Introduction
In the contemporary world different organizations are coming up with diverse ways that are tailored to make working conditions of the employees better.
According to Algie (1997 p 276) although these kinds of organizations have different approaches in the way they try to address the welfare of their staff, he says that they all have a common a goal altogether which is of creating a conducive environment so that the members of staff can perform as expected of them by the organization.
Why is a good work environment important for retaining and sustaining the health workforce?
According to Fourines (2000 p 432) providing a good working environment for nurses and doctors is a very important thing because it helps in improving their performance while attending to patients and their fellow workers.
He says that when the employees’ needs are addressed, then this is likely to translate to increased output per each of them. Furthermore, Kevin (2008 p 167) contends that a health institution that provides a good working environment for its employees is more likely to retain her employees regardless of the amount of money they pay to their employees.
According to him, some people prefer working in a good environment with low pay rather than earn more money in a stressful environment. He point out that today as much as people are looking for organizations and institutions that are paying a higher wage, they are also looking for that one institution that is offering them a good working environment.
He gives an example of a respondent who was a manager in an institution who said that after making sure that the employees’ pay and other needs were met, the institution realized an improvement across the board in all their departments.
As a result he contends that as much as the company or the organization is striving to achieve its goals the employees welfare should also be thought about in order to hit their target.
According to Cat (1985 p 49) maintaining a clean environment in hospitals is key in service delivery. This way the medical practitioners will feel safe since most of the ailments they diagnose are cleanliness related.
Furthermore, allowing the employees to pursue more education is also an important since it gives them a chance to match the changing trends in health sector.
Coetze (2006 p 89 ) argues that a health institution that provides a good working environment for the employees rarely experiences instances such as employees going on strike. In his argument he contends that by providing a good working environment, the nurses and the doctors are able to air their grievances.
This provides an opportunity for the management to sit down with the employees’ representatives and hence come up with an agreement that favors both parties.
That way he says that the organization will always be moving forward in terms patient satisfaction and development since it is able to keep the employees at work thus reducing losses incurred when the members of staff down their tools.
In addition, Robert (2010 p 189) argues that providing a good working environment for medical practitioners is essential because the employees get to form a good relationship with their seniors.
When this takes place, he notes that the employees get a chance to mingle easily with their seniors and hence the two parties are able to share different issues in a comfortable way.
He argues that in those health institutions where the seniors do not create an avenue through which the employees can interact with them have the performances of their institution being low compared to the others where such avenue has been created.
Therefore, he advises the senior managers and the other management officials to come up with policies that help improve the working environment of their members of staff.
According to National Research Council (1989 par 12) providing a good working environment prevents the departure of nurses and doctors from ones organization to the other. He says that during their research many of the respondents pointed lack of good working condition and poor pay as the main reason behind leaving their previous employers.
The affected institutions are as a result forced to experience unnecessary readjustment through training of new employees to replace the departed ones. To avoid this he says it is the high time that the various health institutions put place measures that compel these employees to work for them regardless of the policies found in their organizations.
He gave an example of introducing contracts that binds the employee to the organization for a specified period of time. This one he says will reduce the tendencies of the employees from moving from one employer to the other and also minimize the cost associated with bringing in a new employee.
As a result there is no one time that the company will be left without a member of staff. He claims that some of the employees who had left their employer for another employer found the going tough after the working environment proved to be harsh on them in terms of company demands from them.
Cat (1985 p 45) has noted that maintaining a good working environment in the health sector is important because it helps bring a sense of oneness among the employees as well as their seniors. He observes that in such a case every member of staff feels relaxed while carrying out their duties.
To him the fact that employee needs are addressed as they may wish, they become a strong unit and therefore develop a strong bond amongst themselves. As a result the motivated workforce delivers as expected of them and hence the organization’s performance continues to improve.
He thus conclude that lack of oneness among staff creates mistrust among themselves and in the long run this may lead to a low output compared to when the employees had oneness amongst them.
A good working environment is important in retaining and sustaining a health workforce because it helps in avoiding fraud that may be committed by the employees. Robert (2010 p 198) has noted that every employee hopes to work for an organization that can pay him or her enough money to meet all that he or she may desire.
He says that when these expectations fail to be addressed the employee may end up contemplating on how to defraud the organization so that he or she can meet the desires of his heart.
