Efficiency and Effectiveness of HR policies at Blue Cross community and residential services

Introduction

This essay analyses Human Resource department effectiveness and efficiency at BlueCross community and residential services. It critically analyses various HR polices of the organization and discusses their impacts on the employees of the organization and on the overall society as well. The analysis suggests that HR policies at BlueCross are not strategic and it does not follow strategic goals and missions of the overall organization.  It further shed lights on the positive and negative points in the current HR policy and practices. It gives a brief overview of the HR polices and the way they impact the overall business.

Brief overview of the organization

Blue cross provides residential services for senior citizens; it maintains a long term goal of becoming leader in community services by giving special attention to wide range of services that eventually result in wellness for aged people (The BlueCross story 2010).  It was established in 1993, since then it has been effectively providing support and care to senior members of the community (The BlueCross Advantage 2013).  As mentioned it provides different services ranging from care at clients home to the organization’s residence. It has more than 1700 employees (The BlueCross story 2013).  The philosophy behind the organization is that older people must not be forced to change their lifestyle as a result of changed circumstances in old age. It further believes that older people must also maintain their right to privacy and life (The BlueCross story 2013). Additionally it believes that older people must be given special attention and friendly environment where they can enjoy their life. According to them four elements are important for their success, which include their passion to support older people, their people, their principles are another important thing to consider and finally their performance level. Overall the organization’s mission is to provide high quality life to everyone (The BlueCross Advantage 2013).  Human Resource Management covers all aspects of any business that have any effect on the employees like; hiring the new employees and fire the old, trainings, benefits, pay, and administration as well. Moreover, SHRM also provide safety, work incentive, procedural information, and leaves on vocational days and sick days (Gannon et al., 2012).

They also claim that the quality of service has improved with the increasing experience hence the organization is progressively learning and improving with the passage of time (The BlueCross Advantage 2013). The strategic human resource management is a term that conveys sense of HRM in strategically way. The strategic process needs some connections to take place to manage the aims of any organization that is known as strategic management (Massey, 1994).

HR architecture

Huselid (1995) claim that to attain the strategic objectives of the organization, management must be matched with the goals; also it is important to match HR policies with the overall strategic missions of the company. BlueCross although gives equal employment opportunity to everyone and employs nondiscriminatory HR polices, that help them in maintaining and giving equal opportunity to all the staff members.  It also focuses on treating staff in respectful manner and believes in giving justice to everyone, involved in the organization, which overall can be translated into respect and justice for the humanity. Since the company also promote diverse workforce, it respects and employs employees from diverse cultural backgrounds, which again shows BlueCross way of contributing to the society. Its policies proclaim that it wants to provide an effective and comfortable environment, in order to promote and maximize talent of the employees. As a result the company’s working environment is free from any kind of discrimination (Manager 2008). Giving equal employment opportunity increases employee productivity (Johnson 2006).

Delany & Huselid (1996) suggest that recently companies have started using HR policies to progressively move upward, however it is also important that these policies are in best interest of the company. Similarly HRM decisions have long lasting influence on the overall organization performance (Becker & Gerhart, 1996).  According to the BlueCross HR policy, the organization is committed to recruit and appoint the best candidate. It selects best candidate for the job according to the requirements of the job i.e. job description. Furthermore employees educational background, skills, previous work experience, qualifications are given prime importance while hiring any staff member, whereas other personal characteristics such as age, gender and race are not given importance, which again show that organization maintains in establishing and giving equal employment opportunity to all the people from various backgrounds and their personal family backgrounds are not considered important. Employees throughout their time at the company are treated according to their merit and on the basis of their performance on the job (Manager 2008). This can again be translated into comfortable working environment that does not discriminate people on the basis of their personal characteristics; additionally it does not harass employees on the basis of irrelevant personal life, which is not important in professional life. Although the organizations HR policies are effective in minimizing discrimination and harassment, it additionally provides confidentiality in solving and treating any registered complaint. The framework of strategic human resource management can be used to create the basis of the organization in more strong way and future work on the procedures and policies of human resource management (Liu, 2004).  The complaints are treated on urgent basis and in timely fashion without disclosing the complaint to everyone; it is treated in proper manner by involving the relevant parties only (Manager 2008). 

Arthur (1996) further suggest that appropriate mix of HR policies and principles can have efficient outcomes, as it will help the organization in achieving the strategic fit. BlueCross on the other hand does not have HR policies that match the strategic objective of the organization.  People or in other words human resource is the major source of any organization that provides competitive advantage, (Youndt, Snell, Lepak & Dean, 1996).

