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Understanding the recruitment processes, management, and development of the health and social care workers is crucial for all employees who manage the health care institutions or are the candidates who want to become team members. If the first group of people should have such knowledge due to the professional duties, for the candidates and team members, understanding of the process and demands is the background for the proper work according to all rules. The current paper consists of four parts that are aimed to explain the factors, frameworks, and approaches related to work force recruitment. The paper also gives the analysis of the most important aspects of group dynamics, explains the means that are effective to monitor and improve the achievements of the workers of health and social care area and evaluates the role of a team leader. The investigation in the context of health and social care practice shows that an effective team work is strongly dependent of the relevant legal and organizational frameworks as well as management style and organisational factors on the teams’ effectiveness.
It is absolutely clear that each candidate, who seeks for a position in the health and social care organization, needs to undergo special preparation and get a peculiar level of skills. However, it is also important to understand that workers’ recruitment is a twofold process that demands special planning from an organization.
Caring Homes offers various social services on the residential basis. Hence, the human resources focus on recruitment of different clinical and non-clinical staff that would be responsible for public and individual care intervention. The sufficient knowledge and skills are the basic demands for future candidates. For instance, the nursing home that offers care to old people with such diseases as Alzheimer’s disease, bipolar disorder, cancer, epilepsy, brain injuries, hearing impairment, Parkinson’s disease or schizophrenia cannot hire specialists who are not well educated about the above-mentioned diseases and have a weak motivation to help people. WHO (2015) reported that a healthcare worker “with the right skills, equipment and support” is the basic mean to translate the universal health and care into reality.
For instance, one should refer to the recruitment of an administrator for the Caring Homes groups. The personal characteristics of a candidate have to correspond to the mission of the group. Hence, a person applying for this position has to be passionate about taking care and supporting older people. At the same time, he or she has to ensure the smooth work of a team and efficient management of all important procedures. As far as the responsibilities include financial arrangements, organizational issues related to the working hours, deadlines, holidays preparation, telephone communication, the particular skills include computer literacy, time management skills, financial literacy, and ability to remain customer-oriented. Consequently, one can see that there are general demands predetermined by the work with old and ill people that always need some basic medical skills. The purpose of an organization and “service delivery requirements” usually predetermine such basic demands (Marsden et al. 2013, p. 16). At the same time, there are some peculiar demands predetermined by the position peculiarities. These demands have to be formulated and planned by the HR department very precisely to represent the clear understanding of all necessary skills, competence, education, and experience.
In addition to this, the process of recruitment of the candidates for Caring Homes or other healthcare organizations needs a definition of the effective means to attract the appropriate candidates (O’Brien et al. 2009). Such means usually include the schedule that can be full- or part-time, decent salary, possibilities of the career development and ensuring attractive working environment. Such choice usually is predetermined by the well-organized planning process, strict distribution of the work roles in an organization, understanding the context and local circumstances and usage of the services that can optimize the process. It is necessary to choose the most appropriate platforms for the advertisement that can include newspapers, local job centre, special websites or recruitment agencies.
Legislative and policy frameworks for a candidate choice usually are based on the active national law and codes related to workers’ rights, health and safety, diversity, anti-discriminatory practice, and care standards. As for the legal frameworks related to recruiting candidates for Caring Homes, one can point out Health and Social Care Act of 2012, Health Act of 1999, Medical Act of 1983, Opticians Act of 1989, and some others that are influential in regulating the professional working in the area (Law Commission 2014). In fact, each separate profession in the area is regulated by a special act and special bodies that include General Medical Council, Nursing and Midwifery Council, Health and Care Professions Council etc. (Law Commission 2014). In addition, there are such acts as the Equality Act of 2010, Protection from Harassment 1997, Employment Relation Act of 1999, Employment Rights Act of 1998 and others (Heyes 2001). Hence, mainly these acts and councils should predetermine the relations between a worker and an employer in Caring Homes and do not provide any distinction of workers according to their racial or sexual belonging.
As for the process of choosing the best candidate, it should happen in several stages and be based on institutional culture of an organization (Shi 2010, p. 137). Short listing applicants, according to the appropriate experiences, is the first stage. A personal interview with discussion of the organizational history, mission, psychometric assessment, referring to “hiring the best program” and offering hypothetical situations is the second stage (Shi 2010, p. 137). Finally, stakeholders, other managers or director can be involved to approve a new member of a team.
