Section 3
Building the Team
The third section of the guide describes strategies around recruitment and retention, diversity and inclusion, and creative staffing models. Chapter 6 gives suggestions on how organizations can best recruit new team members and retain existing staff, knowing that they may be competing with different industries and settings, increased expectations for flexibility and the ability to work remotely, as well as better work-life integration and resources to support employees’ families. Chapter 7 guides hospitals and health systems through developing a robust diversity and inclusion strategy to create a more equitable workforce and community. Finally, Chapter 8 addresses the use of creative staffing models to think about workflows, workplaces and teams differently as we address current and future workforce shortages.
Chapter 6
Recruitment and Retention Strategies
The challenges that existed before the COVID-19 pandemic in recruitment and retention remain, but have been amplified by the ongoing nature and toll of the pandemic on the workforce. Combined with broader demographic and social changes, many traditional expectations of employers and employees have been upended.
Chapter 7
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
A diverse workforce understands that the cultures, issues and needs of local patient populations can provide deeper insight that results in better decision-making about how to serve those communities. Those decisions then have the potential to postively impact patient experience, safety and quality, and your communities’ overall health.
Chapter 8
Creative Staffing Models
It is evident that COVID-19 has changed the face of the health care workforce. The impacts have strained hospitals, taxed caregiver well-being and resulted in many departures from health care jobs. The resulting shortages have led to some challenges, but also some creative solutions to think about workflows, workplaces and teams differently than ever before.