The Importance of Healthcare Human Resource Jobs
Human resources is a growing market as more and more companies work to improve their employee job satisfaction. Each company has many assets, not the least of which are its employees.
A good company will work hard to ensure they are trained, compensated, and safe on the job. This is where the human resources department comes in and where you could find a great future in healthcare.
As you can see, several different jobs fall under the umbrella term of human resources. So, if you enjoy working with people, figuring out the answers to problems, and want to work in healthcare then HR might be the answer for you.
Read on to learn more about how human resource jobs are varied and vital in the healthcare industry.
Functions of the Human Resource Department
You might only see the human resource department once a year at the corporate culture training. Or you might only call the human resource hotline when you have to take a string of sick days in a row. But the human resource department fulfills a large number of functions within any corporation.
Overall, the functions of any human resources department include ensuring the safety and welfare of their employees. A typical human resource department will be responsible for the organizational management of the company.
Some common functions of HR departments, regardless of the industry, include:
- Recruitment and Onboarding
- Benefits
- Claims departments
- Compensation
- Generalists who answer questions for the department and tend to work with the employees more than other HR positions
Medical human resource jobs will need to ensure those functions are covered as well as some others that are unique to healthcare. Examples include continuing education and maintaining a healthy work environment.
The HR department needs to be available to provide the best work environment possible. And then they also need to be there to support the employee when something harmful does happen. Employees need to know the claims department will support them as they navigate the difficult process.
Employees also want to be fairly compensated without having to fight for these rights. An active HR department will work closely with its employees to ensure they feel taken care of. This encompasses all of the many functions of human resources.
Types of Human Resource Jobs
There are a plethora of jobs available in the human resource department. The human resource department is an umbrella term for many aspects within caring for the employees of any organization.
From specialists to generalist there are a wide variety of jobs in the human resources realm. Here are ten jobs you could do in HR:
- Recruitment
- Proper staffing ratios
- Training and onboarding new employees
- Benefits management
- Ensure adequate compensation
- Performance reviews
- Employee safety
- Labor law compliance
- Workman's compensation and claims management
- Attendance and payroll
Overall, human resources encompass a wide variety of tasks and functions. And this is even more evident in the medical field.
The human resources department is vital to the health of a growing hospital. Medical human resources jobs are important in the healthcare industry.
The human resource department covers a plethora of roles. This includes the recruitment of the best graduates from medical schools around the country. And it also includes the continuing education of every employee in the organization.
Examples of Healthcare Human Resources Jobs
Hospital human resource jobs will need to dive a little deeper into some areas than their counterpart industries. For example, the Lean principle likely isn’t usually associated with hospitals.
However, when the Lean HR manager works to make everyone’s jobs more efficient, they need to consider more than simply where equipment is kept. In a hospital, this can have many layers.
They need to consider patient care along with medical supplies storage. For example, you can’t keep all the supplies in one central storage location. Supplies will need to be kept where they are used to ensure employees are not having to walk long distances to get the equipment they need
Each department will need its own storage areas available and accessible to its employees. And likewise, each patient room might need certain supplies as well. Ensuring that supplies are kept where healthcare workers need them is vital to keeping a lean work environment.
Another example of a difference in human resource responsibilities for hospitals is the ongoing need for continuing education for most certified employees. The training department will not only onboard and train new employees, but also ensure that everyone maintains their proper certifications throughout their time of employment.
Annual reviews are a vital component of human resources in any work environment. In the medical human resources industry, they are essential. Employers can learn valuable information from listening to their employees in both personal job reviews as well as in using annual employee surveys.
Healthcare is in the business of ensuring individuals are healthy and productive. This includes not only their patients but their employees as well.
Healthcare providers ensure the well-being of their patients. And, likewise, the medical human resources keeps their employees well.
The Best Employees
Hospitals compete with one another for the best reviews online. And they achieve these by hiring the best employees. From the doctors and nurses to the janitors, it all adds up to a positive stay for patients.
Healthcare human resource departments must ensure they hire the best. Recruitment is a large part of the human resource department. Regardless of industry, recruitment can become a full-time job, and this is especially true within hospital healthcare management.
