5 Practical Strategies for Boosting Workforce Resilience: A Guide for Healthcare Leaders

According to our 2024 Annual Nurse Leaders Workforce Report, a critical shortage of nurses remains the biggest issue for the U.S. healthcare industry.  

But it’s not the only one.  

Other major issues include pay gaps, with full-time USRNs receiving 35% lower pay than contract RNs, limited career paths, and a lack of long-term workforce planning. In fact, one in three nurse leaders do not have a workforce plan for the next 3-5 years, making it even harder to deal with the ongoing nurse shortage.  

To tackle these issues, healthcare organizations need to implement practical, short-term and long-term solutions. In this blog post, you’ll learn about five key strategies for strengthening your workforce resilience for the long term.  

For more details on these strategies and others, as well as the challenges facing the healthcare industry, feel free to download our full report. 

5 strategies to improve workforce resilience 

Our report highlights that, despite healthcare leaders implementing various strategies to tackle workforce challenges like increased compensation and flexible scheduling, their effectiveness often varies based on the specific context within each organization. 

These approaches alone are not enough to fully close the workforce gap.  

The following section details the strategies for building long-term workforce resilience that go beyond pay-based interventions and scheduling flexibility. 

Explore international direct hiring 

International direct hiring (IDH) is the process of recruiting and hiring nurses from other countries for permanent work.  Our report reveals that 73% of nurse leaders were open to considering IDH as part of their workforce planning strategy.  

And no wonder—by recruiting nurses from abroad for permanent positions, IDH helps tackle the nurse shortage by providing access to a global talent pool, which fills staffing gaps and improves retention. Nurses, in turn, benefit from competitive salary packages and benefits comparable to USRNs. 

IDH also supports career development for international nurses, providing opportunities for professional growth and advancement that address limited career paths. While IDH doesn’t directly solve workforce planning issues, it’s a valuable component you should integrate into your overall workforce plan.  

Pro tip: Consider partnering with an IDH solution instead of directly recruiting candidates. An IDH program is an end-to-end staffing solution that works with healthcare organizations to manage the entire recruitment process, including finding suitable candidates, handling legal requirements such as visas, and ensuring a smooth onboarding process so nurses successfully integrate within the organization.   

Look for a reputable partner that offers: 

• Skills and expertise to maintain a sustainable IDH program. 

• Partnership approach to support you in creating your program. 

• Proven track record of successfully delivering outcomes. 

• Comprehensive support around the arrival of the nurses.  

• Tailored features designed specifically for healthcare recruitment.  

• Certified ethical recruitment to ensure fair and transparent recruiting practices.
  

You can learn more about this strategy by reading our Guide to International Direct Hiring for Nurses and HR Professionals.  

Develop long-term workforce plans 

To manage your healthcare staffing effectively, you should prioritize creating a 3-5 year workforce plan. A workforce plan is a strategic document detailing how healthcare organizations manage their staffing to address current and future needs. It serves as a roadmap for hiring the right professionals and placing them in the appropriate roles to meet organizational goals.  

However, the importance of a workforce plan goes beyond just hiring the right number of staff. It also helps improve patient care, reduces turnover and retention by detailing strategies to keep staff engaged, and streamlines recruitment and onboarding by clearly defining roles, staffing needs, and timelines. 

To effectively create a workforce plan in your healthcare organization, follow these steps: 

1. Analyze your current workforce. What are your current needs and future needs? Maybe you have many nurses nearing retirement that will need replacement. 
2. Forecast future staffing needs. What are your future needs? Does your hospital have plans to open a new unit or add new beds? 
3. Create recruitment and staffing strategies. How will you recruit nurses? Will you implement an IDH program as part of your broader efforts?  
4. Develop retention strategies. How will you keep staff? Consider strategies like recognition programs and flexible work arrangements to keep staff happy and engaged. 
5. Maximize efficiency. How will you get the most out of your staff? This will involve a combination of flexible scheduling and effective staff deployment to where they are needed.  
6. Determine your success factors. What KPIs will you use to measure the success of your workforce plan? Consider KPIs like patient satisfaction levels and staff turnover rates.  
7. Review and adjust your plan. What will you do to ensure your workforce plan remains relevant? Because your workforce plan is a dynamic document, you’ll need to keep it updated and ensure it remains current by gathering feedback from staff and measuring KPIs against benchmarks. 

