New Study Identifies Strategies to Retain Experienced Workers

A new study done by The Lewin Group has detailed way in which health care agencies and other companies can improve morale, reduce turnover and save money with a variety of cost-effective strategies targeted at experienced workers.  

The “Wisdom at Work: Retaining Experienced Nurses” study identifies effective strategies that strengthen work environments and benefit employees.  

The study looked mainly at identifying ways to retain nurses in health care settings. The study’s findings can be applied to a wide variety of workplace, both inside and outside the health care setting.  

The study found the strategies used by companies that were successful at retaining veteran workers. 

The companies cited the following strategies:  sustained commitments by corporate leadership to keep experienced staff on the job; innovative approaches to staffing; employee health and wellness programs; corporate cultures that value aging; and compensation packages that cater to older workers, offering benefits such as phased retirement options and flexible work arrangements.  

Employers stated that retaining experienced workers made good business sense.  It saved the employer the cost of hiring and training new staff.  Veteran workers also have years of experience-based insight.  They can also mentor less experienced employees.

“Wisdom at Work” includes seven in-depth case studies examining strategies used by health care and non-health care organizations that have received recognition for their success in retaining experienced workers.

“Wisdom at Work” also looked at findings from 13 separate research projects conducted from January 2007 to December 2008 to explore the impact of interventions aimed at retaining experienced nurses in hospitals.

The lessons learned from the evaluations and case studies are applicable to a wide variety of work environments.

The study found that organizations did not use just one strategy to retain their employees.  Many organizations put in place a set of strategies that met employee needs.  

The “Wisdom at Work” study provides human resource professionals with simple, affordable and easily replicable strategies to keep employees on the job.

Examples of real-life successful initiatives include:

• Flexible scheduling options at L.L. Bean in Maine that allow senior employees to work on a part-time or seasonal basis and swap shifts with fellow workers.

• Flexible work arrangements at Carondelet Health Network in Tucson, Ariz., which has a “snow bird” program that allows registered nurses to work for three, six or nine months at a time — a particularly attractive option among experienced nurses who are in Tucson for only certain parts of the year.

• A mentoring program at Bon Secours Richmond Health System in Virginia that allows experienced RNs to provide clinical and leadership mentoring to new nurses, which has contributed to a consistently low turnover rate among experienced nurses.

• Continuing education opportunities at Pitt County Memorial Hospital in North Carolina, where experienced nurses were offered the opportunity to spend three days off site re-envisioning their practice at the hospital.

• The creation of a “Leadership Cabinet” at Scripps Health in San Diego, where nurse leaders advise administrators on important decisions and act as a conduit for employee concerns.

Read more here

Posted by: suhujitha on 2009-08-11 12:29:19

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