You are on page 1of 21

CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

Community College of City University


Division of Commerce
Semester B 2010/2011

CM10322 Human Recourses Management


Group Project

High staff turnover rate in public hospital

Group Member
Kwok Chui Ling, Chloe(52224841)
Kwok Hiu Tung, Jessie (52230780)
Lau Hoi Yan, Cindy(52225339)
Wong San Mei, Irene (52234060)i

Words Count: 1692

Table of Content

Introduction
Analysis
Problems
(i) Imbalance of Requirement and Availability of
doctors in hospital authority
(ii) Job Analysis

Page
3

4-5
5-7

Recommendation
(i) Reduce the imbalance of requirement and

8-10

availability
(ii) Redo Job Analysis
Conclusion
Reference
Appendix

10-11
12
13-14
15-21

Introduction
In February, the doctors of Tsun Mun Hospital planned to take the industry
action because of the overtime work in long-term. As the 116 doctors resigned within
one year, the doctors cannot due to the large workload of the shortage of manpower.
This incident leads the doctors in public hospitals to express their dissatisfaction
which included the improper promotion system, unreasonable working hours and
workload.

Our project aims to study the reasons for doctors shortage, unreasonable
working schedule and workload. We will analyze the problems aroused at imbalance
of requirement and availability and the job analysis by studying the current news.
Then, we will give the recommendation to the Hospital Authority to extend the
employment pool and redo the job analysis to solve the problems.

(March 26, 2011). . Oriental daily. Available from

http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/news/20110326/00176_043.html?pubdate=2011032

Problems

Imbalance of Requirement and Availability of doctors in hospital authority

The supply of doctors in Hong Kong is lower than that of demand. There are
several reasons to explain it. In Hong Kong, there are only two universities providing
medical and surgery courses. It also causes the supply lower than that of demand.
Because of the declining number of graduated students from medical and surgery
courses, it also means that public hospitals cannot find enough applicants to develop a
large pool to select. So, the supply of qualified doctors is not enough to satisfy with
such a high demand.

Moreover, the negative image of public hospitals also is the reason of why
supply is lower than demand. It is because there are many news shows that working in
public hospitals is a 2 high pressure job and the prospect of being a doctor is not ideal.
They may think that working in public hospitals needs to bear huge burden of
workload, also there are

insufficient doctors to share the workload with them.

Furthermore, the working time is too long at all. 1Doctors may need to work 24 hours
before they take a rest. Although the job is hard to do, the salaries are not high
2

(March 1, 2011). . The Hong Kong Medical Association. Available from

http://www.hkma.org/english/newsroom/news/20110301.htm

enough, so that hospitals cannot attract enough applicants to be the doctors. Based on
these negative things, people may think that it is a hard job so no one is willing to be
the doctor. It may cause the supply of doctors cannot balance with the demand.

As there are many negative things about the public hospitals, so people will tend
to choose working in private hospitals which have a good compensation and the
chance of promotion is higher than that of public hospitals. This kind of mismatch
also affects the supply of doctors. No one is willing to work in bad policies and low
compensation sector so even there are graduated students from medical and surgery
courses, they would like to apply doctors in private hospitals rather than public
hospitals.

Job analysis
Most doctors complain about the president of hospital authority does not listen to
their opinion but only find the way to add the source of doctors supply3. The hospital
authority only solves the short term problem but cannot solve the root of the problem
which is the job nature.
3

(March 1, 2011). . The Hong Kong Medical Association. Available from

http://www.hkma.org/english/newsroom/news/20110301.htm

In step 2 of job analysis, the job analysts did not review well about the doctors
process charts and job description as well as collect the data incomprehensively
so it causes the job description does not match with their actual job condition4.

In step 4 of job analysis, we have to analyze the job by collecting data on job
activities, job context and so on. However, the analysis of job context is not good and
causes the abnormal schedule. For example, the doctors worked in the night shift, but
still have to perform a surgery in next morning.

