1. HR assignment report: Quality workplace development – Australian government

2. 1.      Executive summary:

The main aim of the report is to discuss some key strategies of human resource management. For this, the report has been continued in three segments. First section of the report illustrates the role of human resource management strategies in attracting the workforce from qualitative point of view. The strategies in this regards are planning, recruitment & selection which are used to get the high quality workforce. Secondly, report highlights the ways of developing a quality workforce through human resource strategies such as orientation & induction programmes for already existing and new employees. In addition, training & development and career development are also a part of these strategies that are used to foster the quality of workforce. Lastly, the next section of the report delineates the strategies utilized for maintenance of quality workforce. These strategies include employees’ retention and turnover management. Therefore, the entire report has been discussed with respect to a particular workforce category of health services. 

1. 2.      Introduction:

Intend of this report is to pick a health category for discussing its human resource management and strategies to attract, develop and maintain the quality of workforce. Therefore, medical category has been taken for the entire discussion and in-depth description for the report. The medical workforce of Australia is crucial for their health care framework. This system requires high level of quality doctors and nurses and excess care for the whole system. Talking about the workforce of Australia’s medical workforce, it refers to the enough doctors, nurses and other clinical staff of good quality at right place. Moreover, the government of Australia has keen interest in this category. In this context, it takes the people into consideration those who are responsible for making the most of return on the investment made by the public. Additionally, it is also ensured that public is treated safely and is provided quality care in medical terms.

2.1 Characteristics of medical sector of Australia:

Furthermore, the characteristics of Australian medical workforce can be described. The number of medical workforce in Australia is almost 50,000 personnel who are spread across following four main health sectors:

• First sector is both primary and secondary private care practice
• Second, both public and private hospital sector
• The community sector funded by public
• Lastly, specialized service sectors such as occupational health, research, etc (Pflaum, 2001).

2.2 Size:

On the basis of statistics presented in 2009 by Australian government for health care sector, the total number of workforce in medical category of health sector is between nearly 70 and 75 thousand in which almost 35.7% are female workers in this category (Productivity commission, 2005).

(Source: Australian medical association, 2012)

2.3 Age:

Moreover, the average age of medical workforce is more than 45 and they work for more than 40 hours per week on an average basis (Australian institute of health & welfare, 2012).

2.4 Scope & objective:

However, it can be said that the workforce in Australia is in shortage. It requires some essential policies in order to make sure that the primary medical care needs of community are being met. Therefore, rate of retirement can be considered as one of the best determinant of workforce supply and general practitioners can be encouraged to remain active. In contrast, report’s main point of concentration is on strategies used to attract, develop and maintain the quality workforce in Australia.

2.5 Structure of the report:

Thus, the report has been structured in the way defining research methodology used for the information gathering, discussing issues with respect to health workforce category in Australia. Following this, the answer has been provided in response to the shortage or excess of workforce. Next, report has attempted to identify the issues in relation to attracting, fostering and maintaining the chosen category of health workforce in Australia. Afterward, the policies adopted by Australian government on account of issues being addressed also have been included in the report. At the end, a key strategy has been selected with respect to each of these three areas of attracting, developing and maintaining the chosen workforce of Australia. Intend of choosing that strategy is to improve the supply of workforce for the current selected category of health workforce.

1. Research method:

The system through which data is collected for the research projects is known as research method. The collected data may be qualitative, quantitative, mixed and critical depending upon the source of data collection. For this particular report, objectives were studied and analyzed of the research. Next, secondary source of data such as books, journals, surveys, statistical data and newsletters have been used for collecting the data. Additionally, graphs and tables included in the report are also a part of secondary source of data. Moreover, the information gathered for the report is controlled, relevant, systematic and critical. Apart from this, the data is empirical because the conclusions have been drawn out are based upon the real life experiences’ hard evidences. Hence, the report has been discussed with respect to Australian medical workforce with the support of secondary source of data, observations, hard evidences, surveys and empirical data. Besides, the qualitative data for the report has been picked from libraries and various information resources.

1. Findings:

4.1 Workforce shortage:

The medical journal of Australia has revealed that the total workforce of medical category of health in Australia has presented a rise from nearly 53,385 to more than about 67 thousand from 2001 by 2012. This survey also demonstrated that a chronic shortage is there and can remain with respect to medical staff in Australia if it is compared on international basis (Kamalakanthan & Jackson, 2006). Moreover, the workforce of general practitioners under medical category has fallen from 133 to near about 128 per 1 lakh persons from 2001 to 2003 and also has remained around this figure through to current year 2012. Although, the workforce in FTE specialists and clinical under the same category has represented a steady growth but the workforce is in shortage on an average basis. According to rural and regional survey of Australia, there are shortage of medical staff such as doctors and other allied health workforce in rural areas (Stanley, 2011).

