Employees have a negative attitude towards the change.
Trainings given by an enthusiast of the technology may help shape a positive attitude toward the change. Someone who fully backs the product will be excited to teach others how to use it.  They will be able to answer any questions about how to perform required job duties faster and easier with the new technologies.

Inundate employees with positive communication surrounding the new technology.  Require senior management, top level managers and immediate supervisors to lead by example and utilize the technology to its fullest capabilities, eliminating the outdated technology and SOP that everyone was accustomed to.  Optimism spreads! This will convert your Negative Nancys to Gung-ho Gracys.

People are good at different things – some people just flat out don’t have the knack for technology.  
The solution to this is fairly obvious – hire a professional to enter your organization and present a well-organized and formal training to your employees for the new technology that you have adopted.  This will give your staff a chance to learn all the ins and outs by a true expert and fanatic of the new technology.

However, formal trainings are not always feasible in large organizations.  In that case, develop an incentive program to reward employees who make efforts to teach themselves the new technology or seek out training during off-hours. Rewards may be anything from tuition to be used toward more self-education to movie tickets.

Your organization may have shot its wad on the new technology and there just aren’t enough funds to spend on formal training.  
If funds aren’t available for professional trainings, there are alternatives.  Identify staffers who have a knack for grasping new technologies – either naturally or are driven to teach themselves.  It may be the nurse who blogs or the tech who tweets.  More than likely, these individuals will catch on quickly and will be excited to get their hands on the new technology.  Once these techies teach themselves how to fully navigate the new technology, allow them to lead training sessions for their peers and superiors.  Be sure to publicly praise and recognize these employees for fully embracing the technology and for their extra efforts in educating their co-workers.

You CAN teach an old dog new tricks.
Older employees may use their age as an excuse that they can’t learn new technologies.  The hard part may be convincing them that they are in fact perfectly capable of learning new things.  Hopefully, your organization has implemented a mentoring program; aging employees are paired with a younger co-worker to impart their wisdom and show them the ropes.  Use this program to also reverse mentor – require younger employees who are most likely comfortable with technology to educate their mentors on the new technology your organization has adopted.

Regardless of the roadblocks in your organization’s way to a fully engaged staff, creating a culture of knowledge-sharing will help.  Encourage employees to teach themselves and others while communicating with each other what they’ve learned.

Even Apple has taken note of the iPad gaining traction within healthcare settings.  During his presentation of the iPad 2, Steve Jobs featured a testimonial from Dr. John Halamka, CIO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.  During which, Halamka claims “Sometimes doctors are overwhelmed with data, what we have tried to do with the iPad is to give doctors at the point of care, the tools they need at the exact moment the doctor can make a difference. We’re finding with the iPad doctors are spending more time with patients. In fact, doctors are engaging patients by showing them images, showing them data on the screen.”

The iPad does foster physician-patient interaction while serving as an educational platform for patients with its impressive graphics and visual capabilities.  But that’s just one of many reasons healthcare professionals are choosing the iPad as their mobile device of choice.  A host of point-of-care applications have been developed specifically for the iPad, resulting in the doctors’ ability to have faster interactions with patients.  Doctors can instantly order tests, submit prescriptions and view X-rays, MRI results and ultrasound scans on the iPad.  Apps have been developed to allow remote access to fetal monitors, lab results and other electronic medical records, enabling physicians to view and evaluate symptoms and monitor patients from home in real time.  There are also applications to aid in general admission, billing, coding and claims.  The  iPad is still convenient and small, despite its’ huge capabilities and like the traditional clipboard, it  contains a large screen when compared to a smart phone.  

The new features of the iPad 2 will surely enhance its’ use within healthcare settings.  

