Healthcare workers operate in an emotionally exhausting environment that can be challenging even in the best of times, but especially amplified as they’ve navigated the exhaustive demands during the pandemic. As our world and healthcare become increasingly complex, the challenges of providing healthcare continue to increase. According to JAMA, the percentage of nurses leaving their job due to burnout almost doubled from 2007 to 2018. It can easily be assumed that the problem of burnout has continued to rise through the global pandemic and that healthcare workers need help if the world is going to heal.
Engagement
The opposite of burnout is engagement. Although burnout has been rising in healthcare, engagement has been rising in the US workforce in general, reaching a record high in 2019. According to Gallup, this record-high engagement is primarily driven by changes in how organizations develop employees. Gallup found that the organizations who are best engaging their employees have a C-suite-led focus on development, have managers who are coaches rather than bosses, foster companywide communications and hold managers accountable. Healthcare can benefit from the broader market focus on employee development and engagement. Though the cure starts with a leader-led desire for change, HCM technology is needed to finish the healing.
Complex organizations require technology to provide simplified solutions that maximize the alignment of strategic goals with the employee experience. This employee-focused technology can supercharge the talent cycle with smart insights that empower employees and their managers towards greater effectiveness and lower burnout. These talent alignment technologies can leverage cutting-edge research, broad cross-industry data, and targeted individualized insights to improve recruiting, hiring, onboarding, training, coaching, team alignment, succession planning, and scheduling.
When organizations recruit and hire people who are naturally more likely to enjoy the work they will be doing, they are setting both the employee and the company up for success. High job fit has consistently related to lower turnover and higher performance. Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHP) scores have even been positively impacted by hiring employees who better fit the culture and job requirements of an organization. Helping hiring managers and candidates better understand their fit for a job is improved by a localized and modality-specific understanding of the work environment. All healthcare environments are not the same and all nursing jobs are not the same. Technology and consulting from trusted experts can allow for the configuration of technology and systems that are highly aligned with unique job types and cultures, which reduces turnover and burnout due to an improved employee experience.
Employee Onboarding
When employees enter new jobs it’s important to ensure their onboarding experience is aligned with their preferences and represents the culture of the company. Technology can promote both the standardization and the customization of the onboarding and enculturation experience to drive a positive employee experience from day one. Although managers may not know their new employees, insights gleaned from the recruiting and hiring process can be used to promote a welcoming environment for the new hire by integrating systems of record and using data to personalize the onboarding experience. Technology can also reduce employee and manager burden by acting as a digital manager to welcome employees and reduce paperwork, thereby freeing up time for managers to focus on coaching and human connection.
Additionally, behavioral insights dynamically generated based on a deep understanding of people and jobs can enable individuals to identify jobs that best fit their talents and preferences. For example, an ER nurse has a different employee experience from a home health nurse. Although both jobs require a nursing degree, the individuals who thrive in each of these jobs differ. A system with smart insights available to employees and their leaders can enable people to find the jobs that they will enjoy, avoid moving into the wrong jobs, and better address the gaps between their preferences and their current job. When employees are empowered to make career decisions that will maximize their engagement with the organization, burnout is reduced and retention is improved. This same logic holds true for both lateral moves and promotions. Regardless of where in an organization an employee is moving, capturing their data to guide them appropriately across the organization will maximize fit and enable targeted learning to close the gaps that are specific to the individual and their new job.
Learning Management System
The learning management system deployed by an organization also impacts the employee experience. Having on-demand content and individualized coaching insight at the employee level empowers employees to get the help they need and proactively avoid becoming overwhelmed and burned out. Having a parallel view of individualized insights and learning opportunities among managers can ensure accountability and alignment between the messages that employees receive. If there is one version of the truth and alignment between the digital and physical coaches, then employees are more apt to accept feedback and make positive changes that improve engagement.
Healthcare is critical to the human experience. We all need care, including the healthcare workers themselves. Technology is not meant to replace the human touch, but rather to guide the human touch towards where it is most needed. Having the right HCM technology allows organizations to free up human resources to focus on areas where the human touch is going to provide unique value. Technology that truly understands people can also guide employees and managers towards insights and decisions that reduce burnout and maximize learning and engagement.
As our world grows increasingly complex, technology is needed to help healthcare organizations simplify, personalize, and focus on the work of healing. If healthcare workers are burning out, then healthcare systems are in danger. Technology can empower leaders and employees to own their careers, know the path towards engagement, and heal themselves so that they may in turn heal others.
