Fall has officially arrived! And there are a few things that we can count on happening every year at this time, like cooler temperatures, beautiful foliage colors and a full schedule of conferences and conventions.
Like many of you, I attend a number of conferences each year. It’s a great opportunity to network with colleagues, attend educational sessions to learn about latest trends and, of course, get my continuing educational credits.
On October 7, Mark Woodka, CEO of OnShift, and I will be presenting a talk entitled “Turning Around Turnover for Greater Staff Stability” at the American Health Care Association’s annual convention. One of the most pressing challenges in long-term and post-acute care (LTPAC) is the ability to retain new hires and facilitate long-term retention. The reasons for turnover in LTPAC are numerous and complex. We will explore a number of these issues including the impact of recruiting and retaining a multigenerational workforce. You will learn what high tech companies, such as Google and Amazon have in common with LTPAC communities when it comes to workforce turnover.
To give you a sneak preview: The length of employee tenure (how long someone’s been with the company) at both Amazon and Google is shorter than that of the average LTPAC community. I was amazed when I learned this fact from reading a recent report titled “Companies with the Most & Least Loyal Employees" that was published in Business Insider. The report ranked the top 20 companies based on employee turnover rate. Why the short tenure in high tech? The main reasons cited are the average age of their workforce (30 years old, on average) and the availability of jobs in this growing industry. Gen X & Y workers tend to be significantly less loyal to their employers than previous generations. For better or worse, the days of staying with the same company for 40 years and retiring with a gold watch are gone forever.
In some respects, LTPAC faces an even bigger challenge than tech companies with employee retention. We frequently employ an age range of as many as four generations within one community, so we need to create work environments and employee-centric policies that appeal to our multigenerational workforce. Additionally we are responsible for the lives of older adults, so the stakes are much higher. The impact of our 50% (according to AHCA) turnover among nursing staff, can be felt across all areas of an LTPAC community and may jeopardize quality of care, patient and resident satisfaction and organizational finances.
But in other respects, we are sitting in the catbird seat. Studies have demonstrated that engaged employees, ones who have an emotional commitment to their work and employer, are less likely to leave their jobs. The very nature of our work, caring for older adults, offers staff the opportunity to become emotionally committed to their jobs. Let's seize this opportunity to turn around turnover through enhancing our employee engagement.
If you’re attending the AHCA annual convention in Washington D.C., you can hear what others in our industry are doing to reduce employee turnover and pick up some best practices that we will be sharing. I hope to see you there!
Session: Turning Around Turnover for Greater Staff Stability
When: Tuesday, October 7, 2014 at 8:00 a.m.
Where: 2014 American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living Annual Convention at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center
Presenters: Mark Woodka, CEO - OnShift and Irene Fleshner RN, MHA, FACHE, Principal - Reno Davis & Assoc. Inc., SVP Strategic Nursing Initiatives - Genesis HealthCare
Unable to attend the conference? Download our whitepaper, Turning over Turnover for more suggestions:
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