ORLANDO, Florida—Employers must prioritize empathetic management in order to retain healthcare workers in a tight market, panelists emphasized during Wednesday’s keynote presentation at the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society Global Conference in Orlando, Florida.
The “Great Resignation,” driven in healthcare by an increased provider burden that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated, continues to put a strain on hospitals’ financials across the country. Approximately 8% of healthcare jobs are vacant, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
And as more providers leave their jobs, patient care may suffer.
“We’re really on a precipice where we’re about to see a lot of hospitals close, particularly in rural areas, but also areas where they rely on healthcare insurance from the government,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist and managing director at Grant Thornton. “That means a loss of access to care in areas that are already underserved.”
Holding onto talent, then, is critical. Swonk noted that women with children and people of color in particular are more likely to stay in their jobs when they feel their manager empathizes with them.
“Even if you check all the other boxes, people don’t quit companies and facilities, they quit their managers,” said Johnny Taylor, president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management.
He implored companies to devote more resources to training leadership to support their staff: “Just because someone is a great nurse doesn’t mean they’re a great manager of nurses,” he said.
Tamara Sunbul, M.D., medical director of clinical informatics at Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare, said designing a healthcare workplace that employees don’t want to leave means listening to their needs and offering them flexibility when possible.
“Financial compensation helps, but imagine if it’s the middle of the night and your boss comes in with hot sandwiches? How much would that resonate with you as opposed to a bonus?” she said. “People want to feel that they’re cared for, that they’re part of a family, and that their voice is heard.”
Managers may also need to adapt to the changing needs of those entering the workforce, many of whom are experiencing outsized inflation for the first time.
“As employers, how are we managing the expectations of people who have never lived through this? It’s creating a level of stress that we’ve never seen before, on top of the stress of being a caregiver,” Taylor said.
Millennials, who are projected to make up 75% of the global workforce by 2025, are more likely to “job hop” than previous generations, which can make their relationships with managers feel transactional, Taylor added.
Propelling many providers to leave their jobs are greater levels of burnout within the healthcare workforce than ever reported before. Sunbul said she’s seen many employees afraid that they’ll be labeled “non-resilient” if they advocate for themselves.
That burnout, coupled with the isolation and fear prompted by the pandemic, has provoked higher rates of mental illness across the country, for which not all those suffering can access care.
“If you can’t afford more than a couple treatments–and you’re not going to be cured in a couple visits for the kind of chronic mental health problems we’re dealing with– that exacerbates inequality and creates a vicious cycle of its own,” Swonk said.
Coupled with residual stigma around mental health, it’s no wonder about 45% of Americans experiencing a clinically diagnosable mental illness don’t seek professional help for their condition, according to research by the Mental Health Million Project.
To elevate the voices of workers that often go unheard, healthcare organizations across the industry have ramped up diversity and inclusion efforts in recent years.
But Taylor noted the difference between the two terms, urging companies to seek deeper equity beyond surface-level metrics.
“Do each of those diverse people feel that they’re included?” he prompted companies to ask.
Plus, compensating for the declining birth rate in the U.S. means healthcare will have to embrace populations that have traditionally been excluded, including immigrants, Swonk said.
“You cannot grow our prime age labor force without immigration,” she said. “We’ve got refugees out there. Let’s open our arms and welcome them in.”