What does Human Resources mean to me?

When I hear the term "Human Resources," I immediately think of individuals that work as liaisons between the individual employees and the company that they work for. HR needs to ensure that a proper balance is met so both employee and company have their needs met. I most often think of human resouces as employee advocates.

Pulling from previous knowledge, I know Human Resources (HR) is responsible for a variety of tasks, including: recruitment and selection of new employees; performance and behavior management; and training and educational developement of employees. While HR performs these tasks, the field of human resources is changing and a multitude of other responsibilities is being added. HR plays a role in salary and employee benefits, team building and communication, ensuring the company complies with local, state, and federal labor laws, and strengthening the development of the organization.

Health care organizations are like any other company in that there is a need to ensure that each aspect of the organization runs smoothly. Human Resources is just as apparent in health care organizations as it is in other companies. I believe HR in the health care setting is a little trickier because it is combining clinical and non-clinical staff.

For example, I previously mentioned that HR is responsible for recruitment and selection of new employees. In the health care setting, it is essential to consider both skill and training levels of any new employees. An employee cannot be hired to perform specific tasks in regards to patient care if they have not properly been trained. In other arenas, such as finance, you do not have to be specifically trained on how to do an expense report; it's something that you can be taught on your first day or you can pick it up as you go along. However, the health care is not a field that you can simply learn on the go. Employees need to have gone to school, been trained, passed certification exams and more, just to be considered for a position. HR needs to be sure that employees are accurate with the information they provide on their applications, because lives are at stake.

Human Resources is also required to ensure that employees are receiving up to date training and education sessions as new information is released in the health care field. Health care is changing constantly, and employees need to have the latest information so they may make the best decisions for their patients.

Another example of the importance of human resources in the health care field can be seen through the promotion of effective communication and team building. HR is mostly responsible for ensuring that employees are working together for the good of the company. In health care, employees are not only trying to ensure that they make their health care organziation look presentable, but that the patient receives top quality care. By improving team morale and team building, communication can be effectively improved. Improvement in employee communication and performance, allows for a greater opportunity for a patient to receive quality care.

I believe that proper management of human resources is critical in providing high quality of health care. I think that HR management strategies are greatly needed to achieve better health care around the country. Since health care is delivered by people and to people, I believe that improvement of HR issues is required to improve the care given by any health care organization.