Human resource planning process in private Hospitals in Nairobi

Abstract

This study sought to establish several facts related to the human resources planning processes used by private hospitals in Nairobi. The need for this study arose from the realization that unlike in public hospitals which are fully funded by the government and whose human resource activities are coordinated and uniformly implemented by the ministry of health on behalf of the government, private hospitals operate as purely business ventures and their human resources planning is guided by individual hospitals corporate strategic goals and objectives. There was need to establish the human resources planning processes used by each of the private hospitals in Nairobi and to find out whether those processes had any common features or similarities given that the hospitals were different in terms of size and operational capacity. The objectives of the study were to establish the process of planning in private hospitals and to determine the challenges faced by the hospitals in planning their human resource activities. The research design was a descriptive census survey. The research data was gathered from 30 hospitals which have both inpatient and outpatient services. Primary data was collected using a semi structured questionnaire. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics through use of percentages and content analysis. The analysis revealed that majority of the hospitals have corporate objectives which form a basis for their human resources planning activities. The findings show that different hospitals use different approaches in planning for their manpower requirements and in formulating programmes for recruiting, retaining and maintaining a highly motivated and competent work force. The results of the study also reveal that the biggest challenge to human resource planning in the hospitals studied is the inability of the human resource planners to predict the future due to constant changes in business strategies, high labour turnover and the lack of a functioning human resource unit in most of the smaller hospitals with the result that their human resource processes and practices are not fully developed. The study recommends that all private hospitals should endevour to have a specialized human resource unit in order to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in the implementation of human resource processes and practices.