Pro Tip: Involve nurse leaders and HR in the planning process to ensure comprehensive strategies.

Focus on retention strategies 

A white paper by the American Hospital Association details how losing a nurse costs Aurora Health System $85,000. But the cost of failing to retain staff is not just financial; it leads to staff shortages, lower-quality patient care, and a damaged reputation.  

So how can you retain staff? Here are several strategies: 

• Prioritize nurses’ mental and physical well-being with comprehensive wellness and burnout prevention programs. 

• Conduct regular stay interviews to learn what keeps nurses engaged and happy and what you could do to improve their job satisfaction. These interviews are valuable because they help uncover potential issues early, allowing you to address them before they lead to turnover. 

• Create opportunities for nurses to participate in decision-making processes that affect their work environment. This increases their sense of ownership and commitment. 

• Recognize and reward staff through recognition programs, bonuses, and other incentives. 

• Build a workplace culture that values inclusivity, diversity, teamwork, and open communication. This helps create a positive and supportive work environment where nurses feel valued, engaged, and respected, which improves job satisfaction and retention. 

• Offer competitive compensation and benefits packages to show you value your staff. 

• Provide career growth and development opportunities, so staff sees a future with your hospital. 

Enhance career development 

While career development is vital to retention, it deserves its own section here because it plays a crucial role in why nurses choose to stay or leave a healthcare organization. Here are three strategies you can implement to enhance career development, so your staff remains engaged: 

• Create clear career pathways for nurses, including leadership tracks and specialty roles. Prepare nurses for important positions by clearly outlining the steps they must follow and the qualifications they need to get there. 

• Implement mentorship programs that pair experienced nurses with newer ones to facilitate professional growth and knowledge-sharing. This not only helps newer nurses acclimatize to your healthcare organizations but also provides seasoned ones with teaching experience that enriches their own careers. 

• Allocate time and resources for ongoing professional development and training so that staff can learn new skills, stay updated on industry advancements, and become more adaptable. You could offer access to workshops, certifications, and seminars and allow staff to participate in cross-training opportunities to learn new roles. 

• Recognize and reward career milestones by acknowledging when staff achieve certain certifications or advance in their roles. This can make nurses feel appreciated in their roles and motivate them to keep progressing. 

Diversify clinical pipelines 

Diversifying clinical pipelines allows you to broaden your recruitment efforts so you have access to a large and steady supply of talent. Here are a few ways you can do that:  

• Look beyond new grad programs. While new grad programs will always be valuable, look to expand your search to include various groups of professionals, such as experienced nurses, mid-career professionals wanting new opportunities, and those returning to the workforce after a break.  For example, you could create targeted recruitment campaigns that focus on these specific groups through LinkedIn ads and niche job boards and even collaborate with the American Nurses Association (ANA) to connect with seasoned professionals. 

• International Hiring. Don’t be afraid to widen your net to include countries beyond the U.S., as competitive salaries and compensation packages often attract nurses. By recruiting from these areas, you not only help address shortages but can build a more diverse team that promotes innovation within your healthcare facility. A certified ethical recruiter can help you implement this strategy.  

Pro Tip: Work with an IDH program that can help you prepare for your international nurses and provide arrival support to make them feel welcomed. You can learn more about this reading about our ReadiBridge Program.

The bottom line on how healthcare leaders can build workforce resilience 

The U.S. healthcare system may be grappling with many challenges now, including a critical nurse shortage, limited career pathways, and a need for long-term workforce planning. However, these challenges can be overcome with a strategic and multi-faceted approach. 

By implementing these five key strategies—international direct hiring, long-term workforce planning, retention initiatives, career development, and diversification of clinical pipelines—healthcare leaders like yourself will be better positioned to build a more resilient and effective workforce for the long term. 

For more information on these strategies and others, plus extra insights into the U.S. healthcare industry’s challenges, don’t forget to download our full 2024 Annual Nurse Leader Workforce Report.