Introduction

Actualise Health is one of Australia's leading allied health service providers, with 20 clinics located around the country. The purpose of this research is to give strategic HR advice to help Actualise Health deal with some of the most pressing workforce concerns they've encountered. The company is facing stiff competition for talent, a damaged public image (especially in regards to customer service), and an imminent need to expand into unsaved rural areas. On order to overcome these obstacles, an all encompassing HR strategy grounded on HR/SHRM philosophy and current research is required. The study will present two essential HR tasks, with an emphasis on talent acquisition and reputation management, and provide actionable strategies for implementing both. It will also provide Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that may be used to evaluate the success of various HR projects.

Workforce Challenges Analysis

Increased Competition for Talent

Australia's allied health workforce is in high demand after immigration limits were lifted in 2023. Attracting, keeping, and developing top talent are stressed in the HR/SHRM philosophy. When it comes to hiring talented medical professionals, Actualise Health must compete with other healthcare companies. To overcome this difficulty, the company must use creative recruiting techniques, enhance its employer brand, and provide competitive remuneration packages.

Actualise Health's image has taken a hit due to recent unfavourable press and client concerns about the company's customer service. Employee output, contentment, and enthusiasm, according to HR/SHRM theory, are strongly correlated with service quality provided to customers (Uysal, 2020). Previous studies have shown that enhancing customer service via staff training, development, and engagement is essential (Ismail et al., 2021). Actualise Health should make training in customer service and conflict management a top priority in order to meet this problem head on. Staffing Issues in Rural Areas Increasing demand for rural health centres is met with a dearth of qualified allied health workers. SHRM theory stresses the value of coordinating HR actions with business objectives. Actualise Health has to implement recruiting drives, incentives, and flexible work arrangements that are specifically designed for rural areas if it wants to grow into underserved regions. Human resources practices are out of date at the company since there is no HR strategy, no employee surveys, and no significant online presence. Human resource management (HR) and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) philosophy stresses HR's strategic role in addressing workforce challenges and ensuring HR practices are in line with organizational goals (Qadir and John, 2019). Investment in HR technology, the use of employee engagement surveys to glean insights, and a robust social media presence are all recommendations I would make to Actualise Health as it works to manage its brand reputation.

HR Activities Recommendations

1. Talent Acquisition

Justification Actualise Health has to build a thorough talent acquisition program to compete with other businesses for top personnel. This strategy, which is grounded on Human Resource (HR) and Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) principles, is consistent with the fundamental HR premise that businesses must attract, develop, and retain high quality employees to succeed (Mukhuty, Upadhyay and Rothwell, 2022).

According to HR/SHRM philosophy, a strong employer brand is crucial for recruiting and keeping top talent. Included in this are generous benefits, chances to advance in one's career, and a positive work environment. According to studies, a happy and engaged workforce is better able to retain skilled workers and provide superior service to customers.

Key components of this HR activity include the implementation of focused recruiting initiatives, collaboration with educational institutions to build a pipeline of future healthcare professionals, and the introduction of mentoring programs (Shaban, 2019). In addition, SHRM's emphasis on skill which may greatly contribute to workforce capabilities is consistent with the development of employees via continual training and career advancement opportunities.

2. Reputation Management and Online Presenceto attract suitable Candidates

Actualise Health has to prioritize reputation management and strengthen its internet presence in order to restore its damaged public impression and answer bad evaluations. According to HR and SHRM philosophy, HR is crucial because it fosters a healthy culture inside a company, which in turn affects employee actions and, eventually, the public's view of the business.

Effective reputation management is shown to improve brand recognition, consumer confidence, and brand loyalty (Bates, Reeve and Trevena, 2023). Positive word of mouth may be cultivated via social media interaction with customers, including fast response to customer feedback requests and resolution of issues (Rudolph and Zacher, 2021). This fits well with the human resources theory of employee engagement and with the research that has shown how staff actions may affect customers' overall satisfaction.

By providing a stage for exhibiting skills and propagating company values, an online presence helps to develop trust and transparency. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) advocates for these reforms because they improve staff morale and productivity and improve relationships with customers.