• The new version features front- and rear-facing cameras plus a gyroscope.  A picture says a thousand words.  Doctors can use the camera to capture still images or a video of a patient’s visual symptoms and discuss them with fellow colleagues via Apple’s video chat app, FaceTime.
• It contains an A5 dual-core processor that enables it to run much faster.  The iPad 2 processes images up to nine times faster than the original iPad, allowing for even quicker access to X-rays and CT scans.
• The second generation is 33% thinner, 8.8mm, versus the original version’s 13.4 mm.  It’s also 15% lighter.  The new version weighs in at 1.3 pounds compared to the old version’s 1.5 pounds – making it even less burdensome for doctors to carry.

As a result of increased popularity and functionality within the medical realm, some healthcare providers are beginning to support iPads on the backend or even roll out initiatives to provide them to employees.  Vendors are developing EMR applications specifically for the iPad such as ClearPractice’s Nimble.  It’s projected that the market for mHealth in the enterprise will reach $1.7 billion in 2014.

Your healthcare organization may not have deployed company-issued iPads.  But that doesn’t mean your employees aren’t using them.  If haven’t seen your doctors and nurses carrying them around, you may not be looking hard enough. Apple has not been pushing the iPad into the enterprise market; employees are.  Healthcare personnel are toting their personal iPads to work and using them on the job and by their own volition.  Check their lockers or their lab coats; you’re sure to turn up at least a few iPads.

To enable an optimal hiring process, your organization may already have an arsenal of metrics to evaluate recruitment staff. Most typically, companies look at metrics only in terms of how they impact the bottom line.  It’s important to realize these metrics also indicate a candidate’s experience in the hiring process.  Both recruiters and hiring managers need to be held accountable for how long it takes to fill an open position.  By establishing base-line metrics for both recruiters and hiring managers, they will be incentivized to streamline the process, becoming more efficient at sourcing, pre-screening, interviewing and hiring qualified employees.

HR professionals often rely on days-to-fill as their metric of choice for measuring recruiters’ and hiring managers’ performance alike.  However, days-to-fill is too generic a metric. There are too many factors outside of both recruiters’ and hiring managers’ control for the days-to-fill metric to properly identify sticking points within the hiring process.  For recruiters, variables outside their control include: hiring managers dragging their feet in terms of interviewing, making a decision and offering the position.  Hiring managers are not able to control if recruiters adequately source candidates, present them in a timely manner and effectively pre-screen the candidate.

To further evaluate and assess bottlenecks within the hiring process, break the process down into phases and hold recruiters and hiring managers accountable for the phase in which they are most crucial.  Recruiters should be held responsible for the time it takes for them to present a candidate to the hiring manager.  In holding recruiters to a baseline “time-to-present-candidate” metric, it alleviates many of the factors that are out of their control and truly measures their performance. The time-to-present metric accounts for recruiters’ abilities — such as the time it takes to source a candidate and how quickly they are able to pre-screen.  In a perfect world, recruiters would always select and present only the utmost qualified applicants to their hiring manager.  However, we don’t live in a perfect world so it is also important to establish a baseline “quality-of-candidate-presented” metric for recruiters.  This prevents recruiters from artificially decreasing the time-to-present-candidate by advancing ill-qualified candidates to the next step in the hiring process.  Also consider establishing a baseline “number-of-candidates-presented” metric.  This will discourage recruiters from bogging down hiring managers with an onslaught of mediocre candidates and help ensure only the best and brightest advance.

Hiring Managers should be held accountable for the time it takes for them to present an offer or reject the candidate after they’re presented by the recruiter.  Establishing a baseline “time-to-present-decision” metric for hiring managers will incentivize them to set aside time to interview candidates in a timely manner and make filling their open position a top priority.  This will also encourage them to come to a decision as to whether the candidate got the job or not in a timelier manner.

