Summary
This paper looks at the human resource management strategies adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the various competing organizational pressures. It also looks at the organizational, sectoral, national and international contexts that affect the Human Resource Management policies and practices of the organization.
Introduction
The World Health Organization (WHO), which was developed in 1948, is an organization within the United Nations that coordinates on the various aspects of public health across the world. Its headquarters are situated at Geneva, Switzerland. WHO took over from the Health Organization which was in the League of Nations. The main mandate of the World Health Organization is to ensure that all people are as healthy as possible.
It therefore does this by controlling some of the diseases that are easily infected and they include malaria, TB and H.I.V/AIDS and come up with other programs that actually treat or provide preventive measures against those diseases. Preventive measures include use of vaccines whose effectiveness has been guaranteed. Use of condoms has also been encouraged by the organization so as to prevent the deadly HIV/AIDS.
WHO is well known for its success in the complete eradication of the smallpox in 1980. Polio is currently in its list and is to be eradicated in the coming few years. The World Health Organization employs and encourages its Members to use evidence-based strategies such as the use of data collection in health surveys in there health policy structure.
The WHO normally prints out the World Health Report that provide information on some of the issues to do with health globally. The organisation has also developed strategies to assess the capacity of the systems and the workers so as to ensure that it meets goals of attaining good health for the nations.
WHO is also involved in conducting campaigns that may help raise awareness of some of the health hazards such as the smoking of cigarettes that contain tobacco which pose threat to human health. It also encourages the consumption of certain foods such as vegetables and fruits which promote health. World Health Organization conducts research on health issues and tackles some diseases that are of global concern.
It has also developed networks that ensure that information on research done on health issues can be accessed in the third world countries. The organization obtains its funds from contributions from local governments, Non-organizational organizations and private sectors of its members and through donations. The WHO has developed partnerships with other bodies in doing its work and now has at least eighty partnerships.
The World Health Organization has a personnel policy which is similar to that of other United Nations agencies. Recently, the organization prohibited the recruitment of smokers to be part of staff so as to promote its integrity on having an environment free of tobacco. This principle was also adopted by other one hundred and sixty eight countries in 2003 and actually signed a convention that controlled the use of tobacco.
Methodology
This paper will use the World Health Organization (WHO) as a case study and its human resource strategies and policies will be looked at critically so as to analyze the various components of human resource management policy and practice which include recruitment and selection of staff, training, Human Resource Development, employment relations, employee participation and rewarding systems.
The various challenges faced will be looked at and recommendations will be made. Secondary sources of data collection will be used and will include books and internet information about the organization in question.
WHO’s HR strategies and policies
At the moment, the World Health Organization has estimated the number of the total health workers to hit the 59.2 million. Two thirds of the estimated number constitutes those that provide health services and the rest are management and subordinate staff (World Health Report, 2006). It has been identified that problems that face the health sector revolve around politics and the culture of a given country.
The economic status and the type of health systems employed also may cause problems in the health sector. In order to combat these problems, various factors can be considered. Inputting funds in the sector can help tackle some issues. Changing the training programs can also work towards solving some of the problems faced in the health sector.
Improving data accessibility and the working conditions in the sector can be huge change effectors. The above factors are however not directly controlled by the Human Resource for Health (HRH) policy makers.
It has therefore been hypothesised that, for countries to implement their Human Resource for health policies, it must make its strategies to be compatible with the reforms of that country and also to utilize processes based on sound data in making of policies.
The Global Health Workforce Strategy Group (GHWSG) was initiated by the World Health Organization in 2000. It was established so as to assist in the job of bettering the performance of the health workers. The various groups made discussions via videoconferencing.
The workshop attended by the GHWSG was aimed at informing other stakeholders and ensure their full participation in finding the important areas that would make-better the HRH policy. The Global Health Workforce Strategy workshop was a big step in the attempt to curtail the human resource issues faced globally and ensuring sustainability in human resource for health.
The issues to do with health workers and human resource for health are among the most challenging areas to change in especially for countries that are aiming at improving the health sector and its systems. WHO came up with certain strategies to aid in sustainability in human resource for health.
This includes developing ways of performing impact assessment for the human resource and induces human resource activities in other parts of the policy. This involves the incorporation of mechanisms that aid countries in performing impact assessment on the initiatives that are suggested for the health sector that affect the workers.
WHO advocates for the developing of competent staff through encouraging further training and education. This involves the use of experts in the field to integrate and apply necessary knowledge mechanisms.
WHO also advocates for human resource and encourages for networks to be created by raising the awareness among its stakeholders. One way in which this is done is through the development of web sites that provide the necessary information.
