February
2007
Strategic HR
So I am in HR now and it is actually pretty interesting. I feel like I am in a foreign country and am learning their language and culture. Their focus is very different than the focus of hospital operations. HR folks have particular expertise - labor law, recruitment strategy, benefit administration- and that is their world. They apply their knowledge in support of the hospital, but they are at least one level removed from what is going on in the hospital. Instead of the daily census, patient records, and practice guidelines, HR folks focus on requisitions, employee files, and compensation programs. I am not knocking HR. What they do is really important for the hospital, but I am seeing that this disconnection between HR and hospital operations really limits HR’s impact on the later.
I think it is no secret that HR has not typically been seen as a strategic partner in the past. Many HR departments focus on the transactional work of moving paper around. This, of course, is a great service to the hospital, as much of the paperwork is required for legal compliance. HR also deals with those technical, but important hiring/firing/benefits/compensation issues, so that operational managers don’t have to, but, honestly, these are not seen as high value activities. Oh, and HR folks are also good for dealing with unions.
The good news is that HR can play an incredibly strategic role within the hospital. It just takes a little change of perspective. What is the biggest category of cost for every hospital in America? That’s right, labor. So who owns “labor”? The manager. Yes, but also HR. HR recruits for vacant positions, so that nursing doesn’t have to call upon agency nurses. Got employees with strained backs from lifting patients all day? Go see your friendly employee health nurse (often associated with the HR function). Got employee morale problems. Let an HR organizational development specialist facilitate a teambuilding, offsite activity. Are you a bad manager? We’ve got training courses for that too.
Of course, many HR departments do these things already. But filling job requisitions and providing training courses is not the ultimate measure of success for HR. The secret is leveraging these skills to achieve hospital strategic, financial, and operational goals. If you can focus your HR folks on these things, then HR can truly be a strategic partner.