Implementation Approach

HR Activity 1: Talent Acquisition

Several critical processes are required in strategic human resource management (SHRM) to properly align a company's staff with its strategic objectives. Identifying the essential positions and skills needed to achieve the organization's goals is the first stage in conducting a requirements assessment. Human resource theory provides inspiration for this phase by stressing the need of workforce planning to align talent with business objectives.

Recruiting top personnel is the next objective on this strategy path. This entails coming up with alluring salary and benefits packages, as well as ads for open positions. According to human resources theory, offering competitive salaries is essential for recruiting and retaining top people. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has shown that pay packages are an increasingly important factor for companies to consider when trying filling open positions with qualified candidates.

After talent has been attracted, the recruiting phase may begin. This is where initiatives like mentoring programmes and partnerships with educational institutions come into play. Human resource theorists stress the need of establishing ties with educational institutions in order to generate a talent pipeline. Furthermore, studies have shown that mentoring programmes are an effective means of both on-boarding and retaining talent.

The focus shifts to cultivating talent in the fourth stage. This includes establishing systems for regularly assessing and delivering feedback on employee performance, as well as providing chances for on-going training and development. Human resource management and theory place a premium on employee training and education since it improves workers' employability and loyalty to the company. Studies have shown that these types of training and education programmes improve the productivity and longevity of an organisation as a whole (Alam, 2022). Organisations may achieve their strategic goals and prosper in a competitive environment by using these methods of human resource management.

HR Strategy 2

Certainly, here's a detailed table outlining the steps and strategies for implementing the recommended HR activities, supported by HR/SHRM theory and research:

Aligning an organization's staff with its broader objectives is a top priority in the fields of Human Resources (HR) and Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM). Cho, Lee, and Shin's 2019 study emphasises the need of doing an internal skills and gap analysis as the first stage in determining the organization's requirements. Human resource theory stresses the need of workforce planning to successfully align talent with an organization's objectives. The next stage is to recruit talent, which requires designing attractive pay packages and writing engaging job descriptions. Human resource theory stresses the significance of competitive salary and benefits packages in luring high-calibre workers.  SHRM studies further demonstrate the value of competitive pay packages as a means of attracting and retaining top talent.

Third, during the recruiting process, organisations partner with educational institutions to find potential employees and set up training and guidance systems for them. Human resource theorists stress the need of establishing connections with academic institutions in order to amass a pool of qualified candidates. In addition, studies show that mentoring programmes are effective in bringing in new employees and keeping existing ones around.

According to findings from 2022's research by Medni, Lapina, and Zeps, the next step is to expand the company's digital footprint by creating robust social media profiles, actively engaging with customers across multiple channels, and actively soliciting their real-time feedback. Research reveals that actively interacting with clients builds a favourable reputation, and HR and SHRM philosophy emphasise HR's role in aligning tactics with objectives. The third and last stage is to encourage open lines of communication and respond quickly to customer complaints and problems. Human resource management theory and SHRM principles emphasise the value of creating a positive workplace, and studies show that employees' actions have a major influence on customers' satisfaction. Collectively, these methods improve an organization's internet visibility and reputation management.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

HR Strategy 1

Time to fill is an important metric to track since it reveals how effective recruiting strategy is. Talent shortages and higher overhead expenses might result from a drawn out hiring process. A computerized applicant monitoring system will keep track of the time it takes to fill each post.

 A key performance indicator (KPI) worth tracking is the percentage of job candidates that accept an employer's offer of employment. If the acceptance rate is high, it shows that the pay is competitive, whereas if it's low, it might indicate that the packages need work. This KPI may be monitored by the HR department by comparing the number of accepted job offers to the total number of offers made. Loss of productivity and added expense due to finding and re educating replacement workers is a direct outcome of high staff turnover. This key performance indicator may be tracked to evaluate HR's retention efforts (Traeger and Alfes, 2019). Human resources documents and departure interviews will keep tabs on it. Skill Improvement Measuring the extent to which a business invests in its workers by tracking how many of them programs participate in training and development is useful. Human Resources will keep an eye on this KPI by reviewing survey results and training attendance logs. This key performance indicator (KPI) measures how efficiently employees are able to move up the ranks within an organization. A strong internal talent pipeline is reflected in a high promotion rate. Human Resources will keep an eye on this by keeping tally of all promotions and how many are given to current employees (Malik, et al., 2022). The Importance of Conducting Satisfaction Surveys for Staff. An enthusiastic workforce and happy clients go hand in hand. Regular surveys will be administered, and the results analyzed for patterns and room for improvement.

