Employee Relations Officer

Employee Relations Officer

HSA 320

Employee Rel/ations Officer

The contemporary organization is required to embrace diversity, which can be a course of the conflict. To ensure there is harmony and synergy amongst care providers, the HR department must create a position of Employee Relations Officer. This will help in addressing the concerns of the healthcare providers, especially on the challenges they face during the night shift. The Employee Relations (ER) officer will be capable of liaising with the management in helping the care providers in achieving a work-life balance and improve on their wellbeing. According to Hall et al. (2016), healthcare providers sometimes work for more than twelve hours, which increases their risks to lifestyle and chronic disorders such as cancer. The ER officer will help the health professionals in the hospitals to improve on their wellbeing to achieve better performance. Hall et al. (2016) indicate that no industry significantly depends on human capital to achieve better performance. Sourcing for ER officers will be an effective strategy to solve human resources challenges that confront the healthcare institution. The challenges include; long working hours and extended shifts, occupational hazards and risks, increased turnover due to compensation misunderstanding, and continuous shift in technology. The most effective approach to enhance their performance is by introducing the position of ER officer who will be in charge of attending to personnel-related issues from the staff.

Job Description

Job Title and Essentials duties

• The organization has a vacancy in the position of Employee Relations Officer.
• The position is based on three years contract basis and is subject to renewal based on the performance quality of the holder.
• The ER Officer will be working in the Human Resources Department
• He/she will be reporting to the HR manager.
• This is an entry job for those with approximately two years’ experience in HR and ER-related issues.
• The position is in grade G of the organization ‘s pay structure.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• The ER officer is the most suitable position in helping the HR department in the organization to respond to clinical professionals related complaints and conflicts.
• The ER Officer is an HR practitioner who is responsible for developing, managing, and enhancing labor relations within the working environment.
• The ER officer is responsible for offering counseling services to the employees, conducting exit interviews, and participating in recruitment processes (Maheshwari et al., 2017).
• In the hospital setting, the clinical staff have a lot of issues that might affect their quality of care delivery. Therefore, the ER officer will use a different approach to reactivate the intrinsic motivation of the staff.
• The ER Officer engages in the employee resourcing process because they can provide expert opinion on the personality, competency, and the value of the prospective employees towards helping the institution achieve its goals of quality care provision and sustainability.
• The ER officer conducts exit interviews to analyze the major reason that causes employee turnover and advises management on how to improve the work environment to achieve higher retention of healthcare staff.
  • The ER Officer will be responsible for collecting, analyzing, and organizing employee data and files.
  • Other responsibilities that will be undertaken by the ER officer include managing employee complaints, ensure compliance with the regulatory provisions. They also engage in communicating employee-related policies such as compensation and benefits and act as a link between management and employees.
  • The ER officer ensures that the organization has complied with OSHA standards by providing them with PPE and allowing the employees to speak freely on the nature of their working environment.
  • The ER officer will also be responsible for negotiating contracts and consulting the union officials on developed policies and ensure the hospitals have a rapport with the workers union.
  • The ER Officer will be responsible for solving inter-personal conflict amongst the employees and participate in the disciplinary processes.

Minimum Qualifications

• ER officer must have a broad knowledge of different HR policies and how to implement them. Considering that the ER officer will be in charge of ensuring compliance, understanding regulations such as OSHA and code of ethics, it will help in intervening in employee-related issues.
• He/She needs to have great interpersonal skills because they often play the role of mediator, counselor, and the link between management and staff. They must have strong social and interpersonal skills as it will enable them to develop loyalty and confidence with staff which will help them to easily identify employee’s needs.
• The ER Officer should have excellent problem-solving skills because they are required to de-escalate issues that arise in among the health care staff. For instance, the ER officer will be required to develop Flexi-work schedule to reduce cases of burnout amongst the clinical staff.
• ER officers often engage in negotiation with the employees and the union when developing contracts and policies. Thus, having great negotiation skills is crucial in effective presentation of information and bargain with employees and unions to reach a consensus when developing contract terms.
• Communication skills are essential as effective ER arises from an open communication structure that supports the freed flow of information. Communication skills will enable the ER officer to provide answers to technical and complex questions that arise in healthcare.
• The ER officer will require an analytical skill that allows them to assess situations and observe the trajectory of the institution and develop a mitigative approach before detrimental causes escalate.

Steps For Hiring

• The holder must have a minimum of bachelor’s degree in HR, Business administration, and other related specialization to be considered eligible for this position.
• The holder must have at least two years of working experience and be certified by the Professional Human resource body.
• The critical skills required for the position include excellent interpersonal skills, negotiation skills, analytical skills, and competency in using Microsoft office software.

The first step involved in hiring a person is identifying the hiring need. This involves filling and outlining the essence of the position created(Eriksson et al., 2017). In this case, As an HR manager, the need for the ER position is to improve ER in the organization by providing a competent person who is capable of responding to the staff complaints and concerns. The second step is to devise the recruitment approach. There are various recruitment strategies that the hospital can utilize. This includes using digital platforms like Facebook, Linked In, Twitter. The institution can also adopt conventional approaches such as engaging in university career fairs, using magazines and newspapers to advertise for the position. The company can also consider whether to promote existing employees as part of the internal recruitment strategy. The third approach is developing the job description of which prioritizes the job requirement, desired characteristics, and requisite experience (Perinot, 2016). The fourth step is advertising for the position through social media, newspaper., magazine, or using the recruitment agencies. The manager can send a memo in case of internal recruitment.