 The organization promotes respectful appropriate standards for communication at all times and discourages wrong way of conduct with the employees and all other stakeholders as well. It believes in treating humans in proper way by giving them respect and dignity, it also expects same way of conduct as a response (Manager 2008). If anyone breaches these policies it also provides a proper way of reporting it, and has friendly cultures that promote people in reporting any wrong occurring to the appropriate authorities (Manager 2008). As stated by Whetten & Cameron (2008) that most organizations struggle to retain their best employees and to motivate them to high performance. HR management’s task is to enhance the work performance of the employees while resolving their issues that might create hindrance in the proper performance.   All such behaviors are discouraged and hence people are promoted to follow the HR policies and practices. Kiely (2008) stated, that a single act of poor performance will generally not entitle an employer to terminate the employment relationship. It’s a part of HR procedures that an employee should be provided with an opportunity to improve his quality of work by making available all the support he requires. As just mentioned it provides a proper framework for complaint registration (Manager 2008).

BlueCross identifies all the potential risks that may arise and systematically reduces them by properly managing the issues. All relevant information is provided to the employees, and when service is provided at clients home. Health and safety of employee is ensured by ensuring that the workplace is according to the standards (Community 2010). Here quality manager or the community care manager is given the responsibility of ensuring proper workplace is present for the employees.  Proper care coordinators are present to assist the proper following of the policy. Case managers are present internally to ensure everything is being done effectively. BlueCross provides services at clients home, but they first ensure that the working environment is proper for their employees.  There is proper “OH&S home screening tool” to completely ensure the workplace safety for the employees. Then they have made a checklist for all those customers that take services at their home, checklist is ensured to keep employees at the top priority (Community 2010). Additionally the company has proper hazard control procedure and reassessment criteria. These polices clearly demonstrate that such HR polices will make sure that employees are comfortable in their working environment (Community 2010).

Equal opportunity is considered very much important (Fitz-enz 2000), even at BlueCross that it is built in the policies effectively, right from the beginning. EEO (equal employment opportunity) is integrated into the company from the planning phase and then it remains part of it throughout. Br properly integrating it in the planning phase, EEO becomes essential part in the operations stage and throughout the management. EEO is considered of utmost importance as it is one way of creating comfort for the workforce, since the organization is committed in utilizing complete potential of the employees, it provides an open and a competitive culture for nourishing the staff. It also provides a flexible environment that help in getting maximum out of the human resource, which is considered most important at BlueCross (Manager 2008).

Furthermore as per the policies all the promotions, trainings, transfers and even the employment benefits are associated with the performance of the employee. Hence performance becomes critically important at BlueCross and is a motive of succeeding. The organization provides all the required resources to the staff in order to help them get the job done, staff members are given due time and other resources that are required in completing the job at the proper time (Manager 2011). 

The work health safety communication and consultation policy is another effective HR policy at BlueCross. It ensures that effective communication is present and everyone involved is properly communicated to everyone (Manager 2011). It properly identifies the hazards, controls risks and makes appropriate decisions for the betterment of everyone involved in the process. Manager ensures that all the measures are present to effectively communicate and reduce any possible risk. He is given responsibility of investigating all those matters that ultimately can create any risk to health of the employees. Sharing information is of prime importance at BlueCross as it reduces many risks (Manager 2011).  The organization has a proper framework since Work health hazard is identified initially, it is then clearly described, and details are then transferred into QIR (quality improvement register). Risk assessment is done afterwards and risks are identified, finally effective controls are provided to ensure the effectiveness.   Controls are then mutually agreed and finally implemented (WHS 2013).

Jackson & Schuler (1997), suggest that Human resource capabilities govern the corporate performance of the company, and it is obvious that BlueCross although has HR polices and give attention to their human resource, they still do not have HR capabilities that can help them in achieving strategic objectives.

The organization is dedicated in providing a safe environment for staff, residents, contractors, students and the public. This is attained by fully incorporating Work Health Safety (WHS) into all its processes and happenings, continual improvement and requiring leadership. Statutory requirements are fulfilled and proper information is given to everyone, to have the safe working environment. Proper plant and equipment are kept in safe environment (Manager 2011).   Safety and accountability is built into the organization effectively, it is seen as the value at BlueCross. Accountability is seen as a joint responsibility of all the employees at the organization including managers, supervisors, customers, public and even volunteers. It aims to continuously improve the process by having effective consultation.  CEO himself is responsible for work health safety; overall it also has an effective rehabilitation system (CEO 2011).

Various meetings are carried out at bimonthly, monthly and quarterly basis in order to effectively implement all the HR related policies and procedures at BlueCross.