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Very often, school or work practices can be become a good example of how the groups of people are organized together for the common purpose to become an effective team or remain a group of separate individuals, who are oriented to reach the common goal. The group experience that I would like to describe was the common project that was given to six definite students as a task to get the higher grade. The group of students organised by the professor to create a project can be regarded as a formal group. However, no leader of the group was assigned. Each person wanted to choose the easier task. Finally, with numerous arguments, the tasks were distributed. Someone had to work on the theoretical part of the presentation; the others had to gather the visual material. My task was to conduct an interview with two people. However, it happened that I got ill and managed to conduct only one. Instead, the group members were not cooperative and finally, emphasized that the lack of one interview was only my failure.
I felt that our group definitely could not be defined as a team. The members were not helpful and supportive. No proper management, coordination and emphasis on the common goal led to the failure of some members and the benefits for the others. Hence, the group work was fractioned and made people think mostly of personal benefits. The further analysis can show that the group lacked a number of necessary features.
A well-organized and motivated team is the background of the effective functioning of an organization or fulfilling of the tasks. Such idea was proved by some scholars, who focused on team management. However, the above-mentioned experience was far from such description. McClelland emphasized three fundamental needs that include achievement, affiliation, and power (Rai Technology University n.d., p. 31). While it is necessary to achieve some specific set of standards, it is still important to support a friendly cooperation and feel the ability to influence others. Belbin insisted that the effectiveness of the group is dependent on the balance within a group, in particular individual skills and personality types (Rai Technology University n.d., p. 39). An effective team should contain a number of character types such as a co-ordinating leader, committed shaper, thoughtful plant, analytical monitor-evaluator, innovative resource-investigator, practical company worker, supportive team worker and reliable finisher. Hence, when shaping a team, it is necessary to see whether all of the functions are performed. Instead, the given group consisted of a randomly chosen people, who had to cooperate for a short period of time. Woodcock has also referred to the high importance of balance between skills and aspiration in a team, open facing of the mistakes, trustful and open relations and competition (Rai Technology University n.d., p. 39). According to Tuckman, team development has to undergo four main stages. On the level of forming, the purpose of the group needs to be defined (Rai Technology University, n.d., p. 36). Storming is mostly formation of objections and rules of behaviour in a team. Norming implies the further establishment of the norms and trust within a team. Finally, performing is operating to full potential. Such stages of formation were not observed due to a short-term cooperation.
Team purpose, empowerment of team, and leadership are the important aspects for any team effectiveness. The weak sides of the current group were the absence of a clearly chosen leader and focus on the individual priorities and roles. Even though all members tried to follow one common aim, they were more likely to serve their own mission than for the well-being of the entire team. Hence, a number of aspects listed above could have been improved.
The steps that need to follow the recruitment of the professional usually include proper instructions that let a new administrator understand his/her duties properly. Acquaintance with the overall history and mission of an organization is also appropriate. Moreover, a person, who works in a team, should definitely get acquainted with its members. In such a way, habituation of an administrator is a good initial step. However, it is necessary to provide at least one month of the probation period with regular monitoring of an employee’s work. The performance can be done with the help of different means. With regard to the fact that an administrator has to work on the computer a lot, it is necessary to follow the history of the actions, especially visiting of websites inappropriate for work has to be strictly limited. Such duties as time management, organization of the events and feeling a part of the team, the work of an administrator will be assessed with the help of feedbacks from co-workers. Separate assessment will be used for each sphere including the relation towards co-workers, customers, satisfaction with the quality of work and effective distribution of working hours. As for the financial operations, the electronic statistics will be helpful to estimate professionalism of a new administrator.
As for the training and development of an administrator, it is necessary to rely firstly on his individual needs and aspirations. Career development is impossible without personal desire to be a part of a team, bring help and support to people and work for the sake of caring homes. In some case, changing personal circumstances can be necessary to support an organization that works with old people. Hence, the task of training and teambuilding is to make a newly hired administrator a real supportive member of a team. In order to do so, an administrator has to understand the effectiveness of system. It is necessary to provide available contact with a manager and director for help with any questions, but ensure autonomy in the important questions. An individual has to feel that his work is important. At the same time, the compensation strategies have to be fair and provide benefits for creative and effective ideas (Shi 2010, p. 176). Finally, the training programs for workers have to be obligatory for a newly hired candidate. Such programs should make him/her understand the system of the work in an organisation. However, the further work can be characterized by the presence of both- optional and mandatory gatherings aimed to elevate team spirit and strengthen the connections within a team. What is important, in health and social care area, the development of professionals is closely interconnected with the evidence-based practice and wisdom (Hafford et al. 207, p. 11). Even though the financial procedures may seem absolutely separated from the care or wisdom, the fact that funds may be brought from charity organizations and the variety of health related situation often make it important to switch on the human factor.