HR STRATEGY 2

Online participation and recognition may be gauged by keeping an eye on metrics like the number of likes, shares, comments, and followers on social media. Engaged users are a sign of a busy and interesting online presence. HR will keep an eye on this by routinely reviewing data gleaned from various social media platforms. This metric is important since it gauges the opinions of customers who have interacted with the company online. Human resources may gauge client satisfaction and pinpoint problem areas by perusing feedback posted on sites like Google and Yelp. Indicators of responsiveness and customer service excellence include the average time it takes to react to online consumer questions or complaints. Online complaint and inquiry response times will be monitored (Khan et al. 2022).

The success of a company's online content and presence may be measured by keeping tabs on the volume of traffic to its website. Human resources may monitor site traffic with the use of analytics software. The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is an important metric since it reveals how satisfied and loyal a company's customers are. In order to measure customer loyalty and monitor changes over time, Human Resources will periodically administer NPS questionnaires. Brand Perception is an important Key Performance Indicator since it reveals how consumers evaluate the company's brand (Hristov, and Chirico, 2019). Human Resources will periodically poll employees to see how they feel about the company's brand.

Recommendations and Next Steps

Streamlining the hiring process, luring in the best candidates, and investing in the professional growth of existing staff are all goals of talent acquisition. Time to Fill, Offer Acceptance Rate, Employee Turnover, Skill Development, Promotion Rate, and Employee Satisfaction are just few of the key performance indicators (KPIs) that should be tracked.  Activities geared at controlling the company's brand reputation and expanding its online presence are referred to here. The activity's Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) include things like Social Media Engagement, Online Reviews, Response Time, Website Traffic, NPS, and Brand Perception.

Implementing a Robust HR Information System: Actualise Health should implement a robust HR Information System (HRIS) in order to successfully monitor the key performance indicators (KPIs) for talent acquisition, such as the time it takes to fill a position, the number of applicants, the percentage of successful hires, and the number of employees who complete training (Goyal and Patwardhan, 2021). The data gathered by this system will be current and ready for analysis. In order to better manage its online reputation and maintain a strong online presence, Actualise Health needs to develop a solid social media strategy. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to provide interesting material, react quickly to customer concerns, and solicit positive feedback from customers over the web. Analytics of social media activity may be scheduled periodically to track development. 

Implementing a data driven strategy requires constant data analysis. Human resources should routinely analyze the data pertaining to the chosen KPIs in order to spot patterns, strengths, and shortcomings. This will aid in making strategic judgments and adjusting course as appropriate. Communication with Stakeholders is Crucial. When it comes to managing the company's online image, Human Resources have to work closely with other divisions like Marketing and IT to make sure their efforts contribute to the company's overarching objectives (Kooij et al., 2022). Actualise Health has to implement strategic training and development programs to ensure that its employees have the knowledge and abilities necessary to achieve its objectives. The effectiveness of these initiatives in improving skill sets needs constant monitoring. Actualise Health may better compete in the healthcare market by implementing these measures to improve its personnel, expand its talent pool, and fortify its brand. By keeping an eye on the suggested KPIs, the company will be able to evaluate the efficacy of these HR initiatives and make data driven improvements moving forward.

Conclusion

Two of Actualise Health's most important Human Resources responsibilities are detailed in this report: recruiting and development, as well as managing its image and online visibility. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are used to evaluate the success of these initiatives. A developed HR Information System, a social networking strategy, continuous data analysis, periodic staff surveys, efficient interaction with stakeholders, and broad development and training initiatives are all necessary for successful implementation of these activities. By implementing these changes, Actualise Health will be better equipped to handle workforce issues and strengthen its position as an industry leader.

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