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Increasing engagement can improve staff retention and strengthen your institution

The healthcare industry is currently suffering a major shortage of allied health workers, driven by a perfect storm of forces, including retirements, lack of training programs, and high turnover in the face of increasing demand for healthcare services from an aging population. The best single strategy to overcome this shortage? Focusing on employee engagement, a proven method to retain your best workers and build effective teams within every department.

The statistics are dire:

85% of healthcare facilities

are experiencing at least moderate shortages of allied health professionals

30% of allied health staff

are temporary workers, up 5% since before the pandemic

25,000 unfilled

medical laboratory professional positions, with gaps in nearly every profession

High turnover drives a vicious cycle

High turnover is one of the leading drivers of workforce shortages. Within the past 5 years, hospitals have experienced an average turnover rate of their allied health workforce of more than 100%.

Such a high degree of turnover increases stress at every level of the institution, with the need for constant searching, vetting, and hiring of new employees, constant training that takes the time of the existing workforce, and constant fracturing of functioning teams and rebuilding of new ones.

Engagement: theory and practice

As engagement increases, turnover decreases. When an employee is engaged, they are more committed to the goals of the team, are less likely to burn out, and are more likely to remain in the job for more years.

For healthcare institutions, there are multiple approaches to increase workforce engagement:

Get to know your staff

  • Walking through the workplace, greeting and connecting personally with staff, demonstrates a level of personal care that resonates and increases dedication within the department
  • Feedback can be gleaned from regular conversations with informal leaders among the workforce
  • Surveys and focus groups can identify problems to be addressed, and just as important, successes that can be built on

Compensation is a fundamental value

  • Know your market, and keep your salaries competitive within it
  • If you can’t raise salaries, consider signing bonuses, student loan repayments, and other incentives to promising hires

Non-monetary compensation can give you the edge

  • Flexible scheduling is often valued highly by employees and may provide an edge in your hiring
  • Internal career advancement pathways provide added value and an incentive to stay on board for the long haul
  • Tailored, comprehensive wellness programs, such as Quest’s Workforce Health Solutions, can help you create a healthier, safer, more productive workplace and increase employee engagement and job satisfaction

Plan it, then measure it

  • Success depends on measuring the impact of any program you put in place
  • Plan how you will collect and analyze such data from the start
  • Possible metrics include reduction in turnover, increased staff satisfaction via survey results, productivity increases

Engaging frontline healthcare workers is essential for both staff well-being and patient outcomes. By implementing strategies to enhance engagement, organizations can reduce turnover, strengthen their workforce, and foster a culture of excellence.

 

Ready to take your health systems employee engagement to the next level?

Learn more about how Quest Diagnostics Workforce Health Solutions can help. Click below to visit the Collaborative Lab Solutions page.
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About the author

Doug Hamilton

Vice President, Laboratory Operations
Great Midwest Region, Quest Diagnostics

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