However, it’s important to realize that evaluating the hiring process can’t end with just quantitative data.  Monitoring the time-to-present candidate and time-to-present decision metrics will provide useful insight along with other baseline quantitative metrics. Adding qualitative data will help you gain a broader, more accurate picture of the hiring process as a whole.  Remember, it’s essential to keep candidates well informed during the pre-employment phase (not to mention the entire employment life cycle) to most effectively on-board them.  Survey newly hired employees and ask them to evaluate their recruiter and hiring manager based on their communication during the hiring process, how the process could be improved and how your organization compares with that of your competitors.  By honing in and optimizing your hiring process, you’re paving the way to properly on-boarding employees and extending their tenure as well as having them recommend your organization to colleagues and friends.

The decision to dismiss a leader should not be taken lightly as there most assuredly will be unfavorable repercussions.  To best prevent these repercussions from spinning out of control, have a plan in place for the process of dismissal and the handling of events after the employee has left before you fire them.

Operations
This should be obvious.  Decide how the favored employee’s tasks will be completed after their termination.  Will you fill the role immediately?  Will there need to be an interim plan until a replacement is hired?  Regardless of how and when or if a replacement is brought on board, detail a careful plan of action to ensure these job responsibilities are adequately covered..  Without it, your remaining staff members will suffer.  Don’t put your employees in the position of having to scramble to get tasks done, take on responsibilities for which they have no training or overwhelm them with an increased workload.  Be fair and realistic when mapping out how business will carry on.

Announcement To Remaining Staff
Scope out what you will say (and not say) to inform your remaining staff members of the leader’s dismissal.  It’s imperative to tell them in a timely manner.  If employees are left in the dark to wonder what happened, they’ll speculate… resulting in rumors and misunderstandings.  There’s no reason to sacrifice your employer brand to gossip around the water cooler.  Communicating this sensitive subject matter is best handled face to face.  Don’t be a chicken!  It will be an uncomfortable conversation and could be intimidating to face the masses; after all, the remaining employees may potentially see you as the bad guy.  However, meeting in person will allow you to show genuine sensitivity as opposed to a cold hearted email.  By respectfully referring to the terminated employee and treating them with dignity, some of the remaining staff may not hold a grudge.  By delivering the news in person, you can control the message and you can also determine what kind of feedback you’ll receive by the looks on their faces.  Be prepared for initial anger and remember that it will most likely pass.  Face to face meetings also serve as an opportunity to clear up any rumors or points of concern immediately, before they get any worse.  Be sure to inform your employees of an organized plan for operations going forward.  Employees should not have any questions as to who will now be responsible for the favored employees’ duties and how/if their role is affected.

Prevent Fruit Basket Turnover
Be prepared for morale to drop.  Clear communication will prevent rumors from spreading and spooking your remaining staff into leaving your company for a competitor where things seem more stable.  Engage in initiatives to ensure a positive work environment and experience for remaining staff members.  Boost recognition for top performers.  Reward employees who are doing an excellent job and look for opportunities to reinforce good work habits.  Use this sensitive time to explain more clearly and reiterate what you expect from your employees.  Also call upon poor performers to improve and don’t be afraid to take disciplinary action if performance or behavior warrants it.  If underperformers are given a free pass during this sensitive time, it may appear as if the leader was unjustly terminated.

Announcement To External Audiences
In some cases, it may be necessary to issue a press release for an employee in the public eye.  As in addressing your internal audiences, be sure to handle the terminated employee with respect and dignity.  Not doing so will be damaging to your employer brand and may pave the way to backlash from the terminated employee.  Be ready with a draft announcement targeted toward external audiences when the termination takes place.  Afterward, make any appropriate adjustments before issuing a statement to the public.

Crisis Management
Treat this employee fairly in their termination to minimize the chances of any backlash. Have all of your ducks in a row regarding just reasons as to why the favored employee is going to be dismissed.  Hopefully, this person will not pursue legal action, but be prepared in the event that they do.  Be mindful that the terminated employee and/or current employees may react negatively and could publicly bad-mouth your company. With the prevalence of social media, everyone now has a free platform to voice just how they feel about your organization.  Plan to call upon your brand evangelists to combat any negative sentiments.

