When you work in healthcare, apathy can lead to disaster for your patients. Disengaged employees might make critical errors in their roles that can diminish patient outcomes and increase risk at your organization. In this blog post, we’ve outlined five strategies to ensure your healthcare workers stay engaged with their roles and responsibilities so your talent can thrive and your patients receive the best quality care.

It’s not enough to communicate with your employees. You need to keep them engaged with your organization’s mission so they can continue to provide patients with the best care possible. Consider these five strategies for boosting employee engagement.

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1) Build Culture Through Leadership

If you aren’t doing so already, it’s time to take the necessary steps toward building a culture that leaves your people feeling valued and respected. When your doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals feel connected to and believe in your organization’s mission, they’ll be more engaged with their roles and responsibilities. Having a positive workplace culture also helps you create a more human-centric employee value proposition to entice future healthcare professionals to join your organization.

Your managers and executives must ensure that their direct reports have the resources and support they need to be successful in their roles. Encourage your leaders to build strong relationships with each member of their team. Weekly conversations between managers and direct reports are one of the most effective ways for leaders to develop high-performance relationships, according to recent research from Gallup. These conversations can serve as opportunities for managers to understand their direct reports’ drivers and career aspirations so they can better support each person’s growth and development.

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2) Provide Ongoing Training and Learning Opportunities

Giving your workforce access to upskilling opportunities is crucial to keeping them engaged. According to research from the World Economic Forum, most workers can expect 39% of their existing skillsets to be transformed or become outdated by 2030. If your employees don’t have the necessary skills to keep up with changing technologies and other advances in the medical field, it’s likely that they’ll become disengaged from their roles. They might also seek positions with other organizations that can provide them with the learning opportunities they need to progress their careers.

Just as you can leverage talent platforms to manage your organization’s communication needs, you can take advantage of digital skills enablement platforms to help your employees adapt to emerging healthcare technology trends. These platforms enable you to track each person’s skills and align them with personalized learning paths. You can also pair skills enablement platforms with a learning management system (LMS) to provide your workers with flexible, accessible learning environments where they can engage in professional development at their own pace.

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3) Prioritize Career Development

In addition to offering skills-based learning opportunities, give your employees access to further resources that will help them develop their careers. When your workers can see that your organization prioritizes career development for its employees, they’ll be more likely to remain engaged with their roles and responsibilities.

Consider providing incentives to employees for completing training courses or establishing mentorship programs that help people gain practical experience in more challenging roles. Investing in career development for your employees serves the dual purposes of:

• Boosting their engagement levels
• Upskilling your workforce

This ensures your organization can continue to thrive with the essential skills necessary to address the challenges of the medical field.

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4) Tap Into Intrinsic Motivations

Many healthcare workers don’t enter their profession because they crave large salaries or material possessions. They often become healthcare professionals because they’re motivated by an intrinsic desire to help others. If your employees don’t feel like their efforts are contributing to better patient outcomes or enhancing the healthcare experience, then they can easily become disengaged from their roles.

Use your communication platforms to remind your staff that their work is essential and their efforts make a difference for your organization and—most importantly—your patients. Share positive feedback from patients and their families, and take time to highlight your employees’ achievements. Recognition of their efforts and reminders of why they became healthcare workers can go a long way toward keeping your employees engaged.

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5) Find Opportunities for Flexibility

No two healthcare workers are the same—even if they have the same role and responsibilities. Identifying and providing opportunities for flexibility with your workforce shows employees that you value them not just for their skills but as individuals with unique needs. Use your LMS and skills enablement platform to design personalized learning experiences with flexible course modules that fit into employees’ busy schedules. Solicit feedback from employees about their current benefits and needs using your communication platform. Incorporate that information into future decisions about benefits and other rewards, and give employees options whenever possible.

Offering flexibility will help you demonstrate your commitment to your employees and build trust among your workforce. When your employees trust your organization, they’ll be more likely to stay engaged with their work and produce high-quality patient outcomes.

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