How to Meaningfully Improve the Healthcare Employee Experience

Employee engagement in healthcare is still a challenge 

It’s no secret that high turnover and chronic burnout are plaguing the healthcare industry. 

While healthcare employee engagement levels have improved slightly since the COVID-era decline, healthcare organizations are still struggling to keep staff engaged and reduce turnover.

These challenges don’t just affect business operations and revenue. Employee engagement directly affects the patient experience. A revolving door of staff can disrupt workflows and break the continuity of care.

This doesn’t have to be the reality at your organization. A human-centered approach can lead to real, lasting improvements.

Take a human-centered approach to improving the employee experience 

The best way to solve a problem is to involve the people who know it from the inside. This is the philosophy behind human-centered design. 

Human-centered design focuses on understanding employees’ needs and co-creating solutions alongside them. It leads to changes that actually stick because they’re built with — and for — the people they impact.

Using this approach, healthcare organizations can: 

• Uncover the root causes behind low engagement 
• Show employees that their voices matter
• Address unmet employee needs

The importance of qualitative data 

Most healthcare organizations use employee surveys to get a read on workplace culture. Surveys are a good start — they deliver a volume of information quickly — but they fall short on their own.

Surveys identify problems, but don’t explain why they’re happening. Plus, if employees don’t fully trust that the survey is anonymous, they may not give candid feedback.

A blended approach of quantitative and qualitative data helps you uncover the “why” behind employee engagement and turnover issues. Human-centered design uses workshops and in-depth interviews to bridge statistical data with authentic insights. 

How collaboration makes employees feel valued 

Too often, employees aren’t given a real say in shaping their work environment. In many workplaces, no one ever asks, “What would actually make your job easier?”

Human-centered design changes that. Design thinking workshops provide opportunities to listen to employees and show you care about their perspectives.

But listening alone isn’t enough.

In our research, healthcare employees will tell us, “Leadership listens to us — but they don’t do anything about it.” The real impact comes from acting on feedback. It separates you from all of the employers who do the yearly survey and fail to address the issues. Employees want to feel heard, but they also want their problems solved.
Jonathan Pathuis
Managing Partner, Cast & Hue

Why co-created solutions work better

The best people to solve a problem are the ones who experience it. Your employees are the most valuable resource when it comes to solving operational obstacles or culture issues that impact their day-to-day.

When employees are involved in designing solutions, they feel ownership over the outcome — and that increases buy-in. They’re far more likely to embrace changes they helped create.

This approach also ensures that solutions actually work. By addressing employees’ real concerns (instead of leadership’s best guesses), healthcare organizations can tackle the root causes of dissatisfaction.

Healthcare employee experience improvement ideas 

If you’re working to improve employee engagement at your hospital or healthcare organization, here are a few strategies that can help.

Employee journey mapping

Mapping out the entire employee experience, from recruitment to daily work, helps identify pain points that lead to stress, burnout, and turnover.

Key stages to map include:

• Recruitment and hiring: First impressions matter. A rocky hiring process can set the tone for disengagement.
• Onboarding: Gaps in training or unclear expectations can lead to frustration early on.
• Daily work experience: Inefficient workflows and culture issues are detrimental to employee retention.

Journey mapping workshops can reveal underlying issues and highlight areas that need immediate attention.

Cross-functional collaboration

Marketing, HR, and Experience departments all have expertise to lend in healthcare employee engagement projects. Insights from all 3 departments will be useful in solving these problems.

Human-centered work requires partnership. When you invite more perspectives to the table, you benefit from a wider range of expertise.

Diversity in perspective

A one-size-fits-all approach won’t work to solve organization-wide issues. 

To truly understand employee needs, gather input from a diverse range of staff: nurses, administrative workers, new hires, tenured employees, and people from different shifts and departments. Learn about the value of diverse perspectives in market research.

And don’t overlook the employees with one foot out the door — their feedback might just be the most impactful. 

Solve the employee engagement crisis as a team 

Improving the employee experience in healthcare doesn’t happen overnight. It requires a willingness to have the hard conversations and implement changes — not just talk about them.

Need a team to guide you through this process? At Cast & Hue, we help healthcare organizations and hospitals improve employee engagement and build a culture that attracts and retains top talent. 

Learn more about our work with healthcare.

‍

‍