National Health Service Case Study On Strategic People Management

Question

Task: This is an individual research based portfolio assignment targeting 3 strategic people management areas in case study scenario. A 2000 word word-processed portfolio should be prepared for this submission. Choosing an Organisation from the list below, research how the areas of 1) leadership and management 2) Training and development and 3) Talent management underpin Performance management at your chosen organisation.
a)NHS
b)Nissan
c)Easy Jet

Answer

1. Introduction
The present report is bases on the critical examination of National Health Service case study which is targeting 3 strategic people management areas. People management includes the process of training, motivating and directing staffs and employees in organization for the purpose of optimization of productivity and promoting professional growth. Leaders at workplace lead teams, managers and departmental heads to apply people management skills for overseeing their workflow and in boosting employee performances regularly. National Health Service (NHS) is a provider of independent public healthcare provider in the United Kingdom. It provides healthcare services in England, NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland. People management at the NHS includes a variety way to engage people to retain talent and support people in an effective manner. The health service system in UK operates in an independent manner and remains accountable to relevant government. The current scope of discussion on National Health Service case study includes discussing knowledge, skills and behaviours of leadership and management, training and development and talent management at NHS.

2. Leadership and Management
Effective people management includes management of teams and individuals. The readings used from the National Health Service case study signifies that the King’s Fund set a commission on leadership and management encompassing various purposes. NHS England provides health care facility to residents of England hence it has utmost responsibility to manage its workforce in an effective manner such that varied types of patients and their families gets effective treatment and appropriate care at the hospital and allied health care centres (Gilbert et al, p 236). Employees and staffs at NHS includes varied type of people encompassing health specialists, doctors, nurses, supporting staffs, cleaning staffs and many more. All these people need to be coordinated and directed to as to achieve goals and objectives of the organisation.

To become an effective people manager at the NHS, there is needed a number of diversified knowledge, skills and behaviours. These factors outlined from the National Health Service case study underpin leadership and management at NHS for its performance management. The King’s Fund states that the commission on leadership and management at NHS will undertake the following;

“take a view on the current state of management and leadership in the NHS”
“establish the nature of management and leadership that will be required to meet the quality and financial challenges now facing the health care system”
“Recommend what needs to be done to strengthen and develop management and leadership in the NHS.” (The King’s Fund, 2020).

The scenario explored in the National Health Service case study mentions that becoming an effective people’s manager at NHS requires knowledge of healthcare. The manager has to possess;

A certification in healthcare management

a degree in healthcare management

a diploma in healthcare management

He/she also needs to possess requisite knowledge regarding functioning of a public healthcare facility. Apart from knowledge, there are several soft skills discussed in the National Health Service case study which include open and honest communications to be able to interact with employees. There are several skills that a people’s manager needs to poses and it includes;

Empowering employees: An effective manager at NHS needs to help employees in learning new skills and become more productive. It also becomes crucial to provide training to employees to update their knowledge and resources such that they can perform in accordance to assigned tasks complexities and to be able to continue self-learning (Ham et al, 201, p 2). An effective people manager’s skill also provides encouraging constructive feedback for skill-building and encourages in additional skill-building, learning, supporting through challenging projects.
Trust: An effective people manager at NHS needs to be able to build up trust within its team members, which enables the team to work more productively and efficiently. Trust is one of the factor mentioned in this section of National Health Service case study that can be built over a time period by demonstrating technical skills and providing constructive feedback in enabling team members enhance their work quality and skills.
Clarity of communication: A manager needs to communicate when necessary to make employees work together in teams to provide patient care. This will enable teams and individuals in becoming better team members. Communication needs to be in clear and simple language such that it is easily understandable. Common barriers in communication need to be avoided as much as possible.
Patience: It is an integral people manage skill and here the manager needs to make use of empathy, kindness and respect while enabling others overcome barriers. At NHS patience is necessary while training employees’ new staffs, handling conflicts, teaching new procedures or solving problems. When employees trust their managers to be patient, then they can ask for clarification and enhance their work quality in turn.
Flexibility: Working at NHS can be stressful for employees and staffs. When they know that they are working with a manager who can be flexible in his/ her management style positive productivity enhancement is possible.
Conflict-resolution: With tremendous number in patient care and pressure to be answerable to patient families can be quite challenging (Storey, and Holti, 2013, p 1). Conflicts are bound to take place at many instances at the centre, a manager with good interpersonal skills capable of handling conflicts is necessary at such instances.
Active listening: An effective manager at the NHS needs to listen to employees and staff problems or issues in order to filly understand their perspective, concern or question before responding. This also demonstrates engagement while the manager speaks.
Organization: Managing different teams at NHS has to be conducted in a simultaneous manner and helps track and maintain the team’s productivity.

