Improving Hospital Attrition Rates Through Communications

Steps for better communication in healthcare to improve job satisfaction and keep workers engaged

The healthcare industry is facing an urgent crisis: a relentless shortage of skilled workers. Healthcare leaders already struggle to keep pace in an ever-evolving industry and they know all too well their workforce challenges are not going away any time soon. By 2028, it’s predicted the US will have a shortage of 100k healthcare workers — a massive gap to fill for hospitals and healthcare facilities nationwide. From operating rooms to radiology labs, there is Increased demand for hospital workers across all areas. The human resource challenges these hospitals face come with a history of hiring inefficiencies. Slow decision making, a notoriously complex hiring system and a shrinking pool of qualified candidates there are many recruiting hurdles in healthcare.   

The first step in tackling the growing staffing crisis is for hospitals to retain the talent they already have. Job turnover is a major human resource issue in healthcare. A healthy turnover rate in most industries is approximately ten percent, but according to recent data the healthcare industry is over 20 perfect, showing there’s a real need for employee retention tactics.

Nursing turnover impacts facilities financially

Registered nurses experience one of the highest turnover rates at hospitals. The financial impact for turnover is substantial and directly impact a hospital’s operating budget. The average cost of replacing a single registered nurse is between $40 – $64,000. Expenses for recruiting, training and lost productivity during vacancy periods contribute to the total hospitals need to pay. Additional financial burdens for on-boarding new hired nurses include background checks, drug tests and signing bonuses.

Hospitals human resource and hiring leaders face an ongoing issue of turnover, but there are tactics they can take to increase attrition and keep workers satisfied in their jobs. While some areas of attrition are unavoidable, like retirement, many factors like increased employee well-being, improved culture and better communication can help hospitals retain their essential nursing staff.

Accelerating the hiring process for critical roles

Hospitals must urgently address their time-to-hire rates to keep up with staffing demands and attract top talent in today’s competitive market. Positions like medical-surgical nurses are particularly hard to fill, taking weeks or even months to secure a hire. These delays strain resources and compromise patient care, areas that hospitals work hard to minimize. Streamlining the notoriously complex hospital hiring process with advanced technology is an important step in rectifying staffing shortages. Technology tools like StaffDNA® can significantly reduce hiring timelines. Depending on compliance requirements, it can take just one to two weeks between a job posting to hire. By leveraging this digital career marketplace connecting facilities and hospitals with qualified healthcare professionals ready to work, facilities can fill positions faster and ensure continuity in patient care.  

More communication means less leaving

Recent workplace communication statistics show that over eighty percent of employers and employees cite lack of effective collaboration and communication as reasons for workplace failures. Specifically, failure in this case denotes a reason employees leave a job, or companies terminate them due to performance issues. According to data, approximately sixty percent of workers leave jobs because they’re not engaged with their work.

Why is there a problem with employee disengagement in the first place?  There are several reasons, including high stress environments, feeling undervalued, inadequate support systems and other factors that leave healthcare workers feeling burned out and overburdened. Employees also tend to leave jobs when there’s a lack of career opportunity, little to no employee recognition and when they feel they cannot trust their managers or company leaders.

Leaders take note: your participation matters

With consistent and clear communication, employee engagement can be vastly improved. The more a facility or hospital can communicate and keep workers connected and feeling a sense of community, the more workers feel seen, heard and valued.

Effective communication requires active involvement for leaders across the organization. Rather than being developed in isolation, communication strategies should be created collaboratively to address workforce needs, improve job satisfaction and ultimately reduce turnover. Once a strategy is established, core messaging is in place to address employees and the methods to deliver those messages is determined, administrators and leaders need to work together to ensure implementation. Leaders set the tone for how employees are treated and their commitment to communication is essential. Active support from leadership and implementation participation is vital to ensuring a successful communication strategy.

