HR Industry Brief

Addressing the staffing crisis in long-term care has been receiving national attention, including in a recent proposed House appropriations bill. Among the provisions included in the bill:

• $3.1 billion for Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Grants.
• $303 million for registered apprenticeships.
• $3 million for a Direct Care Workforce Demonstration project to reduce barriers to employment.
• $48 million for the Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program to support geriatrics training as part of primary care delivery.
• $324 million for nursing workforce development programs.
• An additional $200 million for Alzheimer’s disease/dementia research.

You may think that all the enhanced efforts to communicate and collaborate during the pandemic held your team together. In fact, it may have helped tear it apart. According to a recent study, during the pandemic:

• Weekly team meetings increased by 252%.
• 6 billion more emails were sent.
• The average after-hours work increased by 28%.

• Create a safe space to have open discussions about mental health.
• Model and practice empathy consistently.
• Encourage a work-life balance among workers and managers alike.
• Focus on more personalized communication; resist bombarding workers with information.
• Use feedback to make changes that meet new employee … [Read more...] about (7/4) The Pandemic Changed Us. Now Companies Have to Change Too.

It is important to understand moral injury and how to deal with it as we come out of the pandemic and face an uncertain future:

• Moral injury involves the psychological, social, and spiritual impact of events on people with strong values who work in high-stakes situations when they have to act in ways that conflict with those values.
• Situations in which people experience moral injury include those where a person has to turn away patients despite them suffering because of staffing shortages or overcrowded facilities; having to care for dying patients who are isolated from their loved ones; and being prevented from speaking the truth about what is happening in their organization.
• Symptoms of moral injury include strong feelings of guilt and/or shame, anger, contempt, self-criticism, and loss of trust in others.
• Understanding moral injury can help workers realize that they're not failing because they don’t have the skills to cope.
… [Read more...] about (7/1) Moral Injury: What Happens When Exhausted Health Workers Can No Longer Provide the Care They Want for Their Patients

While the worst of the pandemic might be behind us, anxiety and burnout aren’t going away any time soon. Complicating this, suggests a new study, is a decline in the level of empathy among employers:

• 69% of employees say their organization is empathetic, down from 72% last year.
• 69% of CEOs believe it’s their job to build empathy. However, few workers identify the CEO as playing the most important role in promoting workplace empathy; instead, they say, direct managers are the greatest source of empathy-building.
• 79% of CEOs say they struggle to be empathetic, and 77% worry that they would lose respect if they’re seen as being too empathetic.

During the pandemic, your employees were watching how you handled challenges, unprecedented crises, and sudden change. Loyalty has evolved from those instances where they liked what they saw. You can build and maintain a stable workforce to showing new hires and existing employees that you can keep them safe, happy, and productive during times of uncertainty. Take these 5 steps:

1. Listen, understand, and act on employee feedback. Seek input from workers about problems and their ideas for solutions. At the same time, ask them about the policies, programs, efforts, and opportunities that they like and appreciate.
2. Expand learning and development opportunities. Over half (60%) of employees say their employer didn’t offer any professional development or training in 2020, and some workers site this as a reason they sought new jobs. Don’t forget to create opportunities to tackle new challenges and take on new roles.
3. Prioritize well-being in your company … [Read more...] about (6/29) 5 Ways to Attract, Develop and Retain Top Talent Amidst Uncertainty

There is real room for improvement when it comes to communication between front-line workers and their managers. In a new survey, 40% of workers said that communications from management show that they are “out of touch” with their employees. Among other findings:

• 42% of respondents said that communications from leadership were often irrelevant.
• 30% of workers actually said that internal communications actually have interfered with their ability to do their jobs.
• 1 in 4 workers said their company doesn’t have a “go-to” channel for important updates; and 32% said that if there is such a channel, it doesn’t work for them.

Working on strategic plans is exciting. They hold so much promise for the future and can be very energizing. However, according to some studies, 60-90% of strategic plans never reach fruition. Why? There are four key reasons:

1. People don’t understand the problem. If you’re asking people to make some big changes, it is important to help them understand why. If you can’t explain this in detail with the evidence to back it up, maybe the change isn’t necessary.
2. Lack of understanding regarding the organization’s capabilities. Strategies are not likely to be productive is your teams don’t have the time, skills, tools, and resources to implement them. Make sure your strategies are realistic and do-able.
3. Misperceptions about immovable pressures. Realize that your leaders and teams have jobs to do while they’re working on strategic plan implementation. Be realistic about how much time your teams can dedicate to new strategies. If it will take more time than … [Read more...] about (6/27) 4 Common Reasons Strategies Fail

According to a new study, retired workers are coming back to work. For some, it’s a matter of necessity – inflation and rising costs are stretching their budgets thin. Others are being lured back by wages hikes and a plethora of job openings. Among the findings:

• 9% of Americans 65 and older are working currently; this is up from 19.5% this time last year.
• New Jersey saw the largest percentages of older workers returning to the workforce, up from 18.1% last year to 37% currently.
• In North Dakota, the percentage of older adults working actually dropped from 36% in 2021 to 25% this year.

According to the Society for Human Resource Management’s annual benefits survey, 93% of employers say they offer telemedicine or telehealth, up 20% from 2019. Among other findings:

• 91% of employers say they offer mental health coverage.
• 82% of employers offer retirement savings and planning benefits, up from 55% in 2020/2021.
• Most employers offer some type of retirement plan: 94% offer a traditional 401(k) and 68% offer a Roth 401(k). Just over half say they provide some type of employer match.
• 51% of employers say they automatically enroll new or existing employees in the company’s retirement plan.
• Nearly all employers offer paid vacation (99%) and sick leave (96%).
• The number of organizations offering paid maternity leave drops to 35% in 2022, down from 53% in 202. Paid maternity leave dropped to 27%, down from 44% in 2020.

Summer is here, and your employees likely are itching for some fun and rest. It’s not too late to institute some measure of summer hours to reward staff for their hard work and ease some of their stress and burnout. Of course, there are pros and cons. The pros include improved work-life balance, morale, and productivity. However, in senior living where you are counting on specific staffing levels to care for residents, flexibility can be problematic if it leaves you short-staffed at any time. However, there are some ways to institute summer hours in a way that works for your company and your workers. You can let workers work 12-hour shifts for 4 days a week, or you can let workers take alternate Friday afternoons off. If it possible for some workers to telecommute, let them do so a few days per week during the summer. Consider asking your employees with kids what kinds of schedules would help reduce summer childcare costs. Whatever you do, try to find ways to enable workers to … [Read more...] about (6/22) Summer Hours: Pros & Cons of Setting a Summer Schedule