2009 ASHHRA Advocacy Update Presented by the Les Abercrombie, SPHR, Chair, Advocacy Committee.
HR Initiatives White Paper: 2014 HealthcareSource & ASHHRA ... · Healthcare HR Initiatives Survey...
Transcript of HR Initiatives White Paper: 2014 HealthcareSource & ASHHRA ... · Healthcare HR Initiatives Survey...
© 2013 HealthcareSource
HR Initiatives White Paper: 2014 HealthcareSource & ASHHRA Healthcare HR Initiatives Survey Results & Insights
White Paper
The fifth annual Healthcare HR Initiatives Survey found that
HR organizations continue to struggle with too many initiatives,
as well as budget limitations. An industry-wide response is
to streamline HR processes and improve employee retention.
Work is underway to improve employee satisfaction and to
increase employee accountability. These efforts will require
culture change and HR professionals must take the lead.
In the year ahead, healthcare HR organizations plan to
implement technologies to support applicant tracking,
eLearning, and performance management. Not only will
these systems help HR teams work more efficiently, well-
integrated systems can help break down barriers between
HR and education functions.
2 Copyright © 2013 HealthcareSource. All rights reserved.
The HR Initiatives SurveyHealthcareSource and the American Society for Healthcare
Human Resources Administration (ASHHRA) recently
conducted their fifth annual HR Initiatives Survey. The objective
of this survey is to better understand how healthcare HR
professionals are addressing three strategic goals: reducing
costs, improving patient satisfaction and safety.
The survey questions were developed jointly by
HealthcareSource and ASHHRA in 2011 with input from
healthcare HR professionals. This year’s HR Initiatives Survey
was available online from May 15–June 30. This year over 500
HR professionals at healthcare organizations across the United
States participated.
This white paper summarizes the HR initiatives that healthcare
HR professionals view as most important to achieving cost
reductions, as well as increased levels of patient satisfaction
and safety. Industry experts also reviewed the survey findings
and offered their insights. This group included:
•Frederick P. Morgeson, PhD., Eli Broad Professor of Management, Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan State University
•Ursula Pawlowski, MSHR, HR Concierge & Membership Specialist, ASHHRA
•Donna Wright, MS, RN, Consultant, Creative Health Care Management
HR Initiatives to Reduce CostsTight budgets and increased workloads continue to be facts
of life for healthcare HR professionals today. When it comes to
cutting costs, most organizations are pursuing HR initiatives
related to more efficient processes and employee retention.
Almost three quarters of respondents (74%) indicated that their
top initiative for reducing costs was streamlining HR processes.
A little over two thirds (69%) of survey participants noted that
they are trying to improve retention rates.
It’s interesting to note that compared to 2013, healthcare reform
has taken on less significance in terms of cutting costs. The
percentage of respondents concerned with healthcare reform in
2013 was 64%—twenty percentage points higher than this year.
Last year’s interest in HR processes and employee retention was
about the same —73% and 66% respectively.
Panel CommentaryThe panelists were not surprised at HR organizations’
continued emphasis on more efficient HR processes and
employee retention. They offered their thoughts about what
is occurring in healthcare organizations across the country.
Employee turnover is a chronic problem, but HR practices
can improve retention.
For as long as the HR Initiatives Survey has been published,
organizations have consistently focused on improving
employee retention rates as a way to reduce costs. Dr.
Morgeson feels like one reason is because retention is a
chronic problem in healthcare that is not likely to go away.
Healthcare work is stressful, people work long hours, and
there are potential scheduling challenges. In addition,
healthcare workers have skills that are transferable from
one organization to another. Switching jobs is relatively easy,
especially in larger cities where there are large numbers of
healthcare jobs and worker shortages. Turnover is costly
for organizations. When a person leaves, the cost to the
organization is the employee’s first year’s salary. Retention is
important from a financial perspective, but it’s also crucial for
continuity of care. “Since some of the highest turnover levels
are in healthcare, we’ve started to look at how HR practices
can increase retention,” said Morgeson. “Common levers
include leadership, work design, and employee initiatives.
During the hiring process, one effective approach is to
use assessments which identify people who are more likely
to stay.”
Copyright © 2013 HealthcareSource. All rights reserved. 3
Survey Questions1. What are your current HR initiatives to reduce costs?
2. What your current HR initiatives to improve patient satisfaction?
3. What are your current HR initiatives to improve patient safety?
4. What are your biggest challenges with achieving your HR initiatives?
5. What new technology are you planning to adopt in 2014/2015 to achieve your HR initiatives?
Respondent Job Level Respondent Job Level
HealthcareSource is the leading provider of talent management solutions for the healthcare industry. More than 2,300 healthcare organizations use HealthcareSource talent management solutions to recruit, develop, and retain the best workforce possible to improve the patient experience.
