Human Resource Management Plan Essay

As a startup healthcare staffing agency for per diem, temporary and travel healthcare employment, human resources are our product; as such, a Human Resource Management Plan is vital to the success of this agency. This plan has been put together with input of management/ recruitment, sales and employee representatives. This is tool to aid in the building of this company, clearly defining roles and job responsibilities of the administrative staff; stressing the laws with which this company will comply; adding clear cut job descriptions for the labor force; and includes information on staffing, employee development/training and compensation strategies. Roles and Responsibilities Manager – Is responsible for the overall success of the human resource department. The manager will implement and define job descriptions; the training program; and contracts. The manager will procure all insurance, will assure compliance with JCAHO regulations and make sure that all state and federal statues are met as well as that all relevant laws and regulations are adhered to. The manager is responsible for acquiring human resources as well as being the final decision maker as to the hiring and termination of all employees. The manager must possess the following skills: leadership/management, budgeting, compliance will all legal binds, and effective communication. Sales Manager- the SM will be responsible for: initiating all contact with clients; following up on these contacts; negotiating for a contract between this company and client; ensuring that all contractual agreements are complied with; and developing a working relationship with client’s HR departments. The SM must possess the following skills: leadership, compliance with all legal binds, effective communication, the autonomy to make decisions and the ability to project respect of client and engender the appearance of trust, integrity and a positive image of the company. Support Personnel – the SP will be responsible for: all coding and billing; answering phones; requesting all background searches (criminal as well as credit); light booking such as time sheets and payroll; keeping track of all licenses, certification, contract and insurance expiration dates; scheduling of all employees; sending and sorting all correspondence; placing advertisements; and updating the website as needed. The SP must have the following skills: organization, trustworthiness, ability to comply with all reasonable requests by management and sales, keep a consistent and reliable work schedule, have the ability to keep all information private, and have a good work ethic and personality that reflects the image this company wants to convey. Legal Requirements The sales product of our company is its human resources. As such, there is a myriad of laws and statutes that require total attention to address HR legal compliance. Adhering to these regulations is tantamount to success for this company. The Equal Employment Opportunity Act is the chief statute that this company must adhere to. Every attempt will be made to reduce/avoid violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act that protects against discrimination of race, color, sex (including pregnancy), religion and national origin (EEOC, 2012). Nor will there be violations of the Age Discrimination Act of 1967 and its’ amendments. There will be training in and awareness of disparate treatment of applicants including the EEOC’s new regulations on not hiring based on criminal background so that these laws are not violated (EEOC, 2012). It is our responsibility to give our clients the best candidate to fit their requirements so the job description should reflect clearly and without any ambiguity, the limitations of each position. However, records will be kept in accordance with EEOC regulations of all applicants as well as ensuring that all accommodations are made for any disabilities Punitive and compensatory damages can be levied against this company for violations of these acts. Benefits Required Until this company acquires 20+ employees it is not required to offer certain benefits (EEOC, 2012). The majority of its’ employees will be contract workers and as such, they are required to possess their own liability insurance, will not have access to company provided health insurance, disability or retirement benefits. Government required assistances such as COBRA, FMLA and ERIS plans will not be included in any benefit package until such time as this company hires salaried employees at the required minimum (EEOC, Disabilities 2012). At that time this policy will be revisited. OSHA regulations will be strictly enforced at the company’s geographical location and the appropriate information will be posted. Violations can be subject to penalties of up to $500,000. 00 and up to six months in jail (U. S. Legal, 2010-2013). Job Description of Contract Staff Attached is a sample job description for a RN with a psych component and psych experience. (See addendum 1). This description has been carefully analyzed and developed in accordance with all laws and regulations and will be give to our clients for comparison so that their HR department’s job escriptions are legally within all perimeters required and reflect essential job functions. This description was designed with help from the O*Net Online website and the Uniform Guidelines for Employee Selection Procedures. This company’s mission is to supply RNs’, LPNs’, CNAs’, NAs’, Social service, therapeutic, as well as any other healthcare related staff on temporary need basis for hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare facilities, including home care. Our job descriptions must reflect this clearly and include the requirements given us in the contract with our clients. Any limitations are those supplied to us by our client’s HR department and do not represent limitations on hiring by this company or any employees of this company. Each individual HR department will provide NOLA Nursing Agency with their job descriptions but we reserve the right to change any portion of this design to reflect current laws in agreement with the client’s HR department (Fried and Fottler, 2012, pp. 171,173,174, 176). Staffing and Employee Development Staffing will be guided by each individual job description. Jobs will be filled with the applicants who best fit with the requirements of our clients, suitability of the position and expectations of NOLA Nursing. Our hiring motto is â€Å"Best Person, Best Fit, equals Best Care. † To ensure excellence in training of our per diem staff by NNA before additional training is undertaken after hire, we will use the COPA model by Lenburg. The COPA model of assessment of competency by Lenburg provides for a framework to ensure that teaching and learning of skills by nurses are interactive and student focused. NNA will use this framework to prepare per diem nurses/healthcare staff for employment. Below are the four major questions complied in this model: 1. What are the essential competencies and outcomes for contemporary practice? 2. What are the indicators that define those competencies? 