When it comes to general health and well-being, we all acknowledge the critical role that healthcare workers play. Whether we're trying to survive a global pandemic or a seasonal wave of the flu, everyone relies on the healthcare industry and its workers.

But behind the scenes, things aren't as smooth as we'd like them to be. Healthcare employees wrestle with immense workloads, insufficient resources, and an overall dip in morale and engagement. Among other things, this means that patient outcomes suffer as the healthcare workforce struggles to go day to day.

While individual healthcare organizations can't be expected to fix the problems, they can at least improve employee engagement. Studies in the healthcare industry have shown that increased employee engagement leads to better patient outcomes and overall patient care (source).

So, let's examine the problem from an employee satisfaction and engagement POV, looking at some of the causes and potential solutions on an organizational level. If you're a leader in the healthcare sector, this blog can help you identify factors that affect employee engagement and offer strategies to fix them.

What causes reduced morale and engagement among healthcare workers?

Studies have shown that reduced employee engagement correlates with morale, quality of life, stress, burnout, and general health among healthcare workers (source). The less engaged healthcare employees are, the poorer the care they'll provide. So naturally, we have to talk about the factors that actively cause a decline in morale and engagement.

Healthcare is similar to other work environments in many ways, so you can expect the usual culprits: poor work-life balance and lack of recognition, among others. But, there are also factors specific to the healthcare industry that we have to talk about.

The healthcare environment is notorious for being fast-paced and demanding, with a small margin of error. Sources say that each nurse in an average healthcare organization can expect to be responsible for up to 6 patients at a time.

Spread over months and years, this workload compounds. On top of that, staffing shortages seem to have become commonplace in the industry. These two factors combined cause a sharp decline in the number of engaged employees and hospital workers.

2.  Lack of recognition and appreciation

We've seen how digital employee recognition boards are slowly being recognized as a great way to give employees the appreciation they deserve and for a good reason. Increased recognition has been linked to greater employee engagement in several studies. The reverse is also true: studies show that decreased recognition from superiors and colleagues is highly correlated with nurses' willingness to leave the healthcare organization.

With the amount of work healthcare professionals take on each day and the responsibility of patient safety they contend with, recognition can go a long way in affecting their morale for the better or worse.

3. Organizational culture and leadership 

A toxic work culture and poor direction from healthcare leaders can have a profound effect on employee morale and engagement in any organization. When employees do not feel valued, respected, or supported, their motivation and commitment to the organization are likely to suffer.

These problems could stem from a lack of structure combined with the pressures of the workplace, or they could run deeper into the very way the organization operates. The result is usually the same – job satisfaction, motivation, and productivity take a massive hit.

With nearly 40% of workers reporting that they suffer burnout, maintaining a work-life balance has been historically challenging in healthcare organizations. Long work hours, irregular shifts, and the demanding nature of the jobs often make it difficult to achieve a healthy work-life balance. 

The result is often stress, exhaustion and a simple desire to make it from day to day. All of this can undermine the morale and engagement of healthcare professionals.

According to Health.org, many aspects of the healthcare industry also lack the capacity to deliver care, reflected both in the number of staff available and in the resources they have to work. Higher bed occupancy, shorter length of hospital stay, and assignments without preparation mean healthcare workers constantly have to find ways to adapt while providing care.

This gap between available resources/support and tasks takes a toll on healthcare workers, as one study shows. They can jeopardize patient safety, increase hospital-acquired complications on the parent side, and negatively affect the mental health of workers.

10 ways to improve employee engagement in healthcare organizations

Health systems worldwide are struggling due to many of the factors we just discussed and more. And even though morale and employee engagement are a huge part of it, there are bigger forces at play.

Boosting morale and employee engagement in healthcare can’t fix the healthcare industry, but it can improve workers’ lives, making it easier to do their jobs and be more productive. In this section, we’ll go over strategies healthcare leaders can employ to address the causes of problems like burnout, boost overall morale, and increase productivity.

Providing the necessary tools and support needed can make the job so much easier and lead to higher employee engagement. Plus, providing the necessary tools also helps them take better care of patients!

Ultimately, each organization will know what tools are needed the most (and can easily find out by talking to employees.) So, our big recommendation is to prioritize closing the resource gap – better equipment, adequate training, more workers – and understanding what a profound effect the closure can have on overall morale and productivity.

2. Wellness initiatives and support services

Tackling the root causes of burnout can also do wonders for healthcare worker engagement and motivation. The problem is that burnout is common in virtually every industry, and it can be complicated to tackle, but we believe a great place to start is prioritizing the mental and physical well-being of healthcare workers.

This may involve implementing comprehensive wellness initiatives and support services that address various aspects of health, including mental health, nutrition, and stress management. Counseling and employee assistance programs can also help create a safety net for healthcare professionals facing personal or professional challenges.

Hint: Your organization may already have these programs, and employees don’t know they exist. Digital signage can be very helpful in these cases to inform employees about the support programs that are available.

3. Culture of appreciation and recognition

Establishing a culture of appreciation is very important when trying to build a positive work environment for healthcare workers. Employees thrive on receiving credit for their work, and seeing that trickle from leadership and other employees can be massive for morale. 

Regular acknowledgments for individual and team achievements, initiatives that reward performance, simple shoutouts, and acknowledgments – all these can help any employee feel seen, valued, and unmotivated, and it’s especially important in healthcare. 

Hint: Employee recognition boards are an excellent way to show appreciation and recognition.

Mentorship programs can be particularly helpful for workers who have just stepped into new roles. With turnover rates as high as 94% in some sectors, having more experienced colleagues guide newer employees can boost engagement and overall productivity.

A mentorship program can create a support system that offers everyone the following:

These programs often do best when they are structured to offer ongoing support instead of a one-off opportunity. Done right, organizations can not only improve employee engagement but also boost the growth of individual employees and increase overall collaboration.

