.