Essential Workers have taken the brunt of challenges during this last year.  Not only has COVID-19 been an issue, but recent power outages in Texas have many households still without power and trying to find ways to cope.  Many of these essential workers are burnt out.  This can cause higher than normal employee turnover.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the healthcare industry.  The long-term care industry provides crucial services to millions of patients at skilled nursing facilities across the United States. Estimates of the current turnover rate in long-term care range from 45 to 70 percent. This creates a host of serious problems for providers, including the expense of replacing and training employees, a lack of adequate staff to care for patients, and the risk of falling short of compliance requirements.

Why It Happens

Front-line care workers perform essential work day in and day out, and they need optimal conditions to thrive. Without proper support, they can easily burn out.

Research shows several major factors linked to turnover. The first is staff shortages. When there is not enough staff on-site or available, employees who are available must pick up the slack and do the heavy lifting.  This results in a stressful, exhausting workload, especially when patients’ health hangs in the balance.

Next is scheduling problems. Employees have strong preferences for when, where, and how much they work. In addition, these workers have their own issues to manage regarding childcare and children taking classes at home.  If scheduling is done without taking these into account, workers may feel their expectations are not being met.  This will force employees to look for companies that better suit their needs.

Finally, workers may need to be paid quicker or more often.  The younger workforce expects to be paid for the work they do as soon as they do it.  They are used to getting paid within 24-48 hours when working for companies like Uber, DoorDash, or Instacart.

How Employee Turnover Affect Employers

Employee turnover comes at a steep cost, in both direct and indirect ways.

Cost

The per-worker cost of turnover is estimated at about 20 percent of the worker’s yearly salary.  For example, the cost of replacing a person working $12/hour is estimated at nearly $5,000.  Factors resulting in this cost include time and cost for advertising, interviewing, running background and drug screening, training, and lost productivity.

If half of your workforce are regularly leaving, and you’re spending more than $5,000 in replacing each of them, it can put a dangerous dent in any operating budget. All the time spent on those obligations could instead be devoted to patients’ well-being and other core responsibilities of your operation.

Coverage

Coverage may be the single most decisive factor in any workforce. Ensuring that there are enough staff members to fill shifts and address needs is vital. High turnover creates massive coverage issues. When employees leave on short notice, the remaining workers are stretched thin to cover the gaps. The resulting stress and fatigue can then lead to further turnover. It is a vicious cycle.

Compliance

In industries like healthcare, compliance is key.  For example, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regulates and evaluates long-term care facilities throughout the country with its Five-Star Quality Rating System. Staffing is a critical part of that equation because nurse staffing has the greatest impact on the quality of care nursing homes deliver.

Solutions

For all these reasons, high turnover is a pressing obstacle that must be overcome. The good news is that there are a variety of solutions available.  These include:

These systems help you be an ‘Employer of Choice’ and reduce turnover in your organization.

How Can We Help?

To learn ways we can help your organization reduce turnover, contact Time Equipment Company at sales@timeequipment.com or 800-997-8463.