Comprehensive Analysis of Dutiful Daughters and Its Management - Case Study Example

Human Resources in Organizations Student’s Name: Instructor’s name Course Code and Name: University: Date of Submission: Table of Contents Attracting potential employees 9 Hiring 10 Development the web site 11 In order for the website of the company to look attractive and appeal to the potential clients, there are some improvements that should be done. First, the company should ensure that all the services that are provided are listed on the website so that people can be able to see then make decisions on their own (Felder 2009, p. 84). The services provided by the company should be matched with their respective prices so that the clients should come when they already know what to expect. For the information being passed in the web site to be seen by the people visiting the web site, some good designing should be done with some striking decorations. Another important thing that should be done is to develop the website such that people can be able to create their profiles or even register in order to give them a chance of communicating directly with the customer care. When people are given direct contact with the company’s management, it gives them confidence as all the questions that they might be having are answered instantly, hence putting them in a position of making the right decisions. 11 Recommendations 11 Conclusion 12 Executive summary Home care business has become common in Australia and even the whole world due to the growing demand of people wishing to get special services while at their own homes. It refers to a care that works in favor of people with special needs such as disabilities as they get a chance of being served while staying in their own home. The care may also cover individuals who are getting older, recovering from surgery or even chronically ill. In most cases, the kind of care that is provided is the informal one whereby people’s daughters find themselves offering care to the elderly for free, and some of the duties that they perform range from light home duties to intensive ones. However, professional home care offers in-home care together with support services to the individuals who need them. The services might include activities such as washing the person’s hair or getting him or her dressed, and helping with bath; home making like laundry, yard work and cleaning; delivering meals or cooking, and health care like having a home care helper come to the individual’s home. This paper seeks to give a comprehensive analysis of Dutiful Daughters regarding its management, hiring of new employees as well as all the opportunities that it should explore in order to ensure its successful expansion. Introduction Home care offers in-home care and support to individuals in need, so as to enable them live as independently as they can, and also to live the kind of lives that they wish to live in accordance with their potential. The care providers are also responsible for helping with reprieve or respite in case the family or primary care giver needs to have a break. One of firms that deal in care giving services is the ‘Dutiful Daughters.’ This is a formal care giving firm that is renowned in Australia and even worldwide. The company was started by Helen Whitney in the year 2000, and operates in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. The organization was started for the purpose of providing personalized care to customers. The agency specializes in providing care home support and companionship in order to enable individuals maintains their autonomy. The organizations’ services support individuals with various care needs, offering them comfort of privacy, reliability, ethnic and cultural compatibility, flexibility, continuous assistance and planning for their individual requirements and confidentiality. Its support workers are very ardent and passionate about helping people and are well trained, putting them in a position of delivering the type of high quality care that changes the daily lives of its clients (Modin & Furhoff 2002, p. 210). The company’s support workers offer clients the necessary support that they require whereas enabling them to maintain independence while in their own communities or homes. The firm has more than ninety professional carers to offer the necessary care that is required by the clients, and everyone is ensured that he or she will be able to get a suitable or perfect match. The caregivers work all through the Northern Suburbs and Eastern Suburbs of the city of Sydney. The company can offer caregivers for both short term that is for a minimum of two hours, and long term in accordance with the individual’s requirements. The organization offers in-house together with client specific training for all of the caregivers so that the clients can be in a position of feeling they get a professional caregivers to help with their requirements. How the business can be expanded successfully Business expansion is s very critical issue that should be approached with sobriety and a lot of keen. Normally, businesses that deal in the provision of goods only are always easy to expand as the most essential thin is capital (Hareven 2008, p. 34). With this, it is easy to increase stock, expand the premises and even hiring more staff. In the business of home care which deals with the provision of services, particularly matters that deal with health, things are a little bit different as what is important is building customer trust. For instance, it is not always easy just for someone to accept anybody to his or her home to take care of him or her without having the mutual