Maximizing Employee Satisfaction to Boost Healthcare Org's Profits - Essay Sample

Introduction

Employees often play a critical role in the healthcare organization. Notably, most employers in healthcare organizations always strive to ensure that they provide high-quality services that inevitably lead to high profitability. HR managers are bestowed with the responsibility to ensure that employee satisfaction is fostered within an organization to boost their overall productivity. Developing structures and policies to improve employee satisfaction should always be the central focus of any healthcare organization (Fallon Jr & McConnell, 2013). Employee satisfaction and morale have become a serious concern in the medical field around the globe. Most HR managers in a healthcare organization have shifted focus on creating a better environment that enhances employee satisfaction. Creating management strategies is integral to ensure that employee dissatisfaction caused by long working hours and uneven scheduling are adequately addressed to enhance their performance. Healthcare organizations often emphasize on improving patient satisfaction, and that can be effectively achieved when a higher level of motivation is created for healthcare providers (Jackson et al., 2014). Healthcare systems should be built around factors that enrich employee satisfaction to guarantee the provision of high-quality health services. More importantly, the development of an effective management plan will help create short-term and long-term strategies to address the problem of employee satisfaction within the healthcare organization.

Part 1: Problem Identification

Employee performance is always adversely affected by a decline in employee satisfaction and morale (Jackson et al., 2014). More often than not, an increase in patient demand may result in work-related pressure to meet them, and this may create burnout that inevitably reduces health providers' productivity. Most healthcare organizations have a primary aim of satisfying the needs of patients. However, in cases where there is a limited plan on reducing burnout, employees are more likely to underperform in their roles of enhancing patient satisfaction. Further, low employee satisfaction is always reflected in the patient flow into the healthcare facility (Fallon Jr & McConnell, 2013). Patients who feel that they receive low-quality services are most likely to seek quality services from other organizations. Determining the nature and extent of the underlying problem and possible causes would undoubtedly help in developing a management plan to address them.

Low Patient Flow due to Dissatisfaction

Understandably, employee dissatisfaction would be determined when there is a reduction in the number of patients in the healthcare organization. Healthcare providers are the engine of any healthcare organization (Bratton & Gold, 2017). Also, patients always seek to receive quality services. Since employees are embroiled in their activities for longer shifts, they are most likely to be exhausted and provide low-quality services hence discouraging patients from visiting the facility. Moreover, longer working hours are most likely to lead to burnout for doctors and nurses, leading to stress, underperformance, and low morale (Fallon Jr & McConnell, 2013). Undeniably, these factors combine to reveal the extent and sources of the problem that results in a low influx of patients. Key indicators that will help illuminate the nature of the problem are hinged on the overall reduction in productivity and stress levels among employees within the organization.

Frequent Errors

The nature and extent of burnout would be adequately determined by assessing the number of errors made by critical healthcare workers, such as surgeons (Jackson et al., 2014). It is worth noting that medication errors and mistakes always have adverse effects on the lives of patients. The number of errors committed by healthcare providers will provide an insight into the extent of the problem. Additionally, the HR manager should always ask employees if they feel such errors are due to burnout and develop a program that will alleviate the problem (Fallon Jr & McConnell, 2013). More importantly, poor work-life balance for healthcare providers will be depicted by medical mistakes that will assist the HR manager in determining the nature and extent of burnout.

Low Commitment to the Role

Employees who are committed to their roles always bring positive results to their organization. However, in cases of burnout, employees are most likely to deviate from their focus on achieving the set objectives and goals. The nature and extent of the problem can be determined when there is identifiable low employee commitment in undertaking their assigned roles within the healthcare organization (Bratton & Gold, 2017). Further, most healthcare organizations often allocate adequate resources to ensure that patients, who are the critical shareholders in the health sector, are satisfied. However, such an objective is often derailed by low employee commitment caused by burnout.

Part 2: Management Plan

Notably, working for longer shifts has resulted in low employee satisfaction. A recommendation anchored on an employee-centered plan will help in addressing the problem. Long hours and uneven scheduling practices can potentially reduce employee productivity that consequently results in patient dissatisfaction with the services provided within the organization (Bratton & Gold, 2017). It should be noted that the development and implementation of the management plan will help alleviate low employee satisfaction that may cripple the organization's profitability. More fundamentally, a management plan developed with elaborate timelines will define the implementation strategy and marshal relevant resources that will lead to success (Fallon Jr & McConnell, 2013). Moreover, revealing the problem's nature to key players within the organization will equip them with important ideas on the duration it will take them to address the underlying problem. Working for long workers can bring adverse effects such as stress in employees, reducing their morale, productivity, and safety risks. In light of this, therefore, the management plan helps in creating an environment that allows employees to thrive in their work.