In his arguments he point out that such cases of fraud are difficult to detect immediately they occur because the culprits are the one who are supposed to report such incidences. As a result of this he suggests that the organization should make sure that employees receive a better package in order to discourage them from indulging in such activities.
Maintaining a health work force improves efficiency. According to Stellman (1998 p 432) providing a good working condition for doctors and nurses motivates them and thus they work diligently as required of them. In such cases, he argues that the employees compete with one another in order to deliver their services to the patients.
As a result he contends that those employees who cannot maintain the competitiveness and efficiency set out by the organization are laid off. This ensures that only the best performers are retained.
Maintaining a good working environment has also been observed to help the employees become aware of their constitutional rights. According to Gregory M. (2008 p 544) institutions that have allowed their employees to join trade unions often realizes better output per employee because such people are able to know when their employer is oppressing them.
He therefore says that when the employees learn that their employer is abiding to the labor laws then they are likely to devote their full energy while working in such an organization. Such organization is not only likely to retain its employees but it will also receive a lot of application from people asking to be given a chance to serve in such an organization.
According to the International Labor Office (1999 par 4) when an organization creates a good working environment for its employees, chances are higher that the they will respond by handling the institutions’ property with utmost care. Therefore this will reduce the expenses of a company and thus increase its profit.
In one of the hospitals that he did his research, he argues that employees ventured their anger and frustration in the institutions’ property.
Therefore, he gives a piece of advise to the future managers to put into considerations the welfare of their employees or else some of them would depart them or would lead to losses incurred when carrying out repairs on property damaged by their employees.
The medical practitioners in a health institution that has provided good working conditions have been found to be creative in the manner in which they solve their issues.
Hui (2010 p 321) argues that this is usually the case because the employee knows that he or she does not stand any chance of being reprimanded for any in appropriate action that he or she might take.
As a result, such an employee will definitely wish to part and parcel of that organization other than go in another where he or she is not given a chance to come up with his or her own ideas on how to tackle a certain bothering issue.
Clerc (1985 p213) has noted that creating a good working environment for employees provides an opportunity for them to move up the ladder. He says that such organizations base their promotion criteria on merit. As a result it is only the most qualified individuals that are promoted.
Having come up with such policies it now becomes the duty of every member of staff seeking promotion to seek further knowledge in the institutions of higher learning.
That way the organization can be proud of having a qualified manpower hence competitive. If the company gives these employees a better wage then none of the present employees is likely to move to another organization seeking employment.
According to Wickenburg (1992 p 243) any hospital that has created a good working environment for its employees is likely to be emulated by other upcoming health institutions that are attempting to restructure in order to fit in the system.
In regard to this point, he therefore argues that any employee working for such hospitals would thus find it hard to leave their employer to go and seek employment elsewhere. In the long run he says that the organization would enjoy having retained an employee or a group of employees for a long time which is beneficial to it.
Creating a friendly working condition is an important factor that helps in the employing and retaining employees. According to Mills (2010 p 453) among the health professionals, providing them with good working environment motivates them to offer better and up to standard services to the patients.
As a result he contends that the health officials not only wish to remain in that field but also becomes motivated and hence the service delivery to the people is improved. To him poor work environments usually compromises the health work workforce.
In addition, Marc de (2004 p 201) argues that organizing an annual get together for employees is an important affair. This is because during this occasion employees get to interact with one another at a personal level and therefore be in a good position to share some of the challenges facing them at work.
After making some deliberations the employees might come up with a solution that previously no one could have thought of. In addition to that he contends that provision of other activities such as sports provides an opportunity for employees to refresh their mind.
Therefore, in his observation he concluded that the organization that provides recreation activities besides working is likely to retain its employees more than those organizations that do not.
Common characteristics of good working environment
Today there are very organizations with different goals from each other. However, it has been found that besides these differences there are those striking similarities found in them as they try to make the working conditions of their employees better.
Therefore, Donald (1985p 543) says that these characteristics are similar because they have been tailored to address a common problem that is usually reported in many health institution all over the world. Furthermore, once this problem is taken care of the beneficiaries of it are usually both the management as well as the members of staff.
He says that if the management addresses these problems fully, the employees will become motivated and at the end of it all it will be management that benefits more in terms of performance.
According to Johannes (1986 p 23) one of the common characteristic of a good working environment is the idea of trusting in each other. He says that when an employee is recruited to work in a health sector, the most important virtue that he or she should have is being trustworthy.
