Adding Value to The Recruitment of Senior Health Service Managers: A participatory action research study

Abstract

Objective: As healthcare services evolve, effective management is essential to ensure they remain contemporary, function effectively, deliver client-centered care, foster a positive culture, support staff, drive strategic direction and promote continuous quality improvement. Health managers strongly influence and drive the services they are responsible for, therefore appointing the right person is essential. This qualitative Participatory Action Research (PAR) study explores the values prioritised by health services in recruiting senior managers and collaboratively develops actionable solutions to enhance these crucial recruitment processes.

Design: A Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology has been used to enable the researchers to work collaboratively with participants to develop an understanding of the values of senior managers and explore possible solutions to improve recruitment processes. PAR is a dynamic and iterative process, and data is collected over several cycles with the same focus group participants. This paper shares the findings of the first two cycles.

Results: The findings from PAR cycle one demonstrated that the values of senior managers are represented by a central organising concept of ‘leadership’. The second PAR cycle identified values-based recruitment (VBR) as a central organising concept for improving recruitment, leading to concrete solutions such as enhanced communication strategies, leadership capability frameworks and  ‘growing your own’ initiatives.

Conclusion: This study highlights the need to explore the values of an individual in addition to their skills, knowledge and experience during the recruitment process for a senior health service manager. This study underscores the critical importance of integrating individual values, particularly leadership attributes, alongside traditional skills and experience in senior health services manager recruitment, offering a clear pathway for more effective and sustainable talent acquisition strategies within healthcare.