The human resource element is integral in supporting the functionality of healthcare organizations. The healthcare environment is highly labour intensive. The human capital is central in making treatment decisions and determining how efficiently other resources will be utilized. Effectiveness in healthcare organizations requires the right pool of workers. Healthcare institutions should have the correct mix of highly effective employees who ought to possess the right skills to perform functions assigned. According to Collini, Guidroz and Perez (2015), turnover rate is the percentage of workers departing from an organization within a predetermined duration for example one year. High turnover rate has a detrimental implication on patients, healthcare staff and hospitals. The overall productivity in long term care is adversely affected by a proliferation in turnover rate. One outcome of an increase in healthcare staff attrition is financial implication which hurts productivity of hospitals. Adoption of the turnover reduction methodologies would save healthcare organizations approximately $410.500 annually. It is therefore imperative for healthcare organizations to craft intervention strategies to lessen high turnover rate and reduce financial implications.
Necessary Mechanisms to lessen Turnover Rates
First, improving talent management processes by healthcare organizations would play a significant role in lessening turnover rate. Hospitals should start working closely with the human resource department in respect to talent acquisition process improvements. Recruiters and hiring managers in healthcare organizations should evaluate workers and identify skill gaps that would guide the talent improvement process ( Kurnat-Thoma, Ganger Peterson & Channell, 2017) . Workers should undergo on and off the job training to build their professional experience and technical expertise. Talent improvement ought to focus also on building inherent behavioral competencies, customer service orientation, and compassion to encourage employee retention. Investing in education and continuous learning improves professional skills necessary to provide exceptional patient care. The employee developmental plan would keep valuable healthcare staff actively engaged in the organization because they know that the institution will provide a platform for growth in future. The training opportunities would develop the workers skills and give them necessary tools to actualize their career goals.
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Secondly, during the hiring process, recruiters in healthcare organizations ought to target the candidates who are customer oriented, compassionate and with willingness to learn. To identify such candidates, behavioral based approach should be employed during recruitment. The approach has been found by research to reduce new hire turnover by 20 to 60 percent. The behavioral based methodology is central in identifying and developing service oriented individuals whose endeavors result in enhanced patient satisfaction. According to Collini et al., (2015), factoring in behavioral competencies by recruiters during the hiring processes is highly likely to significantly reduce turnover rate.
Adopting a participatory leadership style would enable healthcare workers take part in decision making. Actively engaging employees in decision making increases workers’ morale ultimately reducing turnover rate. The involvement of healthcare workers lowers the gap of separation of powers between top echelon management and subordinate workers. The initiative is also likely to open up lines of communication between employees and supervisors. As Kurnat-Thoma et al., (2017) explain, imposition of executive orders for implementation by workers but without their involvement in formulation triggers a feeling of dissatisfaction and demotivation leading to an increase in staff attrition. Engaging workers makes them understand that their contribution is important. Involving employees in turn increases job satisfaction and cultivates a positive altitude leading to high worker retention rates.
Healthcare organizations should implement self-scheduling to reduce high attrition levels. The scheduling methodology mandates employees to create the department schedule by themselves as opposed to letting a supervisors or managers make decisions areas of deployment. Collini et al., (2015) assert that self-scheduling makes the hospital nursing environment accommodative to healthcare workers. The employee retention approach is a good employment practice that significantly improves staff retention and enhances patient care. Self-scheduling also increases worker’s morale and gives healthcare workers more control and independence over personal schedules. The strategy gives healthcare workers ownership of their work ultimately increasing employee satisfaction and retention.
Providing a competitive compensation package plays an enormous role in lessening turnover rates. Compensation is the primary driver in fostering job satisfaction. Competitive salaries, bonuses and other incentives are critical in ensuring staff retention. The compensation package ought to include insurance benefits, paid time off and retirement savings plan ( Kurnat-Thoma et al., 2017) . Healthcare organizations ought to revise staff salaries upwards to reduce the high cost of turnover caused by increased staff attrition.
Financial Implications
High turnover rates result in far reaching financial implications. An increase in employee turnover is disruptive and costly to healthcare organizations, patients and teams. Nursing solutions Inc reported that the average cost of turnover costs hospitals an average of 5.13 million to 7.86 million annually. The turnover cost of a single physician is equivalent to $200,000 loss for healthcare organizations ( Guilding, Lamminmaki & McManus, 2014) . NSI Nursing solution’s report issued an estimate indicating that hospitals incur at least $58,400 to rehire workers to replace nurses who have departed. The costs add up to a loss of about 5.2 to 8.1 million dollars every year. According to Li and Jones (2013) the annual cost of healthcare turnover is extraordinary expensive. Monster.com reported that at one medical center the cost of turnover equated to more than 5% of the institution’s annual operating budget. According to healthcare management review survey, the cost of staff turnover is approximated at one third of a worker’s remuneration. Financial implication of turnover and resultant staffing gaps cuts across staffing costs, continuity of care, training costs, accident rates, medical staff dissatisfaction, staff workloads and absenteeism. Hospitals also incur costs in professional development and mentorship of newly hired staff to replace the ones who have resigned. In addition to the direct costs associated with recruiting new staff, a high turnover rate costs healthcare organizations in other ways ( Guilding et al., 2014) . Examples of the indirect financial implications include contingency costs, disruption of continuity of care and increased training costs.
Financial implications encompass preventative and replacements costs. Preventive costs are incurred when a healthcare organization enacts measures to avert excessive labour turnover. The implications include costs of providing good working conditions, enhancing medical, housing, recreational facilities and costs of offering education services to workers children as well as costs of subsidizing meals. Additional financial implications are incurred in providing safety measures and retirement benefits such as gratuity and pension. Replacement financial implications encompass costs of recruiting new workers, training, loss of production due to inefficiency of new workers and interruption ( Li & Jones, 2013) . Additionally, healthcare organizations incur loss of profit due to production loss, wastage as a result of excessive spoilage for example because of inept handing of medical machines by new workers and costs of accidents as new recruits are usually prone to making mistakes such as medical negligence.
Conclusion
High employee turnover in healthcare organizations hurts delivery of care consequently reducing productivity. Having an increased focus on employee engagement, reviewing compensation packages, talent development and self-scheduling are important intervention strategies in combating high staff attrition rates. Financial implications of staff turnover cuts across preventative and replacement costs. Examples the costs include expenditures made in providing education facilities and welfare, training new workers, loss of production and wastage due to excessive accidents. Preventing staff turnover saves healthcare organizations substantial amounts which can be redirected to other constructive ventures.
References
Collini, S. A., Guidroz, A. M., & Perez, L. M. (2015). Turnover in health care: the mediating effects of employee engagement. Journal of nursing management , 23 (2), 169-178.
Guilding, C., Lamminmaki, D., & McManus, L. (2014). Staff turnover costs: In search of accountability. International Journal of Hospitality Management , 36 , 231-243.
Li, Y. I. N., & Jones, C. B. (2013). A literature review of nursing turnover costs. Journal of nursing management , 21 (3), 405-418.
Kurnat-Thoma, E., Ganger, M., Peterson, K., & Channell, L. (2017). Reducing annual hospital and registered nurse staff turnover—A 10-element onboarding program intervention. SAGE Open Nursing , 3 , 2377960817697712.
