July 2022 | AG Global Services

How to Improve Your Nurse Retention Rates

by scott | Jul 27, 2022 | Blog, Client

Almost everyone has been struggling with employee retention, especially during the dreaded Great Resignation! We’ve learned that the secret to achieving your healthcare hiring goals in this market is to retain your top employees while adding new ones; it’s basic math that far too few employers fail to pull off.

Many nurses, who serve as the backbone of your entire clinical team have struggled with burnout during COVID. One-third now say they’ll leave their positions by the end of 2022. These numbers should make any hospital administrator shake in their shoes. But the reality is that these numbers can be turned around.

We can, and must, turn things around. In this blog, we’ll discuss how to improve your nurse retention rates and overall employee morale.

How to Retain Your Nursing Workforce

Did you know the average turnover cost of a single bedside RN is $44,400? Now couple that number with the nursing shortage and you come up with the perfect storm for healthcare hiring today.

Every industry facing a retention problem knows how costly it is. But nowhere more than in healthcare nursing, where the most experienced professionals are often the go-to resource for the “why” behind why things are done in a unit. Not only are training and onboarding costs going up when a nurse leaves your facility, you will lose some of the precious historical knowledge that makes you—you.

In the current hiring environment, we’re facing challenges that include the reality that the grass really is greener for experienced nursing staffers. Sign-on bonuses alone make leaving a job a lucrative proposition for a nurse these days. Your job is to find ways to counteract the attractiveness of these offers. How can you do it?

Offer a more flexible work schedule. Nurses are not immune to noticing that the rest of the world has gone remote. While this may not be possible in most nursing roles, offering flexibility in scheduling may help offset the allure of an alternative schedule somewhere else. What if you shortened work shifts and offered floor nurses a telemedicine rotation? Maybe there’s an administrative rotation that allows them to step away from a unit setting and work from home?
Bring in travel nurses or per diems to help reduce mandatory overtime. Or, since some nurses want the OT, perhaps sitting down with each nurse.
Level up your salaries. Here’s a thought. If your healthcare facility pays a hefty hiring bonus to new nurses, what about offering a retention bonus for the nurses that stick around. When you eliminate the attractiveness of earning more money elsewhere, does it lessen the chances that a recruiter will steal your skilled talent away?
Meet with your nurses and talk about care development. When was the last time you created a career roadmap for your clinical teams? Probably never, right? Work with your employees at every level to create a goal to improve and advance. You will give them a reason to stay on board.

If you’re still struggling to retain your nurses, maybe it’s time to partner with a quality healthcare staffing first like AG Globe Services today! We help healthcare organizations find the talent they need. Contact us to find out more.

Questions to Bring into your Next Healthcare Interview

by scott | Jul 6, 2022 | Job Seekers

So, you have an interview coming up for a new role in healthcare? Congrats! Even as the interviewee, you should still come prepared with a couple of questions for your interviewer. By asking engaging questions, you’ll be able to learn more about the company and position while also standing out from the crowd.

Here are some of the best questions to bring to your next healthcare interview that will help you understand exactly what you’re walking into if you end up in that job.

Best Questions to Ask your Healthcare Interviewer

Whether you’re a clinician or work on the backend of healthcare, you should come prepared with interview questions. Most hiring teams expect this of you and many will judge you as less-than interested if you don’t bring a handful of questions to every interview. You should be emboldened by the fact that, in today’s hot job market, the candidate is interviewing the company as much as they are the other way around. This is especially true in healthcare, where labor shortages have fueled the urgency of recruiting teams to fill roles at every level of the service delivery paradigm.

During these interviews, inevitably the hiring manager will turn to you and ask, “Now, what questions do you have for me?” What you ask at this point can literally make or break your decision to take the job and possibly tip the hiring scales in favor of the employer making you an offer. What are the best questions to ask your interviewer at this point?

Tell me about the team I’ll be working with?

Even the largest hospitals operate in smaller units within the facility. Sometimes your fit within this micro-culture is more important to the job description itself. Try to find out more about the people you’ll be working elbow-to-elbow with. How long have they been in the organization? Who do you report to? How would the interviewer describe the daily interactions of these individuals?

What would the ideal candidate look like for this role and how do I compare?

In this case, how the interviewer answers the question is almost as important as the answer they give. You’re looking for an organization that is fairly transparent, candid, but also professional. Too, if you know what skills the organization values, you can get a better sense of culture feel before you ever step foot in the door.

What is your favorite part of working here?

This question is a good way to build camaraderie with an employer. After all, who doesn’t like to talk about themselves? The longevity of the interviewer in the organization and what makes them stay on the team can help determine whether it’s a place that you would also want to call home.

What are the next steps in the hiring process?

This question should be a no-brainer for any candidate. It shows your engagement. It’s the sign of an organized mind. It also can unveil organizations who are less than organized. While many healthcare organizations have lengthy hiring processes, this question will help you spot any disorganization in the team.

AG Globe works closely with candidates just like you to find the best healthcare organizations to make good use of your skills. We have a wide range of openings. Start your search for a new role today!