One of the greatest challenges that any organisation is likely to face is how to attract and retain the very best people. This is particularly true in the Healthcare sector. Critically, the roles that need to be filled, and the candidates that will fill them, have a direct impact on someone’s physical wellbeing. If a role remains unfilled then the risk is that procedures can be delayed and suffering potentially caused. If roles are filled by sub-optimal candidates, then there is a risk to patient safety and the associated damage to the organisation’s brand and reputation.
So, how do Healthcare organisations get the very best people, and then get the very most from them?
Firstly, look inside your organisation. What do you currently have in place to ensure that you have an engaged group of employees? This isn’t an area that any Healthcare organisation can afford to play lip service to. That’s because an unengaged workforce is doling out a double whammy to your organisation’s chances of success – firstly through the negative impact of an unengaged workforce and secondly through missing out on the benefits of engaged employees. Characteristics of an unengaged workforce include high attrition rates, low motivation, high absenteeism, low productivity, an absence of customer focus and low levels of satisfaction all round. Engaged workforces demonstrate the exact opposite. It isn’t hard to imagine which of the two adds positively to the bottom line. With engaged employees, you can create a passionate army of brand advocates. They’ll sing the organisations praises to both potential clients but also to potential colleagues. The organisation becomes a place where people actively and proactively wish to work. Recruitment costs go down, candidate quantum and quality go up. Positions are filled quickly with high calibre personnel.
Now, you’ve got a virtuous circle of recommendation and recruitment playing out. The same employee engagement programme that you used to engage and enthuse your existing workers can now be utilised to optimise the onboarding process for new employees. Provide them with all the tools they need to quickly assimilate into the organisation, intranet access, handbooks, directories, organograms etc. Ask them how they are finding it, address any concerns, remedy any knowledge gaps. New colleagues are quickly brought up to speed. Naturally, they are impressed by the optimised onboarding process, the sense of inclusion and the care and attention that is being shown to them. They quickly display all the positive qualities and attributes typical of engaged employees. Their passion is clear for all to see and they too join your ever-growing army of brand advocates.
Employee engagement isn’t something that can be switched on and off, but why would anyone want to when the benefits and impact on the bottom line are so transparent. Organisations need to give their workforce a voice and make sure it is listened to and engaged with. The benefits will continue to flow. Employees who know that they are valued and listened to will look for ways to improve and innovate and share that with their peers. Through employee engagement, the workplace culture can be carefully curated to ensure that customer happiness is front and central in every action. Your satisfied customers will recommend you to others. It’s the kind of marketing that ad spend alone can’t achieve.
How does that sound? We think it’s a pretty compelling case for an employee engagement solution that could enable and deliver all the above and more. We’d like to introduce you to StaffConnect. The StaffConnect mobile employee engagement platform transforms the employee experience by enabling large enterprises to connect, communicate and engage their distributed workforce, especially remote, deskless employees. It does everything described above and a whole lot more. We’ve put together an e-book especially with Healthcare professionals in mind. Click here to read more. It also includes examples of Healthcare organisations who have deployed StaffConnect and are already reaping the benefits of engaged employees. Why not join them?