A More Agile Process to Reduce Turnover in Senior Care

Our development team at OnShift practices the Agile Methodology of software development.  While this methodology is mainly referenced in relation to software development, it can be used in any industry.  Here’s how it works in a nutshell: Say you are an artist and want to paint a picture to sell.  Think of the steps that might go into this:

1. Visioning what the picture will be

2. Sketching

3. Painting

4. Detailing

5. Presenting to sell 

Do you complete tasks 1-5 and then determine you don’t like the entire thing and it isn’t sellable?  That might take a few months of wasted effort.  In Agile, you are taught to break down each task into small chunks of work that can be finished in short cycles.  After each one of those “iterations” you pause, review, get feedback, and change what needs changed.  Then you can move onto the next step.  In general, you change as you go - change is embraced!

How could you apply this to nurse scheduling in long-term care and senior living?

Say you have a high level goal of reducing employee turnover by 20% in the next year.  Let’s outline some steps that might go into that:

1. Implementing a 90-day onboarding program to help retain new employees

2. Introducing a 30-day mentor program for new hires

3. Allowing employees to set schedule preferences with a staff scheduling software

Do you have to complete all 3 to get any reduction in turnover?  No, but maybe something as simple as giving employees input into their work schedules through the use of a mobile app might get you a 5% reduction.  And even though 5% is not 20%, it’s still good!  The point is to list out all those items, prioritize them, break them down into smaller tasks and start completing those tasks.  If you complete a small task and it doesn’t work, isn’t that easier than scrapping the whole project?

Think about ways you can implement quick wins for staffing success in your organization. 

Top photo by Vichaya Kiatying-Angsulee from Freedigitalphotos.net