HR Aspects in Laboratory

HR aspects should address key practices like creating and maintaining a high performance work culture to enable the staff to adapt to change

A peculiar challenge for healthcare organisations is the breadth of staff relationships. This is true even for a laboratory, the variety of people contributing to the delivery of services range from doctors, quality managers, technicians, phlebotomist, students and boys.

HR aspects should address key practices like creating and maintaining a high performance work culture and developing staff to enable them to adapt to change. For creating a high performance culture, you need to have policies for:

• Recruitment.
• Training.
• Staff review.
• Grievances resolution.
• Retention.
• Career Development.

Dr Charulata Pamnani

Recruitment: Catch them Young

Hiring and candidate selection processes should be driven by the position requirements. Apart from experienced candidates, freshers should be encouraged and hired, as it is easier to mould fresh recruits as per the laboratory policies. There should be a simplification of job classification, so that the recruits know exactly what is expected of them. If the lab director believes in cross- training and job rotation, this should be clarified at the time of recruitment.

There should be a timeframe within which a replacement needs to be given to avoid disruption of services. HR policy should have a strong structured framework, be it for the time required from advertising a post through the interview process, medical examination to giving an offer letter.

Education and Train

Keeping in mind the absence of any licensing in India, we need to ensure that the staff undergoes regular training to keep them updated in terms of latest in technology and new trends. Education should also be imparted in polishing basic language skills, etiquette, soft skills, computer skills and grooming. Education and training delivery can occur in house or outside the organisation and could involve on the job, classroom, computer based or distance learning. To help staff realise its full potential, many labs use individual development plans prepared with each staff to address his/her career and learning objectives.

Training should also be for specific position requirements. As a lab director, you need to evaluate the effectiveness of the training on the individual's performance and the department's performance. A cost-benefit analysis of the training can be done. Identify leaders for management positions and train them accordingly.

Staff Satisfaction & Grievance Resolution

That the success of an organistion depend on how happy are its people is a known fact. Hence, factors inhibiting motivation should be understood and addressed by the organisation. A safe, secure and healthy working environment should be provided. Both formal and informal assessment methods should be employed to determine staff satisfaction.

Some ways of improving staff motivation are:

• Personal and career counseling.
• Recreational activities.
• Cultural activities.
• Formal and non-formal/informal recognition.
• Special leave for family responsibilities and community service.
• Flexible work hours.
• Healthcare benefits.

Though pay and promotion are two important ways to improve staff satisfaction, these are not sufficient. Staff grievances should be resolved at the earliest and not allowed to fester. Staff should be given career opportunities within the organisation if they have an aptitude and are found suitable for other jobs. The work environment should be one of mutual respect, trust and knowledge sharing. Occupational safety standards should be maintained. Staff numbers should be commensurate with the workload. There should be good communication between the lab director and staff.

Direct surveys can be conducted to assess the staff satisfaction levels. Some indicators of dissatisfaction are absenteeism, strikes and worker compensation claims. Exit interview should be conducted to find out if there are any common reasons for this attrition and remedial steps should be taken accordingly.

Staff Retention

The organisation should have policies to retain staff who are found to be efficient and good. In fact, the time and effort expended in training new staff may work out to be more expensive in the long run.

Building a good team takes a lot of effort and you can eliminate wastage and inefficiency by ensuring continuity of trained staff. Once you have a settled and good team, a succession plan should be in place with the second line clearly identified. The staff should be developed to evaluate them to adapt to change. The 'heirs' too should be given appropriate training.

Career Development

There have been tremendous technological advancements in lab medicine. There are many off-shoots of pathology which require expertise and specialised training. Staff can be encouraged to undertake courses in molecular biology techniques, histotechniques, accreditation processes, Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) guidelines which are required for clinical trials and quality management. This also helps in broadening their perspective and improves quality in the laboratory.

Better Education

Pathologists obtain training in laboratory medicine during their residency programme. However, emphasis should be directed towards education in laboratory administration of which HR training should be a part. This would hopefully help us to be better equipped to deal with the day-to-day challenges faced by us in a competitive world.

The writer is Chief of Laboratory Services Jupiter Hospital Thane
Email: acdpamnani@gmail.com