Hospitals pay high turnover costs due to RNs and other healthcare workers leaving the healthcare profession, due to overwhelming workloads, sub-par staffing ratios, and lack of pay to match the workload. These scenarios and more are what create nurse burnout. Many have decided to retire early and others have decided to change professions altogether. Data shows hospitals lose between $5 million and $9 million per year due to turnover. It also shows that it takes nearly three months to recruit an RN. Turnover costs downward impact on hospital margins. Each RN retained can save the average hospital approximately $262,000 per year.
94.8% of hospitals view retention as a “key strategy”, 81% have a retention initiatives plan, but only about 50% of hospitals have actionable measurable goals for these plans.
Meanwhile, the RN vacancy rate continues to climb, currently at more than 10%, and climbing each year. High vacancy rates impact quality patient outcomes, good patient experience, and satisfaction. In 2019, less than a quarter of hospitals reported a vacancy rate greater than 10%, today, more than a third reported a vacancy of more than 10%.
To strengthen bottom lines, It would behoove any hospitals to strengthen their ability to retain nurses, initiate and activate plans to lower vacancy rates, utilize quality recruitment specialists to guide this effort, and control labor expenses. Research shows that the cost associated with replacing an employee can cost as much as twice the employee’s annual salary. Half of all voluntary resignations are avoidable so it’s helpful and cost-effective to know and understand how to avoid this and thereby save money. Here are a few proactive approaches to avoiding voluntary resignation.
Make Career Development a Top Priority
A thoughtfully aligned clinical ladder should be visually accessible and taken into account to help propel the career path of the nurse, technician, social worker, etc. to create or grow retention. One of the top reasons employees resign is because of a lack of opportunities. Sadly, the opportunity may be available but not visibly accessible for them to know about it. Consider their long-term goals and find a way your facility can help them along this path by creating classes or initiatives to assist them towards advancement within your organization. Think of tuition reimbursement, loan forgiveness program, or other incentive programs that you can implement that would be attractive to your most desired staff members that they deem as beneficial to them. Create an org chart that emphasizes career advancement with compensation (CCHT certification = pay raise)
Fix Management Problems
A top reason most voluntary resignations happen is because of management problems. A bad manager can cause a toxic work environment and become a cancer within an organization. A good manager knows how to be a leader without being a micro-manager or dictator. Employees are not motivated by managers who are not team players and are difficult to work with. Ensuring that the managers you have on staff or managers that you are looking to hire, are well equipped to ensure the staff is well trained. This is key to ensuring you have a staff that is happy and knowledgeable in their position. An employee who is not well trained is an employee that becomes disengaged and dreads coming to work.
As the old saying goes, “fish stinks from the head”. Meaning that if you are having a problem within your organization start with the leaders, the head, and work your way down.
What’s causing the Burnout
High-stress work environments with little downtime to decompress, and feeling overworked and overcommitted cause overwhelm and burnout simultaneously. Employees in today’s workforce require work-life balance above all.
A way to create work-life balance and alleviate burnout amongst nurses/staff is to offer the opportunity to sign up for shifts as opposed to being assigned a set schedule. Providing incentives to encourage them to volunteer for undesirable shifts creates an opportunity for a worker who wants to make more money and alleviates burnout for those who feel they are already overworked and don’t want the overtime. You can also create an incentive program that gives them points for every extra shift they work, that can be redeemed for rewards that matter to them. The key is to find what “matters” to them, then create the incentive around it.
Flexibility in work schedule, time off, and not overloading nurses and staff with patient ratios that are unbearable can help alleviate some of the burnout that sometimes comes with working in a hospital or clinic.
Recognition programs
It is important to recognize your nurses and staff members, especially the high-performance ones. Employee recognition programs uplift employees and help improve retention rates. Recognition and Appreciation can go a long way as one of the top reasons employees leave a company is that they don’t feel valued and appreciated.
It is important to examine the culture of your hospital or clinic as it pertains to recognizing employees when you see them going above and beyond, giving their all, etc.
How do you currently value your nurse and staff? Do you know what your employees view as appreciation? Perhaps you can survey them to find out what your staff view as appreciation.
Another way to retain and appreciate loyal employees is to promote dedication by celebrating work anniversaries, providing monetary rewards, and Flexible Work Schedules.
Employee-focused retention bonuses to reward nurses and healthcare workers when they reach an employment milestone will go a long way as well, especially if they’ve never received such treatment anywhere else they’ve worked.
About Onyx & Jasper Healthcare
Onyx & Jasper Healthcare is a national nurse and dialysis healthcare recruitment and staffing solutions firm. We recruit experienced RNs, LVN/LPN, Renal Social Workers, Dialysis Technicians, Nephrology dietitians & Dialysis Bio Med Technicians who fit your company’s culture, doing so in an average time to fill of 30 days. The best part is that our services are risk-free since you must hire our healthcare professionals before you are paid.
We have helped many clients and also look forward to helping you. I encourage you to call 832-509-1517 or email us at info@onyxandjasperhealthcare.com to learn how Onyx & Jasper Healthcare can satisfy your staffing needs