understanding and trust. However, even though money is always required in almost everything, here the most important thing for the manager, Helen to do is finding support workers who can be able to stand all the tough work and frustrations that come with the work (Felder 2009, p. 46). Although the primary goal of the business is to make profits, this should not be made known to the clients, as they will assume that the aim of the expansion of the business is to achieve the bottom line at the expense of their needs. Since expanding the business means that there will be increased supervisory roles, it would be essential for the manager to form a ladder or order of management such that a junior officer is answerable to a senior one or the one on top of him or her. By doing so, the manager will still be in touch as everything will be in order. In trying to maintain the notion and fact that the interests of the clients should be put first, it is advisable first hire the staff before embarking on looking for clients. This is so because the clients should come when there is a ready staff to attend to their needs. Therefore, the hiring of staff should be done earlier enough so as to allow sufficient time for training that that they can acquaint themselves with all that is required in the field (Modin & Furhoff 2002, p. 212). Job Description Position: Support Worker, Dutiful Daughters Location: Sydney, Australia Division: Dutiful Daughters Department: Caregiver Job status: New Job code: CAP-SW-021 Reports to: Director, assistant director-corporate (functional) Written by: Nelly, White, job analyst Date: 10 September 2011 Approved by: Helen, Director Job objective Under the director’s administrative direction, the duty of the newly recruited support worker will be give quality service to the people who are in need of home case. Duties and responsibilities The new employee will be responsible for performing the daily chores such as feeding, dressing and bathing for the clients.  She will also have to manage the housework, laundry and cooking She should be available whenever she is required She should be on stand-by while the individual that she is taking care of deteriorates or breathe his or her last breath. Care giving is an involving and demanding job that at times involves emotional provocations, thus the care giver should be emotionally strong so as to be in a position of standing all these. She is also responsible for administering medication and some other healthcare tasks. The care giver is also responsible for providing emotional support and companionship. She should also assume all the legal responsibilities on behalf of the care recipient. She should consult with the healthcare professionals. She should be strong enough to fight for the rights of the client, which include even disagreeing with the family members and care professionals, as well as ensuring that some other individuals take advantage of the clients and exploiting or mistreating them. They should be able to create a conducive environment for the client to live peacefully and in a healthy manner. For the clients who do not have memory or even mobility, the care giver should be responsible for planning activities on their behalf. They are also expected to keep records of the patient’s activities. Relationship Internally, the worker should relate with the company’s director and the company headquarters based in Sydney. Externally, she should relate with the government and trade union personnel, besides dealing directly with the customers (Felder 2009, p. 48). Problem solving It takes a strong hears and perseverance for an individual working in this field to go about her duties as this is a very difficult and demanding task. Authority The incumbent has the powers to perform the following: Go to the field and attract clients to the company Market the company Clear clients on behalf of the manager Special circumstances Since this is a very complex and difficult business, there are some special cases that require extraordinary measures or efforts to deal with. The case giver should be a person of strong hears and also able to work under intense pressure, as desperate moments call for desperate measures (Paul et al 2004, p. 1017). Performance Indicators In every organization, it is always important to carryout employee performance assessment. N this case, performance indicators will include both qualitative and quantitative measures in accordance with the agreement reached by all the stakeholders. The indicators may vary as some might be business based such as job satisfaction and motivation and positive changes in commitment of the employee, or even individual based where the director does the evaluation of performance (Felder 2009, p. 49). Attracting potential employees Not all people can be attracted to this business as employees. The group that can be most attracted to the company is that of retired nurses or even those who are still in the course of utilizing their profession, and would want to see their salary increase. This is because this is regarded as the loneliest job because the care giver has just to be following or staying with a single individual which is very stressful, as some of them are always very stubborn while dealing with. Nurses fit well in this group of workers, as they are used to dealing with different kinds of patients. Another group that will be interested in the position is that of the professional caregivers, who have been in the field, and maybe are not attached anywhere at the moment (Riccio 2001, p. 62). Hiring In every organization, the process of hiring should always follow specific guidelines to direct the