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AIS's Health Business Daily
Featured Story April 1, 2008 Health Plans Use Family-Centric Policies and Job Flexibility to Attract and Retain Nurses and Prepare for Enormous Shortage AheadReprinted from HEALTH PLAN WEEK, the industry's leading source of business, financial and regulatory news of health plans, PPOs and POS plans. For health plans, it's been called the perfect storm: the convergence of a nursing work force nearing retirement age coupled with fewer new nurses coming into the pipeline and fierce competition from hospitals. Add to that an aging population with higher inpatient acuity levels. And it's predicted to get worse. By 2010, the nation could be short 275,000 nurses. Health plans are going head-to-head with hospitals and, more recently, retail walk-in health clinics as they recruit nurses to staff their medical management, quality, disease and case management, health education and other programs. Health plans interviewed by HPW say they often face a major hurdle when competing with hospitals: Nurses in clinical positions make higher salaries than many health plans can afford to pay. The American Nurses Association (ANA) reports that salaries for new nursing graduates range from $40,000 to $56,000 a year (depending upon location). The median salary of a staff RN in a hospital is $58,000, according to the ANA. But as the balance between work and life becomes just as important as salary to nurses, health plans say they are leveraging two important competitive advantages to attract and retain top talent. First, careers in areas such as disease and case management, health education and telephone help centers are tailor-made for nurses, who tend to be problem-solvers, helpers and educators by nature. Second, health plans can offer regular and predictable working hours plus flexibility in work schedules and location. The jobs also are free from the excessive paperwork, patient workload strains, mandatory overtime and physical burdens associated with hospital nursing. "There's no question that my biggest challenge in recruiting nurses is going up against hospitals that offer compensation packages I can't match," says Janet Tomcavage, vice president of health services for Geisinger Health Plan in Danville, Pa. "Hospitals can offer shift differentials and overtime for weekends and holidays. But I tell nurses that we don't do shifting and there's no weekend or holiday work. It might be at a slightly lower salary, but to a hospital nurse who's tired of the stress, long hours, mandatory overtime and patient overloads, it's very appealing." A "family-centric" personnel policy means that some nurses can work from home, and many can arrange their work schedules to care for a sick or aging relative, something a hospital nurse typically can't easily do. Geisinger also offers nurses several opportunities for career advancement. Tomcavage observes that nurses like to be engaged by their job and feel a sense of involvement in the organization. "We work hard to foster that kind of work environment," she adds. While recruiting nurses in rural areas can sometimes be a problem, Tomcavage says that she generally is successful at recruiting the nurses Geisinger needs to staff its positions. Independence Blue Cross (IBC) in Philadelphia also stresses the benefits of jobs that entail regular hours and far less stress than would be found in a hospital. "The opportunity for nurses to move into a non-bedside setting can be a highly attractive recruiting feature," says spokesperson Karen Godlewski. "Nurses often grow tired of working during the hours of the week when their friends and family are off, and they're seeking more of a work-life balance. We can offer that balance." It helps that IBC can offer competitive compensation packages, including sign-on bonuses, financial incentives to eligible employees, tuition reimbursement and continuing education opportunities. Being able to compete in the compensation arena helps the company maintain a low vacancy rate and a high retention rate, Godlewski adds. But she notes that the company also uses other strategies to attract and retain nursing talent, including career-advancement opportunities that allow nurses to transfer their clinical skills from bedside to desktop. Another Strategy for Attracting Top Talent Many IBC jobs have been structured to allow nurses the chance to perform in new roles and assume a broader scope of responsibilities. "Our nurses are now performing less inpatient utilization and review management tasks and are becoming more involved in proactively reaching out to employers to work with them in the areas of health promotion, wellness, disease prevention and case management," Godlewski tells HPW. "More of our nurses are working with employers one-on-one to review trend information and develop plans or suites of services to help them improve the long-term health and wellness of their employees and achieve health care cost savings. Nurses are responding to this opportunity because they know it's making a difference." Health plans also are using telecommuting to attract and retain nurses. While not suited to everyone, it offers some nurses the chance to be closer to their families and friends and avoid the expense and stress of long commutes. Erin Duran, senior talent acquisition consultant at WellPoint, Inc. says that depending upon the business line, Blue Cross of California offers nurses telecommuting options both regionally and statewide, an attractive option in southern California given the area's almost gridlock-level traffic. Duran adds that competition for nurses is intense. The state's nurse-patient ratio requirements have intensified competition for nurses among hospitals, and nurse salaries in California are among the highest in the nation. In 2006, the median hourly rate was $31.88, according to the ANA. Another health plan that uses telecommuting as a selling point is Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin. David Casey, a WellPoint vice president of talent management, says that the organization recently initiated a work-at-home program for its nurses. "Based on our early success with this program, we're continuing to expand it" Casey tells HPW. The health plan also developed a "job progression program" so nurses can take advantage of career opportunities within the organization. Plans Must Sell Themselves But a health plan must also sell the organization as a caring, supportive and engaging place to work, and as an organization with a culture that values its employees. Equally important: innovative recruiting strategies that showcase the organization's culture in a way that makes it stand out from the competition. "Everyone is using the same techniques to attract nurses, and often they're offering the same compensation, benefits and perks. You need to differentiate your company and show what makes you a special, unique and satisfying place to work." says Matthew Glasser, executive producer with NurseTV in San Diego. "Everyone thinks that their brand is unique. But every day, nurses are being bombarded by brand messages from dozens of hospitals. You need to ask yourself 'what makes our organization unique and what will make a nurse pick us and not a competitor'? It's all about standing out from the competition." NurseTV's answer is a 30-minute video in docu-drama style that looks more like Fox TV's hit drama "The O.C." than a traditional recruiting video. "The video takes nurses inside the organization to show how people are interacting so they can get a feel for the organization's unique DNA," Glasser says. Nurses can see firsthand how people work and interact, and what the environment is like. "Most recruiting videos look the same. This one makes your organization stand out from the rest." Glasser says that hospitals are now using the video on their Web sites, for direct mail campaigns, online career fairs, and even for use on local cable system "on-demand" features. So far no health plans have used the video, but Glasser says that "if it works for hospitals, it will work for health plans." |
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