Effective Ways of Attracting and Retaining Talent in Healthcare
Employee engagement and retention plays a critical role in business success – and the U.S healthcare industry is no exception. Some of the biggest challenges faced by the industry are not related to the emergence of new and incurable diseases, but the difficulty in attracting and retaining medical talent.
According to a report published by Nursing Solutions Inc, hospitals are currently experiencing a turnover rate of 16.2%, resulting in an annual loss of around $7.5 million. However, healthcare organizations seem to lack the dedication required to counter such trends, a fact made evident by a survey published by Leaders for Today. The survey revealed that 37% of healthcare employees plan on leaving their current employment within the next two years.
In this blog, we share a few effective methods healthcare providers can adopt to attract and retain the best talent in the industry.
Using the Right Recruitment Platforms
When attempting to recruit qualified medical personnel, it’s important to know where to look. Millennials now represent that largest segment of the workforce in the U.S and are the first generation to grow up with easy access to the internet. In order to reach out to this workforce, it’s essential for healthcare organizations to become active on digital media platforms as well as popular online healthcare recruiting agencies.
New job searchers are more inclined to apply to institutions that have a well-developed online presence including career pages and job portals. Major healthcare organizations are now active on popular social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter due to their effectiveness in reaching out to the target audience as well as their ability to influence public opinion.
In addition to having a social media presence, healthcare providers should utilize the services of reliable medical recruitment agencies to increase the scope and effectiveness of their hiring efforts. The benefits of contacting such agencies include candidate screening and vetting options that ease onboarding processes. Healthcare organizations must keep an eye on the shifting technological trends and adopt modern marketing methods if they wish to attract talented professionals.
Adopt Effective Employee Engagement Strategies
Employee engagement is an important element in maintaining high levels of motivation and providing a sense of work fulfillment. It helps to increase passion and enthusiasm which eventually leads to better work quality and efficiency.
According to a massive study carried out by Gallup, employee engagement is a powerful tool for increasing productivity, profitability, customer ratings, and decreasing employee turnover rates. It creates positive outcomes on an organizational, group, and individual level. Healthcare HR teams can better engage employees by adopting the following measures:
- Offer growth opportunities: Continuous learning and growth is a high priority for healthcare professionals. Organizations can increase engagement by creating a learning environment that makes it easier to acquire new skills. Conducting training and educational programs pays long-term dividends and increases the value of the organization as a whole. It also reduces the need to conduct expensive recruitment drives by placing existing professionals in vacant positions.
- Add value to their personal lives: At times, the nature of the job can demand healthcare professionals to sacrifice certain aspects of their personal lives. Organizations need to recognize that their employees need time away from work for family, school, and entertainment. Incorporating freedom into employee’s weekly or monthly schedules is often viewed as compensation more valuable than providing monetary benefits.
- Create mentorship programs: Strong relationship and bonds between team members are necessary for professional growth. Veteran employees with years of experience can impart valuable knowledge and advice to lesser experienced and younger employees seeking career guidance. By creating mentorship programs, healthcare organizations can engage both old and new employees and provide them with a sense of direction and purpose.
Other effective measures healthcare organizations can take it to promote values in the workplace such as equality, discipline, and accountability. Employee motivation and satisfaction levels also increase when employers recognize and reward individual achievements. Monthly or bi-yearly milestones should be set to drive ambition.
Retain Healthcare Employees
Employee retention ranks as one of the major concerns of any healthcare institution. It’s vital for maintaining the value of an organization and eliminates costs resulting from recruitment drives. Healthcare providers also benefit from improved quality of services.
One effective way of doing so is by conducting annual employee meetings to discuss their concerns within a neutral setting. Questions should be asked regarding any issues or frustrations they face within the workplace and efforts should be taken to address such issues. For many employees, it’s their passion that made them pursue a career in healthcare but problems related to workload, bad scheduling and lack of rotations can reduce that and increase feelings of dissatisfaction.
To achieve success, healthcare organizations must be willing to take a more “humane” approach with their employees and attempt to understand and address their concerns. Medical Associates Consulting is a medical staffing agency in Florida that offers healthcare providers access to some of the country’s best medical talent. Contact them today for more information.
