$290,000 in Healthcare Training Dollars Awarded to Regional Healthcare Industry Partnership

The healthcare industry is an industry in need of employment and training assistance. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nine healthcare job occupations of the 20 occupations with the fastest employment growth are medical jobs. By the year 2014 health services employment is projected to increase dramatically with over 4,700,000 new health care jobs nationwide.  Health care occupations in our GROW* region are projected to increase sustainably from 2008 to 2018, from 40,350 jobs in 2008 to 50,231 by 2018. Both the current and potential number of jobs in the GROW area exceed national averages indicating high demand for workers in health professions.  

Throughout a series of meetings and surveys that took place over the past four months as part of the Healthcare Sector Convening grant (see Fall Workforce Today article), employers were able to identify areas of training need and general concerns about their own workforce development. Common themes within the discussion were:

• Hiring challenges due to an aging workforce, retention of current employees, finding professional candidates in rural areas, and poor employee work ethic
• Generally recruitment and retention as well as skill-set development and proper organizational fit are problems for many of the employers
• Specialized training needs not met including certified medical assistants, Alzheimer's/Dementia specific training needed, trained Dental Assistants, and customer service  and management training
• Technology needs and the funding to obtain state-of-the-art equipment needed
• Silos in the healthcare industry and finding a strategy to work more as partners throughout the region
• Technical colleges producing certified nursing assistants that are not ready for the personal care worker / home health care field

12 Questions to Measure Employee Engagement

The popularity of conducting employee satisfaction surveys is on the rise again.  In the current economy it may seem like there more than enough workers to fill vacancies, but how do you be sure to  retain the creative and innovative workers you already have? 

Employee satisfaction is the terminology used to describe whether employees are happy and contented and fulfilling their desires and needs at work. Many measures purport that employee satisfaction is a factor in employee motivation, employee goal achievement, and positive employee morale in the workplace.

Employee satisfaction and engagement, while generally a positive in your organization, can also be a downer if mediocre employees stay because they are satisfied with your work environment. Five years ago, The Gallup Organization began creating a feedback system for employers that would identify and measure elements of worker engagement most tied to the bottom line--things such as sales growth, productivity and customer loyalty.

After hundreds of focus groups and thousands of interviews with employees in a variety of industries, Gallup came up with the Q12, a 12-question survey that identifies strong feelings of employee engagement. Results from the survey show a strong correlation between high scores and superior job performance.  If you are thinking about implementing an employee survey, here are those 12 questions:

• Do you know what is expected of you at work?

• Do you have the materials and equipment you need to do your work right?

• At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?

• In the last seven days, have you received recognition or praise for doing good work?

• Does your supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about you as a person?

• Is there someone at work who encourages your development?

• At work, do your opinions seem to count?

• Does the mission/purpose of your company make you feel your job is important?

• Are your associates (fellow employees) committed to doing quality work?

• Do you have a best friend at work?

• In the last six months, has someone at work talked to you about your progress?

• In the last year, have you had opportunities at work to learn and grow?