whole process. There are some considerations that should be made by the ‘Dutiful Daughters’ during the hiring of employees. Potential applicants should come from the nursing service and under the supervision of experiences nurses (Lescure et al 2006, p. 1214). This is because some care givers can sometimes be unavailable due to some unavoidable circumstances, hence the nursing services stepping in to provide a substitute. Hiring from the nursing services tend to be a little more costly; even though the salaries paid to the real care givers are always lower that the alternative of hiring directly. Care givers should not be hired on a contract basis as this is a way of avoiding the legal requirements that apply to the mainstream employees. During the process of hiring, it is important for the company to ensure that the reference checks together with criminal background checks are done, and should meet state and federal requirements of employers. The fact that employees who are hired directly are paid much better compared to those from the nursing service make the position attractive to many applicants who come to try their luck (Lotus et al 2002, p. 401). If the company is to hire caregivers directly, then it is essential that there be a written agreement that sets out the employment terms. Development the web site In order for the website of the company to look attractive and appeal to the potential clients, there are some improvements that should be done. First, the company should ensure that all the services that are provided are listed on the website so that people can be able to see then make decisions on their own (Felder 2009, p. 84). The services provided by the company should be matched with their respective prices so that the clients should come when they already know what to expect. For the information being passed in the web site to be seen by the people visiting the web site, some good designing should be done with some striking decorations. Another important thing that should be done is to develop the website such that people can be able to create their profiles or even register in order to give them a chance of communicating directly with the customer care. When people are given direct contact with the company’s management, it gives them confidence as all the questions that they might be having are answered instantly, hence putting them in a position of making the right decisions. Recommendations I agree with the fact that care giving is always one of the most difficult jobs, and planning ahead is the way forward. When good plans are put in place, it becomes easier for the care giver to offer her services efficiently and adequately without fear or problems. Education or training is the most fundamental thing in the planning process, as the care givers are enlightened on what is expected of them and also what they should expect in their field of work. There should be a clear difference between a formal care giver and an informal care giver. Informal care givers do not understand the different levels of care, what should be done when more assistance is required, when the level of care that is being provided is sufficient, how payment for care is done and the kind of options available. On the other hand, formal care givers are well acquainted with all the requiems and do it in a professional manner. Conclusion There is no other job that is as difficult as care giving, therefore, care givers is the group of people that should accorded much respect considering the type of work they do and conditions under which the work. In the attempt to expand the business, the manager should ensure that all the necessary steps are followed and everything is put in place so as to ensure that the process is successful, without affecting the customer base while maintaining the primary goal or the bottom line. List of References Felder, L 2009, ‘Human resource, facility managers must cooperate,’ Baltimore Business Journal, Vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 40-98. Hareven, T 2008, Family and Kin in Urban Communities, 1730–1930, New Viewpoint, New York. Lescure, F. et al 2006, ‘Community-Acquired Infection With Healthcare-Associated Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus: The Role of Home Nursing Care.’ Infection Control Hospital Epidemiology, Vol. 27, No. 11. pp. 1212-1218. Available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/507920 Lotus, S et al 2002, ‘Predictors of nursing home placement and home nursing services utilization by elderly patients after hospital discharge in Taiwan.’ Journal of Advanced Nursing, Vol. 38, no. 4, 398-406. Available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2002.02193.x/abstract;jsessionid=D9817740E155EFB5005E474C2A6A8F25.d02t01 Modin, S & Furhoff, A 2002, "Care by general practitioners and district nurses of patients receiving home nursing: a study from suburban Stockholm". Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care, Vol. 20, No. 4 , pp. 208-212. Available at http://informahealthcare.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/028134302321004854 Paul, IM, Phillips, TA, Widome, MD & Hollenbeak, CS 2004, "Cost-Effectiveness of Postnatal Home Nursing Visits for Prevention of Hospital Care for Jaundice and Dehydration". Vol. 114, no. 4, pp. 1015-1022. Viewed September 10, 2011. Riccio, P 2001, ‘Quality Evaluation of Home Nursing Care: Perceptions of Patients, Physicians, and Nurses.’ Journal of Nursing Care Quality, Vol. 15, no. 2, pp.58-67. Available at http://journals.lww.com/jncqjournal/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2001&issue=15020&article=00007&type=abstract Read More