A healthcare facility with approximately 500 nurses and support employees is facing challenges regarding staff compensation. As the organization’s Human Resource Director, I would arrange for a meeting with the Director of the Clinical Services and explain the seriousness of the issue and enlighten him or her about the status of the current budget. I would then direct him or her to conduct an analysis regarding the market wage to ascertain the impact of such an increase on the organization. The research will help determine whether the nurse’s salaries will align with the set market budget.
Conducting both internal and external analysis will help the management to make the right decisions. The scrutiny will include organizational profits, employee qualification, the strategies for the internal evaluation process, and competition for the external process (Liebler & McConnell, 2017). The internal analysis should determine if the current pay meets the existing market standards. A distinct separation of remuneration for different levels of personnel should be established. Internal wage evaluation has to be undertaken to guarantee the employees on the same job levels receive equivalent earnings. As for the external evaluation, the analysis could be accomplished by seeking the services of a reputable consulting firm. The process will assist in determining the company’s pay package. Another preference would be utilizing the Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data evaluation. With entirely extensive analysis, I should be able to make the right decision as for whether to raise the salaries or not.
Generally, the increase will have a negative effect on healthcare operations and patients. This is because a raise of $5 per hour for 500 nurses would mean increasing the labor budget to over 6 million dollars annually, including taxes (Liebler & McConnell, 2017). With a significant percentage of Home Care patients registered in Medicare and Medicaid programs, raising the wage would triple what they are currently paying, which might not be reasonable.
As the budget currently stands, there it is not possible to increase a raise for the entire staff, unless other monetary costs are lowered, including multiple employee layoffs and a decrease in supplies or maintenance activities so as to support the salary increase. The nursing staff’s prevailing amount of work and duties would have to be stepped up should the layoff occur. It will then increase the remaining nurses’ responsibilities, which would make them feel overstretched and more stressed, thus, ending up affecting the organization.
Reference
Liebler, J. G., & McConnell, C. R. (2017). Management principles for health professionals (7th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.