Employee retention in healthcare has never been more important — or more difficult. We know that one in five healthcare workers left their jobs in 2023.
Healthcare work is demanding and, at times, emotionally exhausting. Violence against caregivers is on the rise. And with staff shortages a problem in many healthcare settings, stress and burnout are an ongoing concern.
But we need more healthcare staff than ever. The global population is aging, increasing healthcare demand. Staff continuity also improves the patient experience and outcomes. Healthcare providers need to do all they can to hang onto employees.
So what can you do to improve healthcare employee retention? Research shows that nearly one-third of healthcare employees are currently disengaged in their work. This is a worry — but it’s also an opportunity.
Disengagement is linked to high levels of attrition. So increase staff engagement and you reduce staff churn, too. It all starts with listening to, understanding, and acting on the needs of your frontline workers.
Effective employee retention strategies for healthcare providers
Healthcare retention is a challenge. But one that can be met with a combination of employee engagement, communication, and development.
The most effective staff retention strategies in healthcare include the following:
1. Invest in employee development
2. Use technology to improve healthcare worker communication
3. Create an open and inclusive culture
4. Recognize and reward employee efforts
5. Offer competitive wages
6. Make schedules more flexible
7. Give employees a voice and act upon their feedback
Now, let’s take a closer look at these ideas.
1. Invest in employee development
Training, development, and career advancement are key to healthcare staff retention.
The 2024 NSI Nursing Solutions report reveals that career advancement was one of the top reasons for healthcare employees resigning from their jobs in 2024.
And according to Press Ganey, nurses who don’t receive training and development opportunities are 1.4 to 1.5 times more likely to leave their roles than those who do.
Despite the importance of learning and career growth, only 60% of healthcare employees say skill building is offered by their organizations. So, to hang onto employees:
- Be transparent about your promotion policies and opportunities
- Find out where employees want to go in their careers
- Commit to a policy of continuous learning and development
- Make training more accessible with mobile learning tech
Beyond those early days of onboarding, offer mentoring and cross-training. Keep employees up-to-date with advancements in healthcare technology and practices.
Note this research from Gallup, which shows that 70% of the variance in team engagement is determined by the manager. Ensure that your managers have the training they need to support employee motivation, engagement, and retention more effectively.
Time is another important factor. Busy healthcare staff on the frontlines of your organization don’t just need training opportunities. They need dedicated time in which to access them.
The takeaway: Invest in ongoing education and training programs suited to your employees’ needs. Also, facilitate learning by giving easy access to learning tech and building training time into employee schedules.
2. Use technology to improve healthcare worker communication
Healthcare organizations tend to use a variety of internal communication channels. These may include a noticeboard, staff pagers, and email.
But there are problems with these methods of communication. First, you can’t be sure that a message has been received and read. And second, these channels don’t inspire two-way communication, a key pillar of employee engagement.
To make internal communication at your healthcare organization more effective and less fragmented, you can create a communication hub using a mobile-first employee app or intranet.
Here, you can share mandatory reads that employees have to click to acknowledge. You can create open channels of communication between healthcare staff and their managers — and give employees easy access to documents and resources that support them in their roles.
You can also segment your workforce by role, department, tenure, and location so they only receive relevant communications. This helps to avoid unnecessary distractions and information overload for time-strapped healthcare workers.
When Elara Caring adopted Blink as their primary communication tool, they were struggling with high staff turnover and low levels of employee engagement. Since adopting Blink, the organization has transformed engagement, with 95% of employees feeling more connected to Elara and each other.
The takeaway: Use an employee app or mobile intranet to make work-life easier for frontline employees. Give workers unified access to internal communications.
Read more: Closing the digital gap in healthcare for frontline workers
3. Create an open and inclusive culture
Next on our list of employee retention strategies is workplace culture. A positive, inclusive, and supportive culture makes your organization a happier place to be. This leads to better healthcare staff retention.
It also impacts patient outcomes. Because when healthcare staff feel supported and operate in a culture of psychological safety, they can ask questions and raise concerns without fear of repercussions.
To develop this type of culture you need open, two-way communication across the whole of your organization. A digital communication tool can help you achieve this. It allows everyone, including hard-to-reach frontline employees, to share news, ideas, and opinions.
You can create dedicated spaces for 1:1s, group chats, and organization-wide Q&As. This helps employees to feel heard and valued. It also helps them to build meaningful workplace connections.
Wellbeing is also paramount right now. With around half of all physicians and nurses experiencing symptoms of burnout, a positive workplace culture relies on adequate stress management and mental health support.
The takeaway: Take time to analyze your organizational culture and find areas for improvement. Prioritize open, two-way communication to support psychological safety at work. Also, provide stress and mental health support to address the symptoms of burnout.
4. Recognize and reward employee efforts
Gallup shares that when healthcare workers are recognized for their work, they’re four times more likely to be engaged and five times more likely to feel connected to company culture.
Employee appreciation also affects patient safety. Gallup found that employees recognized for good work in the last seven days experienced fewer patient safety incidents.