One way to keep employees happy and motivated is to help them invest in their careers; the employee retention rate is 34% higher among workers with career growth opportunities (Source). Given the overwhelming staff shortages, this may be a great place to start. 

Beyond basic training, your organization could offer programs that cover training sessions and clear career progression pathways. Having all these available will improve employee engagement levels and keep staff satisfied in their jobs.

Hint: Companies use digital signage for employee training because it helps to deliver bite-sized information without overwhelming staff or demanding unnecessary time from work. 

Frontline staff occupy a special position because they tend to see immediately what takes everyone a while to recognize. As a result, they are in the perfect position to inform leadership on specific decisions that can improve the overall workflow.

Recognizing their expertise and involving them in decision-making processes can enhance their sense of ownership and engagement. A great place to start is creating avenues for them to provide input on operational decisions, policies, and workflow improvements. This approach is particularly great for morale because it fosters a culture of shared responsibility, where each team member feels important to the organization.

Hint: Digital signage boards can be great collaboration tools, perfect for collaborative meetings involving critical frontline staff.

We've already established that engaged employees with a healthy work-life balance are more productive. But it’s one thing to say maintaining a work-life balance is important and another to offer processes that actively encourage employees to seek out a balanced lifestyle.  

Some strategies that have worked in the past include:

Establishing boundaries for after-work communication

Teamwork often leads to a positive work environment, which can, in turn, boost morale and overall engagement. That’s why a culture where healthcare professionals collaborate seamlessly and leverage each others’ strengths becomes essential.

There are many strategies for building an environment like this, including:

A sense of belonging, shared purpose, and mutual support among healthcare workers will also improve the quality of patient care, which is why it’s often a top priority for business leaders.

In many ways, efficient and transparent communication is the backbone of a functioning system. Emergency information often needs to reach all related parties as soon as possible; workers have to update each other on current resource availability, and the team needs to be able to talk to leadership about current challenges.

The problem is that communication from healthcare leaders is often lacking. Studies of healthcare organizations have shown that one out of five workers believe they aren't getting enough communication from leadership. Luckily, there's a clear solution in sight.

Simplifying each part of this process can help healthcare providers do their job better and reduce overall stress and tension. Great strategies to think about in this regard include regular team meetings, open-door policies, and digital signage for healthcare systems. These can help boost communication and strengthen engagement.

10. Digital signage for information dissemination

We have an entire blog dedicated to how you can use digital signage to improve engagement. But we wanted to share one tip you can use really quickly to make a big difference.

Digital signage in healthcare can be used to share timely details that staff need to know, like bed occupancy, or helpful reminders to slow down and focus on their work-life balance. You could also share information that can help patients find their way around, giving workers more time to focus on other aspects.

Imagine that a concerned relative could simply follow wayfinding digital signage or check out the digital welcome board to learn quick info they might need instead of stopping every other nurse to ask for accurate directions.

Measuring and evaluating morale and employee engagement

Morale and engagement are very complex and dynamic, especially in healthcare, where workers have to deal with everything from scared sick children to excessive workload. As a result, organizations can’t just implement a strategy and expect the problem to be permanently fixed.

While the steps we shared are helpful, it’s also important to constantly take the workforce’s morale temperature and see what changes are needed. If workers are unhappy due to insufficient breaks, a different strategy is needed than if they needed a better system of communication.

So, an optimal strategy would be first to evaluate morale, and then see which strategies can fix it. We already addressed the latter, so let’s now look at the former.

Often, the best way to know what people are thinking is to ask them. Conducting surveys can help gauge satisfaction, engagement, and overall morale among employees. Consider keeping them to the point and anonymous to get reliable and accurate answers. Some questions to consider include:

How would you rate your current work-life balance?

Do you feel adequately recognized for your contributions?

Are there specific communication channels you find helpful or lacking?

On a scale of 1-10, how strongly do you feel a sense of teamwork within your department?

Are there specific areas of personal development you’d like to explore?

2. Monitor employee turnover rates and exit interviews

Turnover rates may be high industry-wide, but paying attention to WHY employees are leaving your organization in particular might provide some helpful insight. Conducting exit interviews can help you see where the gaps are in your strategy to improve employee engagement and morale and how you can make the current worker experience better. 

Creating a system where employees can leave anonymous suggestions can also be incredibly helpful for hearing opinions staff might be reluctant to share. You could use a physical box or an online platform to encourage workers to do everything from sharing their frank thoughts to suggesting radical changes that are in the organization’s best interest.

4. Track key performance indicators (KPIs)

High morale and engagement lead to increased productivity, so naturally, KPIs will be a great indicator of employee morale. If productivity levels, patient satisfaction scores and employee feedback scores are down, then there's a problem that might be traced back to morale and employee engagement.

The key here is to dig deeper and find the cause of the performance dip. Engaged employees might show lower productivity due to faulty equipment, lack of resources, or even a flawed KPI standard. 

The 5 Cs of employee engagement: Healthcare focus

The 5 Cs are not a new concept, and you’ve most likely seen several variations around. They serve as a framework to understand and enhance employee engagement and can easily be applied to the healthcare industry.

If you're looking for a quick win with regards to higher employee engagement, or to empower healthcare teams or workers, an understanding of the 5 C's can be a great guide.

Here’s a quick overview of what each "C" represents and how it fits in the big picture of employee engagement.

Healthcare is a high stress industry with burnout a major challenge. Can improving employee engagement in healthcare help, and how can you manage it?

How to improve employee engagement in healthcare

Ways to Improve Employee Engagement in Healthcare

Ways to Improve Employee Engagement in Healthcare

Ways to Improve Employee Engagement in Healthcare

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