KRS Home Care Inc. shares its talent

Introduction

“KRS Home Care Inc. shares its talent and wisdom to serve the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of individuals and families in their homes and communities. Inspired by our historic roots and traditional respect for human dignity, we strive to care with excellence and compassion. Guaranteeing reliability, continuity, and punctuality” (KRS Home Care Mission). Our team, Lethbridge OB Specialists, has been tasked with analyzing the company KRS Home Care Inc. Using our knowledge of Organizational Behavior, we will advise the management team on three chosen issues. In the following paragraphs, we will discuss strategies to improve KRS Home Care Inc’s internal communication, resulting in a professional and effective business communication model. Secondly, there will be a discussion about the intrinsic and extrinsic motivating factors for employees. Ideas will be presented to increase employee satisfaction and longevity with KRS Home Care Inc. Lastly, we will provide suggestions to bolster the company’s ability to help employees handle the emotional labor that comes with such work.

Improving Communication

Communication is essential to the workplace as it defines clear goals, helps co-workers collaborate, and ultimately keeps staff informed. In-class we got to learn more through Raelynn about KRS Home Care Inc. We got to ask questions, hear stories while also learning more about company operations. Something we thought we could improve was how KRS Home Care Inc. communicates with employees. Most companies have standard communication through email and phone for different situations. However, alongside this, we also learned that they have been using WhatsApp, a good messenger app. However, as KRS Home Care Inc. grows as a company, a better solution may be needed to handle employees, schedules, client information, and more. So we decided this would be a great opportunity to hopefully offer a solution that improves internal communication for KRS Home Care Inc. For many different businesses worldwide, finding an optimal way for employees and management to communicate is essential for success. KRS Home Care Inc. is still a relatively new company, meaning finding a solution now will be easier for everyone involved. 

I want to start by stating that there are plenty of different options out there that may suit KRS Home Care Inc’s needs. It is essential to look at all the options and compare them to find the best solution. Our team researched some communication platforms currently available, and our conclusion led us to Spok. Spok is advertised as a global leader in healthcare communications headquartered in Springfield, Virginia. Spok can help solve communication challenges across the whole healthcare team. We know KRS Home Care employs many people across different occupations like Registered Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, and many more. Some of the features Spok possesses will improve KRS Home Care communication today and continue to grow with the company as it evolves. Some of the core features I would like to point out are secure messaging, which is essential in an industry such as healthcare to keep information private. Furthermore, security is enhanced for employees on all devices as it will connect all users securely. Spok also simplifies on-call schedules with one organization-wide system meaning changes happen in real-time and makes paper schedules unnecessary. Lastly, this service connects all members of the team. If an employee needs assistance from another department, they can do so more quickly, potentially saving valuable seconds if in the event of an emergency. Being able to access a service such as Spok improves internal communication. Some of the benefits you can expect to see for your employees are more informed employees, engaged employees, calmness to the organization, and improved employee satisfaction. We hope that this suggestion can help improve the communication of KRS Home Care Inc. so that their communication can become more reliable, efficient, and professional. 

Suggestive Motivating Factors at KRS

KRS Home Care is still in its start-up phase and is working towards getting certified by the government. Thus, the small business has a limited amount of funds to allocate towards its human resources and other expenses. At a small scale and with a limited budget, it is difficult to generate motivation within employees to stay and work for the company. In this case KRS usually employs students who are looking for work while attending college. Most employees plan to leave the company once they graduate and look for other opportunities in their field or for something which gives them more opportunities to advance their career. KRS needs to adopt some unique cost-effective methods to promote intrinsic and extrinsic motivation among its employees to improve its employee retention rate.

            Intrinsic motivation influences the inner, psychological and non-material, needs of an individual. One possible way for KRS to introduce intrinsic motivators is by letting its employees participate in decision making. Participation in decision making makes employees feel valued and lets them contribute their intellect towards the company’s goals, which in return promotes the feeling of ownership (McQuerrey, 2016). KRS can do so by assessing their best service providers in each field and including them in regular team meetings. The best performers can share their thoughts and make suggestions while the HR manager and the founder of KRS can take note of possible changes and improvements to be implemented. Recognition of these top performers is another important factor for motivating them. According to Sarma (2020), a recognition program keeps 66% of the workforce motivated. Another possible solution for improving intrinsic motivation can be providing mentorship. Mentorship helps employees to develop skills and master them by connecting with high performing mentors (Sarma, 2020). At KRS this can be done by appointing a lead supervisor under each service provided. The professionals would report directly to their supervisor and she would be responsible for scheduling and dealing with any issues that might arise. The supervisors would then report to the HR manager if required any further assistance. This would improve employee recognition and an opportunity to advance in the company. This would also relive Raelynn Chase the current HR manager from the stress of scheduling each employee and dealing with every small issue that might arise.

            Extrinsic Motivation is the most common way to get employees to perform well and stay with the firm (Lazzari, 2019). Extrinsic motivation is externally generated, and reward based (Lazzari, 2019). KRS can extrinsically motivate its employees through yearly increments on their hourly rate of pay. This does not need to be much but should be enough to be noticeable and desirable. A yearly raise will make the employees stay with the company longer and motivate them to deliver good work. Another possible way for KRS to increase extrinsic motivation is through handing out gift cards for basic needs such as grocery, clothes, etc. Good work will be recognized, and employees will start to feel appreciated for the quality of work they put in. The gift cards can be from local businesses and can be occasionally handed out when a good word is put in for an employee. The duty of handing out the cards can be provided to the mentors, this will give them reward power, and will gain authority in the eyes of workers they are supervising.