(Source: The medical journal of Australia, 2004)

1. 5.      Issues in attracting, developing and maintaining medical workforce in Australia:

Workforce planning refers to the process implied by a business in order to ensure that they have the suitable access to the quality and capable candidates which have potential to perform in accordance with requirement of the business. The future success of business and prospects are also made certain through workforce planning. In this context, there are five main constituents which frame an effective workforce plan (Gavel, 2004):

• Environmental scanning
• Profile of current workforce
• View of future workforce
• Targeted future and its analysis
• Gaps’ closing

5.1 Issues in attracting medical workforce:

There are a number of issues in relation to workforce planning, recruitment & selection of medical workforce in Australia. Therefore, the first issues which comes as a challenge before Australia with respect to medical workforce is the demand and supply for doctors. In this framework, Australia does not have proper and active recruitment, selection and integrations program. There is oversupply of doctors in Australia which led to the misdistribution in the country and resulted in undersupply there. In addition, it has to face challenges and compete with medically developed areas            such as U.S, Central Europe, Canada, etc because most of these countries are running active and successful recruitment programs. Another problem associated with workforce planning is gender balance in medical workforce (Productivity commission, 2005).

Furthermore, there is less investment made in relation to skill mix of the workforce which can lead to the better and quality medical workforce. Following this will also ensure the effective and efficiency of medical workforce for patients’ care. The major issue that has been ignored in Australia in terms of doctors being focused more rather than other specialists. However, the survey has revealed that the majority of workforce has other multiple skills and competencies. Besides, there are following major issues in this context:

• Inactive recruitment & selection strategies to attract fresh and highly experienced medical labor force
• The older pattern of working for long hours which distract the workers (Maynard, 2006).

5.2 Issues in developing quality workforce:

Consequently, there are different strategies of developing the quality workforce such as orientation & induction programs, training & development sessions and career development opportunities to the employees which can also be discusses as a challenge for Australia with respect to its medical workforce. All these programs are made to develop and enhance the skills and capabilities of workforce so that better results could be achieved (AHWAC, 2004a).

First issue in this context came forward with need of more training places where general practitioners can practice and develop their multiple skills. However, Australian policy had supported training & development programs for general practitioners and doctors; the main point of focus is on sub-specialization resulting in loss of skilled doctors and other specialists. Next issue is in relation to lack of proper infrastructure, resources, tools & devices and regular supervision of training & development programs in rural regions of Australia (Medical Training Review Panel, 2007).

Apart from this, during such session, work pressure is same and always continues to amplify. Existing incentive plans and career opportunities do not attract older doctors to remain in the workforce. All these issues become an obstacle in attracting and retaining the medical workforce. Next, the doctors and specialists who are delivering services in rural and remote areas do not have options of career development because they do it at substantial personal cost of time and endeavor. From the induction & orientation point of view, there is not enough medical staff available to train, develop and supervise the fresh entrants in the workplace (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), 2008).

5.3 Issues in maintaining workforce:

Next issues can be defined in relation to maintaining quality workforce of medical category in Australia. It includes the management of employee retention and the overall turnover issues in that sector. There are several factors which create issues in retention of the medical department in Australia. Some of them are modifiable and some are non-modifiable factors. Retention is totally based on employees’ both personal and professional satisfaction. Issues are in following terms (Humphreys, 2009).

• Insufficient remuneration
• Less salary package and other benefits
• Intensity of work and pressure
• Long working hours
• Less opportunities for family members
• Employees’ lifestyle and recognition
• Lack of decisive accumulation of similar area of specialization doctors
• Ineffective administration mainly in public hospitals
• Other services’ down gradation

Moreover, the problem can be related to employees’ turnover of the medical sector of health. It is considered as the rate which states that at what rate an employer gains and losses his/her employees (AMWAC, 2005).

1. Policies adopted by government:

Government of Australia, be it state, commonwealth or territory government, have adopted many strategies to address these issues with respect to the workforce shortage, uneven distribution and their development & retention.

• First the medical workforce policy presented sought to develop domestically trained doctors and practitioners of Australia.
• Second, the policy mainly targeted international medical graduates to live and work in the said country.
• Next, the policy encouraged a number of doctors and practitioners to work at the areas where the recruitment of employees is difficult. They attempted to make it possible either by offering incentives or by making restrictions on where a few doctors or practitioners are able enough to live and work.

Another policy was introduced by the government of Australia such as international recruitment strategy which made a global impact on the quality of medical workforce in the country. Through this particular strategy, government passed a rule to recruit oversees-trained doctors in Australia (Australian institute of health and welfare, 2009).

Additionally, they also introduced general practice rural incentive program which was established in 2010 in order to enhance the number of medical & general practitioners and other specialists in rural area. Another program approached by the government is the rural locum relief program which meant to those international medical graduates also who lives permanently in Australia. Other policies and schemes introduced by Australian government are following:

• First, OTD scaling scheme established for five years
• Second, the rural vocational training scheme (Levy, 2011)

Moreover, the minister for health and aging established general practice education and training ltd company in order to supervise and support vocational training and education to those general practitioners who are region based. On the other hand, council of Australian government maintained and developed its strategic frameworks established for medical workforce which stated some following notions (Parliament of Australia, 2009).

