Retention Needs to Become a Major Ongoing Initiative in Healthcare

April 1, 2021
April 1, 2021

Retention is a challenge that healthcare is going to need to improve to have an impact on the industry’s strained finances.

The HealthStream article, 7 Common Reasons People Leave Healthcare Jobs and What to Do about It, looks at the labor market, examines trends involving hiring and the demands of a healthcare work environment, and connects these key areas to the sizeable financial impact of the retention problem in healthcare. Here is an excerpt from the article:

Current Turnover Rates in Healthcare Are Unacceptable

The Work Institute reminds us that reducing turnover is one way that many healthcare organizations could lower their “human capital costs and increase productivity.” It warns us, however, that “many organizations argue that their turnover is acceptable when compared to industry benchmarks, often citing turnover rates” (Work Institute, 2018) that would be alarming to anyone outside of the healthcare and hospitality industries. Healthcare leaders must remain vigilant about turnover and its impact on effectiveness, care outcomes, and employee satisfaction.

Focus on Job Satisfaction

To combat excessive turnover, organizations must identify the myriad ways they can make employees more satisfied with their jobs to improve retention. Organizations that institute such measures will discover that requesting employee feedback, listening to it, and acting on it increases attraction and retention and creates a productive workplace (Work Institute, 2018). We are approaching a situation where losing staff members has a serious impact on outcomes. Healthcare workers who are able to provide and support excellent care are going to become ever more valuable as the demand for them increases.

What Healthcare Workers Expect, Need, and Prefer

Succeeding in our current healthcare environment requires organizations to make concerted efforts to understand what workers expect, need, and prefer in the workplace. Now, more than ever, employees will change jobs if employers have not made an effort to match staff requirements and preferences to a degree we’ve never known. Another situation that employers across all industries have to face is that even though they can have a significant impact on turnover, most of them are doing nowhere near enough to combat it, even as the competition for workers increases, and the demand for them far outstrips the supply of candidates.

References

Work Institute, “2018 Retention Report: Truth & Trends in Turnover,” available at http://info.workinstitute.com/retentionreport2018.

Download the full article here.