ASHHRA is the premier association of healthcare HR professionals, providing advocacy, research, publications, networking, and learning for healthcare HR professionals.
Questions were multiple choice, with the ability to select more than one answer. Respondents were also allowed to provide their own responses and comments.
4 Copyright © 2013 HealthcareSource. All rights reserved.
One aspect of streamlining HR processes is educating
employees selectively, rather than large scale training
programs.
It’s interesting to note that most organizations want to
streamline their HR processes, while only 22% are focused
on implementing education to comply with regulatory
bodies. Donna Wright felt that these statistics are consistent
with the trend she’s seen where healthcare organizations
are trying to assess educational needs and provide training
more selectively. “Part of streamlining processes is to filter
out which employee groups really need education. More
healthcare organizations are asking if the massive and
costly ‘let’s educate everyone’ initiatives are needed,” she
observed. As a result, many HR teams are applying critical
thinking to determine when to use education.
Streamlining hiring processes can save money in the
long run.
Many ASHHRA members are considering how to streamline
their hiring processes. Spending a little more time and
money upfront to hire the right candidate can improve
retention and save money. “Labor is the biggest expense
that healthcare organizations have,” said Ursula Pawlowski.
“As we hire, we must include assessments and interview
questions that will identify candidates who are exceptional,
will deliver on the hospital’s mission, and are committed to
providing a positive patient experience.
HR Initiatives to Improve Patient SatisfactionAccording to survey respondents, improving employee
satisfaction and creating a culture of employee accountability
are top priorities related to patient satisfaction. This confirms
the central role that employees play in delivering quality care.
Other popular initiatives for enhancing patient satisfaction
included creating a service-oriented culture and providing
employee education.
Top Initiatives for Improving Patient Satisfaction
•Improve employee satisfaction (79%)
•Foster a culture of employee accountability (68%)
•Create a service oriented culture (67%)
•Provide employee education (59%)
Copyright © 2013 HealthcareSource. All rights reserved. 5
Employee Turnover Is Unlikely to Go Away, but Modifying Hiring Practices Can HelpTrends suggest that employee retention will continue to be a challenge for healthcare organizations. As the economy has rebounded, healthcare turnover rates have increased. “As people feel more comfortable with their financial situations, they feel more comfortable quitting their jobs,” said Dr. Morgeson. “This is a dynamic that will persist.” Another factor is the anticipated growth in healthcare occupations. The latest data from Bureau of Labor Statistics projects from 2012 to 2022. Seven of the top ten occupations are in healthcare. “If you don’t have a retention and turnover problem now, you might in the future. If you have one now, it’s going to get worse because there will be more healthcare jobs available. That puts a premium on doing things from an HR standpoint to retain people,” said Dr. Morgeson.
Panel CommentaryImproving employee satisfaction doesn’t have to be costly, but
it does require a culture that values employee input and takes
action on that information. Making any type of cultural change,
however, can be difficult.
The key to employee satisfaction is listening to employees
and delivering what they need.
It’s important that employees feel their voice is heard, their
opinions are valued, and they are part of the decision-making
process. “Ask how employees would improve a process
or improve the work environment. If we then act on those
suggestions, it goes a long way with employee satisfaction,”
said Pawlowski. Healthcare organizations must support
employees because they are on the frontlines of delivering the
patient experience. Sometimes employees spend more time
at the hospital than they do with their loved ones at home. “It’s
not so much how much we spend to make employees happy,
it’s more about listening and helping deliver on their needs
within the hospital,” noted Pawlowski.
Creating a culture of employee accountability and service
excellence begins at the top.
Culture change is difficult. Organizations can have the best
strategy, but if they can’t execute on it, it’s pointless. A
commitment to better execution and integration has to start
at the top. “Senior HR people and other senior leaders must
make accountability and service excellence a strategic priority.
For that to happen, there must also be a mission and goals
focused on these elements. Without these things, organizations
will have a hard time with culture change,” observed Dr.
Morgeson. Leaders need to “walk the talk” and give employees
the resources and freedom needed to make decisions on their
own, as well as support when challenges arise.
Although employee education, HCAHPS, and other
certifications can contribute patient satisfaction, they
aren’t seen as the biggest drivers.
Only 59% of respondents said they will use employee
education to improve patient satisfaction, only 40% plan
to focus on HCAHPS, 31% will focus on Joint Commission
requirements, and just 18% plan to focus on supporting
Magnet recognition to increase patient satisfaction. Dr.
