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In This Issue:
Hospitals are in a competitive employment market and, as a result, it is increasingly more challenging to recruit and retain qualified health care workers. BWH is no exception to the rule. With new pod openings in the Tower, a growing patient volume and a rapid expansion in research, BWH is continually working on ways to hire and retain the most qualified professionals.
“Recruiting high quality employees and satisfying those employees with the appropriate opportunities once they are employed are key to BWH’s continued success,” said Cheryl Locke, vice president, Human Resources (HR).
The institutional priority is evident in the newly created manager of Recruitment and Retention position in HR, which is occupied by John Lew. Lew began several months ago and is taking the reins to evaluate what works and what doesn’t work in attracting new employees and satisfying the current BWH employee population.
Locke and Lew, along with nine staffing specialists and 12 HR generalists, are constantly working to fill the vacant positions and identify prospects for new positions due the BWH’s continual growth, especially in areas of research and clinical care. In conjunction with the recruitment efforts is an emphasis on the internal training and development to better meet the needs of newly recruited and existing employees at BWH. Robin Vann Ricca, director of Organizational Development, Training and Diversity, spearheads this effort.
According to Lew, BWH’s 2000 (the most recent date available) turnover rate decreased from 18.9 percent to 17.7 percent by year’s end, which is substantially lower than the health care industry mean turnover rate of 19.3 percent.
“Tools like the Staff Survey and resulting initiatives including Quality of Worklife and training efforts help our mission to not only attract, but maintain qualified, satisfied employees,” said Lew.
Another tool that has made a substantial impact on staffing efforts is the Employee Referral Program. Launched in August of 2000 as a way to recruit qualified, reputable individuals through word of mouth, the program has introduced 350 applicants to BWH and provided 232 BWH employees with bonus checks of $500 each for their referrals.
According to Lew, some of the most difficult positions to recruit for are nurses, radiology technologists, administrative support positions and patient care assistants, all of which are being positively affected by the referral program.
“We realize that our job is not done at just recruitment,” said Lew.
Lew cited recognition programs, patient care assistant and radiology technologist scholarship programs, various educational and training initiatives, and English as a Second Language as a few of the many factors that play a dual role in both recruitment and retention.
According to Lew, BWH continually aims to implement such programs that make employees successful and challenged in their work environment.
“In addition to ensuring that we are the kind of employer they want to join, we have to also make certain that individuals feel good about their roles once they’ve arrived,” said Locke, who explained that the most effective staffing tool is retention.