HRM policy and practice
The World Health Organization usually recruit workforce on either permanent terms or temporarily by offering contracts and are put into two broad categories; either General Service staff and professionals abbreviated as G and P respectively.
The professional workers are obtained internationally and hold senior management positions. They are therefore required to have high levels of training and expertise. The professionals are required to be flexible in terms of their working environments since they can be deployed for service at any part of the globe.
The general service staff (G) however are recruited locally and placed at respective stations where they are expected to work. Their main work is that of assisting the professional staff so as to ensure that there is smooth running of the activities.
National Professional Officers work in their come from and do their job in a professional manner. They are required to work in the country of origin since they require knowledge and experience of their country.
One of the requirements for one to qualify for the professional position at the WHO includes having a degree from the university and having pursued a postgraduate course that is management or health-related.
Some relevant amount of experience in the area is required at global level. The candidate must possess knowledge on policy issues and public health. Another additional requirement is the proficiency in a second language apart from English.
The WHO observes certain principles during recruitment and this includes maintaining diversity of staff in the organization and obtaining representatives in each member state. Only qualified staff is recruited and gender balance is assured. Some restrictions are however observed during recruitment and this includes age restrictions. People of the ages below 20 and 62 do not qualify for recruitment.
The policy against smokers disqualifies tobacco smokers in the recruitment process. WHO considers tobacco as a killer and takes away approximately 5 million people per year while this many cases of death are very preventable. As for members of staff who smoke, WHO encourages them to quit and provide them with assistance on how to quit.
The organization has developed several strategies to increase awareness about the organization and the employment opportunities available there so as to attract potential workforce from all over the world. Another method employed is the use of the missions in Geneva to look for potential candidate from various institutions and other organizations that participate in health-related stuff.
Another strategy yet is the use of e-mails in disseminating of the information. The WHO sent e-mails to its collaborators so as locate its potential candidates.
The WHO is involved in conducting quality assessments and quality assurance so as to ensure that the members of staff are competent and provide quality service to the organization. Assessment is done on individuals and groups so as to check for team work. Quality assessment is essential so as to attain quality assurance by an organization (Bandaranayake, 2000).
A World Health Organization report on activities done in South-East Asia to check on quality of its services on blood transfusion showed that they were at various levels in development when compared with other states. Thailand, for example is ISO certified due to its excellent systems.
Some countries do not attain this level of quality assurance despite having good infrastructure in form of qualified personnel, quality and funds. This is mainly because of the lack of full support of the government in the sector and many changes that occur in the government (Bandaranayake, 2000).
The World Health Organization however acknowledges that there are factors beyond control that prevent assurance of quality service by the country and these includes factors such as climate change, factors that impede communication, infrastructure and political influence. In an attempt to explain this, a report on the laboratory services at Maldives was considered.
One of the reasons that were identified as the reasons for the low quality of service were the difficulties faced during the transportation process. Another reason was the fact that some of the slides and reagents that were being used for the laboratory activities had actually expired.
The WHO uses staff appraisal as part of its practices so as to ensure achievement of its goals and objectives. It has however been argued that staff appraisal has more effect on staff behaviour than the organization’s performance (Martinez, 2000).
For a long time, appraisal of staff had only to do with relationship between a manager (head) and the individual being appraised and therefore the individual hardly ever knew of it as it was kept from him.
As much as it is advisable to maintain interactions at personal levels, it doesn’t necessarily mean that there will be incorporation between the person and the goals of the organization. The World Health Organization supports and encourages the use of teamwork in the performance of its activities.
The WHO ensures staff development through offering rewards to its workers both at individual and team levels. It has been proven that rewards contribute greatly in the performance of an organization and there are cases recorded where there was no evidence of enhancement of performance until a form of reward system was adopted (Martinez, 2000).
Many writers have however argued out that a integration of a number of incentives-both positive and negative-to either commend a staff member for impressive performance or to punish and discourage staff that perform poorly.
Several studies have specifically looked at the relationship that exists between human resources and the reforms that have been developed concerning health. Most have just looked at the way the reforms have changed the mode of interaction among health workforce within the place of work but only a small number of the researchers have actually looked at how the workers themselves affect the reforms.
These reforms have changed various important aspects of the health workers. These changes include the level of decentralization of areas of management, the working conditions, the level of skills needed for one to be recruited and the issues to do with incentives and payments.
The health workers have now on many occasions presented their ideas and have had their voices heard and therefore have had the opportunity to air their views on the various aspects of management (Dussault and Rigoli, 2003).
This evidences show the extent to which the workforce in the health sector-whether as individually or as a collection-have had in the changing of the reforms and therefore ensuring success in the participation of the staff (staff involvement). This provides a tool that can be used to predict the way in which the workforce can react to emerging issues to do with reforms.
