Human resources leadership and strategy at NH Clinic

Human Resources

Demographics

The demographics of the site chosen for this paper, NH Clinic, consist of a vast group of clinical professionals working at 21 different hospitals across the country. NH Clinic staffs nearly 500 outpatient ambulatory and physician practices as well. The Clinic supports more than 6,600 beds, employs over 15,000 nurses and is affiliated with nearly 14,000 physicians. Its total workforce consists of over 61,000 workers and NH Clinic is the biggest private employer in the state (NH Reports and Facts, 2016).

The staff employed by NH Clinic is as diverse as the state's population itself, with a variety of persons of ethnicities and cultures employed throughout the ranks of the Clinic. It has men and women of a many different races, religions, beliefs and backgrounds in positions of management, throughout the administration, and up and down lower level chains as well. NH Clinic celebrates diversity in its campuses across the country and is an equal-opportunity employer. The Clinic does not reject anyone based on ethnic background, religious affiliation, gender, race or any other type of discriminating characteristic. Its staff and management teams may be eclectic but they are all nurses, doctors and health care professionals who put the practice of quality care before all else. At NH Clinic, employees are united behind the mission of the organization, which is to provide the appropriate quality care to all patients who come to the clinic in need.

Summary of the Interview

The interview with the Director of NH Clinic's HR revealed a considerable amount of information regarding the Director's own view on HR as well as the responsibilities associated with the role. The HR Director described the personal characteristics that make him a good manager as having strong interpersonal skills and leadership skills, along with communication skills and creativity. The Director highlighted the need to communicate effectively, negotiate, and develop warm relationships with many different people. When asked about how he goes about hiring for HR, the Director emphasized the importance of personality (the right type of personality is essential in this line of work) and the ability of the individual to rally behind the department's common vision.

The Director held that employee training is important to an organization because "training familiarizes employees with company policies, work culture, and management" and "strengthens team work and gives a common vision to the organization." Thus, training is essential to the firm's sense of self. A strong motivator for employees, meanwhile, comes by way of training, which allows workers to see and set goals and adhere guidelines as supports.

As HR Director, the interviewee stated that collaboration with other company departments is also a crucial part of the role because in order to give, share and receive information, HR managers have to be effective collaborators and cooperators with other department leaders from everything to salary issues to incentives to budget policies.

The Director also stated that a company's HR needs influence strategic planning by linking "HR management directly to the strategic plan of the organization." The plan allows a vision for the future to be made more concrete and helps with budgetary plans and considerations as well.

My perspective of the HR Director's Roles and Responsibilities

My perspective on the roles and responsibilities of the HR Director is that the Director must balance a great many tasks and oversee several different operations that are interlinked and related in a variety of ways. For instance, the Director heads the department that is tasked with interacting with workers who may have many different concerns, questions and needs -- and HR has to be able to helpfully address each one. At the same time, HR has to be concerned with training workers and promoting a culture in the workplace environment that is supportive of the overall organization's mission and vision.

Moreover, the Director is responsible for communicating with other department managers regarding issues that relate to employees, hiring, staffing, budget, incentives, and much more. The Director has to set plans, guidelines, work with other companies on sharing information, and assist in certain budgetary planning stages by providing information about staff sizes, staff needs, staff turnover rates, future projections regarding staffing, etc.

The Director has to be poised, collected, calm, friendly, firm, and have leadership qualities such as social and emotional intelligence (Sanchez-Nuez, Patti, Holzer, 2015). My impressions of the Director's duties correspond with what research has shown about job satisfaction and the emotional intelligence of managers: the more emotionally and socially intelligent that managers and directors are, the more likely employees are to be happy and satisfied at their jobs (Ealias, George, 2012). The Director gave me the sense that he was very aware of his role in keeping workers happy in their organizational environment. I saw his role in HR as being a supportive one -- supportive of employees and of the overall organization as a whole.

What I Learned from the Interview

What I learned from the interview was that HR is a necessary component of an organization. Just as oil is need to keep an engine from exploding, lubricating the parts of the machinery so that they work together in sync towards the goal, which is to make the car go, the HR department provides the "oil" so to speak between the various parts of the organization: it communicates with employees, trains them to orient themselves to their roles and to the company's vision; it helps other departments know what is taking place with workers, and what is to be expected in various projections.

I learned that the HR director has to be a good and positive manager who shows real concern for the needs of employees but who also solidly represents the organizational vision and mission. As Schyns and Schilling (2013) show, a bad manager will tear a company apart by bringing negative attitudes into the workplace environment and derailing productivity. A good manager like the HR Director will promote positivity and work to support a workplace culture that is bright, inclusive, strategic, disciplined and focused.

Finally, I learned that the HR Director is not there to prevent employees from accessing administrative leaders but rather to help streamline the channels of communication between leaders and workers. Administrations have a lot to do in terms of managing and directing activities, schedules, plans and projects. Having a helpful, effective, and kind HR department that is willing to hear employees and help them with their issues while also being supportive of the administration overall is essential. So I learned to be very thankful of the HR department where I work and to show my appreciation more.

Ways that Nursing Could Collaborate with HR to Achieve Goals

Nursing could collaborate with HR to achieve both the long-term and the short-term goals by helping HR to identify what kind of individual personalities would best mesh with the nursing departments throughout the Clinic. By letting HR know what to look for in nursing candidates, the ideal qualities, traits, and skill sets, HR would be in a better position to more effectively and efficiently hire suitable workers for the nursing staff at the Clinic. This would enable the HR to meet its short-term goals of hiring the right people for the right jobs. It would also enable the nursing departments at the Clinic to play an instrumental role in assisting HR.

As for the long-term goal of promoting the organization vision and culture of the Clinic, nursing could collaborate with HR in developing a training program that addresses the nursing staff directly and helps them to see how the organizational vision applies to their work in particular. By educating nurses on how their jobs facilitate the overall mission of the company, HR can accomplish its goal of supporting the organizational culture; nurses moreover can facilitate this goal by strategizing with the HR department in terms of identifying key roles of the nursing staff throughout the various nursing departments of the Clinic and highlighting their importance. This would help nurses themselves to see how they are valuable in the greater scheme of things and it would also help them to learn and appreciate the values of the organization and promote its culture within their interactions with colleagues and patients.

Nursing could also inform HR of new advances being made in the nursing industry that could help advance both the nursing departments and the company's overall aim to be a leader in health care. These advancements might include information on the role of telehealth services in nursing, tele-emergency services, and e-Health in the various nursing departments (Odeh, 2014; Potter, Mueller, Mackinney, Ward, 2014; Mills et al., 2013).

Conclusion

In conclusion, my interview with the Director of HR at NH Clinic revealed a lot to me about what it means to be a manager of human resources in a large and diverse and very inclusive health care facility. I learned about the need for an organizational vision and mission to ensure that the company's goals are supported by the employees and staff throughout the Clinic. I also learned about the role that HR plays in training staff so that the culture of the organization is sustained via education. Hiring that right individuals for the right lines of work is another important aspect of the HR's responsibilities. To this end, nursing can assist HR in obtaining both short and long-term goals by communicating to the HR department their staffing needs, what they are looking for in the ideal nurse candidate, and how they would like their staff trained in order to promote the values and culture of the organization. Training staff to be competent and effective transmitters of the organizational culture is one of HR's long-term goals, and hiring the right individual for the right job is HR's short-term goal, according the Director of HR at the clinic. If nursing collaborates with HR to effect these goals, the situation would be a win-win for both the nursing staff and departments and HR, as both would obtain what they want and need to meet their goals.