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KIT Dossier Human resources for health
Last update: Monday 29 July 2013
- Human resource management
Is the development of policies for effective utilization of human resources in an organization. Traditional personnel management is mostly concerned with recruitment, payment and discipline at operational level and is mainly an administrative function. HRM has a broader, more strategic and 'people' focus.
(source: EM Berman, JS Bowman, JP West et al, Human Resources Management in Public Service, paradoxes, processes and problems, 2006) - Human resources for health
Human resources for health or health workers are all people whose main activities are aimed at enhancing health. They include the people who provide health services -- such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory technicians -- and management and support workers such as financial officers, cooks, drivers and cleaners.
(source: WHO Fact sheet No. 302, 2006) - Human resources for health (HRH) are the core of health systems, as the performance of these systems depends to a large extent on the knowledge, skills and motivation of its providers.
(source: G Dussault & CA Dubois, 2003. J Buchan, 2004) - Incentive
In economics and sociology, an incentive is any factor (financial or non-financial) that enables or motivates a particular course of action, or counts as a reason for preferring one choice to the alternatives. It is an expectation that encourages people to behave in a certain way. The Guidelines on Incentives for Health Professionals describe different approaches taken by a number of countries. Examples of financial incentives cited include tax waivers, allowances (e.g. - housing, clothing, child care, remote location weighting etc.), insurance, and performance payments. Examples of non financial incentives include ensuring positive work environments, flexibility in employment arrangements and support for career development. The report underlines how incentives are important levers that organizations can use to attract, retain, motivate and improve the performance of their staff in all professions and walks of life, This is especially and urgently needed in the health care sector, it states, where the growing gap between the supply of health care professionals and the demand for their services is reaching crisis levels in many countries.
(source: Guidelines: Incentives for Health Professionals. WHO, 2008) - Motivation
Motivation is defined as 'an individual's degree of willingness to exert and maintain an effort towards organizational goals.
(source: LM Franco, S Bennett & R Kanfer, Health sector reform and public sector health worker motivation: a conceptual framework, Social Science and Medicine, 2002) - Remuneration
Is pay or salary, typically a monetary payment for services rendered, as in an employment. Remuneration is traditionally seen as the total income of an individual and may comprise a range of separate payments determined according to different rules. For example, the total remuneration of medical staff may comprise a capitation fee and a fee for services, or it may include a salary and shared financial risk. A remuneration strategy, therefore, is the particular configuration or bundling of payments that go to make up an individual’s total income.
(source: Health workforce incentive and remuneration strategies. Discussion paper 4, WHO) - Retention
Maintenance of personnel by having policies and practices in place that address their diverse needs
(source: Employee Retention Working Group, 2002) - Skills mix
Refers to the mix of posts in the organization, the mix of employees in a post, the combination of skills available at a specific time, or it may also refer to the combinations of activities that comprise each role, rather than the combination of different job titles. Skill mix is a strategy used to ensure the most cost-effective combination of roles and staff.
(source: J Buchan, J Ball & F O'May. Determining skill mix in the health workforce: Guidelines for managers and health professionals. Discussion Paper. WHO, 2000) - Task shifting
Task shifting is the name given to a process of delegation whereby tasks are moved, where appropriate, to less specialized health workers. By reorganizing the workforce in this way, task shifting presents a viable solution for improving health care coverage by making more efficient use of the human resources already available and by quickly increasing capacity while training and retention programmes are expanded.
(source: Task Shifting: rational redistribution of tasks among health workforce teams. WHO, 2008)
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