“I’m proud to say our retention has actually increased over the last three years,” says Janel Allen, chief people officer at Children’s Hospital & Medical Center, Omaha.
One way Allen’s HR teams helps make this happen is by doing focus groups and engagement surveys to learn what workers need help with most and supporting those needs. Flexibility is another important area for allowing employees opportunities within the hospital to widen their experiences. “We don’t want people to leave our organization or the industry altogether,” she said. “Maybe they’ve been a bedside nurse and want to do something more in our clinic environment or IT space.”
Allen’s team also focuses on how to make benefits more meaningful for employees. Last year, they launched a program that offers continuing education to employees as well as their dependents. “It’s great because it’s a retention [strategy] for the individual working for our organization, but also great because we hope [the dependents] will come back and work at Children’s,” she said.