Remember, in sticky situations like this, there is a silver lining.  The favored employee will land another job as they’ve proven in the past they are a capable worker.  They’ll begin down a new path, with a new company, which is most likely a better fit for them. Though letting go of a favored employee is an unpleasant task, it can create opportunities for company growth and positive change.

But it happened.  The recession took off our rose-colored glasses and smashed them.  It’s got our full attention, affecting our work behaviors and attitudes regarding employment most drastically.  But it’s not breaking our spirit, 50% of Gen Yers feel our job outlook is still positive.

Rocking our sense of stability, we endured our friends, coworkers, bosses, parents and perhaps even ourselves being laid off or receiving a cut in pay.  Often Gen Y employees are spared because of our much lower salaries compared to Gen Xers and Boomers.  Fortunate Gen Yers evading a job loss are absorbing the responsibilities of these former staff members.  If we’re smart, we’ve accepted the challenge handed to us and we’re mastering the tasks performed by Gen Xers and Boomers who were let go, performing their jobs just as well as they once did.  Our motivation is selfish. It’s not for the benefit of our employer; it’s to expand our skill set in preparation for our next job, perhaps in-house but more likely for a competitor.

While the capable of us have taken on the roles of Gen Xers and Boomers, we’ve likely done it without a raise, or at best, a minimal one.  Put simply, this infuriates us.  Gen Y was given constant positive reinforcement. We had piggy banks full of allowance earned just for making our bed or cleaning our own room.  The worst player on the team was awarded a “Most Improved” trophy.  When the economy changes for the better, we expect to be compensated, handsomely, for our efforts. Or we’ll leave.

But for now, we’ll stay put; 67% of Gen Yers are likely to stay in his or her current job.  Prior to the recession, Gen Y employees were in high demand.  We didn’t think twice about quitting a job that wasn’t quite fulfilling because there were employers waiting in droves to interview us.  But now, we empathize with our unemployed friends and family agonizing over their unsuccessful job search, ourselves learning that sometimes a paycheck from a mind-numbing or demeaning job beats depending on Mom and Dad and the government.  For now, we’re thankful for employment and have temporarily stopped job hopping.

One would think that a recession would force maturity on Gen Y and we would begin to take on the characteristics of previous generations, but this isn’t so.  If anything, the recession is reinforcing our attitudes on employment, affirming to us we’ve been right all along.  We’re gaining even more confidence and becoming more self-assured from taking on the job responsibilities of Xers and Boomers.  This is falsely perceived as arrogance by our elders.  A true Gen Y employee will always crave learning and additional training. We understand we don’t know everything, though we will rarely publically admit it.

If you thought we had no employer loyalty before the recession, you were right.  In 2008, 70% of recent grads left a position within two years of being hired.  As a result of this recession and how we or our friends have been treated, our employer loyalty is declining.  Depending on the extent of how unfairly your Gen Y employees perceive they are being handled, they’re likely looking for a job now (and have been for quite some time), even before substantial growth in the job market.  We’ve learned to be more selective in choosing our next employer, lest we get “stuck” somewhere again.  We’ll do our research and turn to social media, friends and family to get the inside scoop on working for an organization.  Our decision to accept an employment offer will heavily weigh on the manner in which the organization treated its’ employees during the recession.  Gen Y won’t settle next time: they’ll only accept a meaningful job, with flexibility, a decent salary and at a stable company that treats them with respect; allowing them to grow and advance in their career.

