Improving Staff Retention with policies, scheduling and engagement

1. Improving Staff Retention with policies, scheduling and engagement

2. Objectives • Participants will be able to discuss • The impact of having attendance policies and following them consistently. • The benefits to the organization of having multiple schedule options available. • The benefits of including staff in quality improvement. • Let’s hear from the audience: Polling question

3. Attendance Policies • History of Sherbrooke Village Attendance Policy • Benefits to consistent policy/enforcement • All staff aware of expectations and consequences • Easier for managers to know how to proceed with discipline • All managers follow same policies • Risks • Staff know loop holes • If not all managers enforce the same, creates dissention among staff/departments • Let’s hear from the audience: polling

4. Creative Scheduling • Pitfalls of traditional staffing modules • Hard shift change times create high levels of noise and pulls all staff away from resident care at the same time • Increased noise increases behaviors • Increased staff distraction leads to more falls • Limited options for coverage for call-offs • Does not provide added coverage at times of greatest need – meals/get-up/lay-down times

5. Creative Staffing • Goal of Sherbrooke was to become the preferred St. Louis employer • Implemented a combination of 8, 10 and 12 hour shifts • Nurses • 4 – 10 hour shifts Monday – Thursday • 3 – 12 hour shifts Friday – Sunday; two nurses around the clock • Traditional 8 hour shifts on long term neighborhood • Overlapping allows 1 – 2 hours for nurses to wrap up and complete charting at the end of their shift

6. Creative Scheduling • CNAs • 8, 10, 12 hours options • Allows for increased coverage for meal/get-up/lay-down times

7. Creative Scheduling • Benefits • Increased options for coverage for call-offs • Eliminated differential, increased overtime pay for staff BUDGET NEUTRAL • Improved staff quality of life due to fewer days at work • Eliminated hard shift changes and noise/chaos/staff distraction associated with shift change • Improved coverage at high risk times • Schedules are pre-determined

8. Creative Scheduling • Challenges • Staff not wanting to stay on Weekend Option long-term • Charting responsibility when CNAs come and go at all different times • 10/12 hours shifts were less effective in long term neighborhood • What does the audience say: polling

9. Getting Staff Involved • Gallup’s Engagement Hierarchy • Basic Needs • What do I get? – Do I have everything I need? • Management Support • What do I give? – My opinion is valued • Teamwork • Do I belong here? – Wider perspective beyond their job • Growth • How can we grow? – We, not necessarily I 2005 Gallup, Inc

10. Getting Staff Involved • Employee Satisfaction Surveys • Position staff, family, residents as experts • Incremental Improvement Program – not a suggestion system • Leadership development to support staff ideas • Supporting staff retention

11. Wrap up • Clearly defined, consistently enforced attendance policies decrease confusion and improve attendance and staff retention. • Having multiple options of schedules that are set allow staff to have control over their lives and quality of life. • Giving staff the opportunity to have a say in the governance of the facility increases ownership. • People want to work where there are high, clearly defined standards to which all are held accountable.