5 Employee Engagement Ideas for Allied Healthcare Staff

Why Employee Engagement Matters in Healthcare and How to Get Staff More Involved

Are some of your healthcare employees resistant to change? Do members of your organization spend a lot of time in meetings complaining, or do they have an ‘us versus them’ mentality when it comes to leadership or other departments? These are all signs of low employee engagement,¹ and they can have negative consequences for your organization, other staff, and even your patients.

What Is Employee Engagement?

Employee engagement refers to employees’ enthusiasm and involvement in the workplace.^{3, 4} When an employee is highly engaged at work, they are excited about their job. They strive to do their best to contribute to the organization’s success because they feel invested in (and part of) its mission and goals.

Characteristics of engaged employees include:⁵

• Maintaining a positive attitude
• Having a focus on solutions versus problems
• Truly caring about the organization’s success
• Going the extra mile to exceed expectations
• Being a team player
• Showing they are trustworthy and reliable
• Being open and adaptable to change
• Having a passion for continued training and development

Importance of Employee Engagement in Healthcare

Employee engagement levels can affect workplace morale and worker job satisfaction rates.⁶ Finding ways to engage healthcare employees is important because:

• It contributes to a higher level of patient safety and care. A 2022 review of 15 studies found a positive relationship between healthcare employee engagement and patient safety, adding that research has also linked greater employee engagement with improved quality of care, higher patient satisfaction levels, and fewer on-the-job errors.⁷
• It can improve your worker retention rates. Reducing staff turnover is critical at a time when many healthcare facilities are facing worker shortages. Gallup research revealed that high-turnover organizations had a 21% reduction in their turnover rates when workers became engaged, with low-turnover organizations seeing a 51% reduction in turnover rates when employee engagement increased.⁸
• It may help boost your productivity and profitability levels. In this research, Gallup also found an 18% increase in productivity (sales) when employees were engaged, along with a 23% increase in profitability.⁹ Imagine what increases in both areas could do for your healthcare organization.

5 Ways to Boost Employee Engagement in Healthcare Staff

You can’t just command employees to be excited about their jobs or passionate about their work and expect them to comply. So, how do you foster greater engagement in your healthcare staff? Here are a few strategies to consider.

#1: Get Leadership Involved

Healthcare leader engagement levels have declined by 3.7% in the past few years.¹¹ This can create a few different issues. For instance, your organization may find it difficult to thrive when its leaders aren’t excited, passionate, or committed to your mission or goals. Secondly, it’s hard to foster engagement in healthcare staff if your leadership isn’t engaged too.

Research indicates that engaging leaders do the following four things:¹³

• Facilitate employees (or empower them) by giving them freedom, responsibility, and a voice when decisions need to be made;
• Strengthen employees by challenging them and utilizing their talents in a way that builds their competence; and
• Connect employees by promoting collaboration and a positive team attitude, stimulating a feeling of togetherness.
• Inspire employees by helping them find meaning in their work.

Encourage your leaders to facilitate, strengthen, and connect employees, thereby increasing employee engagement at all levels of the organization.

2: Utilize Good Communication Practices

To feel like a valued member of an organization, employees must feel heard and that their opinions and ideas matter — even if not implemented. This is where good communication comes into play. It helps build relationships, fostering trust and goodwill between employer and employee.

To improve communication with your staff:¹⁴

• Explain why changes are being made so they understand the reasons behind them.
• Offer consistent feedback, discussing their strengths as well as how they can improve.
• Engage in casual conversations with them, taking an interest in them personally.

#3: Create a Culture of Inclusiveness and Belonging

Employees with a sense of belonging at work are more engaged, in addition to being more productive, feeling more satisfied with their work, having better mental health, and reporting lower levels of fatigue and emotional exhaustion.¹⁵ Creating an inclusive healthcare workplace also provides employees with an environment where they can feel comfortable sharing new ideas.

he Achievers Workforce Institute shares that there are five pillars of belonging, and they are to make employees feel:

1. Welcomed
2. Known
3. Included
4. Supported
5. Connected

#4: Recognize Employee Contributions and Accomplishments

Imagine giving a project or task your all, only to have your efforts go unnoticed or unacknowledged. This can be incredibly demotivating. It can also cause employees to disengage to the point where they just go through the motions, doing the minimal work needed versus going the extra mile to create a positive patient experience.

