Minimizing employee turnover and retaining excellent healthcare employees is challenging. Now that the competition for skilled healthcare professionals is increasing, you must maintain your staff. Employee turnover is expensive for healthcare organizations, and it does not promote a positive environment for patients either. The following are five suggestions for keeping staff and reducing turnover. Your employees will feel valued with your support, and the result is a healthcare staff that is excited about working for your organization.
Better Employee Engagement
Unpredictable schedules, excessive overtime, heavy workloads, and limited flexibility make employee engagement in the healthcare industry low. Some of these factors are unavoidable, but you should try to improve staff engagement where you can. A few ways of improving employee engagement include:
- Recognize high performing employees
- Honor teamwork
- Conduct surveys
- Act on the results of the surveys
- Communicate change effectively
Encourage Teamwork
To create a positive patient experience in healthcare, teamwork among healthcare professionals on the care team is essential. It is rare for healthcare practitioners to deliver care on their own, so it is vital to develop communication skills among team members. This will help reduce errors, resolve conflicts, and create a sense of transparency with task assignments. Communication is vital. When you communicate your expectations and organizational goals, teams can prioritize tasks and understand their roles within the bigger picture. Direct communication also gives your employees a point of contact to get answers to their questions.
Competitive Pay
If you want to retain employees, you must keep their job satisfaction level high. Compensation plays a big part in keeping employees happy. Healthcare professionals’ demand is steadily increasing, making competitive salaries, bonuses, and other benefits critical for employee retention. When you contemplate the high cost of employee turnover compared to competitive compensation, you will see how competitive pay benefits you as well as the employee.
Give Recognition
Compensation is not the only method to reward healthcare professionals for their hard work. Yes, patients do thank the staff for their work, but it is also essential that leadership shows gratitude. Consider the following ideas:
- Recognition dinner
- Exceptional service award
- Time off
Rewards drive engagement, which improves employee retention. Recognition of your healthcare staff for their contributions will significantly help your chances of retaining your valuable employees.
Education and Continual Learning
Education and professional development are crucial to improving your employees’ technical and people skills. These skills are essential for delivering an exceptional patient experience, improving productivity, and increasing employee satisfaction.
Provide a growth path for your employees. A development plan will help your organization retain valuable staff because they know there will be future growth opportunities. Training programs ensure that employees receive the tools to help them achieve their career goals, improve patient experience, and support the organization.
How We Help
Arbor can help to solve some of your employee turnover challenges. By providing additional staff to relieve your existing staff at crucial times, our service can improve care quality and employee morale. With healthcare turnover rates in excess of 20% in many cases, maintaining care and minimizing turnover can be mission-critical. We partner with you to find the right people for the right places at the right time.