The healthcare industry is facing a crippling staff retention challenge amid significant levels of burnout. The UK health service is hitting ‘breaking point’ with staff shortages and a surge in patients, while U.S. healthcare delivery is said to be in ‘critical condition’. Soaring patient needs are placing even more pressure on existing medical staff than their jobs already demand. Given the intense and profoundly stressful nature of many roles in healthcare, institutions must pay special attention to wellbeing to foster an environment in which staff can thrive, offer the highest level of clinical care and, crucially, want to stay in and see a future in.
Human-to-human approaches
Recent research from Asana estimates that a whopping 70% of people globally experienced burnout in the last year, with symptoms including exhaustion, feelings of helplessness, and emotional detachment. Work-related stress and poor mental health initiatives (or a total lack of them) in the workplace are driving this escalation in employee burnout, with many choosing to resign as a result. It’s also a growing issue within healthcare institutions – last year, one in 10 healthcare workers left the NHS, specifically citing burnout and low pay. Whilst almost one-third of NHS England staff often think about leaving the organisation, according to the 2022 staff survey.
Maintaining a work-life balance is essential to leading a happy and productive life. One in three employees say it’s the most important factor in moving to a new job after pay. It’s equally in businesses’ interest to address this, given that burnout comes at great cost – an estimated $322 billion globally in turnover and lost productivity. In some cases, losing one employee can cost a company the equivalent of well over a year’s salary due to recruitment and, training expenses, and loss of productivity. The first step that employers can take in combating burnout is to ensure they know how to spot it – actively monitoring for the list of twelve typical signs of burnout. These tell-tale indicators can help employers mitigate the signs of potential burnout in their staff before they escalate into an established issue. Organisations can also implement specific initiatives to support staff, including embedding shared responsibility for well-being at all levels, to identify and promote well-being support programmes for their colleagues.
Deploying technology as a prediction tool
Whilst the whole healthcare sector would benefit from strong awareness of the signs of burnout, there is only so much that we humans can identify easily. When things are busy, it can be hard to notice colleagues struggling right in plain sight. This is why companies should combine a human-to-human approach with technology.
Technology now exists that leverages machine learning and AI to predict burnout before it strikes, which can – and should – be deployed to good effect. These systems analyse various factors linked to a person’s well-being, such as the number of hours they’ve worked and the length of time since their last holiday. It’s known that these factors strongly correlate to the likelihood of burnout and can therefore be used to prevent mental fatigue. In the context of healthcare, factors such as the number of night shifts worked in a set period, and the number of deaths or emergency escalations they have experienced during their shift, should also be considered in the analysis as these contribute to declining mental health. Over time, and with more use and ongoing iteration, these models will become even more apt at predicting when it’s time for a manager to gently encourage a member of staff to take some time off or lessen their workload.
With the results of machine learning predictions combined with staff feedback, managers, counsellors and other specialist-trained professionals can then instigate care conversations with the potentially at-risk individual. These interventions should be specifically tailored to the employee and their needs. For example, the conversations would be different between someone who hasn’t taken a day off in six months versus someone who has experienced an unusually high number of deaths or emergency situations on-shift. Psychologists would potentially also be available to these individuals, depending on the severity of their case. This approach has been proven to work in their preliminary trials, resulting in reductions in sickness, absences and in the number of people choosing to leave the organisation.
Integrating tech solutions to combat employee burnout
Healthcare bodies should consider the benefits of partnerships with third-party tech firms which specialise in helping companies deal with employee burnout. Such organisations can offer access to these predictive AI tools, and wraparound training services, and also tailor these tools in both design and operation to ensure optimal performance for each organisation.
Investing in third-party services can do the heavy lifting in preventing workplace burnout, so healthcare providers can focus on patient outcomes. However, the technology that healthcare providers can implement isn’t limited to addressing the issue of employee burnout – there’s myriad areas of healthcare where tech can ease the burden of clinical care. Take the issue of poor scheduling, for example, which lies at the heart of the patient experience while also putting immense pressure on healthcare teams. Combatting this issue through a tech/CX lens can effectively kill two birds with one stone, as the smart use of technology could see patients’ average waiting time decreasing, with staff not being stretched as thinly.
The bottom line is that for something that feels hugely unpredictable, insurmountable and inevitable, burnout has clear warning signs that busy humans are often unable to spot in the fast-moving world of healthcare. Yet we have the technology to ensure that employers are forearmed and forewarned to support employees as and when the warning signs arise. We can, and must, do more to support healthcare workers – and tech, combined with human help, can provide the solution.
By Emma Bouche, Head of Healthcare, Webhelp