This tight schedule always happened in public hospitals. Therefore, doctors in


public hospitals felt stressed and resigned. Also, in analyzing work activities, the
analysts did not consider the workload of doctors. Therefore, there are lots of work
activities for the doctors, such as, paper work, performing surgery and so on5.

. (March 28, 2011). :. Oriental daily. Available from

http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/news/20110328/00184_002.html?pubdate=20110328
5

(March 26, 2011). . Oriental daily. Available from

http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/news/20110326/00176_043.html?pubdate=2011032

Since there are some problems in step 4 of job analysis, the job description and job
specification truly reflects what and how the current employees are doing the job. For
example, the contract shows that the doctors working hours is 44 hours per week.
6

However, their actual working hours per week is 100 hours6. The problem aroused
because the job analysis was outdated which is meaningless for the jobless world
nowadays.

Affected by Dejobbing, the responsibilities of the doctors jobs are broadening.


The job design for doctors which is job enlargement increases the extra workload for
the doctors. The Job enlargement assigns doctors additional same level activities, thus
increasing the number of activities they perform.

As a result, doctors work in public hospitals lack of time to take rest, also they
cannot find their job prospect such as promotion7. All the factors decrease their
morale and resign to private hospitals or clinics. It is because the offer given by
private hospitals or clinics are better than public hospitals such as higher salaries and
benefit.
6

. (March 28, 2011). :. Oriental daily. Available from

http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/news/20110328/00184_002.html?pubdate=20110328
7

(March 26, 2011), , Oriental daily. Available from

http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/news/20110326/00176_043.html?pubdate=2011032

Facing the outflow of talents, the hospital authority still cannot offer an attractive
policy to urge doctors not to leave. The high turnover rate of doctors in public
hospitals is serious.
7

Recommendation

Reduce the imbalance of requirement and availability

By understanding the reasons for the imbalance of the requirements and


availability of doctors of hospital authority, there is a need for recruitment in order to
minimize the imbalance.

For some position, especially for the higher positions such as deputy consultants,
the internal employees should be considered first. As for now, the doctors turnover
rate is remain high, and hence chances for promotion should be given to the doctors to
increase their staff morale in order to save them in the public sector.

Furthermore, rehiring former employees can also fill the demand for doctors. The
hospital authority can invite the retired doctors back to their former position. As the
doctors are already retired, hiring them for part time job is more likely to attract them
back to the public sector. It can help reducing the workload of the current doctors and
thus reduce the great demand for the doctors. The former doctors are also familiar
with the working condition and have stronger commitment to the hospital, so less
8

training and orientation are needed.

Then, the external source should be considered as there is large number of


vacancies needed to be filled. Because of the attractive pay of the private sector, the
Hong Kong doctors are unwilling to take a job in the public sector. To deal with the
shortage of supply of Hong Kong doctors, the hospital authority can recruit the
doctors through other sources such as attracting doctors who are Hong Kong people
studying aboard back to work at public sector in Hong Kong.

However, the effectiveness of the solution of recruiting doctors studying aboard


has to be considered. Some doctors working in frontline claimed that it cannot solve
the major problem. They worried that recruiting target form overseas is the skillful
expert who may not willing working in frontline. It cannot lower their workload and
thus the problem cannot be solved.8

(March 26, 2011). . The Sun. Available from:

http://the-sun.on.cc/cnt/news/20110326/00407_002.html?pubdate=20110326

Therefore, the hospital authority should focus more on recruiting the doctors that
can really solve the problem. The sources on recruiting overseas should be broadened
9

the foreign colleges to attract more college graduates. As they have less experience
and more willingness to work in the frontline. Furthermore, on the recruitment
advertisement, realistic view showing the need for working in the frontline should be
presented in order to make the candidates self-select out if it is not the job they
wanted.

Redo Job analysis

As the Hospital Authority does not fully understand the doctors need and job
nature, it is better to collect the updated information again to redo the job analysis.

