Home health care professionals face a variety of challenges that impact their job satisfaction and retention rates. Between frequent travel, long commutes, outdated equipment, and open-ended job responsibilities, these healthcare professionals can quickly experience burnout and feel underappreciated. More seniors today are choosing to age in place and remain in their home. To add further challenges onto an already overworked field, market pressures are driving greater demand for their services. These dynamics in the industry are creating a very high turnover rate. According to research and education firm, HCB, the turnover rate for home health care workers in 2022 was more than 77%.
To retain your workforce and reduce the turnover rate at your organization, look to the emotional wellbeing of the team.
By helping them better manage stress and improving the flexibility in scheduling, you can alleviate some of their biggest pain points. This results in better patient outcomes, lower costs in hiring and onboarding, and even improvements to brand integrity.
The Connection Between Morale and Patient Outcomes
There is a strong connection between the employee experience and patient outcomes. Put simply, happier caretakers deliver better patient experiences. The National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) found that higher nurse satisfaction led to an 87% decrease in infection rate over two years. Gallup revealed that hospitals with the least engaged nurses among those measured spend $1.1 million more in malpractice claims annually compared to the most engaged nurses.
”That means negative patient experiences will be shared online and seen by a majority of your audience.
Negative Reviews and Protecting Your Brand
The link between patient and healthcare worker experiences impacts the brand integrity of the organization as a whole. 65% of patients are aware of online physician rating sites, and 36% of patients have used these sites at least once. That means negative patient experiences will be shared online and seen by a majority of your audience.
Pair this with Inc’s report that it takes approximately 40 positive customer experiences to compensate for a single bad review, and the situation becomes clear. To maintain consumer trust, organizations need to focus on the emotional wellbeing of their team.
Apploi Hire can help build positive brand awareness in your hiring process with branded career pages, offer letters, and job listings alongside communication templates and interview guides. This keeps your brand visible in all communications during the hiring process as well as ensuring those communications remain professional and positive. The hiring process may be your applicant’s first exposure to the brand. Start the relationship off right.
Providing Emotional Support for the Team
Employees of any organization rarely decide to leave their jobs without a strong reason compelling them to take action. If not enticed by a more attractive offer at another company, discontentment and burnout are leading drivers of turnover. Adopt some of these strategies to re-engage your team and help them find wellbeing in a difficult role.
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Equip the Team with Self-Management Skills
Emotional health begins with the self. There are many things employees can do to better regulate their emotions, but they may lack the skills to do so. Consider hiring a professional who can speak to and distribute resources related to:
- Regulating emotions
- Focusing on what the person can control
- Getting sufficient sleep
- Stress management
- Good nutrition
There is a strong connection between physical health, and mental health. Helping your team live a healthier lifestyle will make them more prepared for the challenges of the workday.
Provide Self-Management Tools
In addition to skills and informative resources, there are two tools that can make a big impact on morale. The first is a therapy or meditation app. These solutions can often be purchased at bulk rates as an employee benefit. They offer guided therapy or meditation sessions to encourage employees to be more present in their daily lives. As people become more grounded, we are better able to regulate our emotions and anxiety.
The second tool is an internal support network made up of your in-home health care workers. Create a space where the team can express frustration, seek advice, and collaborate on solutions. Whether a messaging board, chatroom, group text, or sophisticated collaboration solution, an internal support group is a valuable outlet.
Establish a Culture of Openness
A hard job becomes even more so if the team feels they cannot be genuine about the challenges they face. No one will make use of an internal support network if they worry their honest struggles will be met with dismissal or worse, retaliation. This apprehension can be addressed at the company culture level. By establishing open-door policies with management and taking steps to stress the importance of candid communication, you can help the team feel at ease.
”Time off helps the team be on when it matters
Keep an Eye on Time off Schedules
Key to avoiding burnout is providing adequate rest to recharge. Encourage your team to utilize their paid time off (PTO) benefits as needed to maintain their engagement and enthusiasm. The problem healthcare organizations and many other companies face is that some employees are reluctant to use their PTO. They may feel guilty for taking time away from their patients. They may feel like management will view them as disinterested or lazy.
For these reasons, it’s important to not only be forthright about the time off policy but also actively instruct the team to make use of the benefit. Alternatively, you could incentivize their use by preventing PTO days from rolling over into the next year.
Management can also play a direct part here. Keep an eye on your team’s PTO schedule. When was the last time each person took a day off? Do they have a PTO day coming up on the calendar? Encourage the team to request a day off each month even if they do not have a specific trip or event planned. Time off helps the team be on when it matters.
Increase Schedule Flexibility
Part of work-related stress is the tension between personal and professional responsibilities. Outside of work, home health care professionals have lives of their own. Childcare, medical appointments, and personal ambitions are important to the wellbeing of your team. Allowing your team to adapt their schedule to fulfill their personal and professional obligations both reduces stress while also enhancing productivity. With the right balance, home health care workers feel in control of their life. Without, the pressure can quickly contribute to burnout.
For that reason, work-life balance is a crucial element of emotional wellbeing and job satisfaction. Candidates are increasingly prioritizing work-life balance in their career decisions, which creates a new landscape on which to compete. By making schedule flexibility a key benefit in your hiring offer, you can establish a competitive differentiator in a tight market. Moreover, this will even help you retain the existing team.
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Healers Must Be Healthy Themselves
Positive change in one area ripples across the business and leads to better outcomes for the patient. A happier team has lower turnover. Lower turnover creates space in the budget to invest further in the team, and healing is best administered by an engaged, content healthcare professional. Improve your patient experience, company morale, and profitability by attending to the emotional needs of your team.
Burnout can be an impactful drag on your organization, learn more about preventing burnout and keeping healthcare professionals engaged in our blog, How to Stop Nurse Burnout (Before It’s Even Begun).