Hospitals compete with each other to recruit and retain the best employees. Healthcare is becoming increasingly competitive and technologically advanced. Hospitals and other medical facilities must ensure they are hiring the best and brightest to keep up with these advancements.
Hiring the best in the business can provide great talent to any organization. Compensating those employees with attractive and competitive benefits packages leads to higher retention.
As mentioned recruitment and retention are huge parts of any medical organization. They are also both the responsibility of the human resources department.
Due to high turnover rates and the baby boomer generation nearing retirement age, the healthcare field will see increasing high needs for jobs. Finding adequately trained employees is incredibly important for the human resources department. The industry is growing and changing. With this expansion will come new jobs available.
These new jobs will be in high demand. And it is speculated that there will not be enough supply of highly trained employees who can fill all of the job openings that will be created. The gap that will be created by the increased expansion in healthcare, along with the increased retiring healthcare workers, will be too large to fill with our current job force.
As you can see, hospital human resource jobs are vital to the growth and financial stability of every medical facility.
The Proper Care and Training of Employees
That might be stretching the saying a bit. But it is true nonetheless. Onboarding and training of employees help to unify the entire process of a patient's stay at the hospital. Hospitals put a lot of emphasis on following the standards of care for all employees.
The human resources department is solely responsible for ensuring that all employees have had enough training to follow these standard practices. The organization as a whole will see an improvement to not only the efficiency and competency of their employees, but they will also see an improvement in their staff morale which will lead to lower churn.
Burnout in the healthcare field is incredibly high. Employee retention is essential to every medical employee. As a human resource specialist in the healthcare field, it will be vital that you provide the proper staff education to keep efficiency and morale high.
Another aspect of caring for your employees is ensuring proper staffing ratios. This has been an ongoing debate in healthcare for many years. And as a human resource manager in the healthcare setting, it will be an important topic for you as well.
In addition to proper training, taking care of your employees is another way companies can decrease their burnout and turnover rates. One of the best ways to keep employees happy is to offer great benefits. And this is all the more prevalent in the healthcare field.
Offering ancillary benefits such as extra counseling for those in high-stress fields can provide a better life for the employees within any organization. Most hospitals provide wellness benefits, telephone counseling and other benefits for their employees.
The human resources department in any industry must ensure that their employees are aware of and understand their benefits packages. This is even more so important in healthcare. Employees in hospitals are under immense stress, this results in more accidents and more sick days.
Keep Engagement High
An engaged workforce is a direct reflection on the quality of their human resources department. Human resource employees provide an atmosphere that leads to a positive job environment and positive job satisfaction within their workforce.
Strong employee engagement leads to stronger collaboration with one's co-workers. This is especially vital in the healthcare industry. Stronger collaboration leads to fewer accidents on the job and stronger safety in the workplace.
Hospitals are now incentivized to ensure higher levels of patient care and fewer hospital-acquired infections. This leads to improved compensation from Medicare and Medicaid. When a hospital can increase their HCAHPS scores, they can also improve their bottom line.
The best way to improve patient care is to improve employee engagement. This is where the human resource department becomes a vital role within the healthcare industry.
When employees feel taken care of by their employer, they see better results on the job. This is achieved through fair compensation and adequate benefits programs.
One factor in analyzing a highly engaged workforce is tracking the company’s absentee rates. High employee absenteeism can be attributed to either burnout or low employee satisfaction. Both of which are extremely likely in the healthcare environment.
As an HR specialist within the medical field tracking engagement and absenteeism will be essential to your job. Being able to effectively use big data in this way will be very important to you as an HR employee.
The Backbone of the Hospital
Any company will tell you their most valuable asset is its employees. And happy employees who feel fairly compensated and protected will work hard for their employer. Therefore, the functions of the HR department are vital to the success and welfare of every company.
When it comes to hospital human resource jobs, the safety and welfare of the employees are especially vital. Healthcare workers have a very taxing job both physically and emotionally.
Since productivity and performance are directly related to employee and satisfaction, its easy to see how important the HR department is in any company. But even more so when it comes to healthcare human resources jobs.
You have questions about the future of healthcare human resources jobs. And we here at Hospital Careers have answers. If you have any more questions beyond what we have covered in this article, we would love to talk with you. Contact us today so we can help get you started on your path to your new career in medical human resources.