Firstly, it needs to state that the collected information is not only use to revise the
existing job but also employ the new doctors to eliminate the shortage. The
information should include human behaviors, tools, work aids and human
requirements. The most needed information is work activities and job context. We
have mentioned that the responsibilities of the doctors are broadening because of
Dejobbing. The outdated job analysis may not show the increased paperwork and
overtime work in long-term. The Hospital Authority can collect those data from
questionnaires and interview with doctors. The questionnaire is a good way to collect
10

a lot of doctors job-related duties and responsibilities. 9As many doctors dissatisfied
with the workload and promotion system, the interview is a direct method for doctors
to describe the working situation of their work.

. (February 28, 2011). . HKCNA .Available from

http://www.hkcna.hk/content/2011/0228/89319.shtml

Next step is to review relevant background information, such as organization


structure and job description. In step 4, it is using the information to analyze the
doctors job. Then, it can develop a job description and job specification for doctors.
After the job analysis, the Hospital Authority can understand clearly about the job
standard and give a better arrangement for time schedule to decrease their workload.
Also, the Hospital Authority should carry out what is written in the job description.
For example, carry out the standard working hours as the actual working hours in the
working situation.

On the other hand, the Hospital Authority should make use of the information
collected from doctors to understand what the doctors need. If it finds that the doctors
have too heavy workload and pressure, it should decide to employ more doctors and
provide more benefits for them.
11

Conclusion

All in all, facing the problem of inadequate supply source of doctors and high
turnover rate of doctors, Hospital Authority does not have a good policy to deal with
the problems aroused. We discovered one of the problems is imbalance of requirement
and availability of doctors. Fewer graduated student to apply the job because the job
with negative image which lower the supply of applicants. The second cause of the
problem is in Job analysis. In the process of job analysis, we concluded that the
hospital authority didnt do well on step 2 and 4. Therefore, the tight schedule and
working overtime problem happened.

Affected by Dejobbing, the workload to

doctors increased. We recommend that the hospital authority should put some effort
on recruitment and selection and redo Job analysis to ease the problems.

12

Reference
1.

(March 26, 2011). . Oriental daily. Available from


http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/news/20110326/00176_043.html?pubdate=2011032

2.

(March 1, 2011). . The Hong Kong Medical


Association. Available from
http://www.hkma.org/english/newsroom/news/20110301.htm

3.

. (March 28, 2011). :. Oriental daily. Available from


http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/news/20110328/00184_002.html?pubdate=2011032
8

4.

(March 25, 2011). . Mingpao. Available


from http://hk.news.yahoo.com/article/110324/4/nfol.html

5.

(March 26, 2011). . Oriental daily. Available from


http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/news/20110326/00176_043.html?pubdate=2011032

6.

(March 26, 2011). . The Sun. Available from:


http://the-sun.on.cc/cnt/news/20110326/00407_002.html?pubdate=20110326

7.

. (February 28, 2011)..


HKCNA .Available from http://www.hkcna.hk/content/2011/0228/89319.shtml

8.

. (February 23, 2011). .


HKCNA. Available from http://www.hkcna.hk/content/2011/0223/88595.shtml

13

9.

. (February 25, 2011). .


HKCNA. Available from http://www.hkcna.hk/content/2011/0225/89081.shtml

10. (March 27, 2011). . Available from


http://the-un.on.cc/cnt/news/20110327/00416_001.html?pubdate=20110327

11. Dessler, Gary. P. 70-112 & 120-149, Human Resource Management, Pearson
Prentice Hall, 2008

14

Appendix
Appendix I:
2


2


3 1



3 9


3 18


3 19



3 25

Appendix II:
5.4%


15

1997

97

8
4 5

Appendix III:

16

2 28

17

Appendix IV
2 22
22

()

Appendix V:
2 25
25

20% 7

()

18

Appendix VI:


399 600

19

Appendix VII:

20

Appendix VIII:






21

You might also like