Though critical healthcare staffing shortages have largely stabilized, hospitals and health systems are still bracing for future shortages and increasing demands for care.
During a recent advisory call in partnership with Indeed, Dr. Travis Moore, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, director for category management, healthcare, at Indeed, and healthcare leaders from across the country discussed how organizations are enhancing recruitment and retention strategies while working to address gaps between employees' and employers' expectations.
Key takeaways from the discussion are summarized below.
Organizations are changing staffing models
Some healthcare leaders on the advisory call indicated their organizations are shifting focus from the contingent staffing model to improving talent sourcing and recruitment. They are focusing on recruiting newly graduated nurses, adjusting compensation, creating a career path for medical assistants, reaching out to former employees and even tracking job offer decline rates in a push to increase offer acceptance rates.
To grow the internal staff pipeline, a hospital leader from Ohio said her organization has lowered the recruitment age for some positions from 18 to 16 years old. Many young people who join as trainees remain after they finish their studies because of the excellent financial and professional development support they receive.
"People want a place where they can insert themselves, feel like they're part of the team and grow into other opportunities down the road," Dr. Moore observed.
Collecting and acting on staff feedback is a high priority
According to a recent survey by Indeed, workers' priorities and employers' understanding of those priorities are different. Specifically, the survey found that workers' priorities and employers' understanding of those priorities diverge by as much as 30% regarding the importance that employees place on appropriate staffing levels and work-life balance.
A nursing leader at a large, faith-based health system said her organization conducts regular engagement surveys and focus groups where nurses and other team members share concerns and recommendations. The organization makes sure to act on that feedback and lets employees know what actions have been taken based on their requests and insights. "When you ask people to give information like that, you lose credibility if you don't put it to use," she said.
Another nursing leader from a large, Midwestern health system also highlighted the importance of closing the feedback loop with employees and enabling leaders to provide feedback through dedicated processes and systems.
The imperative to create cultures of empathy
The advisory call discussion revealed consensus about what hospitals and health systems need to do in the future. Above all else, healthcare organizations need to create empathetic cultures that help people grow both professionally and personally. This culture is crucial not only for recruitment, but also for supporting mid-career employees and those with socioeconomic challenges.
After gathering employee feedback, one attendee's organization — a hospital in the South — prioritized childcare, housing and transportation as areas where it needs to provide additional support. As part of closing the feedback loop, it's now building an in-house childcare facility.
Regardless of employees' tenure or individual needs, recognizing the impact they are making should be part of an organization's culture, Dr. Moore concluded.
"We're losing sight of the big picture when team members don't realize the impact they're having by holding a patient's hand or sitting with them for an extra 20 minutes," Dr. Moore said. "We have to help our teams see that impact — whether it's impact on the organization through providing feedback, impact on their team or impact on patients every day."