Workforce
Emerging from the storm: how to boost staff retention
James Sage, employment partner and head of health & social care at specialist law firm RWK Goodman LLP, offers practical guidance on retaining care staff
The care sector is facing a mounting workforce crisis, with an estimated 165,000 vacancies and skyrocketing turnover rates. The recruitment and retention challenges are being felt sector-wide and putting care teams, as well as HR and finance teams, under considerable pressure. With a shrinking pool of available workers to recruit, providers need to prioritise retention.
Staff turnover rates increase
The latest Skills for Care data from October 2021 estimates that employee turnover rates (the number of staff leaving their role in a 12-month period) are 28.5 per cent on average across all roles, but 34.4 per cent for frontline care roles. These rates are already high compared with the average turnover rate in the UK for all sectors, which is thought to be about 15 per cent, yet the current experience of many care providers is far worse. In a recent poll of 121 care providers
carried out by our Health and Social Care Team, 19 per cent of respondents reported turnover rates of over 40 per cent , with seven per cent reporting turnover rates exceeding 50 per cent. The impact of losing half of your workforce each year is alarming, with care quality, staff wellbeing and engagement, and profitability all coming under significant pressure. Skills for Care estimate that most leavers (63 per cent) join another employer in the care sector, with far fewer (37 per cent) leaving the sector altogether. The fact that a high percentage of workers choose to leave their current employer but stay in the sector suggests that they leave for reasons
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related to their current role or workplace, over which the employer has significant control, rather than for reasons related to care work itself, over which an employer has less control. If retention is largely within an employer’s control, providers who prioritise it will be at a significant competitive advantage.
More recruitment is not the answer Providers have tended to focus more on recruitment than retention. Unfortunately, this has created a revolving door in some organisations, where more and more staff are hired but overall numbers do not increase, due to equally high numbers of leavers. However, with recruitment opportunities drying up because of low
If retention is largely within an employer’s control, providers who prioritise it will be at a significant competitive advantage
unemployment rates, a shrinking pool of UK candidates, the removal of free movement rights for EU workers, and increased competition from other sectors (particularly on pay), retention must now be the focus. The good news is that you have greater
control over retention than recruitment, and it is more cost effective. It is also far better to have a consistent workforce from a culture and quality of care perspective. Improving retention will help solve your recruitment challenges as there will be less need to hire, but it does not work the other way around – hence the need to prioritise retention.
Boosting retention: practical guidance There is no limit to what you can do to improve employee engagement and reduce turnover rates, but here are some practical suggestions.
1. Recruitment
It is a candidate market and you need to have a robust and effective recruitment process in place to create a positive candidate experience and avoid losing candidates during the process. Candidates
www.thecarehomeenvironment.com February 2023
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