Employee experience dawns under the direction and support of leaders and managers, who wishfully drive organizational best practices to build up a positive employee experience. It is a universal fact that ultimately, a constructive employee experience is directly associated with enhanced employee outcomes such as:

• Better job performance
• Increased staff effort, and
• Higher retention rate.

It is more evident these days that healthcare employees who successfully experience a sense of belongingness, purpose, accomplishment, and happiness in their workplaces, perform better and at higher levels and are more likely to contribute par expectations. Employees who feel appreciated and motivated stick longer to their jobs and are less likely to quit the job, improving EX in healthcare also directly affects the overall patient experience. When a happy and motivated employee attends to a patient in need, they are most likely to pay close attention to details and handle the situation in a calm state of mind. It’s a win-win situation for both parties involved.

The term employee experience or patient experience is something we weren’t really talking about, especially in the healthcare sector a few years ago. So, what’s changed over the past couple of years?

Maybe now healthcare is waking up to the cognizance that “engagement” is not the same thing as “experience.” For so many years the core of healthcare delivery was to provide management and care to their patients, which means when a patient comes in with a problem, it needs immediate attention. There were few incentives to direct resources at anything other than making patients better.

Today it is important to pay attention to improving your services irrespective of which sector or industry you belong to. It is well known that the turnover rate in the healthcare industry is a real challenge, to further add to the administrative burden of constantly recruiting and training new employees, turnover can also be “costly”. To fix this problem, the more healthcare organizations improve the employee experience, the better they will be able to retain valuable talent and reduce turnover rates over the period time.

According to a recent study by Blake Morgan, companies that invest in employee experience are four times more profitable than those companies that do not invest in their employees. The driver of this result is that highly engaged employees focus better on the patient, causing the patent experience to improve.

With an increasing number of options available for a consumer (including employees and patients) to choose from, the pressure to retain them has increased significantly over time. An ever-growing demand among patients for a better more convenient service experience and greater participation in their health care is placing further pressure on health care systems to find ways to become more patient-centered. And in order to fulfill increasing patient demands, pressure on leaders, and higher management to keep their employees motivated and happy has also increased. In a healthcare setting, improved employee experience is likely to have a direct impact on patient satisfaction and outcomes. In easier words, “A positive Employee Experience drives healthcare patient experience”.

Best ways to drive Employee Experience in the Healthcare industry

1. Importance of Employee Feedback:

Feedback is critical for all healthcare providers to understand how their employees perceive them, especially in a time like this when the whole world is suffering through the Covid-19 pandemic, healthcare employees are front-line warriors holding it all together. Collecting feedback helps improve the quality of care and employee satisfaction — and ultimately aids in new employee acquisition and retention. Once all of this is working in a virtuous cycle, healthcare practices will see increased revenue and growth.

2. Leadership sets the stage:

It is always perceived that a good leader always leads by example. Healthcare Leaders, supervisors, and decision-makers play a strong role in setting the overall tone and direction for the organization, constructively preparing a ramp for a more positive employee experience. A high level of clarity and vision around future directions and a self-explanatory comprehensible message among employees why they matter the most builds the foundation for a successful organization.

3. Building a strong Employees development plan:

This is a golden rule for all organizations, if an employee feels uncertain about career growth in their current positions, they will eventually gravitate toward organizations that offer more certainty for the future. In order to help employees stay, show them that the organization values and benefits from their efforts, that their contribution has a positive impact on the organization’s success, and that the career path ahead is clear and marked with milestones. When leadership puts effort in engaging with each employee to define the path that best serves their needs and those of the organization and its patients, it all counts towards a positive improvement in employee experience and engagement.

At last, to improve employee experiences, it is critical for organizations to focus on feedback and recognition of employee performance, as well as providing equal and multiple opportunities for professional development and career growth. 

If you want to know how your employees feel while working with your company, Dropthought can help you to collect your employees feedback, create delightful experiences, and more.

Dropthought is a user-friendly, omnichannel, and real-time employee experience management platform. We empower companies in different verticals to create delightful experiences for employees across their employee journey. Get detailed analysis and insights from data to exactly know what your employees think and what actions you need to take to delight them.

With a dedicated team, we would ensure that you are optimizing your employee Experience programs and strategies to create great experiences!

If you are interested to learn more, simply click here.