Improve communication and create collaboration

Solid organizational communication, like quality patient care, relies on teamwork. A teamwork approach to communication – from leadership to individual contributors – creates a supportive work environment. On the clinical side, specific areas where communication breakdowns often occur are shift changes and interdisciplinary communication between doctors, nurses and technicians. From and administrative perspective, lack of clear communication regarding policy updates, administration changes and important updates for employees is where communication breaks down. 

Here are some steps hospitals can take to ensure communication is at the forefront of employee hiring and retention:

Consistent messaging to segmented audiences

Clear and consistent messaging should always be the foundational structure for internal messaging. Consistently communicating the same message means organizations are more likely to reach and influence employees. Segment audiences into smaller groups and set up a strategy for reaching each audience. For example, segment by grade, department or role. Make sure the information each audience is receiving is relevant to them. One rule of thumb is dividing messages into ‘must know’ and ‘good to know’ categories. This helps prioritize content and determine how it’s disseminated. Because healthcare workers are busy and receiving messaging in different formats, include multiple messaging platforms in the plan, from employee portals and emails to digital signage (or videos) and organized, in-person meetings. Remember, research shows the average person needs to hear a message seven times before they act. For employees who have an inherent obligation to engage with their employers, that number can be shaved down to a maximum of five and a minimum of three.

Prioritize face-to-face communication

Talking in person and removing messaging from a screen or device allows for a deeper understanding of information. While digital communication is vital in a fast-paced environment with varying shifts and schedules, a face-to-face conversation with team members or administrators and staff can facilitate quicker problems solving and foster the sharing of ideas. Reading non-verbal cues like a person’s body language and facial expressions solidifies the message and allows for real-time feedback and questions. Whenever possible, make face-to-face part of the communication strategy.   

Regular training

Training is a critical tool in the organizational communication process. Hospitals should include information in new hire training about how communication within the facility works and allow employees to choose their preferred communication. Emphasize clear communication strategies and offer examples of how employees should communicate with one another, especially when it comes to scenarios that involve team coordination. Provide real-world examples of a good communication process in training to demonstrate the need for communication tactics beyond clinical documentation. Make certain employees understand the hospital’s emphasis on internal communication with teams, departments, supervisors and staff. Include regular communication training updates to ensure everyone knows effective communication is part of their job.  

Overcoming barriers to communication

Remove any barriers to communication from day one. Use secure messaging platforms, emails, meetings and video meetings to create a multi-platform messaging system where communication is consistent and dependable. Too often workers feel they are getting information from external sources such as a hospital’s social media pages or in the news. Make it a public relations standard practice to release any news or announcements internally first (or simultaneously internally and externally if the news is time sensitive) before announcing news or events externally. This goes a long way in helping employees feel prioritized and important to the organization.

Open feedback

There is no way better for a healthcare facility to understand what areas of clinical care employees identify as needing improvement than real-time, open feedback. Employees see first-hand what processes or areas need improvement and should feel comfortable speaking up. Enabling a system where staff to have a voice improves communication by empowering employees to impact positive change. Continually listening to employees must be done with a purpose. Hospitals need to act on employee feedback to demonstrate their input leads to real change. This dramatically improves engagement and raises the level of respect employees feel toward employers.  

Follow the communication leader

It’s important to emphasize leadership sets the tone and pace when it comes to communication. When good communication practices are leveraged, it becomes a valuable retention tool for employees. In addition to boosting worker satisfaction and increasing overall job satisfaction, the right communications strategy helps employees understand what’s expected of them at work, creates a sense of connection among employees and increases a sense of community among employees. Employees who are aligned to the healthcare organization’s vision and mission are more likely to want to stay.

Hospitals need to focus on a communications strategy to win in the worker shortage race. If the goal is less turnover, increased employee engagement and better patient care, prioritize how employees are receiving and reacting to messages. Like flipping on a light switch in a dimly lit room, watch how employee retention lights up when employees become engaged, satisfied and invested in where they work thanks to open and clear communications.