Prospective employees are required to submit their applications online. The online application is effective as it allows the HRMIS to scan through the application and determine the suitability of the candidates. After that, the institution can review the application thoroughly to determine the suitability of the applicant. For large organizations like the hospital, the HR department can utilize HRIS that tracks, which can scan through thousands of applications in a short time. The prospective employees who pass the application stage are subjected to a series of tests to evaluate their personality, verbal and numerical skills, and reasoning capacity. The tests integrate activities such as presentation, psychometric tests, group discussions, and problem-solving tests to reveal their ability to manage the high pressure from the hospital. Those who meet the qualifications and have good communication and analytic skills are then subjected to the phone and video interview. In this phase, the applicants are screened to determine their efficiency to communicate and utilize contemporary technology (Armstrong, 2020).

After that, the successful prospective employees are interviewed by the human resource manager and negotiate the working terms and benefits and compensation (Armstrong, 2020). Upon the agreement of the HR regulations, the potential, the employee is offered the job. This recruitment and selection process integrates a lot of psychoanalysis testing because the holder requires excellent analytic and problem-solving skills. Addressing workplace challenges requires a person who is proactive in managing workplace challenges.

Salary Recommendations

According to the US Bureau of labor statistics (2020), ER officers earn approximately $33.18 per hour, which translates to $69,020 annually. Therefore, the hospital needs to offer the ER officer a similar pay to avoid them leaving the organization for other institutions. Considering the employee will be a middle-level manager with entry skills, the hospital can pay the officer between $68,000 to $74,000 depending on the skill set of the holder. Moreover, the employee relation officer should also be provided with the benefits package that integrates healthcare insurance and vacation allowance.

Process of identifying the most qualified person:

The company can utilize both internal sources and external sources of recruitment. This can include promoting an employee or allowing internal referrals. Alternatively, the candidates can be sourced using various platforms such as recruitment agencies, and career fairs. However, with the increasing influence of technology, the company can explore social media, company websites, or employment portals to access a wider pool of recruits.

The candidates will be required to submit a copy of their diploma certificate to help ascertain their academic qualifications for the position. The applicant will also be required to attach a copy of their curriculum vibrate and motivation letter. The CV helps the hiring personnel have some understanding of the competencies of the applicant to determine their suitability to the responsibility. The letter supports the applicant to describe his/her strength and why the recruiter should consider him/her for the job. Recruiters use the motivation letter to assess the attitude of the applicant towards the work.

Human resource consultancy firms have significant experience in developing job descriptions and recruiting competent personnel. The consulting firm outsourced can work collaboratively with the HR department to ensure all job openings issues are addressed. The consulting firm will help re-evaluate the business model that the organization is currently using and outline descriptions that complement with the institution’s strategic plans. The recruitment and consulting firm can use their resources to refer competent personnel to the organization. The consulting firms have a vast database consisting of people seeking employment. Therefore, they can refer the competent and qualified personnel for ER position.

The applicants can also be subjected to the aptitude test to evaluate their critical thinking and problem-solving ability. Aptitude tests the applicant’s intelligence and predicts the quality of their job performance. They will also be required to take personality tests before the formal interview to determine the feasibility of their behavioral traits and the job. The successful candidate proceeds to face to face oral interviews to evaluate their interpersonal and communication skills (Adorno, 2019). Moreover, the face to face interview will enable the HR manager to observe the non-verbal cues of the applicant and make a reliable decision. After the interview, the hiring manager can resort to reference checks to ascertain the authenticity of the information collected.

Analyzing the applicant’s academic qualification and CV scrutiny will facilitate the understudying of their strengths of the applicants. The oral interview will enable the hiring manager to examine the candidate’s person towards the job. The curriculum vitae provides the basis for assessing the technical skills, experiences, and distinctiveness of the applicant. Through adopting detailed recruitment and selection and cross-examining the prospective references will enable the organization to identify the most qualified applicants.

In conclusion, ER is the most feasible position for the institution as it helps in enabling the clinical staff to offer high-quality services. Employee relation is responsible for ensuring the work environment is conducive for the employees through encouraging compliance, solving work-related conflicts, negotiating contracts, and linking employees with management. The hospital must embrace elaborate recruitment approaches to attract a vast pool of applicants. Furthermore, having an objective selection process is critical towards ensuring a competent person is hired.

References

Adorno, T., Frenkel-Brunswik, E., Sanford, R. N., & Levinson, D. J. (2019). The authoritarian personality. Verso.

Armstrong, M. (2020). Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

Eriksson, S., Johansson, P., & Langenskiöld, S. (2017). What is the right profile for getting a job? A stated choice experiment of the recruitment process. Empirical Economics, 53(2), 803-826.

Hall, L.H., Johnson, J., Watt, I., Tsipa, A. and O’Connor, D.B., 2016. Healthcare staff wellbeing, burnout, and patient safety: a systematic review. PloS one, 11(7), p.e0159015.

Maheshwari, V., Gunesh, P., Lordofos, G., & Konstantopoulou, A. (2017). Exploring HR practitioner’s Perspective in Employer Branding and its role in organizational attractiveness and Talent management. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 24(5), 742-761

Perinot, C. (2016). Gamification in the field of human resource management. Gamified solutions for recruitment (Bachelor’s thesis, Università Ca’Foscari Venezia).

US Bureau of Labour Statistics. ER Specialist 2020. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/labor-relations-specialists.htm