It is in the interest of any healthcare organization to recruit and retain the best employees. These are the employees that can offer exceptional patient care and give the organization a competitive edge. Arguably, recruiting and retaining the best nurses is one of the most crucial elements of success. As a hiring manager, your primary goal should be to attract the highest quality nurses and establish a work environment that gives them opportunities to advance and grow. In addition to hiring the best talents, you also need to figure out how to improve nurse retention.
You need to make the right hiring decisions and acquire the best retention strategies to keep high performing nurses. When you get the recruitment process right, you will have a workforce that can contribute to the overall quality inpatient care and reduce nurse turnover rates. As a hiring manager, here are some concepts you should consider ensuring you get recruitment and retention right.
- Create policies and procedures that guide your recruitment process
One of the best nursing recruitment strategies is to create policies and procedures that will help to attract and hire the best nurses. Identify the most effective recruitment initiatives and use them to screen the best professionals. Also, use industry standards to ensure you only bring people that are ready to work in such a demanding environment.
- Increase employee engagement
When employee engagement is low, it results in issues like excessive overtime, unpredictable work schedules, and poor flexibility, among other things. To avoid this, increase engagement by encouraging teamwork, recognizing outstanding patient outcomes, and communicating with your staff on time. Engaging with your nurses will make them feel wanted in that environment.
- Establish an onboarding process
Once you hire nurses, the first thing you should do is to make them feel comfortable. New hires always want to feel productive and connected in a new work environment. Therefore, take your time to ensure they are happy and active on the floor. That will make them adapt quickly and offer quality patient care.
- Conduct retention interviews
One of the most effective ways of dealing with nursing retention issues is to do stay interviews. Such interviews are essential when trying to find solutions to high employee turnover rates. You also get a chance of determining employee satisfaction at the organization. Throughout the process, you will gain valuable information on what you can do to improve the hospital and how to retain the other staffs.
- Offer improved work-life balance
Nurses are human beings who experience challenges in their lives. After nursing school, they try to balance things like childcare, work schedules, and school schedules. With such experiences give them some freedom to their work schedule.
Conclusion
Even though there is a high demand for nursing jobs, healthcare organizations must always hire the right professionals. At the same time, they must figure out ways of retaining their best talents as this ensures quality patient care. To achieve this, hiring managers should engage their employees and make them feel comfortable working at the healthcare facility.
