Staff retention continues to be one of the most important ongoing challenges facing long-term care facilities.

A study at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health found the average turnover rate was over 120% for nursing homes and that high staff turnover rates were linked to decreased quality care. And the ability (or inability) to address this issue directly impacts the level of stress experienced throughout an organization – from administration to supervisors and front-line employees. 

To improve the quality of care in nursing homes, health professionals used to focus on increasing staff levels, but now they are focusing on reducing staff turnover. Unfortunately, the advice often given to facility administration to solve this problem has helped very little.

The findings of the Journal of Applied Gerontology suggest that the root causes of turnover extend beyond the often-cited issues of workload and compensation. Research has repeatedly shown that increasing wages has virtually no long-term impact on employee satisfaction and longevity. Similarly, most attempts to increase employee engagement, increase staff morale, and build team unity have had little success.

But the reality is – deeper issues are present. So, to help improve the challenges at hand, we need to first understand and address the root causes. 

A key issue behind the headlines

Sometimes in the stress of everyday life, we lose sight of foundational truths. One of these is the fact that we are social beings. From birth, through childhood and adolescence, and throughout our adult lives – we need others to survive and thrive. And this is true for each of us at work as well.

It is no secret that the levels of our actual day-to-day, live personal interactions with others have diminished significantly over the past several years. We spend far less time in the same place, talking with, and being with others than in past decades, centuries and millennia. For those who live in population-dense areas (e.g., New York City), this may seem ludicrous – you are surrounded by people all of the time. But you are not actually interacting with or relating to the people next to you (for example, in the subway). Often, you are enduring them. 

One of the core challenges we are facing in society, and in our workplaces, is a lack of connection with others. We may work side-by-side, but often we don’t know them, and they don’t know us – who we are, what we think or believe, what talents we have, our personal life history, and what is important to us. As a result, we feel alone in the world. We live our daily lives by ourselves, with little true connection with others.

Our need for connection and what it looks like

Brené Brown defines connection as “the energy that is created between people when they feel seen, heard and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment.” Interacting with others is not the same as being connected to them. Communicating with or relating to those around us does not necessarily build connection. If they did, anyone who works with others would feel connected to them.

Feeling connected to someone is a personal, subjective experience. It is feeling seen, having your point of view being heard, a sense that “they get me” when talking to another aide.  Creating connection requires communication, but just talking together isn’t sufficient – being accepted and valued for who you are is also a key component.

It is important to note that information-based training won’t create connection between colleagues even if the content is about relating to one another. As a result, connection with others does not occur solely through learning information, but through experiences and interactions with one another.

Appreciation as a tool to create connection

Showing authentic appreciation to colleagues at work is one tool that can create connection among those in senior care facilities. Research by the Boston Consulting Group found that “feeling appreciated at work” was the #1 factor associated with job satisfaction. And our work with thousands of long-term care employees has found that feeling truly appreciated is highly connected to “who you are” versus “what you do.” Team members are not just production units “to get things done”; they are people and they desire to be noticed and valued beyond what they do for the residents. 

Connection with others is important – for us individually, for our organizations, for the patients, and for our society. Building connectivity between team members, however, requires intentionality and a process. Research has repeatedly demonstrated that teaching coworkers how to build connection through showing authentic appreciation to one another builds morale and creates more positive workplaces, leading to less turnover and better, quality care for residents.

But showing appreciation to one’s colleagues is more than just saying “thanks” or giving a compliment. In fact, our research with over 400,000 individuals shows that over 50% of employees want to be shown appreciation in ways other than words. And team members want to be appreciated for more than what they do – we all desire to be valued for who we are. In our Appreciation at Work training, we focus on teaching team members how to get to know one another as people not just coworkers and identifying the unique ways each person feels valued.

You can start today to build more connection among your staff by taking a step in the right direction – help your employees get to know one another better by learning how to communicate appreciation with each other in the ways that are meaningful to each individual. 

Paul White, Ph.D., is a psychologist, author and speaker who “makes work relationships
work.” He has written articles for and been interviewed by the BBC News, Business
Week, the New York Times, CNN/Fortune.com, Entrepreneur.com, Fast Company,
Fortune, FoxBusiness.com, U.S.News and World Report, Washington Post, and Yahoo!
Finance.

The opinions expressed in McKnight’s Long-Term Care News guest submissions are the author’s and are not necessarily those of McKnight’s Long-Term Care News or its editors.

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