Blue Cross – An Analysis of Employee Wellbeing, Work-life Balance, and the Future Health Care HRM
Introduction to Blue Cross
In Australia, there are substantial problems faced by health workforce. These challenges are well recorded and aged people, elevated pressure for health benefits and growing need for availability of service, changing burden of disease and extensive workforce difficulties are part of these problems. Besides, there is an increase in health expenses as a part of total in-house product and is expected to be elevated notably in the upcoming years. To sustain the healthiness and welfare of Australian people, it is important to deal with these challenges simultaneously to make certain the continuity and availability of health benefits.
All over the world in numerous health focused schemes, intensified consideration has been given on human resources management (HRM). When dealing with health concern, Human resources can be described as various types of medical and non-medical employees involved and accountable for individual and communal healthiness. HRM needs to be framed in such ways that ensure suitable workforce availability with equilibrium, plus, the skills of related professional people are utilized competently and well. Without facilitation, there is no difference between a practitioner who is not having resources and a non-professional with resources.
Since 1993, Blue Cross has been helping and taking care of elderly people and the society. More than 1300 inhabitants are provided accommodation in its 22 centers all over Victoria. There are more than 1500 customers who get services at their homes. The workforce of Blue Cross consists of above 1700 employees. The vision of Blue Cross is to be emerged out as a leader and become well known through its excellent performance by providing communal and housing services that revolutionize the standards of elderly care and concentrate more on comfort.
Employee Wellbeing and Work Life Balance
By and large, wellbeing at work is a broadly scrutinized matter and a great deal of research studies exist in this domain (Danna & Griffin 1999). Employees’ wellbeing and health are directly associated with both wellbeing and opulence of an organization. In the existing setting of competitive business, it is imperative for organizations to go forward and make an investment in human capital to acquire a competitive benefit. In accordance with the contemporary analysis, via inventiveness and novel planning, HR specialists can make the health conditions of the workforce better, which would be outcome in an enhanced, more engaged and more favorable staff.
According to Smith and Clay (2010), by means of both objective and subjective measures, wellbeing can be evaluated as it is imperative to consider both while making any evaluation of the wellbeing. Subjective wellbeing is subjective for the reason that the subject stuff itself that is being considered is a subjective notion such as, life-contentment, gladness or pleasure. It includes diverse features (cognitive assessment of an individual’s life, gladness, contentment, optimistic feeling, for instance, happiness and satisfaction, and unconstructive feeling, for example, soreness and anxiety): each of these aspects must be considered discretely so as to obtain a more broad admiration of inhabitants’ lives. Objective measures of wellbeing depend on suppositions on the subject of human requirements and privileges. According to Sen (1999), such fundamental requirements have to be encountered. Objective measures possess a vital role to perform in evaluating public wellbeing. Nevertheless, the objective method have restrictions, such as, it needs research analysts to choose what signs are vital in order to scrutinize and evaluate the wellbeing of a nation prior to any assessment can be done (Smith & Clay 2010).
According to Green (2001), work-life balance has come into sight as a chief subject during the last 20 years, plus a considerable excessiveness of work caused by monetary ambiguity, organizational reformation, and a boost in business rivalry is observed. As stated by Perrons (2003, pp. 68-72), in order to respond to the latest circumstances, organizations require elevated performance and obligation from their workforce, which is transformed into potential for working longer and for prioritizing job over private life. According to Hughes & Bozionelos (2007), the literature proposes that imperfection in balance flanked by work and non-work actions is linked to decrease mental and physical wellbeing (Thomas and Ganster, 1995; Martens et al., 1999). Undoubtedly, employee wellbeing is vital for an organization particularly health care division because bad physical condition and well-being drastically confines attainments of an individual as well as the performance of an organization. On the contrary, positive physical condition and well-being encourages sustainable, flexible, and elevated quality service delivery.
Blue Cross Board has a pledge to attain quality service persistency. This pledge is reflected through its all principles- the 4 P’s which are: Passion, People, Principles, and Performance. Blue Cross particularly focused on every aspect of employee wellbeing as there are two common forms in the organizational framework related to workers’ contentment (Danna & Griffin, 1999). The first kind regarding employee wellbeing deals with individual feelings and performance at workplace. This include experiences associated to job like those particular elements which generally leads to work pleasure, for instance, compensation plans, prospective for career progression, plus job security from the organization. Blue Cross fully understands that for health associated to place of work, both physiological and psychological elements mutually work together for wellbeing of workers (Danna & Griffin, 1999).
Blue Cross follows the ethics of STARFish, together with the 4 P’s, Blue Cross aspires to form an environment where all its workforce as well as clients are connected, have entertainment and above all, getting the full benefit of life regardless of age or disability. The management at Blue Cross aspires to make a change in the lives of the inhabitants while still concentrating on the provision of quality and person centred care. Besides, Blue Cross gives very much importance to employee wellbeing and work life balance. They offer well-built ethnicity, adaptable working plans, healthiness and wellbeing program, admirable income offers, professional and development opportunities, traineeships/sponsored training, broad learning schedule (paid training) for the entire workforce, yearly workforce meeting, succession scheduling ideas, yearly leadership program, distinctive orientation programs for new employees, great support from chief office and local structures.
