Healthcare employees have myriad choices when it comes to selecting the organization where they would like to work. As a result, many healthcare organizations struggle to find and retain employees. To maintain a happy and successful workforce that has a positive impact on patient outcomes, healthcare employers need to shift their focus to providing strategic differentiators that will help them increase employee engagement and retention. Here are three ways to help your healthcare organization thrive with these goals.

#1. Compliance Must Be Done Well, But Don’t Stop There

It’s no secret that healthcare organizations operate in a high-compliance environment—employers must ensure that each employee meets a variety of regulatory requirements while maintaining a commitment to exceptional patient care. A well-implemented LMS platform can enable an easier self-service experience for both employees and administrators to handle compliance requirements. Start there, but don’t let this deter you from continued focus on the happiness and well-being of your staff. After all, healthcare employees work in some of the most stressful environments.

To maintain a positive work environment, consider hosting employee appreciation events to offer recognition and keep employees motivated. Be mindful of the time of day when you host each event. For example, if you plan on celebrating National Nurse Week to recognize the nurse staff at your healthcare practice, alternate the times that each event begins to accommodate nurses who work days shifts and nurses who work night shifts.

#2. Leverage Your Platform as Part of Your Strategy

Don’t forget that a well-selected learning management system or talent management platform can have the tools to combat employee turnover. In a recent webinar, Jeanne Bonzon, director of learning and development at BJC Healthcare, discussed how she leveraged the Saba Cloud platform to develop BJC’s Career GPS (Guiding People to Success) solution. It’s an organized framework for everything that BJC Healthcare provides. GPS is broken down into four key areas that host an array of different L&D resources. These four areas help employees during the entire life cycle of their career at BJC Healthcare:

• Onboarding: Here employees connect with other new employees and view information and tools to set them up for success at BJC Healthcare.

• Success in their current role: In this section, employees can find resources to help improve communications and relationship skills, sharpen skills in specific computer programs, and connect with new learning opportunities.

• Success for future roles: Employees can explore the different areas of growth within the nursing field, learn how to become a better leader, and inspire others and expand knowledge by growing academically.

• Retirement planning: At the end of their career, employees can discover the opportunities that exist for them after retirement.

  Together, these four areas tie learning and innovation together to deliver better patient care, increase engagement, and reduce employee turnover.

#3. Inboarding Is the New Onboarding

Job training shouldn’t come to a halt after the traditional onboarding process has concluded. Instead, employers should focus on ensuring their employees have the required skills, knowledge, and training to succeed and rise within their organization. After all, 93 percent of U.S. adults have left employers to change roles, according to a Gallup Poll. One way of making sure that your organization is not part of this statistic is to roll out an inboarding process.

Inboarding refers to an ongoing process that requires employees and managers to work closely with each other and communicate often. These strategies include frequent and candid one-on-one meetings where employees share the challenges they are facing and managers find solutions to address these problems. Additionally, development and action plans are typically created to help employees understand the steps they need to take and the skills they need to gain to grow within the organization. Together, these inboarding strategies help improve engagement and retention because employees can see that their organization is invested in their success and that it cares about their career development.

Healthcare organizations are always going to face a host of unique regulatory challenges. While compliance-based training is critical, healthcare organizations must develop a more holistic approach to employee learning and development to help improve employee engagement and retention.