3. What are the most effective ways to learn those competencies? And, 4. What are the most effective ways to document that learners and/or practioners have achieved the required competencies? To further prepare our healthcare staff will use Lenburg’s eight core practice competencies with sub skill to grade new staff and use the data collected to fill out each individual’s skill set. See Addendum 2) It will also be incumbent upon NOLA Nursing Agency: * To recruit the best applicants to fulfill the specified job qualifications for our clients. This will include the initial structured interview which will test job-competency and access the applicant’s suitability for the position. A realistic job preview will be given to the chosen applicant before selection to increase th e success of the person-job/organization fit. (Fried et al, 2012, pp. 209, 211-212) * An employment agreement will be drafted and signed by NNA along the candidate and will be enforced by NNA. A separation agreement will also be initiated by NNA after receiving information by client and if necessary, an exit interview will be performed by same. * Preform all background checks including: job and education histories, criminal and civil backgrounds, validation of licenses/certifications/credentials, and checks of personal and professional references. A report will be made available to clients with signed permission of the applicant and adhering to required laws. Drug screening and physical abilities confirmed if required on job description, * Current individual liability insurance validated: copies kept on file as well as expiration dates of the insurance for each contract employee. * Protected class applications will be cataloged and statistics will be submitted to the appropriate government regulation agencies * CEUs for each applicant will be kept up to date and appropriate to the job description * Each applicant will be tested in a skills inventory and given necessary instruction in weak skills. A web bank of nursing skills will be made available so contract applicants can improve on their skill base. * Compensation and any benefits will be negotiated between NOLA Nursing and the applicant * Any issues that arise in the working environment will be mediated by NOLA Nursing and our client. * NOLA Nursing will monitor their contract employee’s job performances and any deficits will be addressed. * A critical incidents analysis will be kept on each contract employee to better select quality candidates for our clients Recruitment will be through advertisements in web based Job Boards, newspapers and participation in job fairs. An active bank of all applicants will be kept updated with a surplus of personnel available for each potential position. All necessary legal regulations and statutes will be considered in job placement and all information given on a particular candidate will be considered on a need to know basis. Our focus should be on giving our client a smooth, issue-free solution to their staffing deficits. While all attempts will be made to make a right person/right fit for each job description, voluntary and involuntary terminations will occur. To this end, the employment agreement between NNA and the applicant will include a section to negotiate issues resulting in a voluntary termination in an attempt to stay the dissolution of the contract. In case of a non-voluntary termination, NNA will act as representative of the employee to mediate any solutions that could result in the fulfillment of the contractual period. With due diligence performed by our company, turnover rates of temporary staff should be above the rate of regular employees. We make all efforts to satisfy our clients and our most important resource, our employees. Evidence based research by Cummins, J. in the online article, Nurse retention strategies: A growing priority, and Perrine, J, in Recruitment and retention report: Strategies to boost RN retention, have shown that the following strategies have improved retention rates, increasing motivation, satisfaction and performance: 1. Promote an environment where RN’s actively participate in the decision making processes that occur at the unit on the institutional level 2. Improve the perception of respect 3. Improve access between RNs’ and the organizational leadership 4.  Assist staff with education and training to meet the changing market needs 5. Lead by Example Compensation Contracts between job applicants and NOLA Nursing will be finalized after compensatory benefits are agreed upon and contracted by NNA and our client. Compensation will be on an hourly and per diem basis. HR will be cognizant of the market pay scale for each job description and compensation will stay above market value to attract competent candidates. Special attention will be given to equal pay for equal opportunities (Equal Pay Act). Diversity Evidence based research by Singleton, K and Krause, E (Sept 2009) in the Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, has found a correlation between the improving health of a patient and the nurse being of the same culture as the patient. Within legal limits, considerations will be given to the population climate of the institution where the deficit of nurses is occurring. We are an equal opportunity employer so anyone who applies will have the same opportunity to be placed in a position per the job description perimeters. Selection will not be determined by race, age, gender, sexual preference, color, religion or national origin. Realities are that nationwide, 90% of U. S. nurses are Caucasian, and blacks and Hispanics are underrepresented per the US population (Aiken, 2007). All applicants will be looked at equally and attempts will be made to place any qualified applicant. Historical Perspective and Current Trends With the cycles of supply and demand on nursing labor market, the opening of the 21st century found healthcare systems trying to catch up with demand (Fried, et al, pp. 90). Many foreign nurses were brought into the States to meet the demand; nearly 15,000 passed the Nclex in 2005 according Aiken, however at the time, â€Å"American nursing schools were turning away applicants because of capacity limitations. † (Aiken, 2007) Projections are that the shortage in 2020 could reach 800,000 to 1. 1 million with a large block of nurses looking to retire from the labor force by 2020. Aiken quotes that graduation of nurses fell from over 95,000 in 1994 to below 70,000 by 2001 with a false increase from 2002-2005 being older nurses reentering the workforce and foreign educated nurses. Current trends have been to raise salaries, provide scholarships and give other incentives to retain and gain nursing staff. However with the lack of nursing teachers, and facilities, there will be again a nursing shortage of graduate nurses and on the other end of the spectrum; retiring nurses. Per Fried and Fottler (pp. 90), more than 30,000 qualified applicants were not accepted into baccalaureate nursing programs in 2007. With the increase in Magnate policies and the increase in associate nursing programs, there will be a shortage of 4 year nurses in the near future. Per Aiken, increases and shortages of nurses into the labor market is contingent upon federal subsidies. When there was a trend toward nursing layoffs in the period between 1995 to 2000 graduations fell causing the latest shortage of nurses. Wages grew 12. 8 % between 2000 -2004. This caused an upsurge in nursing school applicants and many were turned away. Aiken feels that graduations of nurses into the labor pool seem to be keeping up with demand. However the Affordable Care Act will open up primary care to an additional 40 million Americans with a rise in the market for additional nurses (Wakefield, 2010). Government subsidies have changed per the HRSA scholarship opportunities in the last two years. Where concentration was on increasing RN subsidies, now HRSA is concentrating on grants for nurse practitioners and nursing educators and has significantly reduced the monies offered to two and four year RNs. Once again the cycle of reduced enrollments in nursing school should follow the trend of reduced federal subsidies less nursing candidates. This bodes well for our job market niche and should be the basis for growth in this company