We know healthcare workers struggle with maintaining a Work/Life balance to avoid burnout. Clinical teams faced massive challenges during COVID, but quietly, behind the scenes, so did technology staffers. Given the unprecedented workplace demands of the past few years, IT workers are gradually walking away from the profession. The latest data shows up to 47% of healthcare workers plan to leave the field by 2025. Two in five IT employees in healthcare are considering a career change.
If you’re a healthcare manager, it makes sense that you’re worried right now. Here are some suggestions to support balance in your existing IT team and any new tech resources you hire.
How Can Healthcare Employers Support Work/Life Balance in Their Existing IT Teams?
Step one in curbing burnout for your IT team requires assessment of your efforts to retain them. Healthcare managers can support better work/life balance in their current staff by:
- Offering flexible work arrangements that include telecommuting and part-time schedules.
- Encouraging breaks to prioritize self-care activities.
- Having and sharing clear expectations for work hours and workload. This is particularly important if your employee works from home and has no clear boundary between the job and their life.
- Support learning and development. Tech workers get bored just like any other type of employee. If you don’t support continuous learning that engages your knowledge workers, you will have a retention problem.
- Promote your Employee Assistance Program (EAP). EAPs that offer mental health counseling are particularly helpful. If your EAP has a program for stress management, do your IT teams even know about it?
- Manage time off. In 2021, the average American left more than 9 days in their time off bank. Not only does our country offer less time off than many European nations, but our workforce is also notoriously bad at using what we give them. Our guess is the number of unused vacation days will only increase as more employees work from home. As an employer, you should pay attention to these numbers and encourage your IT team to take advantage of every paid vacation day they earn.
While these measures could help your existing team survive the burnout, healthcare organizations can also offer new employees a few things that set the stage for work/life balance from orientation day onward.
Offering Compensation Packages To Support Work/Life Balance in Healthcare
Salary is always a great attractant for an IT worker. But salary alone won’t keep them on your team. Today, 80% of employees prefer better benefits over higher compensation. You can set the stage for improving healthcare IT burnout by designing competitive compensation plans that promote wellness in addition to salary. This can include:
- Paid time off
- Flexible work arrangements, including remote work
- Wellness program
- Childcare support
- Retirement benefits
- EAPs
- Bonuses and incentives
Managers seeking to retain their existing teams while attracting new job candidates can follow these steps and achieve both goals. Compensation packages that support work/life balance can attract more healthcare IT workers. Great benefits and rewards keep your current teams happy.
We know there are complexities inherent in an ever-changing tech job market. That’s why Prosum is the trusted resource for healthcare providers in Denver, Los Angeles, Orange County, and Phoenix. Talk with our team today about how our networks and experience can help you find and retain your healthcare IT workforce.
