Employee Engagement & Retention Toolkit

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

• Working in healthcare is demanding and rewarding, but it can also bring unique challenges such as high stress, long hours, emotional toll, and the risk of burnout and compassion fatigue. Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) are a valuable resource designed to support employees in navigating these difficulties and promoting overall well-being.
• This toolkit provides general information about EAPs and lists resources that can be particularly helpful for healthcare professionals.

Understanding Your EAP: Support for Well-being and Resilience

• An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a confidential and voluntary resource offering support for both personal and work-related challenges. Typically provided by employers, EAPs are designed to help employees address issues impacting their well-being and job performance. Recognizing the unique stressors faced by healthcare professionals, an EAP offers a safe and confidential space to process these experiences and develop effective coping strategies, ultimately fostering better work-life balance and mental health.

Accessing Your EAP

• To learn how to access your organization's confidential EAP services, please contact your Human Resources department or consult your employer's internal communication channels (e.g., intranet, employee handbook).

EAP Services May Include:

• Counseling (in-person, phone, virtual)
• Crisis Intervention
• Referrals to external resources (therapists, specialists, support groups)
• Financial/Legal Consultations
• Work-Life Balance Resources

Additional Resources - The following resources may complement your EAP and provide additional support:

• Mental Health & Crisis Support
  • 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988 anytime in the U.S. for confidential support for people in distress.
  • Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741 for free, 24/7 crisis counseling via text.
  • SAMHSA National Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357) - Free, confidential treatment referral and information service.
  • National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI): Provides resources, support, and education for individuals and families affected by mental illness. They also have resources specifically for healthcare professionals.
• Peer Support
  • Connect with colleagues who understand the unique challenges of your profession through peer support programs. Many professional organizations and healthcare systems facilitate these connections, often through Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). ERGs offer a space to connect with colleagues sharing similar backgrounds or interests. Inquire with your HR department or internal communications about available ERGs.

Recognition Programs

• Description: Publicly acknowledges individual or team accomplishments. Formats include employee of the month awards, thank-you notes, and verbal praise in department meetings.
• Goal: To foster a culture of appreciation and motivation.
• Example: Cleveland Clinic's "Caregiver Celebrations" program features monthly recognitions and online kudos boards.

Monetary Bonuses and Incentives

• Description: Includes spot bonuses, merit-based bonuses, or annual performance incentives tied to measurable outcomes like patient satisfaction or safety goals.
• Goal: To reward excellence and encourage high performance.
• Example: Ascension Health offers performance bonuses based on quality metrics and patient satisfaction scores.

Service Awards

• Description: Recognizes tenure and commitment, often with plaques, pins, or additional vacation time.
• Goal: To honor loyalty and reduce turnover.
• Example: Kaiser Permanente gives milestone anniversary awards at 5-year intervals.

Wellness and Lifestyle Benefits

• Description: Offers health-promoting resources like gym discounts, wellness stipends, counseling, and wellness challenges.
• Goal: To support employee well-being and reduce burnout.
• Example: Mayo Clinic offers staff wellness centers with fitness classes, healthy cooking demonstrations, and mindfulness programs.

Professional Development Rewards

• Description: Tuition reimbursement, certification support, and paid conferences to support learning.
• Goal: To promote career growth and engagement.
• Example: Johns Hopkins Medicine offers full-time employees tuition assistance for job-related education.

Team-Based Rewards

• Description: Rewards distributed to entire units or departments for achieving collective goals. Includes team meals, outings, or celebration events.
• Goal: To enhance collaboration and team morale.
• Example: New York-Presbyterian Hospital hosts team appreciation events for units that exceed performance benchmarks.

Non-Monetary Perks

• Description: Benefits like flexible scheduling, additional time off, upgraded workspaces, or reserved parking.
• Goal: To improve job satisfaction and retention.
• Example: Stanford Health Care offers flexible work arrangements and commuter benefits to reduce employee stress.

Points-Based Rewards Programs

• Description: Employees accumulate points for positive behaviors and redeem them for prizes, gift cards, or experiences.
• Goal: To create an ongoing, gamified reward system.
• Example: Sutter Health’s recognition platform allows staff to earn and redeem points for gifts and experiences.

Peer-to-Peer Recognition Platforms

• Description: Digital tools that enable colleagues to recognize each other’s efforts in real time. Often aligned with core values.
• Goal: To build community and make recognition accessible.
• Example: AdventHealth uses a platform where employees can send virtual recognitions linked to organizational values.

Equity and Profit Sharing (Less Common in Non-Profits)

• Description: For-profit systems may offer equity or profit-sharing plans to certain employees.
• Goal: To align employee interests with organizational success.
• Example: HCA Healthcare provides profit-sharing to eligible employees as part of its total rewards strategy.

Overview

Career Ladder programs exist in many different forms at different institutions; however, the programs’ aims are to recognize and reward the achievements of staff members above and beyond the listed job description. Some programs allow for structured movement into roles with increased responsibilities and increased compensation as a result of meeting specific criteria. Other programs allow for temporary compensation and rewards as a result of meeting specific criteria.

Key Points

• Identify criteria for the reward that align with institutional strategic initiatives
  • Limit bias by selecting criteria that is objective and measurable
• Engage health system partners in human resources, legal, rewards and compensations (if applicable) to ensure the program’s structure if fair and equitable
• Consider and ensure leadership resources are in place to fulfil the administrative requirements to facilitate the program

Learning and development (L&D) programs are not one size fits all and can change based on institutional goals. Therefore, leveraging L&D within the organization is the best place to start. Meeting with local L&D leadership to understand their offerings is highly recommended, as programs may vary between organizations and even across departments. Connecting and integrating L&D leadership within your department allows staff the opportunity to hear directly from the L&D leadership and gives them flexibility to select offerings that are geared toward their interest.

L&D functions within health care organizations play a vital role in employee engagement and success. They can help foster team building, individual development by way of skill-building workshops, suggest helpful readings, and provide a systematic approach to learning. These teams are great additions to any department seeking to develop employees and help them acquire knowledge needed for their current and future roles to support the mission and vision of the organization. L&D can create structured learning paths and offer these opportunities to teammates without them having to seek this type of guidance and support outside of the organization.

Ensure you have collected data from pulse surveys, exit interviews, and stay interviews. The data should include relevant features such as:

• Workload: Quantitative measure of workload (e.g., hours worked per week).
• Recognition: Employee's perception of recognition (e.g., survey scores).
• Growth: Opportunities for growth (e.g., career development scores).
• Other features: Department, tenure, engagement scores, etc.
• Target variable: Whether the employee is at risk of leaving (binary: 0 for staying, 1 for leaving).

Create features that might be predictive of employee retention:

• Sentiment analysis: Analyze text responses from interviews to gauge sentiment.
• Aggregated metrics: Calculate overall engagement scores, frequency of certain responses, etc.
• Temporal features: Include time-based features like tenure, time since last promotion, etc.

Use the predictions to inform HR strategies:

• Identify at-risk employees and intervene proactively.
• Tailor engagement initiatives based on predicted engagement levels.
• Optimize retention strategies by understanding key drivers of turnover.