One of the challenges of human resource management is to maintain a sense of balance between work and family life of employees as this issue has alarmed governments, scholars, employers and worker unions and the current media (Russell & Bowman, 2000; Strazzari & Bridge, 2001). Blue Cross comprehends the gravity of this issue and its impacts on both workers wellbeing and their performances, thus, ensures this balance through its strategies and policies. These strategies and policies reflects that Blue Cross takes the balance between professional and personal life as a broad concept by making appropriate prioritization between life which include factors like relations, healthiness, happiness and inner satisfaction and “work” which relates to employees professional aims and career progression. Blue Cross recognizes the significance of this element in contribution towards efficiency and productivity level of its employees. Moreover, organizational environment which encourages effectual programs regarding work/life balance, further strengthen the association between employers and employees.
Both workforce training and career prospect can enhance employees’ well-being. Blue Cross gives training to certain . Moreover, it is important that human resources workforce at Blue Cross think about the structure of the health personnel in terms of both expertise types along with training phases. According to Kabene et al. (2006), to make sure that the employees are knowledgeable, alert and ready to fulfill specific both existing and future requirements of a state, novel alternatives for the learning and operating training of health care workforce are necessary. In a nut shell, well skilled and experienced employees are vital to any good health care system.
Both efficiency as well as retention can be predicted by employee wellbeing. Enhancing recruitment and retention degrees is necessary to boost the range of health encouragement programs and consequently expand advantages to the health and wellbeing (Report prepared for Medibank Private Limited, 2012). Job contentment is identified as an important factor in staff retention. In Blue Cross, there are specific concerns that have been linked (time after time) with the job contentment as well as retention of nurses. According to Duffield and O’Brien-Pallas (2003), there are several elements which have an effect on the nursing services’ delivery and workers retention and which calls for advance research and analysis, for example, organizing ever more casualised workers or the link flanked by organizational composition and workforce retention. Blue Cross deems that an enhanced rate of retention might stalk from amendments to the procedure and workplace surroundings, for instance, the aptitude to work at the full range of practice; adaptable work measures that support family duties; organization of non-nursing/ managerial responsibilities; occupational growth and career ways. As stated by Aiken et al. (2001), in nursing, job disappointment has been linked with uncorroborated and unidentified emotion, aversion of organization’s approaches, emotional exhaustion, opportunities’ lack for career development, disburse concerns, workload and workplace associations.
Some initial proof proposes that flexible working measures, for instance, flex-time and telecommuting, which offer employees extra options or control, are expected to encompass constructive consequences on health and wellbeing (Joyce, 2010). Besides, the mentioned flexible working measures have been revealed to enhance a range of worker health status signs, for example, blood pressure, sleep quality, weariness, and psychological condition.
Occupational health and safety (OH&S), for example, bully and harassment can influence workforce wellbeing. Blue Cross understands that in the place of work, bullying and harassment is considered as an important concern. According to a worldwide study on bullying, the researchers determined that 10 percent of Australian workforce possibly will face bullying in the place of work. Into the bargain, it has also been stated that healthcare employees face considerable phases of bullying. According to Meloni and Austin (2011), bullying and harassment can hold an unconstructive influence on employees’ contentment, including a raise in turnover, sick leave and pressure, and can reduce employee commitment. According to O’Brien-Pallas & Baumann (2000) and Duffield & O’Brien-Pallas (2002), intolerable, deplorable and insecure work surroundings characterized by safety concerns, for example, bullying and harassment have an unconstructive effect on retention. In accordance with Baumann et al. (2001) and Fagin (2001), nurses highlight that job stress /work burden goes beyond their ability to undertake work. A short time ago, it has been reported by the National Review of Nursing Education that Australian nurses made a complaint of extreme work burden and overtiredness, lack of appreciation for task accomplished, lack of independence, low self-esteem, job disappointment and security concerns (DEST 2001).
It has been analyzed in different research studies that workers who appreciate their organization’s programs and interest to sustain the work/life balance are least probable to depart the organization and happily place the organization in high regards as far as job satisfaction is concerned (Kenexa Research Institute, 2007). According to Han and Zhao (2012), providing assistance to workers to get a strong equilibrium flanked by their professional and personal lives is a significant feature of human resource management plus a probable basis of competitive benefit. Also, Blue Cross recognizes that both wellbeing at work as well as good compensation for its workforce can be vital phases of work/life balance, in view of the fact that constant wages gives security to a family and adaptability during uncertain economic circumstances. Blue Cross favors the existence of a steady pay and bonuses; family-caring administrators, family-sociable community group, skills enhancement programs, child-associated support programs, and physical wellbeing and psychosomatic well being programs is of immense significance too.
According to Dessler (1999), several studies have been conducted in Australia and overseas. In these studies, a number of hurdles have been classified as generating main problems for the expansion and execution of work/life balance strategies. Besides, hurdles possibly will be elucidated as barriers, impediment or obstacles to the execution and continuing usefulness of work/life balance strategies. The existing studies have classified such hurdles as including: an ethnicity of an organization which highlights and remunerates lengthy duration and high organizational obligation (neglecting other life duties), an inaccessible, unfriendly and uncooperative working surroundings for workforce with life promises external to the organization, mind-set and opposition of controllers and middle management, preference of higher administration participated in recruiting to coping with individuals perceived as analogous to themselves (homo- amiability), and lacking in both communication and learning on the subject of work/life balance strategies.
Key HRM Issues within Health Care Settings
According to Segal and Bolton (2009), it has been stated that health care professionals’ supply is influenced by the inhabitants ageing in Australia. Also, the demand for health care services as well as the health care employees is increased. On the other hand, the image is not that clear-cut. There is a broad scope of elements that have an effect on the health workers market in Australia.
