Global Trends Impacting HR Strategies Of Cleveland Clinic: SWOT Analysis And Action Plan

Current global trend

Cleveland clinic is a multi- disciplinary educational hospital in Ohio. It is a non- profit organization which was established in the year 1921. Apart from providing their services in the headquarters, the clinic also operates in the local areas of Florida and Nevada and globally in Canada and UAE (“Access Anytime Anywhere | Cleveland Clinic”, 2018). This assignment is aimed at recognizing the global trends that will have an impact on the hospital and particularly, in the HR department. The SWOT analysis of the HR department and their strategies will be considered in identifying the external threats or opportunities.   

Current global trend

According to Hollenback, Noe & Gerhart (2018), technology is a current global trend that might have an impact on the HR strategies of Cleveland Clinic. Technology is constantly evolving the way in which HR departments create connection with the employees, secure every document and conducts performance analysis of the employees. By using effective technology as part of HR strategies, the practices become more efficient.

However, if technology is not used effectively then it might hamper the HR practices of Cleveland Clinic. This is because effective HR practices increase the benefits of the company and on the other, it reduce the problems (Paillé et al., 2014). Technology has taken major shape in the form of social media platforms by easing the HR practices in the organization. The HR department does not need to connect with the job seekers via telephone or letter but they get emails and text messages. Moreover, Applicant Tracking System or ATS is used to filter the candidates and find the best one for the organization.     

Brewster (2017) stated that apart from technology, virtual workplace is a major factor that might have a possible impact on the HR strategies of Cleveland Clinic. This is because virtual workplace tends to decrease the lower overhead costs of the organization. If Cleveland Clinic is run virtually, then it will not have to think about the cost of leasing office space, pay bills or buy furniture. Employee satisfaction is maintained, as they get flexible timing to work from anywhere they want to. This might help the organization to hire the talented employees in the industry who would not accept the offer otherwise. Even with the increase in team strength, the organization need not think about the infrastructure in a virtual office.       

HR SWOT analysis

HR SWOT analysis

The external trend of technology can be considered as an opportunity for Cleveland Clinic. The HR department of the organization can keep a proper track of their patients by making use of technology. They can use the technology to make a list of the doctors and align them with the patients to refer the patients to their specific doctor. This will help them in streamlining the process of sending the patient to the particular specialist in the crowd (Purce, 2014).

It will ease the process and avoid the haphazardness that is usually created in the clinic. The patients will not have to roam around in the hospital and technology will help them to move to the specific room by allocating a number electronically. There will be no such provision of manually buying the medicines but those will be posted to their home address along with an instruction. Moreover, they will get a reminder text message from the clinic at the right time of their visit and check- up with the doctor.       

Virtual office can be considered as threat for Cleveland Clinic as they will not be able to manage their patients and doctors without their physical presence. As the organization manages the work of providing health related service in Ohio, therefore there might be disruption in the service in case of a virtual office. Moreover, virtual offices are better when there is lack of space and no provision for growth and expansion of the organization (Jackson, Schuler & Jiang, 2014). The working in virtual offices is effective in terms of small employee strength but that will not be of any benefit in a large organization such as Cleveland Clinic.  

HR strategy

An effective HR strategy will be helpful in getting over the weaknesses of Cleveland Clinic and turn them into opportunities (Brewster, Chung & Sparrow, 2016). The strengths of the organization can be enhanced by practicing the HR strategies effectively which is given below.

HR strategies can be best implemented in the organization Cleveland Clinic with the appropriate use of technology. The strategies become successful when it allows the people in act humanly. Cleveland Clinic is not aiming to replace people with technology, but ease their process of working, so that more time can be invested on other activities (Marchington et al, 2016). They want to create something innovative in the industry with their developing capabilities to connect with the people at large. With proper implementation of technology, the management can let the people do those works, which they were reluctant to do before. The clinic should consider automation as the first step to digitization to enjoy the actual benefits of the strategies.

   Action steps:

• Create a balance between the tasks that people like and hate
• Get the actual work done easily with technology
• Develop personal career paths and life goals
• Motivate the people to make effective use of technology (Kramar, 2014)
• Attain the objectives which are important for the clinic and the people associated with it
• Develop unique plans for the development of the clinic
• Maintain proper list of doctors and patients

Conclusion

It can be concluded from the assignment that technology and virtual office are the two external trends that might affect the HR strategies of the organization. SWOT analysis of the HR strategies at the clinic focused on these two trends to find out if they can be considered as threats or opportunities. A proper HR strategy was outlined with action steps to be implemented in the organization or effective use of the strategies. It was found out from this assignment that the best use of HR practices and strategies could give the clinic a scope to innovate and develop capabilities in the competitive market.  

References

Access Anytime Anywhere | Cleveland Clinic. (2018). Retrieved from https://my.clevelandclinic.org/

Brewster, C. (2017). The integration of human resource management and corporate strategy. In Policy and practice in European human resource management (pp. 22-35). Routledge.

Brewster, C., Chung, C., & Sparrow, P. (2016). Globalizing human resource management. Routledge.

Hollenbeck, J. R., Noe, R. A., & Gerhart, B. A. (2018). Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage. McGraw-Hill Education.

Jackson, S. E., Schuler, R. S., & Jiang, K. (2014). An aspirational framework for strategic human resource management. The Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), 1-56.

Kramar, R. (2014). Beyond strategic human resource management: is sustainable human resource management the next approach?. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(8), 1069-1089.

Marchington, M., Wilkinson, A., Donnelly, R., & Kynighou, A. (2016). Human resource management at work. Kogan Page Publishers.

Paillé, P., Chen, Y., Boiral, O., & Jin, J. (2014). The impact of human resource management on environmental performance: An employee-level study. Journal of Business Ethics, 121(3), 451-466.

Purce, J. (2014). The impact of corporate strategy on human resource management. New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals), 67.