When the economy does rebound, to retain your current Gen Y employees, make sure your organization makes it up to these individuals for all of the cutbacks endured or risk them leaving.  Give them the raises, promotions and office perks they deserve for a job well done and for sticking it out during tough times.  Assuredly, many of them will find new jobs anyway.  However, these offerings will be seen as good faith efforts for other Gen Yers seeking a new employment home.  To replace exiting Gen Yers, you’ll need to prepare your organization for the surge in recruitment and include Gen Y candidates in your recruitment strategy.  Gen Yers like to be pursued.  To maximize your appeal to younger candidates, give them individual, personal attention and make them feel needed.  We like to be the star of every show.  Ensure your work environment and corporate culture are attractive: implement work-life balance initiatives, allow us to network via social media, embrace a culture of learning and sharing to keep us constantly engaged and improving our skills, allow us to utilize new technologies to complete our tasks and publically recognize and reward us for our accomplishments. Create philanthropic programs for us to participate in, develop a structured career path for us to advance ourselves and provide adequate coaching and feedback on our performance.  Love us or hate us, most all organizations need Gen Y employees to succeed.

I present to you my suggested employee retention resolutions for 2010:

Boost Morale

It’s easier for employees to be content with their current employer if the working environment is desirable.  Workers will more than likely thrive in an environment that provides a warm and friendly atmosphere, teamwork and co-workers that generally enjoy the work that they do.  Bottom line, staff members are more likely to leave if there’s a poor morale.  One of the biggest factors influencing morale is career pathing.  Make sure your staff members have clearly defined milestones they must accomplish to advance within your organization.  Pro-actively boost morale by treating employees fairly, delegating workloads appropriately, adequately staffing your organization and compensating your employees with what they rightly deserve.  It’s also imperative to lead by example.  Ensure the leaders throughout your organization are actively doing their best work, motivating their employees and cultivating a culture of positivity.  Speak to employees that are highly engaged to reveal what makes them excited about their roles.  Tout these reasons internally to actively promote the positive aspects of working for your company.  Because misery loves company, pessimistic employees can spread their negative attitudes throughout an organization.  Don’t let a Negative Nancy dictate the morale within your organization.  Speak to Negative Nancy and find out why she’s miserable.  Often times, these employees are more vocal about their concerns and are the most candid in revealing retention issues that are more widespread throughout your organization than you are aware.  If their concerns can be validated, make appropriate adjustments that will in turn boost morale across your organization.  But be wary; sometimes the squeakiest wheel doesn’t need more oil. It could just be a bad fit.

Improve Communication

Employees need to be heard.  Advise immediate supervisors to meet regularly with their reports to find out what they like most about their position, what they would like to change and what suggestions they have for the company overall.  These meetings will allow the immediate supervisor to gauge the employee’s engagement level and correct any performance issues before their annual review.  By communicating regularly with employees, supervisors are better able to assess which employees are vulnerable to leaving and potentially alleviate any areas of concern before the employee resigns.  Just as employees need to be heard, they also need to hear from immediate supervisors and senior management.  When changes are being implemented within your organization, communicate clearly and frequently to workers what the changes mean and what they can expect for the future.  Furthermore, get senior managers out from behind their office doors.  No one wants to work for a hermit.  Employees want to be able to approach senior management if need be.  Allow and encourage workers to have candid conversations with senior management.  Senior managers should be honest and open with their vision for the company, new developments within the organization and competitive strategies.  Effective methods to increasing senior management visibility include staff-wide meetings; small, town hall meetings and social events where executives are in attendance.

Recognize And Thank Employees

What do all employees desire from their employer?  In the words of Aretha, R-E-S-P-E-C-T!  You’ll find out what it means to your employees if they aren’t being recognized for going above and beyond.  Plainly, they’ll leave and seek recognition from your competitor.  Many workers have absorbed additional responsibilities resulting from staff reductions.  Don’t let these contributions go unnoticed; personally thank employees for their hard work.  Then, let other employees know how much you appreciate and recognize a job well done by publically praising your stellar staff members.  If budget allows, reward over-achievers with cash bonuses, gift cards, a premier parking spot or other prizes.  Foster a culture of team members recognizing other team members.  Even encouraging staff members to send glowing emails of appreciation to an employee’s supervisor will improve recognition efforts.