Retention as the Core HR Function

The success of the management plan will be premised on retention. Retention involves keeping staff in the organization by initiating programs such as employee training, elaborate compensation plans, improved workplace environment and policies, and internal promotion activities. In the contemporary medical environment, most organizations strive to hire highly skilled healthcare providers to offer quality services to their clients (Anitha & Begum, 2016). In light of this, developing critical policies and practices are vital in promoting employee retention. Further, employee retention will help in the effective utilization of resources to achieve the set goals. Since the hiring of new staff will require more resources, retaining staff will lead to high performance because they possess relevant knowledge about the organization that will guarantee undisrupted operations (Anitha & Begum, 2016).

Key Stakeholders

Understandably, key stakeholders related to the problem are HR managers, doctors, nurses, patients, and the community. Healthcare organizations depend heavily on healthcare providers such as doctors and nurses for their success. Doctors and nurses are responsible for different operations in any healthcare organization since they are responsible for the services provided to the patients (Kujala et al., 2017). Additionally, the HR manager plays a key role in recruiting, selecting, and promoting and developing compensation plans for healthcare providers. Regarding patients, they are the reason for the establishment of healthcare organizations, and their satisfaction is often sought to guarantee profitability (Kujala et al., 2017).

Role and Contribution of Stakeholders

HR managers within the organization will identify the nature of the problem relating to employee satisfaction. They are often responsible for the crafting of schedules that determines the duration the healthcare providers should perform their tasks. Equally important, the HR manager will assist in adjusting working hours and recommend ways to address high patient demand without straining doctors and nurses (Kujala et al., 2017). The HR manager will play a key role in developing a plan because factors such as retention, compensation systems, retention, procedures, and promotion, among others, fall in their domain within the organization. Moreover, doctors and nurses are drivers of critical activities within an organization. Since they are the affected people by burnout, they will play an instrumental role in devising strategies to curb the problem. Also, because doctors and nurses have deep knowledge of their organization's problems, they will undoubtedly play a crucial role in implementing the management plan. More fundamentally, patients form the importance of stakeholders in healthcare organizations (Jackson et al., 2014). Patients will demonstrate the level of services they receive, which will help develop a plan geared towards addressing their concerns.

Incorporating Stakeholders into the Plan

It should be noted that developing a plan requires that key stakeholders be adequately incorporated to guarantee its effective implementation. Stakeholders always have a great understanding of the problem, and this allows them to bring ideas and other problem-solving resources that will enrich the plan. Doctors' and nurses' ideas will be incorporated into the plan since they have immense ideas on how their problem can be addressed (Kujala et al., 2017). Further, these healthcare providers will help improve the decision-making process and assist in the implementation of the management plan. More importantly, patients will be incorporated in the plan as they will present their views on elements they believe will enhance quality services within the healthcare organization.

Short-term Tactics

Undeniably, uneven scheduling, long working workers, and no clear end in sight may wear down on employees and result in dissatisfaction (Jackson et al., 2014). Therefore, short-term tactics and strategies must be developed to ensure that the problem is addressed. The plan envisions the rescheduling of working hours to ensure that employee shifts are shorter to eliminate burnout. Further, encouraging employees to take mental health day will help address their dip in morale and stress and set them in the path of productivity. Also, the HR manager should create a fair workload where employees are shown tasks to be completed and allocating adequate time for their completion (Kujala et al., 2017). Moreover, attaching value to the added hours of work, such as adjusting compensation plans and bonuses, will increase employee satisfaction.

Long-term Tactics

The long-term strategy of addressing the problem will be hinged on developing a comprehensive employee assistance program that will allow managers to discuss work-life balances and how they can be enhanced. More significantly, HR managers and employees should adopt a collective approach in developing a plan that will permanently address the problem of uneven scheduling and long working hours within the organization (Anitha & Begum, 2016). Additionally, training mangers will equip them with contemporary knowledge on how employees can be best engaged and motivated to enhance their productivity. Conducting an employee survey will help improve the employee engagement plan that is critical in assisting the HR manager in developing permanent solutions to the problem (Fallon Jr & McConnell, 2013). Further, the creation...