He compares the working relationship between the employer and the employee to a relationship between man and his wife. He says that without trust the relationship between the two individuals cannot last for long.
This way if an employer or an employee becomes suspicious of the other then, their working relationship is likely to be strenuous which at the end of it will see the employee exit the organization feeling very disappointed (Shi, 2007, pg 101). On the other hand the employer will be left searching for a replacement to that position.
This will definitely have an impact on the organization since extra money will have to be set aside in order to cater for the new employee training. Therefore, according to Pauline (2003 p 325) maintaining an open heart between the parties in order to keep the organization moving forward.
Failure to observe this then, he concludes that there will be a collision between parties when carrying out the duties. Tanya (1992 p 234) points out that members of the staff need to feel trusted by the management team so that can get to work freely without any fear of another person observing what they are doing.
This he says is informed by the fact that people want to be in a position where they are doing something not just to benefit themselves but also to help their organization at large.
The other common characteristic of a good working environment is that the employees become proud of their institution. Chary (2004 p 712) has pointed out that any organization that puts the interest of the employees first becomes a darling of not only the employees themselves but also other members of the public who gets to know of such developments.
As a result of this the organization receives lots and lots of job application letters simply because such applicants want to be associated with that organization. Therefore, the employees feel themselves as part and parcel of the organization which therefore makes them carry out their duties effectively and diligently.
To add on that Anderson (2006 p 42) contends that good performance of the employees in an organization is directly proportional to the manner in which the organization addresses their need. Therefore if the organization takes a keen interest in addressing the problems of her employees then employees would reciprocate and give all their best in that organization and vice versa.
Robert (2002 p 987) agrees that in order to create and sustain a good working environment, all organizations be it small or big has to sit down with the employees and have a one on one conversation in order to iron out any problems or differences that may be encroaching.
Once this happen Fergusson G. (2007 p 564) contends that the employees become a motivated force because after the meeting they considers the management as being honest with them and as a result commit all their energy to work for such an organization.
He adds that the act of involving members of staff in decision making has also become a common phenomenon in many organizations. This has been noted to make the employees responsible of their actions since they are usually involved in making of the rules and regulations that govern their conduct when working in such an organization.
According to Job &Alex, (1990 p 345) once the organization has provided a good working environment then the employees develop a caring attitude towards each other. They say that this is usually the case mainly because the employees trust each other.
If the opposite is the case then, we find that no one would care to know how the other work mates are fairing in their life. Edward (1996 p 290) notes that when one of the employees fail to report to duty, the others teams up to make sure that such position does not remain vacuum.
Therefore, this creates oneness among employees and hence steers the company or the organization to greater heights of success. Falcone (2009 p 121) refers to this act by the employees as a collective responsibility. That is one can be held accountable of what happens in another persons area of work in case he or she was absent from work on a certain day.
What lessons might be learned for local application
In our daily life whether as employees or entrepreneurs, there are very a number of lessons that we may borrow from the above discussion in order to help us move on smoothly with our lives as employees or employers.
As Jones (1999 p 564) noted creating a good relationship between the employees and the employer is very important because it gives both parties to learn the likes and dislikes of each other.
When this happens then good working relationship is enhanced. In addition maintaining trust between the employer and the employee has also been found to be very important because the two parties will be in a position to carry out their functions well without being suspicious of each other.
Douglass (2001 p 256) says that lack of trust can make an individual loose his or her job if the employer fails to develop a sense of trust in such an individual.
There is also the issue of collective responsibility. Josepha (1992 p 423) says that if both parties particularly the employees embrace this idea then failure by one of them is likely to felt slightly because the other employees will have tried to cover him or her.
Conclusion
As an organization lays down its strategic plans on how to grow, it must also factor in the needs of its employees who are the force behind its success. Creating a good working environment should be a top priority for the management if it seeks to remain competitive year in year out.
As earlier observed some of the issues to be addressed include; allowing members of staff to join trade unions, and also allowing employees to further their studies in order to increase competitiveness. In addition, the organization should ensure that it creates a department that addresses the employees’ queries.
In addressing these problems on time the management avoids a possibility of employees downing their tools in protest against the management.
The government on the other hand should come up with policies that govern the relationship between the employers and the employees. Some of the policies should for instance state how much the lowest paid person should earn. That way the citizens will have been protected from exploitation from employers.
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