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Strategies for promoting continuing development of an administrator have to be based on several main aspects. Firstly, it is important to understand the fees and funding of this very nursing care. Even though a candidate already had the working experience in the similar sphere, each particular organisation usually has some peculiar features. It is also necessary to know the particular demand for conducting all care, room, indoor, and outdoor facilities. Firstly, an employee has to “be given technical know-how” to do his job (Rai Technology University n.d., p. 60). Later, step by step, it is necessary to provide more responsibilities to a person, not all at once. Training should help to teach the most common situations and essential tasks. However, they are effective by the presence of the basic financial and medical education. In addition to this, internal mass communication with employees is an effective choice to ensure assistance, motivation, involvement in decision-making and getting acquainted with the settings more attentively (Rai Technology University n.d., p. 60). Knowledge and Skills Framework can be also based on special trainings that provide various problematic examples and focus on the care standards that must be known quite well by all workers of the area. In-house training will be common for the initial period and the external courses and experience exchange will be provided on the later stages of work after a candidate has showed his skills and desire for the long-term work in a company.
Effective leadership and management are the key aspects of the successful work in any sphere and health and social care in particular. However, in such organizations like caring homes establishment and support of the positive culture is the major task of a manager. With regard to a number of leadership theories that offer transactional, transformational, emotional approaches, a manager working in the social care has to focus on the inner commitment of a worker and core human values. According to Vroom, it is necessary to motivate people by showing them the goal of an organization (Rai Technology University n.d., p. 30). Fiedler’s contingency model demonstrates that there is no one best approach to cooperate and direct a team. A manager has to be able to adjust to the situation (Rai Technology University n.d., p. 3). Mintzberg emphasized that it is important to make the daily actions specific, but flexible (Rai Technology University n.d., p. 10). Handy emphasized the “best fit” approach to show that there are several factors of successful leadership and they include a leader’s style, subordinates’ characteristics, the task and the environment (Rai Technology University n.d., p. 3). In such a way, when dividing leadership into a grout-oriented and task-oriented, social care should refer to the first option. As far as group-oriented leadership ensures long-term relations, social workers would remain in a team for a longer time. Hence, a team would be wiser, stronger and more experienced, which is of great importance in social care. As for the task-oriented leadership, it obviously should be preferred in a team of surgery specialists at the hospital. As far as time and rapid decisions can become crucial to save or kill a person, it is possible to neglect weaker specialists.
When dealing with workers of social care organizations, emotional intelligence is of high importance. There are some approaches that remain effective for management of all relationships at work. Communication, team building, constructive feedback, shared values, monitoring and assessing performance are appropriate for practically all positions and are quite helpful for a manager to control and direct employees. At the same time, it is always necessary to inspire employees for a personal development. Such qualities as confidence, skills competencies, knowledge and understanding, qualifications are hardly excessive for any worker be it a manager, administrator or nurse.
My personal development was mostly predetermined by the theoretical knowledge on leadership when dealing with social care. However, such knowledge lets me estimate some situations from side. For instance, it happened that I learned about my friend’s internship and the behaviour of their practice manager. His style was not cooperative or democratic. The man was totally authoritative, according to the friend’s words. However, such style made the interns listen to him and unite together for the deep support. Hence, this can be another life example that a leadership style to a great extent dependent on people and situation.
From the current report, it is obvious that social care and health sector have a number of common and distinguishing features when dealing with workers’ recruitment, group work, development, management, and leadership. The example of the administrator recruitment shows that recruiting of individuals is highly dependent on the legislative framework and social policies. At the same time, skills, experience and personal qualities and determine the choice of the candidate. The acceptance of a candidate in a team is a crucial aspect for his further success. Primarily, the effective work of team members under the management of a leader, who can do the efficient choices depending on the situation, can be defined as the core of an organization work. Moreover, when dealing with the social and health care, organizational culture and strong emphasis on the aims and mission of the group is the main way to successful work. However, it is impossible to define only one appropriate management style. A leader’s behaviour should always depend on employees’ perception and circumstances.
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