The turnover rate of healthcare workers is an issue of concern in most of the hospital and other healthcare facilities. With the current draining work and long hours of working, retaining nurses and doctors has its special challenges. Also, the turnover introduces further costs related to replacing vacant positions with employees possessing specific certifications and a set of skills. It is a problem that needs health care organizations and managers to come up with effective interventions to reduce turnover rates. This essay will focus on analyzing the mechanisms that may be put in place to reduce the turnover rates and their financial implications.
According to the study conducted by the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses, there are different reasons as to why workers leave their healthcare jobs (Haskins et al., 2011). This study observed that most of the nurses opted to leave their working clinical settings due to emotional distress especially those related to patients, unfriendly workplaces, exhaustion, and fatigue among others. The statistical data concluded that 60 percent of the doctors would opt to leave their jobs if given a chance. Tei‐Tominaga and Sato, (2016) argue that healthcare organizations should focus and pay attention to the turnover rates of their workers and device mitigation mechanisms. However, the process of developing an effective mechanism needs to first understand the major causes of turnover in the health industry.
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Although identifying the causes of turnover is a complex problem, Baggio et al., (2020) noted various causes within and across the healthcare systems. In rare cases, healthcare workers get terminated because of poor clinical or technical skills. First, among the causes, the relationships within the working environment either with colleagues or supervisors is a major cause. In most cases, people like to work in places where they can get along with everyone. A nurse, doctor or any other health professional will likely leave a work setting where their relationship with colleagues and supervisors is strained. As a result, a worker experiencing such relationships breakdowns may lack companion at the workplace. The Maslow hierarchy of needs suggests that companionship is among the top-level needs of a human being. Secondly, salaries and wages are also causing a high turnover rate in healthcare facilities. Theory X and Theory Y of McGregor argues that money is a motivator and workers are always in search for a greener pasture. Based on the study conducted by Cahuc, Charlot, and Malherbet, (2016) one out of four employees would leave their current jobs for a 10 percent increase in their salary. This means that if a healthcare worker feels that they can be paid a higher salary in other facilities, they will leave the job even if it means moving out of their industry. Thirdly, the workload or overwork of employees has also been associated with a high turnover rate. A health profession may decide to leave employment as a result of too much workload which results to stress. In most cases, the nurses are engaged in long working hours which makes it difficult to balance work and other life activities. Last but not least among the turnover rate causes is boredom. It has been argued that nursing is the only career that has a minimal opportunity for growth. The basic reason is that they tend to stick to their duties along the career line. For instance, a dentist will work as a dentist throughout which in return create boredom as they follow a single working routine.
As aforementioned, the management of the healthcare facilities needs to first identify the causes of the turnover rate before developing the lessening mechanism. The first mechanism of reducing the high level of turnover is by improving the working relationships between healthcare professions, colleagues, and management. According to Mishra, Dimri, and Chaubey, (2017), a respectful and healthy relationship with bosses and colleagues improve the productivity and morale of employees. This mechanism can be achieved by initiating frequent meetings with colleagues and managers. It is in these meetings that workers take opportunities to present their worries, ideas, and problems to the managers. The second mechanism is possible in reducing the turnover rates in revising of salary and wages of the healthcare workers. The fact that the turnover process is costly to the organization, increasing the salaries among other amenities will save time and cost of retaining top talents and skilled employees. For instance, the workers should be paid for working overtime and the payment can be issued every week rather than waiting at the end of the month. As argued by McGregor Theory X and Theory Y, at times, money is the only motivator. Further, the healthcare facilities may also introduce a promotion mechanism where the long-serving employees are promoted and their salaries increased depending on their job position.
Vijayan, (2017) notes that the highest number of studies conducted on employees’ turnover, the healthcare worker’s workload pressures them to quit their jobs. Further, working for long hours may not be motivating to the workers. The management of the healthcare facilities should ensure that duties are allocated evenly and employees are not overworked. The managers may survey to understand whether their employees believe they are overworked. If the largest number of employees believe that the organization is overworking them, it is the perfect time to hire new employees. In essence, the workers should not be overworked at the expense of reducing costs on labor. Lastly, if organizations can demonstrate that they care for their career growth, employees can be motivated. Sometimes, employees’ boredom is related to lack of career growth and this can be solved by initiating mentoring programs, career conferences, and also paid leaves to break the boredom.
Employment turnover tends to be costly to healthcare organizations in terms of financial resources. According to Zhao et al., (2019) it is difficult to predict the actual cost of replacing employees after workers have left an organization. However, Insync Surveys showed that an average hospital incurs an average cost of $300,000 annually from employees’ turnover. The survey further illustrated that replacing an administrative position costs approximately 96 percent of the annual salary. The total turnover costs that a facility may incur can be divided into hiring costs, training costs, and lost productivity costs. Unless there is possible promotion, as soon as a position is left vacant following an employee turnover, the organization will advertise for an open job position. This is followed by a series of interviews that are aimed at selecting the best candidate to fill the position. In the selection process, the organization has to hire and pay the interview experts. Further, after a candidate is selected, the organization has to invest in training the new employees until they adapt to the working environment. The training process will also require hiring experts, and arranging for meetings and paying allowance among other expenses. The last cost is the lost productivity between the time the former employee left the organization and the time the new employee started working. If the open position could not be filled internally, the organization may have lost the indirect revenue earned when this position is occupied.
In conclusion, the turnover rates and especially in the healthcare facilities may have a significant impact on patients’ treatment and satisfaction, and staff productivity. However, there is no common model that may demonstrate specific causes of workers' turnover (Martin and Ramos-Gorand, 2017). Therefore, the causes can differ depending on the personality of a worker, organization structure, policies, and settings, as well as personal beliefs. The essay has identified four key causes of healthcare workers’ turnover which include working relationships, boredom, workload or overwork, and low salaries and wages. The solution to these key causes of turnover rate is also the mechanism through which the healthcare facilities can reduce the rate of employee turnover. Further, the turnover rate has a significant financial impact on organizations. A healthcare organization experiencing employee turnover is likely to incur costs related to hiring, training, and lost productivity.
References
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Zhao, Y., Russell, D. J., Guthridge, S., Ramjan, M., Jones, M. P., Humphreys, J. S., & Wakerman, J. (2019). Costs and effects of higher turnover of nurses and Aboriginal health practitioners and higher use of short-term nurses in remote Australian primary care services: an observational cohort study. BMJ open , 9 (2), e023906.
