Employers across the board agree with the saying that employees are their greatest asset. But, despite genuine effort and best intentions, living up to that saying has become increasingly challenging during the past few years due to major emerging workforce changes. Workers are demanding a greater work/life balance, and the “great resignation” has caught many employers across the U.S. by surprise, causing them to quickly pivot and reassess their workforce strategies.
The health care industry has been no stranger to workforce shortages, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the problem. CCN’s Strategic Advisor Lenore L. Boris, PhD, JD, RN Dean at St. Joseph’s College of Nursing, stated, “Historically, health care has experienced periodic shortages of workers. While many factors—such as changing worker demographics, insufficient compensation, and insufficient education opportunities—have been cited as the cause, the solutions to the shortages have generally eluded the health care industry.”
The ‘Great Resignation’ Strikes
In the wake of the pandemic, many industries have been struggling with the “great resignation,” a phenomenon where employees are re-evaluating their careers and what they want out of their jobs. The term “great resignation” was coined in 2021, and news reports this year cite Bureau of Labor Statistics figures showing that 47 million Americans quit their jobs in 2021.
Early assumptions tied the “great resignation” to the pandemic—employees who got to work from home reassessed their work/life balance and quit their jobs as a result. Over time, though, those assumptions have been debated, and polls show Americans are leaving their jobs for a number of reasons. A March Pew Research Center survey shows the top three reasons U.S. workers left their jobs were: low pay, no opportunities for advancement, and “felt disrespected at work.” Whatever the reasons, the phenomenon has caused employers to take a hard look at the experience they provide to their employees.
In what could be seen as a possible silver lining for the health care industry during the “great resignation,” a recent report from Bamboo HR shows that an increasing number of employees are thinking about making career changes, and, surprisingly, the health care industry is reported as one of the top alternative industries to jump into despite “high burnout rates even before the pandemic and lagging wage growth despite pandemic related staff shortages.”
However, as of yet, this has not translated into a wave of new employees, and the health care industry is still finding it difficult to hire enough new employees and retain current staff to adequately provide care to the community. Boris notes, “As people reevaluate their values, they are attracted to a field dedicated to caring for people, making health care the top alternative for people seeking a career change. Yet high burn-out rates and COVID fatigue are causing job seekers to reconsider a health care career and experienced workers to consider early retirement or changing careers.
“People are seeking a work-life balance that allows them to enjoy their family/ friends and passions. Yet, the 24/7 nature of many health care positions and, in some situations, changing shifts, irregular schedules and mandatory overtime are destroying and desired work-life balance. A health care worker’s mental health can get lost when providing care for patients, even as the worker wrestles with the fatigue of overwork and addressing the very serious needs of sick and dying patients.
“Reimagining the workplace to give workers a greater voice in scheduling work hours or defining ‘success’ is lost in the health care organization’s need to meet accreditation standards and assure clients receive safe, quality care. Compensation, while very good in some health care professions, is very uneven across all the health care job openings. And, pay in relation to responsibilities in some areas like home-care and long-term care is so mismatched as to drive potential employees to other employment.
Leveraging Data to Increase Employee Satisfaction
Numerous articles have been written over the past few years on new and emerging workforce trends and new employee programs that organizations can adopt. Common themes in those articles include an organization-wide people-first focus that keeps employees’ unique needs top-of-mind, and the use of incorporating data into recruitment and retention strategies.
Care Compass Network partner Tioga Opportunities Inc. is using an emotional intelligence assessment to measure multiple domains such as intuition, empathy, and decision-making skills to not only help find the right candidates to fill open positions, but also to help retain current staff. “What we’ve been able to do with the assessment is to benchmark against the actual position, and then we can see how well that candidate is matched to what we would hope to see in a candidate for that position,” says Christine Shaver, Director of Program Operations at Tioga Opportunities.
She adds, “We are also rolling out the emotional intelligence assessment with our existing staff to complete a personnel compilation of sorts, so when we have openings come up in the agency, we can look to see whether existing staff might be a really good match for that opening and include opportunities for promotion and cross training.”
Strength Through Diversity: Creating an Inclusive Environment at Work
Both within and outside of the health care field, awareness of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has been growing among the workforce, including how to best incorporate DEI training and practices into the business culture in an effort to better serve the communities’ needs. Bamboo HR states that “diversity, equity, and inclusion are part of the core values that Americans want to see reflected in the companies they work for. They look for a commitment to diversity both before and after they’re hired, and they view it as benefitting organizations across the board.”
From the chart below, employees believe that a more diverse workforce improves companies’ culture and increases their problem-solving ability because it offers a greater pool of life experiences to learn from and increases the variety of a team’s skill set.
For health care organizations, having a more diverse workforce is not only beneficial for current and future employees, but it is important when trying to engage populations who are marginalized. In a July 2019 focus group conducted by Tompkins County Health Department, one identified barrier to accessing care was the lack of providers of color. Diversifying the workforce to include individuals who represent the community members being served can provide a sense of comfort and trust.
Creating an inclusive and equitable environment ensures all people have access to high quality care regardless of their personal circumstances or background–a place where all feel welcome and cared for in a non-stigmatizing way, and where care is personalized to the unique needs of that individual.
Current and Future Trends in Remote Work
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, employers have had to quickly shift from having employees in the office to setting them up to work remotely. As the U.S. continues to move beyond the height of the pandemic, companies have had to juggle business demands and the needs of their employees. As workforce analytics software company Visier reports, “People have gotten a taste of hybrid work and many want the same flexibility instead of going back to the yesteryear of everyone being in cubicles and offices. But hybrid work demands changes in managerial styles to ensure equality.”
However, organizations are also finding that, while many workers want to keep working remotely at least part of the time, others do not like working from home and miss the office camaraderie. Organizations within and outside the health care industry, therefore, must take time to determine what their individual employees want as they develop hiring and retention strategies in the post-pandemic world.
BambooHR surveyed employees across the U.S. and found that over 50% wanted to have a positive and uplifting work environment, followed closely by having good health care benefits, opportunities for promotion and growth, flexibility, and a better work/life balance.
Tioga Opportunities surveyed its staff to gain insights into what matters most to their employees. The data was used to help develop low cost/high impact programs that could be quickly executed, and also longer-term programs that could be integrated over time. One of the first programs Tioga Opportunities rolled out was offering staff the option to take a shorter 30-minute lunch and then leave work a little earlier, or continue taking a longer lunch. Staff were also given the option to create a more flexible work schedule, such as coming to work and leaving earlier, or coming in a little later. Another quick win for Tioga Opportunities was incorporating a self-care component into its employee wellness program. Employees learned about stress and how it affects the body, and also learned many different techniques to help deal with the daily stress and anxiety an employee may be feeling, which, when left unchecked, could lead to burnout and potentially employees leaving their jobs.
To learn more about different workforce trends, strategies, or to find helpful trainings that can be incorporated into your organization’s programs, fill out the Open Network Services Request Form. *Available to Open Network Partners Only.