Striking the Balance between Job Demands and Resources: Hard and Soft Tools for Human Resources Management in Public Healthcare Organizations

Human Resource Management (HRM) goes beyond determining the ideal number of professionals to achieve organizational goals. It also involves actively listening to employees’ insights and incorporating them into decision-making. This comprehensive research investigates critical aspects of SHRM in public healthcare organizations, specifically focusing on workforce planning and its implications for employee well-being and organizational success. The first study explores international methodologies for estimating healthcare staffing needs, revealing the absence of a universal algorithm. Implications for the improvement of staffing needs definition in the Italian healthcare sector are discussed, emphasizing the need for a nuanced approach. The second study delves into the relationship between internal communication and job satisfaction across 38 Italian public healthcare organizations. Findings report a positive influence of high-quality internal communication on employee satisfaction, recommending organizational strategies to enhance job satisfaction by improving communication processes. The third study integrates Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Theory into the context of public healthcare organizations, focusing on the interplay between staffing needs, workload sustainability, and job satisfaction. Adequate staffing, both perceived and objectively calculated, correlates with improved workload sustainability. The study emphasizes the importance of effectively managing staffing needs, addressing biases, and offers practical suggestions for fostering employee well-being and organizational success. These studies underscore the complexity of healthcare workforce planning, the pivotal role of internal communication in job satisfaction, and the nuanced relationship between staffing needs, workload sustainability, and employee well-being. Practical implications include the need for tailored staffing algorithms, strategies to enhance internal communication, and nuanced staffing management approaches to optimize employee satisfaction and organizational effectiveness in the dynamic landscape of public healthcare organizations.