Addressing Employee Turnover in Healthcare

The main difference between the hospital and the competitor is that the competitor offers better training, career development, educational opportunities, and a working environment. In education, training, and career development, the competitor offers attractive opportunities in terms of joint university and technical certification programs, cross-field rotation, tuition assistance, and scholarship programs. Due to the nature of the health professions, educational, training, and career development opportunities are key considerations in a given job opportunity (Price & Reichert, 2017). These professions are structured in a fashion that emphasizes continuous professional development, learning new skills, and maintaining a high level of skills, knowledge advancement, and other metrics that ensure that they stay on top of their roles. The competitor has proven to be in a better position to support the technicians and assistants’ educational, professional, and career goals through its various programs. Also, the competitor offers a better work-life balance by offering work time for fitness, co-located daycare, and a gourmet cafeteria. According to Holland et al. (2019), healthcare professionals are prone to subjugating their personal needs at the expense of their work. Making such sacrifices makes it difficult to maintain a healthy work-life balance. By providing a better work-life balance, the competitor is in a better position to attract talents from other hospitals.

For the hospital to compete at the same level as the competitor in employee retention, attention has to be focused on developing programs that will support the professional and personal development of the employees. This includes similar or better education, training, and career development programs the competitor offers. Also, there is a need to have initiatives that support work-life balance based on the special needs of technicians and physician assistants.

Factors to Consider in Addressing Major Efforts and Costs to be Incurred

To be on a level playing field with competitors in attracting technicians and assistants, the hospital needs to make some level of investment in terms of money and initiatives. In adopting employee education, training, and career development programs, the organization must raise substantial funding for such initiatives as scholarship programs and tuition assistance. Raising this funding will take a toll on the hospital’s revenue or require the hospital to go the extra mile to find financiers and donors. Also, instituting work-life balance will require some funding in such programs as work fitness and daycare and employing more employees for more flexible working hours. According to Sirgy and Lee (2018), about 30 percent of employees are likely to leave a job because it does not offer flexible work options and does not have initiatives for work-life balance. Other than funding, the hospital must reinvent its organizational culture to adopt combined strategies that promote employee retention. According to Kim et al. (2017), a positive organizational culture encourages employees’ engagement by providing them with meaningful work, clarifying goals, and creating opportunities for growth and development.

Failure to adequately fund and create a positive organizational culture will deny the hospital the opportunity to compete fairly. As a result, there is a likelihood for the turnover crisis facing the hospital to worsen. More and more technicians and assistants will continue to leave and join the competitors.

Mitigating Cost of Current Turnover and The Loss of Institutional Knowledge

The hospital has failed to offer competitive incentives to technicians and assistants. Particularly, the hospital does not offer professional and career developments that match those the competitors offer. Also, the hospital’s organizational culture does not adequately focus on work-life balance like in the competitor’s culture. Therefore, to mitigate turnover loss, the hospital needs to prevent more technicians and assistants from leaving. This includes such actions as prioritizing work-life balance, offering flexibility, and keeping up with the market in terms of education, training, and career and professional development opportunities. By taking these actions, the hospital will be able to reduce turnover both in the long and short-term.

Proposed Programs

1. Scholarship program: Work-sponsored scholarships are an excellent tool for boosting morale, making them feel appreciated, and for their development. By offering scholarships to technicians and assistants, the hospital will be able to ensure that it attracts and maintains young employees with goals to further their education.
2. Technical and professional certification program: This program will aim to support the employees’ professional development by supporting them in their pursuit of technical and professional certification. The hospital will have to partner with certification authorities to offer the necessary courses, skill development workshops, and the practical experience needed for different certifications.
3. Cross-field rotation: This program aims to provide the employees with the opportunity to gain experience across different fields and specializations in healthcare. The hospital will allow the employees to work in various departments and under different head specialists.
4. Increased salaries and benefits: The hospital will need to offer better salaries, bonuses, and benefits than the competitors to attract and retain talent. By offering better salaries and benefits, the hospital can counter such programs as tuition assistance offered by the competitor.
5. Childcare assistance: The hospital must set up a daycare center for employees with young children. The program aims to allow these employees to have a work-life balance by being able to care for the children while they are still at work.
6. Restrict work hours: The hospital will need to set a limit for work hours where no employees will be allowed to exceed these hours. The limit aims to mandatorily allow the employees to have time to address their personal issues, including working out and resting.

References

Al-Suraihi, W. A., Samikon, S. A., & Ibrahim, I. (2021). Employee Turnover Causes, Importance and Retention Strategies. European Journal of Business and Management Research (EJBMR).

Holland, P., Tham, T. L., Sheehan, C., & Cooper, B. (2019). The impact of perceived workload on nurse satisfaction with work-life balance and intention to leave the occupation. Applied nursing research, 49, 70-76.

Sirgy, M. J., & Lee, D. J. (2018). Work-life balance: An integrative review. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 13, 229-254.

Price, S., & Reichert, C. (2017). The importance of continuing professional development to career satisfaction and patient care: meeting the needs of novice to mid-to late-career nurses throughout their career span. Administrative Sciences, 7(2), 17.