2010 is not the year to sit idly by while your staff grows more discouraged.  By implementing these vital retention strategies, your organization will surely suffer from fewer turnovers than those competitors disrespecting their employees and work environment.

While it’s certainly beneficial that mobile technology provides opportunities for improved operations, it’s also vital to realize these efforts provide a unique opportunity to enhance recruitment efforts.  If your healthcare organization has adopted new media technologies, it’s imperative to include these initiatives while selling and promoting your vacancies to job candidates.

Tout your organization’s use of technology.  Healthcare employees desire to work for innovative organizations that deploy best in class technology.  Candidates are dissuaded from organizations with outdated equipment and lack of materials.  It’s also important to healthcare employees that they be employed by organizations on the cusp of research and development, providing them with opportunities for training and enhancing their skills.  Your organization’s use of mobile technology demonstrates it is not afraid to try new things and advance.

Promote your organization’s stellar internal communication.  Hospitals utilizing mobile technology receive the added benefit of an increase in and improvement in communication.  For example, nurses equipped with iPhones and Blackberries are provided two-way communication abilities with their co-workers as opposed to one-way communication inherent to pagers. Studies estimate that nurses spend 10 % to 25% of their time tracking down their co-workers. Mobile technology and social media increases the efficiency of communication with co-workers, patients and patients’ families.  This enables nurses and healthcare employees to spend more time doing what they enjoy most, attending to patients.  Because deploying mobile technology platforms may lessen a nurse’s workload, the number of nurses needed to adequately staff a floor may be decreased, possibly cushioning the blow of the nursing shortage and allowing room in the budget for a potential salary bump for employees.

Sell your organization’s superb patient care.  Mobile technology certainly can improve the manner in which patients are cared for.  Not only do mobile initiatives allow nurses more time for attending, they also ensure the reduction of overhead pages, resulting in a quieter environment for patients to heal.  Many smart phone applications exist that are able to house a patient’s medical history, track their progress, their medication dosage, etc.  The applications help to improve a nurse’s performance and accuracy.  Nurses and healthcare employees want to work for organizations providing superior patient care – that’s most likely why they chose healthcare in the first place.

Use mobile technology to communicate and interact with candidates.  It’s important to realize that a vast majority of candidates are accessing the internet via their smart phone are receptive to advertising.  According to Neilson, 28% of the mobile web audience is between 25 and 34 years old while 38% are between 35 and 54 years old. A Pew study found that 32% of all Americans have accessed the internet via their cell phone.  Minorities lead mobile technology adoption with the majority of wireless internet users being African American. Because most people carry their cell phone with them at all times, you’re most likely to reach them in a timely manner.  Candidates may receive your messages even when they are “unavailable”; while they’re in a meeting, traveling, after business hours, etc. Furthermore, the recall rate of ads appearing on iPhones is 41% and 33% for other mobile devices and a third of those recalling the mobile ad will respond to it. Because more and more candidates are adopting mobile technologies every day, it’s imperative to include these initiatives in your recruitment strategy.

If these predictions are correct, organizations should be preparing now to ensure their recruitment procedures are streamlined and optimized for future hiring needs.  Data collected from TMP Worldwide’s New Hire Surveys indicate employer communication with candidates during the application process is consistently low.  Take advantage of this lull in recruitment to train your recruiters and hiring managers on the importance of communicating with applicants during the application process.  Develop standards requiring recruiters and hiring managers to personally follow up with applicants within 24 hours of receiving their resume.  Reach out to candidates within a day after an interview and check in with them regularly to advise them of their application status. Candidates should receive an employment offer or notice of rejection as soon as possible.

By consistently communicating with candidates during the application process, they will feel special and important to your organization before they are even hired.  And, if a candidate is not offered the position, they will take their positive application experience with them and may re-apply for a better suited position at a later date. It’s never too early to start building a platform for retention; it starts in the pre-employment process!

