HR Pulse - Winter 2008 - (Page 44)

>> COMBAT WORKFORCE CHANGES Improve Career Development and Increase Support for Educational Programs Career development, both in terms of clinical career opportunities as well as managerial and leadership development, is crucial to motivating the current workforce, attracting new talent and thereby addressing the health care labor shortage. The study reveals that “perceived lack of promotional opportunity” is one of the three top causes of turnover. Employee surveys have found that opportunities for learning constitute one of an organization’s biggest drivers of employee engagement. For this reason, many hospitals are signiﬁcantly increasing funding for nursing and allied health educational programs, including creating in-house degrees that utilize internal talent to provide needed faculty. Hospitals continue to establish partnerships with regional education centers and training programs, lending their most highly skilled staff to serve as part-time faculty. In addition to vocational training, successful health care organizations are creating major leadership development programs, including supervisor and manager certiﬁcations, manager acceleration programs for high-potential leaders, and executive experience programs (a “mini-MBA” approach). The leadership training programs help highly technical allied health professionals, including physicians, move into key leadership positions, such as operations management. Investing in career development and further education for professions that are the most difﬁcult to recruit for—physicians, RNs, pharmacists, etc.—sends a crucial message and provides an important lever for attracting and retaining this critical talent. Get Creative with Compensation While traditional pay-for-performance programs, such as merit pay, have not been as prevalent or successful in the health care environment, many organizations are experimenting with other forms of compensation to retain and motivate their workforce. One of the most effective ways to reduce turnover, according to the study, is the implementation of recognition programs. These programs can include monetary or non-monetary rewards. More health care organizations also are implementing incentive programs, including broad-based plans covering all employees. Nearly all health care organizations surveyed report providing an incentive opportunity to executives through the director level and more than half provide incentives to managers and supervisors. These plans typically focus on common goals— ﬁnancial targets, quality assurance and patient and employee satisfaction—as well as on some department-speciﬁc measures. A focus on total rewards, including all elements of compensation and beneﬁts, is proving to be an effective way of redeﬁning the employee value proposition. Organizations are identifying what is important to employees and applicants and emphasizing rewards that will attract and retain high-performing employees in critical-skill positions. Focus on Workforce Planning The study also shows that a majority of health care organizations are focusing on an analysis of workforce demographics and sourcing/turnover data to manage the risk associated with workforce scarcity and volatility. Workforce planning links business planning and people needs in a structured way to address the external and internal environmental changes facing the industry. The analysis helps identify gaps between current and anticipated job skills so that organizations can predict and plan for shortages, retirements, or an expansion or redeployment of the workforce. Organizations can establish internal benchmarks for stafﬁng levels relative to business volume as well as performance metrics related to recruitment and retention. These efforts typically are focused on critical segments of the employee population based on skill sets, leadership potential, diversity, or other criteria. Integrated Talent Management is Central to Successful Organizations The health care industry is facing a human capital crisis in which demand far exceeds a dwindling supply exacerbated by increasing numbers of competitors and high turnover. While many alternative approaches are being explored, there is no silver bullet that will solve the attraction/retention dilemma. However, successful, high-performing health care organizations and systems have discovered that one of the keys to success is to approach the issue from a holistic talent-management perspective, starting with strategic workforce planning. This will incorporate broad business-based analytics with strategies tailored to the speciﬁc circumstances of each organization. When strategic planning and workforce planning are linked, it ensures that the goals of the workforce are in line with the goals of the organization, a major step toward realizing the organization’s long-term strategic plan. Therefore, by integrating talent management into the business-planning process, an organization can optimize its workforce by investing in the strategies that will attract, engage, and retain the right talent for the organization. ■ Jamie Hale is the practice leader, workforce planning at Watson Wyatt Worldwide. She can be reached at jamie.hale@watsonwyatt.com. Luellen Lucid is a senior compensation consultant specializing in the health care industry at Watson Wyatt Worldwide. She can be reached at luellen.lucid@watsonwyatt.com. Employee surveys have found that opportunities for learning constitute one of an organization’s biggest drivers of employee engagement. 44 HR Pulse Winter 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of HR Pulse - Winter 2008

HR Pulse - Winter 2008 Contents Pulse Points Executive Director’s Letter President’s Message HR Leader Profile: Karmen Reid Advocacy is for Everyone A Case Study in Raising Voices Diversity Management Measuring What Matters Bullying as Gender Harassment Combat Workforce Changes Hardwiring Accountability Immigration Frustration HR and Education Making Exit Interviews Count Management Styles that Enhance Intrinsic Motivation Backup Care Fact or Fiction 10 Ways to Lose Your Best People Advertisers’ Index

HR Pulse - Winter 2008

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