HRM

CIA-1
Component-B

Case Study on Strategic Human Resource Management

Submitted to: Prof. Jerin Jose

Submitted by:
(20111609) ARK SURAJ BHAGAT
(20111633) MOHITPAL SINGH THIND
(20111638) PRANAB DASH
(20111649) SINGARAM SAHITYA REDDY
Class and Sec. 3 BBA-D
Strategic HR Case Study
Spring Care hospital Overview:

Spring Care hospital was founded in 1899 as a nonprofit, community-based health care
facility in north eastern Columbia. This 122-bed, acute care facility employs 978
employees. The facility provides general medical and surgical services to the
surrounding community of approximately 63,600 people. The hospital is proud of its
tradition of upholding its mission to these communities by providing comprehensive
health care services in a compassionate, caring and cost-effective manner while
maintaining the highest level of professional excellence. Dr. Eric has served as the
hospital's board chair for the past six years and is an obstetrician/gynecologist
(OB/GYN) in the community. Eric has lived and practiced in this community for more
than 37 years and has delivered many employees of the hospital. He is known for being
kind, gentle and truly caring, and can recall almost everyone in the hospital by his or her
first name. Employees often seek Eric's sympathetic ear to express concerns about
everything from staff-to-patient ratios to the cafeteria food. Eric takes a hands-on
approach to his duties as chair and voiced strong concerns about the hospital's recent
national search for a new president and CEO. Eric pushed to keep the search close to
home and cautioned the board of potential consequences to hiring a non-commodity
member into such a pivotal role.

In these communities by providing comprehensive health care services in a

compassionate, caring and cost-effective manner while maintaining the highest level of
professional excellence. Dr. Eric has served as the hospital's board chair for the past six
years and is an obstetrician/gynecologist (OB/GYN) in the community. Eric has lived
and practiced in this community for more than 37 years and has delivered many
employees of the hospital. He is known for being kind, gentle and truly caring, and can
recall almost everyone in the hospital by his or her first name. Employees often seek
Eric's sympathetic ear to express concerns about everything from staff-to-patient ratios
to the cafeteria food. Eric takes a hands-on approach to his duties as chair and voiced
strong concerns about the hospital's recent national search for a new president and CEO.
Eric pushed to keep the search close to home and cautioned the board of potential
consequences to hiring a noncommunity member into such a pivotal role. In the end,
however, the board launched a national search that resulted in hiring Smitha Suess.
Suess previously served as the chief operating officer for two community hospitals in
Michigan and Indiana. Although Eric plays quite a visible role in his position, the
balance of the board members sees their roles as ones of governance, not focusing on
daily operations.
As a matter of fact, most agree the day-today decision-making should be left in the
capable hands of Suess. Suess knows that Eric wanted to keep the president and CEO
search at a local level. This created some tension between them when Suess arrived to
Spring Care, and this tension still plays out occasionally during board meetings. Suess
has been with Spring Care Hospital for a little more than three years. When she joined
the hospital, it was financially hemorrhagic from every service line. In the past three GE
years, however, she and her team have turned obstetrics, radiology, gastrointestinal, and
out- patient laboratory and surgery into revenue-producing service lines. Suess is still
concerned about emergency services, general surgery, orthopedics and critical care
services. She knows that staffing these services with competent and experienced staff is
essential to getting these areas to perform at the levels needed to make the hospital
financially solvent. Suess knows that other areas of the hospital also need attention.
Compliance in this heavily regulated industry continues to create substantial challenges,
including a strain on the hospital's human resources (HR).
Suess feels the hospital is vulnerable to legal risks without a position completely
dedicated to addressing HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act), Medicare issues, and regulations associated with the Pennsylvania Department of
Health and the Joint Commission's criteria such as staff educational requirements,
orientation documentation, patient care, and safety protocols and procedures. Patient
satisfaction has been on the rise, but it is still well below where Suess and her team
would like it to be.

With an overall patient satisfaction rating of 78 percent, Suess and her team know there
is still a lot of work to do to reach a 90 percent satisfaction rate (a goal that is 5 percent
above the national average), a target she set shortly after she arrived at Spring Care.
Although many patients feel the care is competent, the hospital still lags in satisfaction
regarding communication of medical care to patient and family members and timeliness
of treatment. Others on Suess team are concerned that her patient satisfaction goal is too
lofty too soon, and they feel it has caused stress and morale issues in several areas of the
hospital. Suess set the 90 percent patient satisfaction rate goal as a result of a patient and
employee satisfaction survey conducted two years ago. Since then, the hospitals has
continued to participate in the survey process on an
In Roger Priddy's office later that day:
With a lunch meeting confirmed with Curry for tomorrow, Priddy sat down at his desk
to make a list of all of the tasks he was responsible for and then looked at the top issues
facing his department. He also considered obtaining input from his staff without
mentioning Suess's intentions until the appropriate time. As he picked up his pen, he
started to reflect on his 26 years of service at the hospital and contemplated his own
future.