Morgeson believes that people may not see these types of
initiatives as critical to driving the patient experience. A positive
patient experience is comprised of many different things, so
trying different approaches is a reasonable one. Another factor
is that many hospitals are resource constrained. As a result,
organizations must prioritize their efforts and look for things
that will deliver the biggest patient satisfaction bang for their
limited dollars.
HR Initiatives to Improve Patient SafetyTo improve patient safety, healthcare organizations need
to drive behavioral change among employees. To improve
employee awareness and to encourage different types of
behaviors, healthcare organizations are focusing primarily
in two areas. The majority of survey respondents (69%) are
working to improve workforce education and development.
Over half of organizations (59%) are also trying to increase
employee satisfaction.
Top Initiatives for Improving Patient Safety
•Focus on employee education and development (69%)
•Improve employee satisfaction (59%)
•Hire for cultural fit (54%)
•Improve retention rates (43%)
6 Copyright © 2013 HealthcareSource. All rights reserved.
Panel CommentaryAlthough healthcare organizations are still focusing on employee
education, they are also looking at broader system issues that
affect patient safety. The percentage of organizations focusing
on employee education and development declined from 79% in
2013 to 69% in 2014.
Donna Wright believes that healthcare organizations are taking
a fresh look at what delivers results with regard to patient safety.
“In the past we gave people a lot of education, thinking that
would make patients safer. However, in most cases, safety issues
aren’t about knowledge deficits. It’s more about the broader
environment and system in which employees work,” said Wright.
“The decreased focus on employee education and development
may be due to the fact that healthcare organizations are peeling
back the onion, looking at the system issues, and figuring out
what employees really need.”
Employee Balanced Scorecards and EducationFor many years, organizations have created dashboards and balanced scorecards to evaluate departmental and enterprise-wide performance. Donna Wright is seeing more healthcare organizations creating individual balanced scorecards for employees. These shine a light on employees, how engaged they are, and how they are doing with regard to personal indicators. These dashboards or balanced scorecards help identify the education and training that will have the greatest positive impact on individual employees.
“People go into healthcare careers because they want to make things better. That’s what drives employee engagement. That gets diluted, however, when there’s a problem and the organization responds by educating everyone,” observed Wright. Employee balanced scorecards are a way to filter out which training will be most useful, based on individuals’ unique needs. “This is powerful because it’s the same application of critical thinking that healthcare professionals do at the bedside. This approach to education focuses more on outcomes than processes, which is the key,” said Wright.
That gets diluted, however, when there’s a problem and the organization responds by educating everyone,” observed right. Employee balanced scorecards are a way to filter out which training will be most useful, based on individuals’ unique needs. “This is powerful because it’s the same application of critical thinking that healthcare professionals do at the bedside. This approach to education focuses more on outcomes than processes, which is the key,” said Wright.
Copyright © 2013 HealthcareSource. All rights reserved. 7
Challenges in Achieving HR InitiativesSimilar to the prior year, survey respondents are challenged
by competing initiatives and insufficient budgets. Inadequate
technology is also a pain point for many.
Top Responses for HR Challenges
•Too many competing initiatives (67%)
•No budget to implement programs (49%)
•Insufficient systems and inadequate technology (43%)
Panel CommentaryThe panelists offered several recommendations to help HR teams
juggle multiple initiatives:
•Become part of the planning process. Many meetings occur in healthcare organizations. HR needs to be in the right ones at the right time when budgets are put together. “We must be part of those conversations, rather than someone handing HR a budget and saying ‘make this work’,” said Pawlowski.
•Ask how initiatives align with the organization’s strategic goals and mission. It’s important to prioritize and select the programs that are the most feasible and will have the biggest impact. Part of this analysis should include how programs will affect the patient and employee experience.
•Consider automating routine activities with technology. Often HR is bogged down fighting fires. These transactional activities require a lot of time, but not great thought. “It’s possible to outsource these routine activities to technology,” said Dr. Morgeson. “That’s a proven way to get yourself out of the administrative aspect of HR and into the more strategic parts where you can focus on initiatives that will move the needle.
New Technology Adoption to Support HR InitiativesHealthcare HR professionals recognize that technologies
can help as they try to meet their organizational goals while
simultaneously streamlining important processes and reducing
costs. Performance management systems, for example, save
time for both HR teams and frontline managers, while eLearning
content adoption helps mobilize talent in the workplace faster.
Given the tough financial climate, employees must get up to
speed quickly to meet the demands of patient care.