Gist (1987) suggests that “self efficacy” is critically important and must be incorporated in the HR policies and principles. However BlueCross has not done that, as their HR architecture showed, there are many loop holes. Privacy of employees is not at all compromised at BlueCross, the company aims at collecting personal data of the employees in order to maximize the personalized quality care for all the employees. Information is gathered at different levels, and mostly can be more than just the contact information. The organization has the policy of information that it is managed properly with respect to collection, security, storage, use and disclosure, as identified throughout the processes (Residential 2010). The organization proclaims that privacy is there major central part and is part of the overall fundamental professional ethics of BlueCross. This policy of information privacy is legally binding and everyone needs to follow it effectively. Hence employees are always informed in advance whenever information is gathered, they also have right to access their personal information whenever they want to (Residential 2010). It is also important that personal information must only be used for the purpose for which it was collected initially (Residential 2010).

The organization believes that discrimination can be either direct or indirect, in both ways it negatively impacts performance level of the employees, which ultimately results in reduced performance of the overall organization. Since it eliminates members from benefiting from any opportunity, it acts as an irrelevant barrier against the discriminated member (Borg 2007). Direct discrimination may result as a result of personal characteristic such as age, color or gender, which is out of control of the employee. However indirect discrimination will occur as a result of any rule or policy of the company that tries to treat people equally, however it actually discriminates certain people. The organizations HR policies aim to eliminate or at least minimize both types of discriminations (Manager 2008).

Harassment as per BlueCross is any unwelcomed behavior towards some person, which results in offend and uncomfortable environment for that person, again harassment is discouraged by the organization since it is an important way of decreasing employee performance, which can easily be translated into decreased performance of the overall organization. Now again harassment can occur at various levels, and by various people like the manager, other colleagues, customers or even the contractor. BlueCross believes harassment is illegal and hence must not be done at any level or by anyone.  It is illegal to harass any employee on the basis of factors such as age, gender, physical features, race, marital status, disability and other such factors. This is an effective HR policy at the organization; it has impacts not just on the company itself but also on the society as a whole (Manager 2008). At BlueCross all the employees working at different levels are encouraged to properly use their rights and complain against any discrimination or harassment. Victimization is also discouraged at the organization, which is again an effective HR policy that helps employees performing up to the mark.  The organization does not tolerate any such activity that will decrease the employee morale. The organization further expects that all employees properly adhere to the policies and practices. It expects that employees are treated with courtesy and equality without any kind of discrimination. Employees are also encouraged to support all those members that face any issue in work and are additionally expected to maintain personal information confidential. The managers at the organization are given special responsibility of monitoring the working environment to ensure that proper HR policies are being followed. They are also expected to portray effective model to the employees, since employees will look up to them as a role model. Finally manager is also encouraged to promote EEO at all the levels in BlueCross (Manager 2008).

The organization provides proper way of timely sorting out issues and problems being faced by employees of BlueCross. If the employee still remains unsatisfied the issue can easily be taken to SEOC (state equal opportunity commission). Managers are expected to make decision within next 24 hours, which show the importance of effectively sorting out issues in timely fashion. Defensive reactions are discouraged and managers must do that (Manager 2008). Manager is appointed the responsibility of ensuring that all the issues must be communicated to HSR. They are also given the responsibility of meeting everyone in case of issue and must try to resolve them in limited time (Manager 2011).  Furthermore the Human resource staff will also help them in assisting people (Manager 2013).  

BlueCross has all proper HR policies for everything, it also has insurance for all the employees According to Accident Compensation Act 1985 (VIC). It is committed in providing reasonable and timely management of workers’ compensation claims. Managers are responsible for ensuring that every employee gets the proper medical treatment at the time of need. Return to work manager at BlueCross further ensures that employees return to work as soon as they get well after injury or disease. They are also responsible for monitoring the progress of employees and their health (Manager 2011).

The organization further has an effective process of exit policy; this HR policy is present to ensure that all the employees leaving the company must leave with good communication and without any serious issue. According to this policy employee leaving the organization must give proper notice to the relevant people and hence sufficient time is present to get the new resource. Then proper documentation is also done and payroll related things are also cleared out effectively to eliminate any kind of issues later one (Manager 2011).

Snell & James (1992) also argued that integrated HR management along with other functions of the company is very important. BlueCross however has not integrated all the functions properly, and that is the main reason of their lack of efficiency in HR policies and procedures.

Conclusion

The HR architecture at BlueCross is effective, however they are unable to meet the strategic objective of the company. As HR policies are not properly incorporated into the framework. As per the various HR polices being employed at BlueCross, it is effective in properly managing the human resource however the overall goal of profit maximization was not seen. They have proper HR polices both at the basic level and also on the upper level to ensure that employees work comfortably and provide their maximum to the organization. These police in addition to benefitting the employees at first hand also benefit the overall organization and the society as well. Proper mechanisms are present to ensure that policies are also being followed effectively without any failure. Creating comfortable environment for the employees is the best way to manage the human resource (Senyucel 2009).

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