Managers' perspectives on recruitment and human resource development practices in primary health care

The aim of this study is to describe primary health care managers' attitudes and views on recruitment and human resource development in general and to ascertain whether there are any differences in the views of managers in the southern and northern regions of Finland.

A postal questionnaire was sent to 315 primary health care managers, of whom 55% responded.

The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and cross-tabulation according to the location of the health centre.

There were few differences in managers' attitudes and views on recruitment and human resource development. In the southern region, managers estimated that their organization would be less attractive to employees in the future and they were more positive about recruiting employees abroad. Furthermore, managers in the northern region were more positive regarding human resource development and its various practices.

Although the results are preliminary in nature, it seems that managers in different regions have adopted different strategies in order to cope with the shrinking pool of new recruits. In the southern region, managers were looking abroad to find new employees, while in the northern region, managers put effort into retaining the employees in the organization with different human resource development practices.