Nursing and Midwifery Workload and Workforce Planning
Nursing & Midwifery Workload and Workforce
Planning
People Management
Quality Education for a healthier Scotland
Nursing and Midwifery Workload and Workforce Planning
Aspects of Good Practice in Managing
People (Audit Scotland, 2001)
2. Assessing
staffing needs
for service
delivery
1. Developing
a partnership
culture
3. Retraining
and recruiting
the people we
need
5. Improving
the
performance of
our people
4. Managing
the
performance of
our people
Quality Education for a healthier Scotland
Nursing and Midwifery Workload and Workforce Planning
Vacancies: things to consider (1)
• do we really need to fill the vacancy?
• do we need to recruit to the same grade or the same number of hours?
• has the job changed or have changing work patterns created a different
job?
• is this an opportunity to review the structure of the department?
• are there re-deployment/ill health issues?
• can existing staff be re-deployed to increase their knowledge of the work
carried out in the department and their potential?
• are there any other vacancies in other departments which can link with
this vacancy?
Quality Education for a healthier Scotland
Nursing and Midwifery Workload and Workforce Planning
Vacancies: things to consider (2)
• are there any anticipated changes which will require different, additional
or lesser skills?
• is this post suitable for job sharing or where the duties of a job can be
split?
• have the revenue consequences been identified?
• does the post have any training requirements?
• is this a new post?
• has the funding been agreed?
• what kind of person do we need to fill the post?
• will we need locum/bank cover in the interim?
Quality Education for a healthier Scotland
Nursing and Midwifery Workload and Workforce Planning
Recruitment
To enable you to choose the person who will contribute the
most to your team, both in the present and in the future
(Wells, 2007)
• work within your organisation's policies and with your HR
team
• if you want to attract the best staff you need to consider
what your ward or department has to offer
• contributes to a wider organisational strategy which
should, in turn, be driven by the organisation’s overall
goals
Quality Education for a healthier Scotland
Nursing and Midwifery Workload and Workforce Planning
Recruitment Strategy
• Recruitment should be guided by a strategy which seeks to
meet the present and future people needs of the organisation
and should be properly integrated with other key aspects of
people management including:
– training and development
– competence and skills assessment
– performance review and management reward strategy (Audit
Scotland, 2001)
– planning the number and type of people needed
Quality Education for a healthier Scotland
Nursing and Midwifery Workload and Workforce Planning
Staff Retention
A moderate level of turnover can be beneficial as it can lead to
the introduction of different experiences, ideas and
approaches to service delivery
Studies into why nurses leave
their roles show the reasons to
be (Wells, 2007):
•
•
•
•
•
•
a poor working environment
low pay
stress
understaffing
high acuity patients
number of hours worked
Nurses who stay in their jobs
give the following reasons:
•
•
•
•
job satisfaction
a positive environment
recognition
flexibility
Quality Education for a healthier Scotland
Nursing and Midwifery Workload and Workforce Planning
Managing Performance
Quality Education for a healthier Scotland
Nursing and Midwifery Workload and Workforce Planning
Managing Performance
• At its best, performance management is a tool to ensure that
managers manage effectively and that they ensure the people
or teams they manage:
– know and understand what is expected of them
– have the skills and ability to deliver on these expectations
– are supported by the organisation to develop the capacity to meet
these expectations are given feedback on their performance
– have the opportunity to discuss and contribute to individual and team
aims and objectives
Quality Education for a healthier Scotland
Nursing and Midwifery Workload and Workforce Planning
Improving Employee
Performance
Audit Scotland (2001) suggests that organisations need have a proactive attitude to improving the performance of its employees and build
appropriate procedures and systems into its management arrangements
to identify and achieve such improvements on a continuous basis. This
involves:
• gaining commitment from managers and employees
• creating and using management information systems routinely to
monitor employee activity and costs
• taking actions to achieve performance improvement
Quality Education for a healthier Scotland