Twenty-four percent of healthcare employees are considering leaving their current positions within a year, according to the result of a survey from JLL.
Of those considering leaving their jobs, 10% said they are considering leaving the healthcare workforce, either for work in another profession altogether (6%) or to retire (4%).
But to help employers retain workers, the JLL researchers examined areas where organizations can improve, including attraction, experience and retention. Here are the factors that can attract or repel workers.
Pay and benefits
Pay and benefits ranked highly among respondents as vehicles for attraction, especially among millennials, those born between 1981 and 1996. According to JLL, millennials make up the majority of the healthcare workforce.
About a third of millennials responding to the survey chose pay and benefits as top factors that attract them to a position. By comparison, 22% of respondents who are Gen Xers, born between 1965 and 1980, and 21% of baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, ranked those factors as most important.
Employers, however, can use “other levers … aside from pay to increase their position with recruitment,” JLL reported.
The position itself
The role itself can be a draw, for instance. Physicians and advanced practitioners were more likely than others to rank the specific role as their top factor for picking a position, JLL said.
Role was less of a factor for people working in support positions, however.
Culture
Culture is a significant factor for Gen Zers entering the workforce for the first time, according to survey results. Those individuals were born between 1997 and 2010.
“Young people are still exploring career possibilities and want to work for an organization that they can feel good about working for. As they become more established in their career, company culture ranks as a lower priority,” JLL reported.
Workplace culture often plays an important role in whether employees choose to stay or quit, according to the survey findings.
Healthcare workers who were not looking to leave their jobs noted that their workplaces were designed to help them work efficiently and to care for people well. Also, they said that their employers supported their personal well-being.
On the flip side, many healthcare workers who indicated that they were considering leaving their current positions said that their workplaces were not designed to help them work productively.
Location
Forty percent of all respondents, regardless of generation, noted that location is a factor for them in choosing a job, but this point was especially true among younger workers and seasonal employees.
“Those earlier in their career are less defined in their professional goals, and operational and support roles tend to have more openings, allowing them to be more selective with location,” according to JLL.
A facility’s location is important in regards to safety and convenience, JLL said. “Team members’ experience on the way to work can set the mood for their time at work, and amenities surrounding the location can affect their ability to recharge, physically and mentally,” the report authors said.
Having affordable housing nearby also is a plus for many healthcare workers, and the lack of such housing can be a factor in employee decisions to work elsewhere, they said.
Flexibility
Flexibility was highly considered a priority by one-third of survey participants.
“While constructing flexible work arrangements is difficult in a field where in-person presence and care are necessary, it can help in both attracting and retaining talent(and reducing burnout),” especially among older workers, according to the survey report.
