Since the accounts receivable manager is against adding staff, which workforce strategy should the HR director encourage the manager to take for developing the accounts receivable department?

A large hospital in the city acquires a smaller hospital, resulting in a total employee count of 1,200. As a result of the purchase, the accounts receivable unit of the small hospital, which has only six employees, is handling all outstanding patient accounts. During a workforce planning session, the HR director questions the accounts receivable manager about staffing requests for the following year. The manager informs the HR director that the department is adequately staffed and will not need more employees. Later the HR director learns that the manager has confided in other managers that he hopes to be promoted to by saving the hospital money from not hiring additional employees. Three accounts receivable employees terminate their employment abruptly. When cleaning out the desks of these employees, the accounts receivable manager finds over 100 accounts that have not been processed; monies are still outstanding on these overdue accounts. The manager distributes these overdue invoices to the other three remaining employees and tells them not to mention this to the senior manager. These employees come to the HR director in confidence to complain about the additional work, and they confide that they were instructed not to tell the senior manager about the incomplete work.

Since the accounts receivable manager is against adding staff, which workforce strategy should the HR director encourage the manager to take for developing the accounts receivable department?
A . Encourage the manager to consider buy or build workforce approaches to help the department meet the organizational demands in the immediate future
B . Implement a retention incentive program to encourage employees of the department to stay
C . Develop a management training program for employees to be trained on the accounts receivable tasks as prospective replacements
D . Reorganize reporting relationships to expand opportunities for job enrichment and span of control

View Answer

Answer: A

Explanation:

The best answer is for the HR director to work with the manager to develop new workforce solutions to meet the staffing needs of the department. Buy talent means hire someone; build talent means train existing employees, borrow talent means engage the services of a freelancer or consultant.