High Staff Turnover in Healthcare Institutions Essay

Introduction

Staff turnover rate is among the major determinants of the company’s operational effectiveness because it predetermines the chances of successful growth. In general, high turnover rates point to the existence of significant deficiencies in the internal environment, including ineffective employment and training policies and interpersonal relations among team members. However, the most critical consequence of the high turnover rate is the increased volume or operational costs due to the necessity to recruit and train new employees. Therefore, it is essential to develop a comprehensive plan for eliminating or, at least, minimizing the risks of this challenge, thus contributing to the sustainable development of a facility or an organization.

Belmont Village is one of the facilities that have faced this problem. To cope with the existing issues, a focus should be made on developing a detailed sustainability plan as well as identifying clear objectives of the facility’s operation and determine criteria for evaluating implemented changes. Completing these two tasks is the aim of this paper.

Sustainability

Sustainability is a complex phenomenon. It is a unique combination of clear development goals aimed at achieving particular public health objectives (in this case, improving health outcomes of the elderly citizens and making their life more comfortable), links between all members (management, nurses, patients, and other stakeholders) of a particular facility (Belmont Village), and local groups that are not related to the health care sector (recreational parks and organizations, etc.). Due to the complexity of the phenomenon, becoming a sustainable organization is impossible without developing a comprehensive plan of actions paying special attention to the most critical elements of the system (National Center for Chronic Diseases Prevention and Health Promotion, n.d.). The main elements of interest and necessary steps to achieve sustainability in the facility under consideration are outlined below.

1. Stakeholders (staff, including physicians, nurses, and administrators, patients, and the affected public (e.g. potential employees and relatives of the elderly patients)): create a shared vision of sustainability (identify and increase awareness of the existing issues and offer unique patterns for eliminating them). In this case, it is essential to assure that all key stakeholders are familiar with the very concept of sustainability and know that the facility is interested in becoming a sustainable organization as well as share all plans with key stakeholders so that they are involved in the process (National Center for Chronic Diseases Prevention and Health Promotion, n.d.).
2. Healthcare business plan: identify clear Belmont Village development goals, including such parameters as the desired turnover rate, patient satisfaction, expenditures, health outcomes, etc., and criteria for evaluating success in meeting the abovementioned determinants. It should as well be communicated to key stakeholders because they are the driver of the potential change.
3. Technical complexities (connected to the implementation of the sustainability plan): hire a professional – sustainability coordinator – who knows how to develop production plans and achieving all set objectives (Boone, 2012).
4. System fragmentation: create a department responsible for developing and implementing the sustainability plan (identify functions of all staff members and communicate them) in order to avoid misunderstandings in the perception of sustainability and one’s role in the facility (National Center for Chronic Diseases Prevention and Health Promotion, n.d.).
5. Teamwork: enhance cooperation among all staff members by creating a favorable environment and satisfying their communication needs as well as focus on the integrity of employees and respecting them (avoid extra work when unnecessary, reward positive accomplishments, foster free communication, etc.) (Boone, 2012).
6. Individual accountability: design the system of key performance indicators for each staff member and monitor individual performance. The idea is to motivate the employees to become involved in improving their performance by rewarding the most productive ones (Boone, 2012).
7. Leadership styles: make a focus on transformational leadership style because it is commonly associated with positive changes as well as guarantee that a leader is a person with adequate skills and background and the leader’s position is official in the facility so that their decisions are formal and obligatory (Boone, 2012).

Goals, Objectives, and Evaluation

The sustainability framework is inseparable from setting clear objectives for future development. Because the major problem is the high turnover rate, all goals should center on eliminating this particular challenge. To begin with, it is essential to state the main goal of Belmont Village is to satisfy all needs of its residents so that they live comfortably and prosper. The central objective is to reduce the turnover rate so that there are always enough professional people to address residents’ peculiar needs and deliver care. It is associated with a range of smaller objectives that are provided in Table 1 below.

Determining development goals and objectives is incomplete without identifying criteria for progress evaluation and the procedures for collecting and analyzing data. The proposed evaluation plan is provided below.

1. Criteria: decreased turnover rate, increased employee satisfaction, and increased employee involvement and dedication;
2. Data collection: employee attitudes analysis (strengths and weaknesses of the existing working environment);
3. Data collection procedures: caregivers and physicians will complete surveys and give interviews;
4. Responsible for data collection: HR and sustainability departments
5. Frequency of data collection procedures: surveys collected regularly to avoid the increase in the turnover rate (every 30 days) and interviews conducted with employees who decided to quit.
6. Collection methods:
   1. Subjective (qualitative data, such as individual perceptions of the working environment);
   2. Objective (quantitative data, such as turnover rate);
   3. Surveys filled by physicians and caregivers and interviews with those who decided to quit;
   4. Observation of interpersonal communication patterns.

References

National Center for Chronic Diseases Prevention and Health Promotion. (n.d.). A sustainability planning guide for healthy communities. Web.

Boone, T. (2012). Creating a culture of sustainability: Leadership, coordination, and performance measurement decisions in healthcare. Web.