Competing organizational pressures
Some of the challenges facing the World Health Organization in its mandate of promoting health throughout the globe include the acute shortage of trained health workers. This shortage has been caused due to various factors which include the moving out of people to other developed countries hence reducing their numbers.
The other reason include the under production of the workers in the health sector and the difficulty in paying high salaries and allowances to health workers and hence the difficulty in sustaining them in the respective countries. Some factors that are unavoidable such as illness and death of staff also contribute the acute shortage of the workers (Brito and Novick, 2000).
O’Neil (2008) confirmed that the major deficiency in all health systems is the presence of Human Resource managers and qualified specialists who can stand in the way of the challenges that face the health sector. Some managers and leadership figures in the health sector have complained of being forced to comply with some dictatorial rules laid by the civil service that impede their performance.
The presence of self-centred and disunified Human resource management systems and the inappropriate utilization of the health workforce is also a great challenge that faces WHO. Managers in many states acknowledge that the leadership force to combat these issues are lacking.
Human resource management systems in the health sector are not usually centralized and the different authorities in charge of planning, incentive, promotions and the other human resource activities being assigned to different ministries in stead of a single body. Another challenge facing the WHO is the difficulty in securing equal job opportunities in the health sector for women.
There is also a difficulty in motivating staff and ensuring high performance in the health sector through the utilization of incentives that involve pay or non-pay strategies. This includes providing opportunities for further learning to its staff and also opportunities to further develop their careers (WHO, 2000).
Conclusion
The world Health Organization is an important organization because of its task of ensuring that there is almost perfect health for all the people within its member countries.
It has been known to uphold its integrity in its policies and has been on the race in the attempt to raise awareness on such dangers as the use of tobacco cigarettes which is a killer and has claimed millions of lives. By ensuring a tobacco free environment, the WHO passes a strong message against the use of tobacco and in the process raise awareness on its dangers.
The WHO adopts transparency in its method of recruiting staff and in the process maintains highly skilled staff members that ensure that the goals and objectives of the organization are obtained.
The process of advertising for vacant posts within the organization ensures that many different states are alerted and the most qualified potential candidates only are given the opportunity to show their competence and skills. In this way it displays its corruption free nature and wins the trust of many who are looking forward to working for the organization or considering it the first choice when it comes to health issues.
Since the World Health organization recruits both male and female candidates in organization, it promotes equity and help to shape the mentality and the perception that women are less useful to the society and in the process acts as a role model to the many organizations that have not been able to attain this level of equity in the selection of staff.
This also helps promote the girl-child education especially in the third world (developing) countries. The world Health organization also appreciates its well performing staff by offering rewards and therefore motivates them and provides a good working environment and working conditions with its staff.
The offering of disincentives to the poorer performing staff also helps them realize their weaknesses and through the help of management and other leaders in the organization, they would be able to rectify their misdeeds and ensure a bright future for the organization and its staff.
This also helps in establishing good relationships between the management and the staff and therefore creating a good environment for the workers and in the long run lead to the overall success of the organization.
Recommendations
Since the World Health organization faces some challenges which include having deficiencies in staff numbers due to insufficient salaries and allowances offered to them by their countries, I would recommend that the WHO should partner with its other member states and form a baseline to which all staff occupying the same position in the organization should the same amount of pay irrespective to the country the person is working for.
Since some management figures in the health sector complain of being influenced negatively by political influence and being forced to comply with some law requirements that are set by the civil service, I would recommend that the WHO be made to be an independent body so that it can function independently from the political bodies within the country and therefore attain its goals and objectives much easily.
Human resource management systems in the health sector should centralized so that all activities are run by one centralized body instead of many group of bodies that may limit of success of the WHO.
So as to combat the problem of shortage of trained staff, the WHO should set aside more of its funds on training staff rather than spending a lot of its funds of purchasing medicines that are to be administered to people and yet there are no people to administer it.
References
Bandaranayake, D. (2001) Assessing performance management of human resources for health in South-East Asian countries. Aspects of quality and outcome. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/hrh/en/Assessing_performance.pdf
Black, C. (2011) WHO Employment: Who We need. World Health Organisation. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/careers/en/
Brito, G. and Novick, M. (2000) Labour relations, employment conditions and participation in the health sector. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/hrh/documents/en/Labour_relations.pdf
Dussault, G. and Rigoli, F. (2003) The interface between health sector reform and human resources in health. [online]. Available from https://human-resources-health.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1478-4491-1-9 .
Martinez, J. (2001) Assessing quality, outcome and performance management. London, The Institute for Health Sector Development.
O’Neil, L. M. (2008) Human resource leadership: the key to improved results in health. Cambridge, Human resource for health.
WHO (2000) Workshop on global health workforce strategy. Web.