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12 Mar
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Why Employee Engagement Matters in Healthcare

By Jennifer Taylor In Info Worth Sharing, Workplace

Employee Engagement: It’s a buzzword that we’ve written about again and again and again. It is one of the most-often Google-searched phrases in the leadership development industry, and rightly so. It may not be a keyword thrown around the dinner table after a day’s work, or outrightly asked about at the office. However, simply put, engagement is the underlying factor that affects productivity, efficiency, and happiness. And what could be more important than that?

 

While engagement is critical to emphasize for every level of employee and across every industry, we at Assessment+ have found particularly strong significance in having engaged employees within the Healthcare industry. Here are the Top 5 Reasons Why Engagement Matters in Healthcare:

        1. Compounding Factors Take a Toll: Budget cuts, stressful work environments, a constant demand for high quality, disruption in regulations and legislations – it’s no wonder a study from the American Medical Association and the Mayo Clinic found that 54.4% of healthcare providers demonstrated signs of burnout.  Even more, nearly half of physicians said that if they could afford to quit, they would.

       

        1. It’s an Industry Where Engagement Isn’t a Trivial Matter: While an average employee’s lack of engagement may not be a life-or-death situation, in the healthcare industry, it is.  In fact, one Gallup study found that with all other confounding factors aside, the engagement level of nurses was the number one predictor of patient mortality rates.

       

        1. Savings, Savings, Savings: Across all industries, engaged employees are 75% less likely to leave a company, 60% less absent, and 85% more efficient – which all have major impact on the bottom line of an organization.  A recent estimate in the healthcare industry pinpointed turnover rates at 18.2%, which is the highest recorded turnover in the industry since the early 2000’s.  (For Nurses, this rate was nearly 30%!) In the past 5 years alone, the average hospital turned over 85.2% of its workforce.  Savings from improvement in these areas can create a positive cycle that leads to increased operating margin for improved service!

       

        1. Engaged Employees = Happy Patients: Even when healthcare situations may not be life or death, the care and compassion provided to patients is also critical. According to one HR Solutions study, engaged employees “display a genuinely caring attitude towards patients” a full 85% of the time; however, among disengaged employees, this figure is only 38%. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that a Patient’s “Likelihood to Recommend” score jumped from 44 to 79 between hospitals of low and high levels of engagement, respectively.

       

      1. Benefits Inside and Outside of Work: This one’s true regardless of industry: Engaged employees report better work-life balances, enhanced creativity, better sleep – the list goes on and on. When this translates to their careers, this means increased productivity, better morale, and more. Here’s one last statistic in case you’re still not convinced: At the end of the day, organizations with engaged employees outperform others by 202%! And nowhere is that more important than in healthcare!

 

View our Services to learn more about how we can help healthcare organizations to enhance leadership and strengthen employee engagement and patient satisfaction.  Our mission is to help people thrive in their jobs.  So, let us help you!

 

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