Like many other healthcare organizations, patients are the center of everything we do at MRIoA. Just like businesses who do work with the general public, considerable effort has been made to improve the customer, aka the patient experience. To make this business plan work, healthcare organizations and their employees must be willing to put the patient first. However, some companies are currently turning this theory on its head especially as they experience pain points in hiring, retaining, and training good employees in the healthcare industry.
Last month on May 18, 2022, BizLibrary hosted an event with sessions on training and skills development. MRIoA’s own Sally Newton, SPHR, our VP of Human Resources was a panelist in one of these sessions. It was entitled Patients Come Second: The Value of Using Online Training to Retain Healthcare Employees. Sally Newton, along with the other panelists Monique Garcia and Cheryl Lord-Hernandez discussed how their organizations are using the traditional Service-Profit Chain, known in healthcare as Patients Come Second (a book by Paul Spiegelman and Britt Berrett), as a way to reinvigorate their organizations and the people that drive them. The panel shared tips for starting an employee training program to upskill promotable employees and how to get management buy-in and the time for employee development among other topics. By focusing on employees first, employees then feel empowered and educated to tackle problems and projects to improve the patient experience on their own, creating a win-win for the business.
Building an upskilling program can be hard especially with a diverse employee group. Companies are turning to online programs for additional training to be able to promote and retain top talent. Online training programs give companies the flexibility to offer multiple, blended upskilling programs instead of a “one size fits all” training. MRIoA has been working hard to develop programs including multiple trainings and even tuition reimbursement for some programs to encourage employees to look for new ways to grow personally as well as professionally. Getting management buy-in at all levels is a key factor which allows companies to allocate money, time, and other resources towards employee development. This presents a challenge at times but will ultimately make the goal of employee retention easier. In the competitive job market, incentives like upskill programs and other employee development programs often make the difference when employees are comparing job offers.
What are some ways your healthcare organization has found to retain top talent? How is your HR department using online training to create upskill programs? Learn more about employee retention, training and hiring, turn to BizLibrary.
