To retain workers, hospitals and health systems must ensure they meet employee needs and expectations across generations. This is particularly true as more older healthcare workers have retired or plan to retire, and as younger generations such as millennials and Generation Z make up large portions of their workforces.
At Durham, N.C.-based Duke University Health System, the workforce is 60 percent millennial or Gen Z.
Rhonda Brandon, chief human resources officer and senior vice president for the health system, said in a news release that this presents the challenge of meeting workers' desire for more flexibility, clearer advancement pathways and competitive wages.
To help meet these desires, Duke increased its minimum wage to $17 per hour, effective July 1, 2022. The change applied to eligible university and health system staff.
Duke also announced it will expand the Employee Tuition Assistance Program, effective July 1, 2023, including reducing the service eligibility requirement from two consecutive years of full-time employment to six months of full-time employment. Additionally, Duke University Health System announced in February that it would install weapons detection systems at its hospitals as part of efforts to address the safety of workers, patients and visitors. Other efforts mentioned in a health system news release include investing in salaries of front-line staff; enhanced clinical ladders to support growth; and working to redesign and simplify staff work to reduce stress and burnout.
"We want our team members to have joy in their work and to feel valued, seen and heard," Ms. Brandon said in the release. "We want everyone to know that they matter and they belong here as we work together to deliver extraordinary care."
Read more about health systems bridging workforce generations here. Read more about Duke's workforce here.