Case Questions:
1. Explain HR issues and Challenges.
2. Relate HR concepts to the contexts given in the case.
3. Make inferences on HR issues and challenges.
1. Explain HR issues and Challenges:

One of the most challenging difficulties an HR department may confront is

overcoming a bad perception. The HR department at Spring Care Hospital has a
reputation for being too reactive and nonresponsive, and as a result, it is failing to
fulfil the expectations of its constituents and, worse, may be seen as a liability.
Building good working connections throughout the business, delivering on
commitments, and knowing the challenges facing each department are all ways to
acquire credibility. While being labelled reactive isn't ideal, it's a lot better than
being labelled nonresponsive. In many respects, nonresponsive Ness is a separate
issue and a far greater worry.

This indicates that the department is not giving the level of service that it should
to the hospital's departments. If an environment like this prevails, departments
may take shortcuts in areas like recruiting and firing people if they don't feel
supported. From a legal standpoint, this puts the facility in jeopardy. Despite the
fact that the HR department will be restructured shortly, it is critical that it
document its present processes and analyze how HR employees communicate
with one another. HR cannot just sit back and wait, even if many processes may
alter as a result of the department's reorganization. This would only serve to
strengthen the existing view. As part of the transition process in selecting a new
vice president, Suess or Priddy may choose to hire an independent consultant to
review the HR department. Meanwhile, Suess should be extremely worried about
the accusations and suggest that Priddy meet with senior hospital executives to
discuss them.

Priddy must also assess if his department is currently staffed properly to satisfy
the organization's demands. He must examine if the persons on staff have the
necessary abilities to satisfy rising demand, in addition to the quantity of
employees on staff. Once a new vice president of HR is appointed, it's unclear
what Priddy's function will be in the company. Suess should make it clear that
Priddy's primary job is to enhance the hospital's and its workers' existing service
levels.
2. Relate HR concepts to the contexts given in the case:

Transactional work focuses on administrative efforts, including processing

payroll, benefits, hiring and terminating. Tactical work addresses potential
solutions for various employee issues, including conflict, performance issues and
onboarding. Strategic goes beyond the individual and group and aligns the HR
function to the needs and goals of the entire organization. This position
necessitates a long-term, forward-thinking mindset. It's challenging for many
chief HR officers to strike a balance between transactional and transformative
efforts. Time and effort may be given to transformative work when an
organization is in a more stable position. HR departments, on the other hand, play
a more transactional role when there is organizational change, attrition, or a focus
on recruiting.

Suess's long-term goal for the HR department is for it to play a transformative

role, since she believes the department's present strategic emphasis has hampered
it as an organization.

However, given the existing views in the hospital, Suess may want to make sure
that HR focuses on transactional and tactical work first to verify that it is fulfilling
expectations on a daily basis. Taking a more strategic approach in the future will
assist to support transactional judgments. If Spring Care, for example, does not
have criteria for a comprehensive incentives plan, one aim may be to examine its
present remuneration and benefits structure to improve fairness and transparency.
Before choices on pay and benefits can be made, it is important to articulate an
updated compensation philosophy.
3. Make inferences on HR issues and challenges:
Compensation, recruiting procedures, retention, talent identification and
development, and diversity are among the continuing HR problems that must be
addressed, according to the case. Constituents at Spring Care Hospital have
described the HR department as nonresponsive and overly reacting. Both words
do not accurately describe the characteristics of a business partner. In the instance
of Spring care, the HR department is dealing with a credibility problem that will
need a concerted effort to be seen as collaborative and cooperative.

HR must be aware of the hospital's and individual departments' goals and

difficulties in order to be regarded a real business partner. Each of the goals and
problems has a human aspect, and HR must not only comprehend those human
components, but also be able to give answers. Despite the fact that performance
reviews, rules, and other compliance concerns are critical, they are rarely
perceived as providing value to the business by its stakeholders.

In this scenario, Priddy and the future Vice President of Human Resources must
be more aggressive in engaging the hospital's senior executives and departments
and assisting them in meeting their objectives. To recover the trust of the
departments it serves, HR at Spring Care must take a “back to basics” approach.
Building a stronger collaboration will require addressing compliance issues.
Despite the fact that departments will demand more from HR, the business will
suffer if compliance is ignored.