If you’re a care manager, you’ve probably spent a lot of time thinking about how to increase staff retention.
Whether you manage a care home, provide home care or assisted living, or run a day centre, regularly hiring new employees can be difficult. Keeping a stable workforce is good for your organisation and your clients.
In this article, we’ll look at the current situation of employee turnover in health and social care, the importance of staff retention, and how to improve employee retention and motivation.
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Employee turnover in healthcare and social care
The employee turnover in healthcare and social care is, unfortunately, higher than most care providers would like.
In 2022, social care turnover rates in England were around 29% – and even higher for younger staff, reaching more than 50%.
There are around 165,000 adult social care vacancies each day – and, by 2035, the sector will probably need nearly half a million more workers to keep up with demand.
Employee turnover in healthcare is slightly lower, at around 11% in the NHS – but this varies extensively by role. For example, turnover for GPs is much lower than for ambulance call handlers.
Within social care, the turnover rate is much higher for care workers and registered nurses, but lower for occupational therapists and senior staff members.
The importance of employee retention in healthcare and social care
There are a number of reasons that care providers should try to increase staff retention in health and social care.
Good staff retention in healthcare and social care can lead to:
- Cost and time savings
- Improved peace of mind for clients
- A sense of community among colleagues
- More consistent and better-quality care
The challenges of employee retention in social care
If you’ve ever worked as a carer, you know that it’s not an easy role. Many of our care assistants work long hours, and are responsible for a lot of clients at a time.
In many organisations, care work isn’t particularly well-paid. Some carers might find that they can earn a higher wage working in retail or other sectors – without some of the emotional and physical challenges that come with health and social care. The average care worker earns less than 80% of the rest of the workforce.
Caring can be a challenging job, both physically and emotionally. Some care workers have experienced injuries while working, and many have dealt with loss and bereavement. These can all take their toll.
Most common reasons care workers leave
Care assistants might leave their role for a variety of reasons.
Research by Skills for Care in 2023 found that some of the most common reasons included:
- Poor workplace culture
- Stress or burnout
- Lack of opportunities for career progression
- Low pay
- Lack of training
- A change in personal circumstances
- Retirement or otherwise leaving the workforce
- Returning to study or training
In this survey, nearly half of all respondents said that they would look for their next role to be in a different sector.
Why do people stay in social care?
To know how to increase staff retention, we should look at the reasons why our staff are here. Why did they begin a career in care, and what keeps them here?
Skills for Care’s 2023 study found that some of the most common reasons people began working as a carer were:
- To look after people
- Because they had previous experience being a family carer
- Because they needed local or flexible work
And many carers choose to stay with a particular organisation for a variety of reasons, including:
- Because they’ve built up relationships with their clients
- Because they have good relationships with managers and colleagues
- They find the location and hours convenient
- They appreciate the training and career progression opportunities on offer
- They’re happy with the flexibility of their work
- They’re happy with their salary
These are general reasons that care workers might want to stay with an employer, based on a survey of more than 500 carers in the East Midlands and North West. If you’re a care manager looking to see how you could reduce turnover rates, an anonymous staff survey might give you insight into the feelings of your own staff team.
Retention ideas for healthcare employees and people working in social care
Now that we’ve looked at the challenges with employee retention, and why people want to work in social care, we can think about how we can reduce staff turnover.
How to improve retention: recruitment
How to improve retention is a process that starts from the moment you recruit a team member. You want to ensure that you’re recruiting a care worker who will feel fulfilled in their role, and will want to stay.
To recruit staff members who want to stay with your organisation, consider these tips:
- Make sure that applicants understand the care sector. If they’ve not worked as a paid carer before, do they have caring experience? Can you arrange for them to speak to current employees to understand what the role involves?
- Give applicants as much information as possible. This includes details about salary, potential career progression, hours and flexibility.
- Recruit people with values that match your organisation. Look for applicants who can demonstrate compassion and reliability. You can train a lot of key skills, but it’s important to have the right personality to be a care worker. Introduce service users as part of the recruitment process to see how applicants interact with them.
- Recruit often, before you have lots of vacancies. Bringing new care workers into an already-struggling team doesn’t set them up for success. When you hire carers on a regular basis, your current team can help with their induction and ensure that they’re not overwhelmed with their new role.
How to improve retention: fair pay and benefits
Carers who are satisfied with their pay are less likely to leave their roles. While it’s not always possible to offer a much higher salary, consider whether the rate you offer is competitive for your area.
Additionally, consider whether care staff have had regular increases to account for inflation and the cost of living.
Can you offer any additional bonuses, or guaranteed pay progression in the future?
Where possible, you may be able to support your staff by paying for DBS checks, travel and uniform, if necessary.
How to improve retention: training
As a care provider, it makes sense to invest in helping your team to build their skills. Not only will it help your clients, it can encourage staff members to stay with the organisation – and possibly help you promote them in future.
Care workers who have spent time on training are less likely to leave their job – especially if they have qualifications in social care.
There’s quite a lot of mandatory training for carers to complete, but you should also encourage your team to undertake training in other areas that interest them. For example, if they particularly enjoy working with clients with dementia, they could build their skills in that area.
How to improve retention: mental health support
As we’ve discussed, caring isn’t an easy role. Many aspects of being a carer can have an effect on mental health, including:
- Coping with loss and bereavement
- Challenging behaviour displayed by service users or their families
- Working alone, especially for people providing home care
- Shift work or working nights
And, of course, your care team have a life outside of work. They may be dealing with relationship issues, personal bereavements, money worries, or many other problems that affect their mental health.
As an employer, you can’t solve all of their problems. But you can offer support where possible.
Make sure that your team feel comfortable taking annual leave and sick leave if necessary. Encourage your staff team to talk and share their concerns – especially if they’re related to the job. Consider using an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) so that your employees can get confidential advice and support.
How to improve retention: make the role easier
Most people who work in social care do it because they want to help people – not do paperwork.
We can’t eliminate all of the admin work in care, but using software such as employee checklists and the Care Journal can simplify the paperwork process. This means your carers will have more time to do the job they want to do.
Visit our care management software features page to learn more about the different types of digital technology available to care workers.
How to improve retention: career progression
Not all care workers will want to move into supervisory or management roles, but some will. Do you offer opportunities for career progression within your organisation?
You could publicise stories of team members who have held multiple roles within the organisation.
During regular reviews, ask staff members about their career goals, and how you can help them progress.
How to improve retention: organisational culture
If you’ve followed all these tips on how to how to improve employee retention and motivation, your organisational culture is probably already fairly positive.
You should try to ensure that you foster a culture of openness and accountability, with caring for your service users being everyone’s highest priority.
Care workers are more likely to stay in organisations where they have strong relationships with colleagues and management. Make sure that your staff team feel heard. Celebrate their achievements and show each person that they’re a vital part of your community.
Conclusion
Staff retention in healthcare and social care is a big issue. Care workers and registered nurses, in particular, have very high turnover rates.
Staff retention strategies in healthcare largely centre around making sure that you recruit the right team, offer appropriate pay and progression opportunities, and creating a positive and caring company culture.
There will always be some colleagues who choose to move on. But, by supporting your care workers and making them feel valued, you’re more likely to encourage them to stay with your organisation for longer – allowing you to work together to provide the best care for your clients.