• Achieving self-sufficiency in supply of medical workforce;
• Even and appropriate distribution of workforce;
• Good health environment;
• Assurance of highly skilled workforce and its adaptability;
• Recognition of evidence based policies in health system
• Stakeholders’ involvement in the policies established for this strategic system.

In addition, next segment of the report will highlight the strategies from each of these areas of attracting, developing and maintaining the quality workforce in Australian medical health care sector (AHMAC, 2002).

1. 7.      Strategies:

It is necessary to identify human resource management strategy in order to attract, develop and maintain the medical workforce quality in Australia.

7.1 Strategy for attracting workforce:

Vacancies for medical staff can be filed with highly qualified individuals and can be provided with better and expected facilities. For that, candidates should be checked and judged on the basis of compatibility match in accordance with the exact requirement, be it doctor, practitioner or any other specialist. As a result, internal and external candidates can be approached, identified, evaluated and hired by the department (Briscoe, 2000).

(Source: Australian public service commission, 2010-2013)

One of the researches stated that the commonwealth should be proactive enough to select the medical schools and colleges for hiring purpose. Second, Australia can have an access or clearance to issue the non-extendable visas for oversees-trained doctors who are highly qualified and much capable to meet with the requirement of medical sector. Next, remuneration plans and incentives schemes can be considered best playing a vital role in attracting the quality workforce. In order to attract the quality workforce from the developing countries, Australia can pay the compensation to them either financially or socially (Australian medical workforce advisory committee, 2000).

7.2 Strategy for developing quality workforce:

Once a quality workforce included in medical sector of Australia, it can frame a strategy to develop that quality workforce. First, consistent changes can be made for further education, training and development of doctors, practitioners and specialists who all are the part of medical sector. Likewise, the Australian government can play a greater role in fostering the quality workforce. They can introduce new and effective training programs and career development opportunities for the medical staff by establishing policies for working in rural and remote areas (Borland, 2002).

In addition, changes in workplace can be made timely which lead to the job innovation and satisfaction among the staff on account of being promoted or transferred. Performance management should be introduced by the medical department to offer rewards based on monitory or non-monitory terms.

7.3 Strategy for maintaining workforce:

For maintaining and retaining the quality staff, the organizations should bring the incentive and job rotation plans forward. In that case, a provision should also be maintained in order to retain the high quality staff. An appropriate framework is being proposed to maintain and reinforce the existing staff and attract the new staff. The factors involved in that are attractive salary packages, promotion, career pathways, job responsibility and autonomy at workplace. Similarly, housing facilities, partner or family member employment, child care, personal goal achievement, lifestyle and affiliation in the living society are also the strategies to retain the quality workforce (AMWAC, 2000b).

 Conclusion:

On the basis of overall discussion, some decisive points can be drawn out outlining the basic concepts of human resource management strategies in chosen medical category of Australia. Similarly, the report has highlighted the size, age and characteristics of medical sector of Australia. The report has been prepared by using the secondary sources of date such as books, journals and other internet references. In this regard, a survey made in 2009 by government of Australia revealed that the total number of working employees in medical category is more than 70 thousand.   On the other hand, the report also talked about the shortage of workforce due to less number of doctors and practitioners working in rural and remote regions of Australia. It highlighted the analysis made on reports and surveys which are based on hard evidences.

Furthermore, issues such as workforce planning, recruitment and selection of attracting workforce have been discussed. In this context, demand & supply of doctors, the balance between demand & supply and issues of skill mix came forward as the issues. Likewise, the issues in relation to developing and maintaining the quality workforce such as lack of place for proper training & development programs, work pressure during the training sessions and focus on sub-specialization became obstacle in development of quality medical staff. Rest, the issues with maintaining and retaining the staff are with respect to the remuneration, incentive plans, lack of career development opportunities, less salary packages and work load. Afterward, policies approached by the government of Australia overcoming these issues have been discussed such as medical workforce policy, international recruitment strategies, vocational education and training programs, etc. Next, segment of the report illustrates the human resource strategies with relation to these three areas of human resource management which can be taken as the recommendation.

1. 9.      Recommendation:

First, Australian government should introduce a policy which can provide and set a balance of gender in this particular profession. Second, education and training intakes should be adjusted in order to maintain the quality of workforce. Next, participation rates should be increased by encouraging the doctors and practitioners. Likewise, re-entry of medical staff should be ensured by the medical department so that the issue of shortage can be overcome (Borland, 2001).

In addition, net migration should also be ensured by the government of Australia. Productivity adjustments can be made to reinforce the workforce quality. There should be proper and even distribution of the workforce which will lead to the higher level of productivity on being right employee placed at right area. Finally, the skill-mix processes can be redesigned to allocate the workforce’s task in order to achieve the quality (Australian medical workforce advisory committee, 2003).

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