Kylee Knighten

OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Human Resource Frame Worksheet
Worksheet Objectives:
1. Describe the human resource frame
2. Apply the human resource frame to your personal case situation

Complete the following making sure to support your ideas and cite from the textbook and other
course materials per APA guidelines. After the peer review, you have a chance to update this and
format for your Electronic Portfolio due in Module 6.

1) Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role.

My title is Senior Recruiter and I have been in this role for the last 3 months. I joined Coast
Healthcare 8 months ago in May 2021. Initially I was welcomed into the company as a Recruiter
and after onboarding my 20th travel nurse I was awarded the title of Senior Recruiter. The title
comes with no additional responsibility, nor does is really hold any weight in the company. It’s a
small way of Coast acknowledging growth of new employees. The average recruiter takes over a
year to build their client base to 20 nurses and many recruiters have somewhere between 20-80
nurses at any given time. Since all contracts are temporary (usually 13-weeks) recruiters must
continue to prospect to build their desk. In the 8 months I have been here I have overcome
several challenges and am exceeding my current goal by 350% and supporting 30 nurses actively
working.

Due to the increased need of healthcare professionals across the country right now our
credentialing team is extremely overwhelmed and understaffed. Every hospital across the
country needs nurses, forcing Coast to quickly onboard and get nurses started. Because of the
influx Coast was not prepared to take on such a high demand and the executive team encouraged
recruiters to stop actively recruiting, while implementing the following policy “after nurses are
offered a position the credentialing specialist assigned to their job will not reach out until 1 week
before their start date”. This change in time from when the nurse is offered to 1 week prior to
their start date was setting our nurses up for failure. The drug screen and background check alone
could take up to 7 business days for results and having only 5 to complete all medical
requirements was impossible. Recruiters voiced their frustrations, and the executive team had no
other response but to delay the process to buy them time to catch up. Requesting that recruiters
stop enrolling nurses means they stop receiving commission. As you can imagine this was a
challenging situation that the company took a month to overcome.

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 2) Describe how the human resources of the organization influenced the situation.

Recruiters are the foundation to the company; we prospect and onboard nurses for each
hospital. When the change in communication from our credentialing team was rolled out the
morale of the recruiters dropped immediately. It didn’t feel good for leadership to tell us to
refrain from signing new nurses to the company. This is how we made our commission and
because of a failure to acknowledge the trends in the market instead of capitalizing on the
opportunity they chose to slow us down.

Human resources is there to support each employee at Coast Healthcare; both internally
(recruitment and payroll departments for example) and externally (nurses, hospitals and their
references). The leadership team encouraged recruiters to use sick time and any accrued time off
to take breaks and days off. They spun the situation as a benefit to us, that we as a company
we’re growing so large and to celebrate this take a day to reflect and catch up with your family
and friends. Now to most of us this was a slap in the face. They create an environment where we
are constantly comparing ourselves to each other, sending daily reporting on how many calls
each of us has made and how many nurses we’ve engaged with. The competitive environment
did not make anyone want to let their foot off the gas pedal.

3) Recommend how you would use the human resources for an alternative course of
action regarding your case.

Coast Healthcare prides themselves on the culture and supportive environment to all. Which
is why it was no surprise to me that they were going to highlight this setback in a positive light.
One suggestion I proposed was to offer additional vacation time to recruiters who has over a
certain number of nurses. For example, the average recruiter has 25 nurses on their desk. If you
were at or above this, you or had been with the company 6 months you were granted an
additional 8hrs of vacation time. At least this way we were still being compensated for the time
off they were encouraging us to take.

The most apparent problem here was a lack of projections and hiring. When the changes
were put in place the pandemic had been going on over around a year. There was no sign of
Covid-19 letting up even with the vaccine becoming readily available there was another strain
that was discovered. Our executive team should be partnering with HR to ensure that we are
adequately staffed to experience the growth we were having. Prior to the pandemic Coast
Healthcare had a total of 198 employees, 52 of which were recruiters. Today I am one of 425
employees with 110 recruiters. This would have been a great time for the company to ask
recruiters for referrals. If they knew of anyone that wanted to work for Coast in the credentialing
department to help them get fully staffed.

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 4) Reflect on what you would do or not do differently given what you have learned
about this frame.

When I initially heard about the changes and was able to directly see an impact on my daily
processes, I was frustrated. Knowing what I know now I probably could have used a four-day
weekend and took advantage of an extra day off that they were offering regardless of it not being
paid. The human resource frame highlights the need for the organization to fit the employees and
vice versa. “People and organizations need each other. Organizations need ideas, energy, and
talent; people need careers, salaries, and opportunities. When the fit between individual and
system is poor, one or both suffer. Individuals are exploited pr exploit the organization – or both
become victims”.  (Bolman, Deal, 2017). 

Looking back on the situation now the company was simply trying to find the balance
between retaining their skilled employees and handling the overwhelming effects of the market.
What resulted was a decrease in team morale, decline of productivity (which they wanted) and
lack of motivation across the entire company. I would have had a more positive outlook on the
situation and not let it negatively affect me as much if I knew about the human resource frame
then.

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 Reference or References

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and

leadership (6th  ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass (Perusall Version Only)