Revenue Cycle and Finance departments put a great deal of effort and focus on improving industry standard metrics such as: A/R, CFB, ADR, Denial Rates, etc. Billions are spent every year on consulting and technology solutions to automate and improve processes that support these metrics, and these approaches can have substantial ROI and impacts to an organization’s bottom line. However, there is an additional, softer, variable to the equation- employee retention.
Many executives agree that people are their greatest asset, yet it’s not unusual for staff transition and transformational efforts to be allocated significantly less time and resources. This can result in an individual or team feeling left in the dust of much needed and rapid organizational change.
The Cost of Retention Problems
Healthcare Finance News recently stated that “Employee retention is one of the healthcare industry’s most pressing problems,” and a faculty member for the American College of Healthcare Executives estimated employee turnover can cost a 3000-employee hospital 27 million annually.
Retention and engagement issues may also bring about secondary costs in the form of reduced patient satisfaction, lower team morale, and difficultly in recruiting top talent. These issues aren’t unique to the healthcare sector, however, with recent and rapid adoption of technology, continuous introduction of complicated laws and regulation, and a steady growth in organizational size, the industry has seen change become the new norm.
Hospitals are often keenly aware and are requesting the implementation of better productivity reporting. Teams optimized their system configurations, workflows, and training to improve financial metrics. Top performers in the industry are challenging the standard and demanding more, and in return realizing greater overall ROI. By additionally focusing on the transformation of their people, they are seeing improvements in employee engagement, patient satisfaction, and financial bottom lines.
Recently, Gallop found that engaged teams show 21% greater profitability, 10% increase in customer ratings, and the top 20% saw a 41% reduction in absenteeism and 59% less turnover. These savings can then be passed on as benefits to patients by offering updated facilities and equipment, new services, and even larger charity care funds, further fueling both organizational and employee purpose. When healthcare organizations focus on employee transformation, everyone wins.
Engaging your Team
What can leaders do to address these pressing change management issues and at the same time realize greater financial returns? Research shows the following as imperative in achieving success in these areas:
- Values based recognition
- Clear and regular feedback
- Purpose and meaning in work
- Staff feel heard
- A general sense of empathy in the culture
- Assistance in balancing work and life commitments
Our Strategic Advisors and Leadership Team has also experienced success at clients by:
- Making work fun, bringing a sense of play
- Helping employees align their values with organizational goals
- Using data driven quality and productivity challenges, gamification
- Implementing an Employee Advisory Council
- Encouraging leaders to spend time rounding on a regular basis
At The Wilshire Group we strongly believe employees and their engagement are vital to the success of any project, and performance at large. We focus on a holistic approach, ensuring there is alignment with the organizational values, the systems and workflows, and the people that bring them to life. Systems and people weave together in process and if you want to evolve one you need to evolve the other, or risk losing significant cultural capital.
While our Epic, Operations, and Project Management experts can help set up the best of system logic and process, we also ensure organizational values and employee retention remain a top priority. After all, people are your greatest asset, and we believe the entire organization should feel like they are a part of building and doing something great.