First, accept that what’s done is done.  You can’t take back the three rounds of layoffs that happened or your denial of cost-of-living raises for the past two years.  Employees won’t forget those things, but they’re looking for you to make it right.  Fifty seven percent of employees believe their employer is exploiting the recession in order to require longer shifts with lower wages. In fact, 49% of workers say a pay increase would most likely extend their tenure and 28% plan to ask for a raise.  But salary bumps won’t be enough.  Start by focusing on your staff members as individuals.  Even in a down economy, employees still expect to be treated fairly, be recognized for a job well done, work for a leader who coaches and collaborates, find personal meaning and connection in their work and enjoy a positive work/life balance.  Be sure to keep all levels of staff members well informed.  Talent is engaged and encouraged to extend their tenure when they are inundated with honest communication.  Your staff should receive clear and timely information regarding both positive and negative news from management. Employees also appreciate being involved in discussions surrounding their job satisfaction.  Employment is about relationships and the strongest relationships are built on trust, respect, recognition and open communication.

Some employees will job-hop no matter what.  And admittedly, there is such a thing as good turnover.  If there are still under-performers after downsizing, let them walk; you’re not losing too much.  But simultaneously, identify your top performers and discuss career-pathing options for them within your organization.  Companies left standing at the end of the recession may find themselves short-staffed in senior level positions. You’ll be surprised how internal promotions can boost morale and do wonders for your retention efforts.  Consider promoting a deserving staff member within your company during the economic upswing instead of hiring externally (you’ll save money with reduced training required).  And besides, there will be plenty of entry-level workers to fill their vacant position.

Consider company-wide retention efforts to benefit those not so fortunate enough to receive a promotion.  Employees will appreciate your investment in their training.  This will convey that your company cares enough about its’ staff to advance their skills, potentially resulting in employer loyalty.  In the end, at the very least, you’ll have a better equipped team.  Alleviate staff-wide frustrations.  For example, deploy best in class technology.  No one wants to fight with a rustic desktop everyday!  And for Pete’s sake, bring back the coffee in the break room!

Realize that investing in or implementing a retention program will be well-worth the money spent upfront.  Discovering your organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses while extending employee tenure during the economic downturn will enable your organization to gain more ground during recovery and surge ahead of your competitors when the economy rebounds.  Employers face both hard and soft costs when staff members leave their organization.  When top employees leave, they take intimate knowledge of the organization, sales and customers with them, while competitors gain an advantage by absorbing your former talent.  New hires have learning curves to overcome and a lower productivity rate than their experienced predecessors, directly affecting overall business operations, revenues and customer service.  Companies must expend 100% of the departing employee’s annual salary, 20% for training and an additional 26% in benefits to fill a position.  Organizations may also spend resources on agency/temp workers, paid overtime and sourcing costs.  Therefore, retaining current employees will add to the bottom line once the economic winds change.

Finally and most importantly, be aware of how your employees are feeling.  Employers are overrating their employees’ morale.  Eighty four percent of employers say their staff members are content to simply have a job when in reality, only 58% of their employees actually feel that way.  Engage in Early Impression Surveys (sometimes called Early Intervention or Stay Surveys) to identify factors making employees vulnerable to leaving before they actually leave. By identifying points of pain in the employment experience, you can make appropriate adjustments and prevent turnover before it happens.  Engagement Surveys prove useful for gauging how motivated your employees are to perform their responsibilities to the best of their ability.  Conduct Exit Interviews to understand why employees leave, what attracted them to your organization initially and what could have been done to prevent turnover.  Exit Interviews also provide an opportunity to capture employees’ contact information who express interest in returning to work for your organization.  Alumni or Boomerang programs are an effective way to rehire a former employee who thought the grass was greener on your competitor’s side… and regrets it.

