Diagnosing The Health Of Your Workforce: 3 Metrics To Measure

We often speak about senior care recruitment and retention as if they are one measure. And unfortunately, when we do this, the retention component is often the portion of this initiative that gets the short end of the stick. While hiring right can help set your organization up for staffing success, retaining employees is not only beneficial from a cost perspective, but benefits residents, allows for continuity of care and helps to foster a healthy workforce.

So, how do you know if your workforce is “healthy?” By identifying and tracking key performance indicators (KPIs). Doing so allows communities to determine the effectiveness of training programs, the strength of relationships between management and employees, as well as areas to incentivize and reward exemplary performance. They can also indicate areas needing improvement.

Here are three essential KPIs to track to help diagnose the health of your workforce.

Attendance

Poor attendance – whether that’s tardiness or absenteeism – is often a key indicator of disengagement. This can happen for myriad reasons ranging from health and family issues to burnout and a lack of motivation. In some cases, it could be the result of an unresolved scheduling issue, such as employees being scheduled when they aren’t actually available. Regardless of the reason, it’s crucial that providers get to the bottom of it.

Attendance issues put extra pressure on the more reliable members of a community’s staff, which can lead to excess overtime, frustration and burnout. This can cause engaged employees to become disengaged, comprising the quality of care and service residents receive.

Technology can help providers easily track attendance metrics like early punches, late punches and call-offs so leadership can address attendance issues directly with staff before it becomes habitual. Employee engagement software such as OnShift Engage adds an additional layer of measurement, using pulse surveys to gauge staff satisfaction, which can help uncover issues that may be contributing to poor attendance.

Communication

Solid communication is essential in the workplace. It keeps everyone aligned and up to date on changes in policies and practices. It also fosters stronger relationships between employees and managers and helps your organization run smoothly. In our technology-laden society, one of the easiest ways to communicate with staff is via their mobile devices.

That’s why OnShift gives management the ability to message employees through the OnShift mobile app or via their preferred communication method, such as text or email. Many providers have found this particularly valuable during natural disasters and other emergency situations.

Of course, even though tech can help, that doesn’t mean you should throw face-to-face interaction out the window. I like to recommend the three-fact method. Managers should know at least three facts unrelated to work about their employees such as a hobby, how many kids they have and where they are taking their next vacation.

Another important branch of communication is regular feedback – both delivered to and from employees. And this feedback should be more frequent than an annual survey or performance review. This is another area where pulse surveys can help, as they not only gauge employee satisfaction but have an optional comment section where employees can provide feedback and elaborate on their satisfaction score. Employees can choose to reveal who they are or remain anonymous. This helps managers fix issues before they become larger problems and lead to turnover.

Initiative

Initiative and flexibility can be essential metrics for leadership and HR departments to track across an organization’s workforce. Staff members’ willingness to assist others, pick up open shifts and work a few extra hours when needed, and learn about other job functions make them invaluable. A track record of taking initiative can also help a provider identify the next group of workplace leaders.

Providers should use performance tracking software like OnShift Engage to not only take note of those going above and beyond, but reward them for their hard work. The automated points system makes it easy for management to distribute rewards to employees, which they can redeem for prizes. And when providers reward those that take initiative, it often inspires other employees to follow suit.

If you are currently measuring the health of your workforce on an anecdotal basis, it may be time to start measuring the health via a series of KPIs. Responding to changes in key metrics can serve both to improve the health of your workforce, as well as improve the quality of care you’re providing and the health of your company’s bottom line.