Hiring in healthcare has always had its challenges —but now, in a post-pandemic world, the stakes are even higher. Nurses in particular have felt the immense pressure, heavy workloads and long hours during the pandemic, and beyond. It’s no surprise that burnout is on the rise, with more than half of healthcare workers reporting insomnia, rising stress levels and increased mental health challenges. With 52% of nurses saying that they plan on leaving the clinical setting, these pressures will only continue to grow.
With rising burnout, the healthcare sector has also seen a rise in “quiet quitting” —where staff don’t go above and beyond, but do the minimum required of the role. Without continued investment and support in the employee experience, this rise in quiet quitting and burnout not only impacts the stability of the workforce, but can negatively impact patient outcomes in the long term.
While talent teams are focusing on sourcing new hires, equal (or greater) focus needs to be put on retaining current nursing staff and keeping them engaged, motivated and supported. Equipping your team to improve the employee experience is essential to combat quiet quitting, boost the well-being of nursing staff and drive improved patient outcomes. Here are 15 tips to get you started.
1. Build a strong employer brand
Getting the right people in the door —and keeping them around— starts with a strong employer brand. An employer brand is your organisationorganization’s reputation as an employer (as opposed to your reputation related to the products or services you sell) and communicates your employee value proposition (EVP). While an employer brand is unique to every organisationorganization, there are common themes that run through all successful employer brands: —they highlight the things that make your organisationorganization a great place to work.
Your employer brand must be communicated consistently across all touchpoints where candidates encounter your brand. This could include social media, careers websites, job ads and careers fairs – right up to the response to applications, the ease of scheduling an interview and the interview itself. If you communicate a strong employer brand that offers a window into life at your organisationorganization, you’re likely to attract the right people whose values align with yours – resulting in higher employee engagement.
A great way to do this in the healthcare setting is through employee-generated content, like PageUp Employee Connections. This solution offers a way for employees to share their stories with prospective applicants, answer their questions and address challenges head-on. The authentic medium is engaging and builds trust —with jobseekers more likely to trust their peers, than polished corporate ‘spin’. What’s more, involving current employees in the process and empowering them to share their experiences as experts in the field, you’ll see renewed employee engagement.
2. Communicate your ethics and core values
56% of jobseekers wouldn’t consider a job at an organisationorganization if its values were misaligned with their own. People drawn to careers in the healthcare sector are often caring individuals —with many choosing roles or staying in roles out of loyalty to patients and their care. So, to attract and engage healthcare talent, values play a significant role.
But, core values need to be more than just words on a page. They need to influence how work is done and how decisions are made each day — and they should be central to your mission and your employee value proposition. If your organisationorganization’s values are to provide the best quality healthcare —communicate it, authentically. Remind people of their contribution and purpose regularly. That way, people will feel a sense of pride in their work and feel more motivated to deliver on their goals.
Your career site is the perfect place to outline your values and purpose, and showcase your EVP. RecogniseRecognize the impact of current team members and showcase how your organisationorganization delivers on its purpose. Use dedicated landing pages and microsites to take prospective jobseekers on the journey and provide real-world examples of employees embracing the company values.
3. Provide a great onboarding experience
Onboarding begins as soon as a candidate accepts their offer. It’s important for organisationsorganizations to provide a seamless onboarding experience to help new nurses feel they are supported –which will lay the foundations for ongoing engagement. It’s equally important for new starters to understand the tools, people and practices they will need to be successful in their roles. Good onboarding can also reduce employee turnover rates. OrganisationsOrganizations can start with the basics: outline the new starter’s first week, and set up a positive work environment so they feel prepared. A plan can include:
- assigning a buddy to help a new team member get up to speed
- safety and compliance training
- logins and access to internal systems
- orientation sessions to cover facility training and processes, explaining electronic medical records processes and introductions to other departments.