Top Responses for New Technology Adoption
•Performance management (30%)
•eLearning content (25%)
•Applicant tracking software (22%)
8 Copyright © 2013 HealthcareSource. All rights reserved.
Panel CommentaryAlthough performance and education reside in different
departments, it is possible to integrate and link these
functions more closely. The first step is to convince people
that the change will help them, and then show how it will
help the organization succeed and thrive. To bridge the gap
between performance and education, the panelists offered
the following suggestions:
•Develop cross-functional teams. This is a good way to start work on integration issues. “People like working on teams,” said Dr. Morgeson. “In these groups, employees develop relationships that supersede their departmental identities.” Organizing cross-functional teams around the organization’s goals is an effective way to align employee behavior.
•Consider an integrated performance and education system. According to Donna Wright, HR and education see each other through a glass wall, but their activities often aren’t integrated. Technology is a way for these functional areas to connect, identify the organization’s true needs, and evaluate the return on investment of different activities. “Too often systems are siloed. What we need is one integrated performance and education system,” said Wright.
•Move toward just in time education for employees. Looking ahead, Donna Wright believes that education systems will guide employees to the appropriate training for a specific point in time. “Many organizations engage in “spray and pray” education – they spray one type of training on everyone and pray that it improves outcomes,” said Wright. In contrast, just in time learning at the point of service is more engaging. “Employees need a more meaningful connection to education. It would be great if I was pulling an order to hang a unit of blood on a patient and the system recognized that it’s been seven months since I last reviewed the policy and there have been two updates in the meantime. It might prompt me to download a 15 minute module on how to do the procedure which included information from a new research study,” said Wright.
ConclusionDespite the fact that the healthcare industry is subject to continual
change due to the evolution of regulations and policies, care
delivery and payment models, and the rising demand for health
services—based on the past five years of data, it can be assumed
that healthcare talent management professionals will always be
expected to do more with less. Year over year, results have shown
that the main objectives are to deliver their services as efficiently
and as cost effectively as possible. This translates into the ever-
increasing interest in the adoption of technology solutions to ease
the burden of manual work by automating processes. When talent
management teams succeed in recruiting and retaining the right
employees, healthcare organizations are in stronger position to
deliver high quality care—translating into high levels of patient
safety, satisfaction and overall organizational excellence.
The 2014 HR Initiatives Survey highlights how healthcare HR
teams are looking to technology to help improve efficiency and
to work in a more cost-effective manner. Automating routine
work results in more streamlined HR processes and enables
HR professionals to focus on the higher value aspects of hiring
and employee development which contribute to employee
satisfaction and staff retention. Technology like eLearning makes
it possible to personalize education and evolve toward a model
of just in time learning that will increase employee engagement
and improve patient safety.
“ HR and Education see each other through a glass wall, but often aren’t integrated. Technology is a way for these functional areas to connect, identify the organization’s true needs, and evaluate the return on investment of different activities. Too often systems are siloed—we need one integrated system and processes.”
Donna Wright, MS, RN Consultant, Creative Health Care Management
See HealthcareSource Talent Management Solutions in Action!
See for yourself! Watch a product tour to discover how HealthcareSource
software can transform your talent management process.
View Product Tours
Copyright © 2013 HealthcareSource. All rights reserved. 9
10 Copyright © 2013 HealthcareSource. All rights reserved. HCS265 08/14
About HealthcareSourceWith more than 2,300 healthcare clients, HealthcareSource is the leading provider
of talent management solutions for the healthcare industry. The HealthcareSource
Quality Talent SuiteSM helps healthcare organizations recruit, develop, and retain
the best workforce possible in order to improve the patient and resident experience.
The company’s cloud-based talent management solutions include applicant tracking,
behavioral assessments, reference checking, employee performance, compensation,
competency and learning management, and eLearning courseware. A private company
focused exclusively on the healthcare industry, HealthcareSource consistently earns
high marks for client satisfaction and retention. KLAS Research recently named
HealthcareSource a category leader for Talent Management for the third consecutive
year, in addition to recognition in Healthcare Informatics 100, Modern Healthcare’s
“Healthcare’s Hottest,” Inc. 500|5000, Deloitte Technology Fast 500, and Becker’s
“150 Great Places to Work in Healthcare” list.
1.800.869.5200 | [email protected] | www.healthcaresource.com
HealthcareSource 100 Sylvan Road, Suite 100 Woburn, MA 01801 Phone: +1.781.368.1033 Toll-Free +1.800.869.5200 Fax +1.781.368.1096 Toll-Free Fax +1.800.829.6600
www.healthcaresource.com
Contact HealthcareSource to learn more about our solutions
For more information, contact us at: [email protected],1.800.869.5200 or visit www.healthcaresource.com