TMP Worldwide’s retention offerings enable our clients to discover their internal strengths and weaknesses, compare themselves to their competitors, discover points of frustration in the recruitment and on-boarding processes, measure the effectiveness of their branding and internal communication efforts and prevent employee turnover before it happens.  Our analysts also provide added solutions and recommendations that our clients can implement themselves to improve internal and external communication programs and strengthen retention and recruitment efforts.  Consider strengthening your retention program today, before it’s too little, too late.

When it comes to the nursing challenge, it’s all in the numbers.  The nursing shortage in the United States is projected to grow to 260,000 RNs by 2025.  This shortage will be double what the industry has ever seen since the mid-1960s.  In August, 28,000 new jobs were added in ambulatory care settings and in nursing and residential care while 216,000 (nonfarm payroll) positions were eliminated nationwide.  By 2016, nursing will be the number one profession in the country in terms of job growth with more than 587,000 new positions being created.

These statistics paint an extremely positive outlook for nursing professionals.  You’d think that young people everywhere would be eager to enter into a career with such an abundance of available jobs.  And in fact, there has been a heightened interest in nursing.  In 2008, enrollment in entry-level baccalaureate programs in nursing increased by 2.2%, translating into 3,069 more entry-level students.  Since 1980, the total number of RNs has grown at every 4-year interval. However, the nursing population growth rate has recently slowed.  From 2000 – 2004, there was only a 7.9% growth.  For comparison, the nursing population grew by 14.2% from 1992 – 1996.  Obviously, this small surge in enrollment and nursing population growth will not satisfy the projected demand for nurses.  The Health Resources and Services Administration officials say, “To meet the projected growth in demand for RN services, the U.S. must graduate approximately 90 percent more nurses.”

However, most people who want to become nurses can’t.  The acceptance rate for nursing school is only 42.3%.  Despite the urgent need for more new grads, 49,948 qualified applicants were rejected from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs in 2008 due to a lack of faculty, classroom space, clinical sites, preceptors and budgetary constraints.  It’s estimated that 56% of nursing schools have vacancies and need additional faculty; 21.1% of nursing schools do not have vacancies but need additional faculty members.  The faculty shortage will only increase as professors age and retire.  Currently, the average age of professors is 59.1 years old.  In hopes of combating this issue, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) introduced the Nurse Education Expansion and Development Act, nicknamed the NEED Act, to aid nursing schools in increasing faculty.  Approval would result in Capitation Grants for nursing schools to hire more professors and accept more students.

Despite the high demand for nurses, there are a few students graduating from nursing school who can not find employment.  Because of the economic downturn, retired nurses are returning to the workforce, nurses previously working part-time shifts or per diem are choosing to work full-time and nurses who were voluntarily unemployed are returning to the workplace.  These more experienced nurses are taking open positions that have been traditionally filled by new graduates.  The adverse economy also affects patients’ healthcare decisions.  Many people are choosing to forego medical insurance and are opting out of preventative healthcare, non-emergency care and elective surgeries.  This means there is a lesser demand for nursing services and many hospitals have implemented hiring freezes and some have even terminated members of their staff.

So, where have the new grads gone?  In short, they’ve gone nowhere.  There’s just an exaggerated demand for them.  Until more funding becomes available to educate more students and those students graduate, recruiters are stuck trying to attract new grads with a limited supply of candidates.  More importantly, once a new grad is hired, they must be retained. That’s no easy task given that 37% of newly licensed nurses desire to change jobs after only one year and 24% plan to change jobs after two years’ tenure.

TMP Worldwide specializes in retention and is able to provide expertise regarding the retention of younger employees.  It’s best to invest in the recruitment and retention of new grads now, while the state of the economy is preventing many older nurses from retiring.  Once the economic winds change, more Boomer nurses will leave the workplace.  Nurses who were once voluntarily unemployed will once again end their employment and nurses previously working part-time hours may choose to revert back to their previous schedules, leaving many more nursing vacancies than their currently are.  All of these factors will result in an ever greater demand for new graduates.  Will your organization be left understaffed?