To keep employees engaged, take the time to recognize their contributions and accomplishments. For the recognition to be meaningful, it must be authentic and personal, but also timely and offered in front of others (such as coworkers or team members).¹⁶

#5: Provide Staff with Continuous Learning Opportunities

A 2022 Gallup survey found that employee engagement declined for the first time in 10 years, and one of the elements that declined the most was “opportunities to learn and grow” —especially for younger workers.¹⁷ Providing employees access to training programs can give them the opportunities they seek, enabling them to grow and stay engaged in their careers.

Additional benefits of providing continuous learning in the workplace include:¹⁸

• Increased worker productivity
• Better retention of top talent
• Achieve business goals faster
• Gaining a competitive advantage

Nasium Training: Your Healthcare Training Partner

Nasium Training offers healthcare employers a variety of training programs designed to help their staff succeed in their assigned roles. For example, we offer Medical Assistant training, Limited Scope Radiography training, Pharmacy Technician training, and Licensed Health Agent training. Each training program includes certification prep, preparing learners to sit for certification exams relevant to their field.

Contact us today to learn more about how partnering with Nasium Training can give your employees the continuous learning opportunities they desire, which may also help them get (and stay) more engaged in their healthcare roles.

¹ DDI. Signs of Low Employee Engagement. https://www.ddiworld.com/blog/signs-of-low-employee-engagement

² Dudley J. Employee Engagement in 2024. Press Ganey. https://info.pressganey.com/press-ganey-blog-healthcare-experience-insights/employee-engagement-in-2024-trends

³ Gallup. What Is Employee Engagement and How Do You Improve It? https://www.gallup.com/workplace/285674/improve-employee-engagement-workplace.aspx

⁴ SHRM. How to Develop and Sustain Employee Engagement. https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/tools/toolkits/developing-sustaining-employee-engagement

⁵ Indeed for Employers. How to Spot the Characteristics of an Engaged Employee. https://www.indeed.com/hire/c/info/engaged-employee-characteristics

⁶ Dudley J. Employee Engagement in 2024. Press Ganey. https://info.pressganey.com/press-ganey-blog-healthcare-experience-insights/employee-engagement-in-2024-trends

⁷ Scott G, et al. Exploring the impact of employee engagement and patient safety. Int J Qual Health Care. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9384574/

⁸ Gallup. What is Employee Engagement and How Do You Improve It? https://www.gallup.com/workplace/285674/improve-employee-engagement-workplace.aspx

⁹ Gallup. What is Employee Engagement and How Do You Improve It? https://www.gallup.com/workplace/285674/improve-employee-engagement-workplace.aspx

¹⁰ Pendell R. Employee Engagement Strategies: Fixing the World’s $8.8 Trillion Problem. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/393497/world-trillion-workplace-problem.aspx

¹¹ Dudley J. Employee Engagement in 2024. Press Ganey. https://info.pressganey.com/press-ganey-blog-healthcare-experience-insights/employee-engagement-in-2024-trends

¹² McKinsey & Company. The State of Organizations 2023. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-state-of-organizations-2023

¹³ Schaufeli W. Engaging Leadership: How to Promote Work Engagement? Front Psychol. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8578900/

¹⁴ Atkins I. Communication is Key to Genuine Employee Engagement. Business News Daily. https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/8095-effective-employee-communication.html

¹⁵ Achievers Workforce Institute. Belonging at Work: 2021 Culture Report. https://www.achievers.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Achievers-Workforce-Institute_2021-Culture-Report_Belonging-at-Work.pdf

¹⁶ Cross A. 26 Employee Recognition Statistics You Need to Know in 2024. Nectar. https://nectarhr.com/blog/employee-recognition-statistics

¹⁷ Harter J. U.S. Employee Engagement Needs a Rebound in 2023. Gallup. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/468233/employee-engagement-needs-rebound-2023.aspx

¹⁸ Samuel-Osusu L. Fostering a Culture of Continuous Learning in the Workplace. Intellum. https://www.intellum.com/resources/blog/continuous-learning-in-the-workplace