That said, only 18% of healthcare workers feel that employees are recognized and valued at their organization. That’s below the national average of 22% for US employees and much lower than other sectors — financial services stands at 34% and professional services stands at 28%.
Put simply, healthcare providers need to do more to recognize and reward their employees. The best recognition and rewards programs are tailored to your healthcare workers and their preferences — but here are a few ideas:
- Recognition via internal communications: You can publish achievements and recognize hard work publicly, on your communications platform. The rest of your workforce can then see praise and add their congratulations, too.
- Direct appreciation: Some workers may prefer to receive praise privately. Direct appreciation from managers is another way to make employees feel seen, heard, and valued.
- Appreciation gifts: Incentivize your healthcare team with gift cards, cash prizes, fun experiences, or benefits like extra paid time off. These are great ways to recognize your employees’ hard work and boost morale.
The takeaway: Make employee recognition an integral part of your workplace culture. Learn about employee recognition and reward preferences. Then, ensure managers regularly offer praise for employee effort.
5. Offer competitive wages
Money isn’t everything. But when you’re working a demanding and emotionally draining job, a competitive salary makes it easier to sustain motivation during those tough days.
Offering good salaries shows that you appreciate and value your employees. So keep an eye on what competitors — in and outside of healthcare — are offering. Also, consider polling your employees to learn if pay is one of their primary workplace frustrations.
When deciding what you can afford to pay, bear in mind the cost of losing employees.
According to NSI Nursing Solutions, the average turnover cost for a bedside registered nurse (RN) stands at $56,300. And — when you factor in lost revenue, interview expenses, locum costs, and the inevitable dip in productivity — the cost of losing a physician can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The takeaway: Offer fair compensation. When your workers know they’re fairly paid, they’re more likely to stay working for your organization, which means you retain your best employees and their collective knowledge.
6. Make schedules more flexible
Advances in AI, virtual healthcare, and telemedicine, mean it’s easier than it used to be to support flexible employee schedules. And this is something employees are looking for.
According to O. C. Tanner, 80% of healthcare workers say having flexibility at work would influence their decision to stay at their organization.
So how do you make flexible working a reality for frontline healthcare employees? You can offer:
- Staggered hours
- Part-time hours and job shares
- Fixed or rotating shift patterns, depending on employee preference
- Advance warning of shift schedules
You can also give employees more autonomy over where and how they work. Start by finding out what employees want from flexible working. And try to harness the potential of virtual healthcare wherever possible.
Digital tools, like an employee app, are useful here too. They can help you structure and track staff schedules — and give employees the tools they need to swap shifts independently.
The takeaway: Offer flexible scheduling to help your employees achieve work-life balance and keep them working in healthcare. Find out what flexible working means to your employees, then do your best to facilitate it.
7. Give employees a voice and act on their feedback
Keep your finger on the pulse and you prevent employee engagement and retention issues from sneaking up on you. An annual check-in with your healthcare employees is not enough. You need to regularly gather and analyze employee data and feedback.
So look at the analytics provided by any employee communication and engagement software you use. Discover how workers are interacting with the platform and your communications.
Also, run regular surveys to find out what workers think of the employee experience — or any other aspect of your organization and its operations. In doing so, you give employees a voice, which makes them feel valued and respected.
Just bear in mind that employee surveys and polls can damage the employee experience if you fail to act on the feedback your employees provide. In Blink’s survey of frontline health and social care employees, there was one standout message from an employee to senior management:
“Please listen to your staff and follow up on promises. Too many empty promises.”
So use employee feedback wisely. Identify ways you can improve the healthcare worker experience. Create and clearly communicate your plan of action. Then, keep employees in the loop as you progress toward your employee experience goals.
The takeaway: Use analytics and employee feedback to inform healthcare retention strategies. Find out what employees like and dislike about working for your organization. Then keep them in the loop with survey results and your plan of action.
Boosting healthcare employee retention with Blink
Staff retention in healthcare is a challenge. But by implementing these employee retention strategies, you’ll find it easier to hang onto your existing staff — and attract new hires too.
As you implement these workforce retention strategies, keep the needs of your healthcare workers front of mind. Their needs differ from those of desk-based employees.
Healthcare workers spend their days caring for patients, so they have little free time. They don’t sit at a desktop computer — and they’re dealing with high stress and burnout.
So when putting any of these strategies into action, ensure that you make life as easy as possible for your healthcare team. Give them easy, mobile access to the information and resources they need.
A tool like Blink is designed to support employee engagement and internal communication for busy frontline teams.
Blink’s secure employee app is a hub for two-way communication, feedback, and recognition. It gives employees easy access to workplace resources, development opportunities, shift swap tools, and wellbeing support.
Available via smartphone, Blink fits seamlessly into the work day of your frontline employees, improving their employee experience and encouraging them to stay with your organization.
Want to kick-start your healthcare staff retention strategy? Schedule your free Blink demo today.
