Retention is a high priority for any health system, but for Renton, Wash.-based Providence, with approximately 122,000 employees across multiple states, it is especially crucial.
On Nov. 11, Martin Schreiber, EdD, vice president of the Mission Leadership Institute at Providence, and Greg Till, chief people officer, spoke with Becker's during our 12th Annual CEO+CFO Roundtable about top priorities to improve retention across the 51-hospital health system.
Dr. Schreiber specifically credited the work of the Mission Leadership Institute. Established in November 2021 to equip leaders with the skills and insights necessary in today's evolving healthcare landscape, the institute offers the Mission Leadership Academy for early-career employees and the Discerning Mission Leader program for those in later career stages.
Dr. Schreiber said the institute assesses program effectiveness by evaluating how workers feel within the organization's culture and whether they find a sense of purpose in their roles — both essential factors in improving retention.
"The reason that we're so grateful and proud of the work that Martin and his team does is because our careers want to serve a greater purpose than themselves," said Mr. Till.
"There aren't many professions or organizations out there that allow you to serve with purpose, bring your whole self to work and really connect who you are as a person with the good you're doing for your community. A lot of organizations, even in healthcare, say they do that. But the work that Martin's doing really accomplishes that."
Dr. Schreiber said the institute enables him to assess an employee's "presence" in terms of the focus they bring to the task at hand. He noted a study by Harvard psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert, published in Science in 2010, that found people spend approximately 46.9% of their day contemplating something outside of their current activity.
"That takes away from creativity, from a sense of 'I am here with you.' And we would really like to look at whether there are key essential practices in leadership training that help bring people back — not just as a form of self help, but as a real indicator that I can be with a patient, that I can be with someone who's hurting," he added.
Moreover, Providence focuses on growth when it comes to employee retention.
Mr. Till said the health system has tripled its investment in different avenues for workers to grow, whether it's education reimbursement or assistance, or partnerships with companies like CommonSpirit and OpusVi.
In 2022, Providence partnered with Dignity Health Global Education, a CommonSpirit Health company, to support engagement and retention of healthcare workers. Providence also partnered with OpusVi, a CommonSpirit Health company, to focus on workforce development solutions.
Another focus to improve retention: "stay interviews" with all workers who have been at Providence for less than a year, and all nurses at the health system.
"We trained our core leaders to have 'stay' conversations — pretty simple conversations with our caregivers about what was working in their work environment, what wasn't working in their work environment," said Mr. Till.
"Were they thinking about going somewhere else? What would make a difference for them? How closely were they connecting to the mission? If they couldn't connect with the mission, what was getting in their way? And we made it a requirement for our core leaders to do those stay conversations" he said.
With these and other efforts, turnover at Providence has dropped by about 4percentage points.
Mr. Till provided his takeaways for executives to improve retention: update the organization's value proposition, ensure leaders connect with employees early in their employment, and hold leaders accountable to do "stay interviews," particularly with workers who are at high risk of leaving.