Addressing the Healthcare Staffing Crisis: Tips from a Senior Living Executive

The average age of the everyday American is getting older. Job growth in sectors like healthcare has been robust, but with that growth in opportunities also comes a challenge -- how can healthcare companies retain their employees and avoid a constant revolving door of turnover?

We had the opportunity to chat with Tommy Comer, a human resources executive in the senior living space that saw these problems on a daily basis. While Tommy is now leading HR with a new company, his experiences while at Commonwealth Senior Living remain broadly applicable to the industry. The challenge that healthcare companies face when it comes to staffing have not changed, and if anything, are getting more acute.

Let's review the anecdotes about where this industry is heading.

The number one topic in healthcare HR

His first point: he was shocked by the ubiquity of hiring and retention struggles amongst healthcare providers around the country. The old problem, particularly in senior care, was ensuring you had enough residents to keep facilities open. But as the population ages, that's easing slightly.

Now, it's all about caregivers.

"Any conference I go to now, the number one topic is how do you find and keep employees. And senior living, it's literally the biggest problem, even more so than finding and keeping residents."

Tommy's insight here gets at a fundamental issue now in healthcare staffing. The first priority for healthcare companies is to provide the best patient care possible, to as many people as possible. But to serve this mission, companies like Commonwealth Senior Living and others need people: nurses, CNAs, practitioners, back-office clerks. A small army is necessary to keep healthcare companies running.

A stable, qualified workforce is the linchpin for success in the industry. Without it, quality care wouldn’t have the chance to occur.

Searching for the next bright idea in healthcare

 The staffing crisis isn't isolated to a few organizations or regions. As our CHRO noted:

"I think everyone in the HR space in health care is bouncing ideas off each other [to try to solve this problem]. Everyone is asking each other for the next bright idea, because we're all facing this." 

The industry’s collective brainstorm will certainly solve the issue over time, as the constant volley of ideas is pinging around conference halls and email chains. Healthcare HR professionals are actively seeking innovative approaches to attract and retain talent. Big impacts will likely come from expensive programs like subsidized education pathways or pay package increases.

But they're also hunting for easy wins they can test in a few months -- things like employee engagement strategies or financial wellness benefits such as earned wage access.

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Impactful solutions likely come in combos

 There's no silver bullet for solving the staffing crisis. As we noted in the beginning, this industry is growing to match the aging population, a trend that might not be reversing any time soon. The strategies that healthcare leaders employ will need to cover several bases, addressing pay packages, benefits, engagement, and support.

The key is to pair the big initiatives with the small, the expensive with the free, to find the right mix.

"I don't want to sugarcoat it. Nothing that we've talked about today is going to cut your turnover in half. But it might be a lever that helps a percentage. And that's important."

Employee retention is impacted by myriad factors. Different demographics require different support, and retention relative to locations can vary widely simply because the labor supply is different. But when healthcare leaders are looking ahead to next year and trying to figure out where they're going to boost retention by ten percentage points, they shouldn't overlook the easy wins.

Supplemental benefits like earned wage access can have a big impact. They don't cost the business anything to set up, work with existing systems, and can give caregivers a chance to control their own cash flow. That can mean the difference between them signing on with you or going down the road. ‍

Here's where the small benefits become big wins

Healthcare leaders that are bargaining with finance on where to expand their benefits packages are looking for the best bang-for-buck. Earned wage access can provide improvements in retention, even incremental, that have significant impacts:

1. Cost Savings: Reducing turnover, even by a small percentage, leads to substantial savings in recruitment and training costs.
2. Improved Care Quality: A more stable workforce often translates to better continuity of care for residents and patients.
3. Enhanced Team Dynamics: Lower turnover rates can lead to stronger team cohesion and improved workplace culture, furthering your retention and engagement goals
4. Increased Productivity: Experienced employees are typically more efficient and help get newer employees up to speed. The team cohesion flywheel really starts to spin.

Where we go from here

The healthcare staffing crisis, particularly in senior living and home health care, presents a complex challenge with no single solution. However, as our executive revealed, the industry is turning over every rock to find innovative ways to attract and retain talent. This crisis won't stay unsolved for long.

By trying a mix of strategies – from financial wellness programs like earned wage access to training, development, and even pay package increases – healthcare organizations can confront the staffing crisis with a full quiver of arrows. Nothing on its own will solve the problem overnight, but each idea taken together will help build a more stable, satisfied, and effective healthcare workforce.