See how the Medical University of South Carolina uses PageUp to optimiseoptimize its hiring strategy
4. Drive engagement through daily huddles
Connection is crucial to driving engagement —and in a busy clinical setting, team building and community can easily be overlooked or deprioritiseddeprioritized. But to drive engagement in the long-term, it’s important to set time for all team members to communicate with their peers. This practice helps nurses feel connected with their team members, and prioritisingprioritizing this open team communication can help ensure the best patient outcomes. Daily huddles are a common practice at healthcare organisationsorganizations. Huddles are usually led by nurse managers and give nurses the opportunity to raise concerns, discuss planned surgeries and discharges and any goals the team can achieve together.
According to the Lippincott Nursing Center, “Patient safety starts with teamwork. Huddles impact the entire team’s approach to providing care by emphasisingemphasizing the value of each coworker in contributing to the care of all patients. After discussing patient problems as a team, staff members know that patient safety is a shared responsibility and that they’re not alone in developing a safe and effective plan.”
What’s more, daily huddles provide a great forum for leaders to check in and notice the initial signs of burnout in their team. Leaders can then ensure their staff have access to appropriate support, encourage team members to take breaks and work to re-engage and re-motivate their team.
5. Create a positive work environment through a culture of respect
Nursing is a tough role —physically, mentally and emotionally. A key driver of employee experience is the work environment: if you don’t respect people, they’re likely to feel undervalued and unsupported. Respecting people might seem like a simple thing to do, but it’s one of the most meaningful actions leaders can take to help people feel supported. A SHRM survey found that 67% of employees surveyed rated respectful treatment of all employees at all levels as very important.
6. Lead by example
It might seem obvious – but people leaders need to lead by example. They must bring passion and energy to their own roles if they want nurses to follow suit. To achieve higher engagement within the team, leaders need to create and constantly drive a positive work environment where people can feel valued and receive feedback on a daily basis.
Leaders have a huge impact on culture —they can champion your organisationalorganizational vision and mission to their teams. By offering leaders education on your organisationalorganizational goals and creating opportunities for meaningful recognition, you create brand ambassadors that live and breathe your values. This plays a key role in improving the experience within your organisationorganization.
7. Provide ongoing development opportunities
A key driver of employee motivation is development —people want to learn and grow. PageUp research shows that 94% of jobseekers rate development opportunities as an important factor when applying for roles. It’s important for leaders to provide their teams with opportunities to develop new skills and map clear pathways towards future roles. Learning and development shouldn’t stop after their initial training: many nurses need to be challenged and have opportunities to upskill to stay motivated. As nursing technology and practices are constantly evolving, it’s imperative for leaders to provide nurses with opportunities to keep their skills relevant —and to keep them engaged. OrganisationsOrganizations can support this through formal and informal training opportunities —such as seminars or peer-to-peer learning —and carving out a prioritisedprioritized space for this in the nursing team’s busy schedules.
Talent teams can also support ongoing development by creating and facilitating a culture of internal mobility. Consider using an internal careers site, so it’s easy for team members to search and apply for relevant roles, and explore opportunities outside of their own team.
8. Encourage connection through events
Events and conferences are great ways for nurses to connect with other nurses and medical professionals. These opportunities provide excellent ways for nurses to:
- meet and learn from peers.
- learn from thought leaders.
- understand new research findings.
These forums provide opportunities for nurses to get out of “their own four walls”, and to re-ignite their passion for the profession. Plus, they’ll learn valuable new skills to bring back into the organisationorganization.
9. Create a courageous culture
Does your organisationorganization foster an environment where people can bring their authentic selves to work and voice their opinions without judgement? Cultivating a courageous environment promotes authenticity and encourages diversity. It’s all about respecting and valuing people’s opinions and creating a safe place where people can contribute to achieving the organisationorganization’s vision.
What’s more, fostering a courageous culture helps organisationsorganizations to promote diverse hiring —which improves talent attraction. Research shows that 76% of jobseekers will look for evidence of a diverse workforce as a key factor when applying for a role, making it a key pillar of modern talent strategies.