Some of the key behaviours bases on the situation of National Health Service case study that an effective manager at NHS needs to maintain includes;

Having a clear vision with a plan to get there
Making time to recognise and appreciate people who are achieving it
Engaging in team while making decisions
Recruiting and selecting the right people while assigning responsibilities

3. Training and Development
NHS covers a versatile range of employees and staffs with wide range of variations and differences in their duties. The key HR processes that determines performance management of people at work includes training and development. Training is provided frequently to staffs and employees working at NHS. They are especially available for staffs that are lower and middle level in hierarchy at the organization (Hutchinson, and Purcell, 2010, p 360). Through training the staffs and employees are able to cope with the assigned roles. Training at NHS is conducted in an efficient and systematic manner to be able to modify skill set, attitudes and behaviours of employees performing job at NHS. Training procedure at the NHS is conducted through individual need assessment to understand specific skill gaps. Then training is provided to fill in any gaps in performance and lacking skills. HR processes of training need assessment identify specific skill gaps in employees. Feedback and goal settings are HR processes that guide managers to understand their employees better. Training can provide guidance to employee’s ways to develop their professional skills. Training can enable better performance management in the workplace (McDermott, West, Brose, and McEwen, 2012, p 501). Training can enhance performance by giving the employees a framework of ways their task can be completed and what their managers are expecting. It helps centralising knowledge at workplace. Training can be a rewarding experience for the entire organization and its employees, managers as well. Training is one of the key outlined in the National Health Service case study that HR processes that underpins performance management by enhancing employee productivity, higher satisfaction amongst clients, less errors and so on.

Development similar to training provides opportunities to employees to enhance their skills and knowledge levels (Ham et al, 2011, p 114). Development of employees can assist in building a high performing workplace and along with effective human resource planning; it can not only assist in increasing productivity but also in reducing staff turnover. However, development at NHS is expensive activity and needs to be conducted on individual basis.

4. Talent Management
The contemporary issue of talent management identified from the National Health Service case study has been high on agenda for Line managers at the NHS over the past few years. The fast-paced growth of globalization of individuals with rapidly changing workforces requires a well-planned and rigorous approach in regards to talent management (Ford, Harding, and Stoyanova Russell, 2010). Line managers realize that talent is an essential driver of NHS performance. Talent management practices hence needs to emerge as key strategic priority in the organisation to attend to contemporary challenge.

Talent management is anticipating the necessary human capital that is needed by NHS and then planning to abide by such needs. With increasing number of patients to be catered to at NHS and a large number of varied employees, line managers are always working towards fulfilling gaps in regards to talent (Powell et al, 2012, p 105). Line managers needs to continuously identify positions vacant within their organisation and hire suitable persons capable to filling out such positions. Line managers often needs to develop skills and expertise of person in the same department or team such that a person is present with developed skills and expertise of the leaving person to match the position and retain his roles (Macfarlane, Duberley, Fewtrell, and Powell, 2012, p 450). This is especially useful in attending to long term business goals and objectives.

Line managers needs to undertake planning as the initial step of talent management. Then they need to identify human capital requirement by developing job description and key roles. This would enable them to propose a workforce plan for undertaking suitable recruitment. While attracting talent line manager needs to decide way in which recruitment needs to be conducted, that is internally or externally.

