How To Fight Employee Burnout In Healthcare

Knowing that you have to fight employee burnout in healthcare is one giant step most of us have taken over the last few years, but knowing how to fight employee burnout in healthcare is another step altogether. Fighting employee burnout is a huge problem facing hospitals, doctor’s offices, clinics, dentists, and even more holistic types of healthcare practices across the United States and the world.

So what can we do about it?

Fighting employee burnout isn’t just important because we are fighting against the Great Resignation and a worldwide pandemic – it is important because it impacts each and every one of us.

Why Do We Need To Fight Employee Burnout In Healthcare?

Without healthcare, the rest of the world does not function properly. We have seen over the last few years how one thing can bring even the biggest businesses to their knees – and our doctors, nurses, and support staff at hospitals and all healthcare facilities have been the pillars holding up the rest of us. 

We need to ensure that our healthcare workers aren’t burnt out because when they are, we start to see staffing shortages, big mistakes, increased costs, longer wait times, and even supply issues at pharmacies and big box stores.

Simply put, healthcare burnout is something we all need to concern ourselves with – today and into the future. After you identify the signs of burnout, you then need to fight it.

For more information about how to identify burnout and fight it, you can watch our on-demand webinar on the AED For Healthcare: Accelerating Employee Development.

How To Fight Employee Burnout In Healthcare: 5 Simple Steps

Fighting burnout isn’t easy to do, and it is the type of thing you need to maintain – taking the steps to avoid burnout once won’t prevent it long into the future. Instead, you need to create a culture that eliminates the risk of burnout. 

These are just five simple steps you can take to fight burnout in healthcare:

Step 1: Staffing Matters

You need to ensure that your staff is strong and skilled at what they do. You want to have enough people to take on the workload, which can be difficult right now. There are going to be more openings than there are people to fill those spaces, so you have to get smarter about how you go after the applicants that you want. Time is of the essence here, so ensure that you are working with tools that keep your applicants updated about where they are in the pipeline.

When you have a staff that is not only complete, but knowledgeable and skilled, you will be able to weather some of those times when stress gets higher. Remember to plan for sick days, vacations, training time, and more within your workforce: you may need more people than you think.

Hiring continually may be a good way to avoid having a large number of openings at one time – create talent pools that you can pull from when you need a good hire.

Step 2: Keep Up With Training & Upskilling

Another thing you need to do is keep up with training and upskilling for your staff. Ensure that everyone has the skills they need, even if it requires them to take some time to learn them. Even seasoned employees need refreshers and new training to keep up with the ever-changing technology in healthcare.

Of course, you also need to ensure that they are reaching their regulatory requirements, which is a unique need in healthcare. Other industries have requirements, but few are as strict as healthcare. You need to ensure that you have a good training program in place with tools that get the job quickly, allow you to track compliance, and more. 

For most healthcare companies, e-learning has become the go to for training because it is easy to do in smaller pockets of time.

Step 3: Talk To Your Employees

In today’s fast-paced world, we have all forgotten the importance of a simple conversation. When you  can, take the time to talk to your employees. This can look like something formalized like engagement surveys, but it doesn’t have to. Simply asking someone how their weekend was when you see them in the hallways, taking interest in their children’s sports schedule, or monitoring the health of their sick parents could be enough to keep them going.

At the end of the day, we all just want to know that our workplace sees us as human beings, not as robots just getting the work done. Historically, this has been the purpose of human resources. Now, there is so much paperwork and behind the scenes work that we have lost a lot of that time – it is time to reclaim it.

One great time to have that conversation is during a performance review – they can help you check in with your employees in a way that isn’t so obvious. For more information on the importance of performance reviews in healthcare, you can download our ebook on it here.

Step 4: Celebrate Small Things

Have a small success? Celebrate it the best way you can. There doesn’t need to be some huge celebration that is going to cost you a lot of money. Instead, it could be as simple as getting coffee for your staff, having a lunch party, or giving everyone smaller gift cards to get their own. 

Healthcare is in a unique situation because there are sometimes shift workers, so be sure to include every shift. You need to plan for the changing of shifts – for example, if you get a soft pretzel platter to celebrate something, plan that some people may try to take the “leftovers,” not thinking about the next shift.

Step 5: Remember Every Member Of Your Team

Remember that your entire staff can feel burnout – including you! Managers face burnout just as much, if not more, than employees. Good managers are taking on the brunt of the work and need breaks, recognition, upskilling, and celebrations just as much as anyone else.

You also have to remember your support staff! CNAs, janitorial staff, receptionists, greeters, security, laundry, food services, and everyone else who makes your healthcare facility run are feeling the impact as well. Check in on everyone!

Ready To Fight Healthcare Employee Burnout? Contact Trakstar Today

If you are ready to start being proactive in your fight against employee burnout – whether you are an HR leader in healthcare or another industry – the Trakstar Platform is a fantastic place to start. Our Platform takes your employees through the employee lifecycle, touching on all of the important moments that keep them going: hiring, onboarding, training, upskilling, and performance management. 

Fighting employee burnout is going to be something that we as a society may not always be talking about, but it is imperative that human resources, as the heart of the organization, is always focusing on it. To learn more about the Trakstar Platform and how we can help you avoid burnout at all of those precious employee lifecycle moments, click here to schedule a demo.