10. Provide emotional support
In a medical environment, many factors can take a toll on a nurse’s emotional wellbeing. High patient mortality rates, supporting patients with terminal conditions, dealing with verbal and physical abuse from patients – the list is endless. A sympathetic ear can provide the support nurses need to stay engaged and motivated through the role’s challenges. OrganisationsOrganizations can leverage specialisedspecialized counselling services like employee assistance programs – and proactively advertiseadvertize support services in common areas like nurses stations, kitchens and cafeterias.
11. Introduce rewards to increase employee satisfaction
Does your organisationorganization recogniserecognize people who go above and beyond to provide great patient care? One of the top reasons people leave roles is lack of recognition —and research from Gallup has shown that 65% of employees haven’t received any form of recognition for good work in the last 12 months.
Feedback and recognition can be formal or informal. Aside from thanking people for their contribution in day-to-day feedback, more structured rewards programs can ensure individuals are being celebrated regularly and publicly. These could include spontaneous rewards like movie or dinner vouchers and gift cards, or formal processes with open nominations and a selection committee. Some healthcare organisationsorganizations have introduced regular awards including Employee of the Month, Nurse Excellence and Zero Harm awards to show appreciation of the hard work and dedication of their teams.
12. Encourage prioritisingprioritizing health and wellbeing
In a profession providing around-the-clock-care, where long shifts and over-time are often required, healthy habits can easily fall by the wayside. OrganisationsOrganizations can help encourage healthy habits and work-life-balance by offering subsidisedsubsidized gym memberships, yoga and pilates classes. Healthcare organisationsorganizations can further support a healthy work environment by encouraging staff to take their breaks, and providing nutritious snacks at nursing stations and in break rooms.
13. Learn what motivates people
Surveys and face-to-face conversations can help leaders understand what people value at work and what they like doing in their spare time. Knowing what motivates people is the first step to keeping them satisfied and engaged. Whether seeking feedback informally, or through channels like an employee engagement survey, leaders should always capitalisecapitalize on the opportunity to receive feedback and improve their approaches. The act of seeking feedback from the team builds trust, improves communication and increases employee satisfaction.
Motivation is highly individual —a leading cause of quiet quitting is leaders not taking the time to understand their individual team members’ perspectives and goals. By understanding what drives each team member, leaders can better support them in their aspirations, leading to higher engagement and less burnout.
14. Advocate performance reviews and encourage ownership
Many organisationsorganizations in the healthcare industry conduct yearly performance reviews to see if people have accomplished their goals and are meeting the overarching goals of the organisationorganization. Nurses rate their own performance first, prior to meeting with leaders. It’s important for leaders to have regular check-ins with nurses outside the annual performance cycle to provide feedback, answer questions and ensure goals are aligned and expectations are met. Nurses are time-poor, so it’s important to empower them to capture milestones and record their progress on-the-go. Solutions like PageUp can help to empower both nurses and leaders to keep track of goals, share feedback with peers and upload journal entries. When it comes to performance review time, everyone is on the same page.
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15. Address quiet quitting and burnout
In healthcare, instances of workers “quiet quitting”, or experiencing burnout have risen steeply. The pandemic has left nurses exhausted, feeling undervalued and overworked. It’s been shown that burnout is contagious —it will spread from the top down. Make time to have open conversations about wellbeing and motivation across all divisions, from leading doctors to admin support staff. Foster an environment where employees are empowered to find work-life balance.
Whether it’s through recognition, performance conversations, internal mobility and development opportunities or an environment that promotes work-life-balance, it’s vital that organisationsorganizations tap into the resources at their disposal to not only attract new nursing talent, but keep current employees engaged, motivated and providing the best patient care.
Final thoughts
Ensuring nurses are engaged at work is important not only for nurses’ physical and emotional health but the overall patient experience. Healthcare organisationsorganizations and leaders need to put proactive measures in place to attract, engage and retain the best in the industry.
PageUp offers solutions tailored to meet the unique needs of healthcare hiring. From interest to application, onboarding and beyond, PageUp offers an end-to-end solution to help you build, develop and retain high-performing healthcare teams. Want to get started? Get in touch today to learn more.
