Turnover for healthcare providers is detrimental in many ways, from patient satisfaction and local brand image to the bottom line. According to the 2017 National Health Care Retention & RN Staffing Report, turnover for bedside registered nurses in the United States results in the average hospital losing US$4.4 million to US$7 million annually.8
Burnout, or feeling “exhausted, detached, and overworked,” is one acknowledged cause of turnover in healthcare.9 As in other industries, high employee engagement provides a resolution.
Certainly a more natural fit in healthcare than in other sectors, health and wellness programs are becoming more common. In addition to cost savings—for both the company and the employee paying into healthcare plans—wellness programs have been proven to boost productivity.11
Thankfully, advanced HR cloud solutions offer modules specifically designed to support corporate health and wellness strategies. In deploying one, a healthcare organization can:
Aging populations demand a paradigm shift in care, with more focus on “disease explanation, treatment explanation, quality of life, rapport, and emotional support,” according to a recent patient-care report.12 At the same time, expectations of talent across the board are changing: Training and development is now three to four times more important than pay, and 87 percent of millennials rate professional or career-development opportunities as important to them in a job.13,14
This was confirmed within the healthcare sector by a recent study from the Catalan Health Institute in Barcelona.
The primary healthcare professionals in our study viewed continuous education as a professional necessity and would like to translate the knowledge acquired to improving the health of the population. Nevertheless, professional, structural, and organizational issues impede the process.”15
Catalan Health Institute, Barcelona
Investment in continuous training can be a competitive differentiator for providers. This explains why more organizations are deploying HR cloud solutions that have the functionality to facilitate continuous career development through on-demand training, career pathing, and continuous coaching with one’s manager to replace the limits of annual reviews.
Succession planning functionality is particularly necessary in healthcare, and can preempt disruptive openings in key provider positions or essential insurance roles that manage payouts. If a top performer leaves, even unexpectedly, your real-time view of employee data will enable you to be ready to identify those ready for the role now—and a few years from now.
Another huge reason healthcare organizations are deploying HR cloud solutions is the speed with which new technologies can be implemented. On a cloud platform, for instance, you can quickly equip your staff with the latest artificial intelligence functionality available from your vendor. And the willingness of even older patient-consumers to communicate digitally makes this a prudent investment (see Figure 2 below).
In healthcare, according to Deloitte, the notion of the augmented human worker presents a hopeful future.