Selection of staffs and employees needs to be conducted by evaluating the most suitable candidate, who has skills and capabilities matched to the job role. Talent management is a method that allows attending to contemporary challenges faced by the organization. Developing the right candidate for the job role is crucial such that in case of emergency or any candidate leaving, then the replaced personnel can take up the suitable role in an easy manner. After developing employee for a particular job, orientation program, enhancement of skills, proficiency and aptitude to match the profile has to be conducted (Gallardo-Gallardo, and Thunnissen, 2016, p 44). Retaining employees recruited through talent management is essential to continue attending to contemporary challenges being faced at the NHS. Transiting in talent management allows transformation of employees for attaining vision at NHS. Transiting will enable explaining retirement benefits to employees and also in succession planning or undertaking internal promotions.

5. Conclusion
To conclude the readings developed the National Health Service case study, it can be said that people management skills needs to be present in an effective people’s manager at NHS to be able to handle the complex role. People management includes complicated responsibility and functionality that requires managers to manager and divert their workforce in achieving organizational goals. The National Health Service case study scenario used in this discussion signifies that the diversity of workforce at NHS and their versatile functionalities imposes greater challenges to managers. Managers need to devise their people management strategies in an effective manner so as to able to conduct their workforce in an appropriate manner.

6. References
Ford, J., Harding, N. and Stoyanova Russell, D., 2010. National Health Service case study Talent management and development. An overview of current theory and practice. Accessed from <http://orca.cf.ac.uk/87115/1/talent-management-and-development-an-overview-of-current-theory-and-practice.pdf>

Gallardo-Gallardo, E. and Thunnissen, M., 2016. Standing on the shoulders of giants? A critical review of empirical talent management research. Employee Relations, 38(1), pp.31-56.

Gilbert, A., Hockey, P., Vaithianathan, R., Curzen, N. and Lees, P., 2012. National Health Service case study Perceptions of junior doctors in the NHS about their training: results of a regional questionnaire. BMJ Qual Saf, 21(3), pp.234-238.

Ham, C., Baker, G.R., Docherty, J., Hockey, P., Lobley, K., Tugendhat, L. and Walshe, K., 2011. The Future of Leadership and Management in the NHS: No more heroes. National Health Service case study Report from the King‘s Fund on Leadership and Management in the NHS. Accessed from <https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/default/files/Prof%20Chris%20Ham1.pdf>

Ham, C., Clark, J., Spurgeon, P., Dickinson, H. and Armit, K., 2011. Doctors who become chief executives in the NHS: from keen amateurs to skilled professionals. National Health Service case study Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 104(3), pp.113-119.

Hutchinson, S. and Purcell, J., 2010. Managing ward managers for roles in HRM in the NHS: overworked and under?resourced. Human Resource Management Journal, 20(4), pp.357-374.

Macfarlane, F., Duberley, J., Fewtrell, C. and Powell, M., 2012. Talent management for NHS managers: human resources or resourceful humans?. Public Money & Management, 32(6), pp.445-452.

McDermott, M.S., West, R., Brose, L.S. and McEwen, A., 2012. Self-reported practices, attitudes and levels of training of practitioners in the English NHS Stop Smoking Services. National Health Service case study Addictive behaviors, 37(4), pp.498-506.

Powell, M., Duberley, J., Exworthy, M., Macfarlane, F. and Moss, P., 2013. Has the British National Health Service (NHS) got talent? A process evaluation of the NHS talent management strategy?. Policy Studies, 34(3), pp.291-309.

Powell, M., Durose, J., Duberley, J., Exworthy, M., Fewtrell, C., MacFarlane, F. and Moss, P., 2012. Talent management in the NHS managerial workforce. Final report, National Institute for Health Research, pp.1-216.

Storey, J. and Holti, R., 2013. Towards a New Model of Leadership for the NHS. National Health Service case study Accessed from <https://www.leadershipacademy.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Towards-a-New-Model-of-Leadership-2013.pdf>

The King’s Fund, 2020. The future of leadership and management in the NHS: No more heroes. Organisation culture. Accessed from <https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/future-leadership-and-management-nhs>

Tags: strategic people management national health service united kingdom management critical analysis

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