By Amy Nunziata, Contributing Writer

What keeps healthcare executives up at night? Many issues do, of course, but a shortage of caregivers is the top concern, according to the American College of Healthcare Executives’ annual survey of hospital leaders. Obviously, high-quality caregivers are fundamental to the best patient care. What is less obvious are the ways in which real estate and facilities can support caregiver recruitment and retention.

Investing in the healthcare workplace experience can increase productivity and motivate team members to stay in their jobs longer, reducing overall costs in the long run. Not surprisingly, pay and benefits are the top concern, followed by job role. But location and other workplace issues matter, too, according to JLL’s 2024 Employee Perspective on Healthcare Real Estate survey of healthcare employees.

Improve your location if you can’t move your location

Over 40 percent of participants placed location in their top three criteria for choosing employment, according to JLL’s research. While employees in many hands-on industries prefer short commutes, it is especially important for healthcare workers facing long and often intense hours on the job.

Often, the desire for a short commute must be weighed against the need for safe, convenient and reasonably priced housing and a commuting experience that does not add to work stress. Team members’ experience on the way to work can set the mood for their time at work.

For healthcare providers opening a new location or considering an office or clinic relocation, a labor study or drive-time analysis can help shape a location decision that improves convenience for team members. JLL research finds that physicians and advanced practitioners tend to accept longer commutes than less-skilled colleagues because the specific job role is usually more important than proximity in their employment decision-making. Using technology to help with the analysis can balance these competing factors.

For existing facilities, relocating might be out of the question. Many healthcare providers, especially hospital systems, are rooted in their local communities and have invested considerable capital in their campuses. But investments to improve safety, convenience and housing access can pay off in terms of attracting and retaining skilled employees.

Improve campus safety

Almost 17 percent of people looking for a new job feel unsafe at their current location, according to JLL research. Hospitals can tackle safety by adding lighting in dark parking lots and entrances, installing additional security cameras and increasing security patrols around their campuses. 

Investing in safety training, such as teaching caregivers ways to de-escalate conflict, also can help make campuses safer.

Support self-care, rest and well-being

Health systems whose workplaces enable caregivers to work efficiently, enable patient care and support employee well-being are better positioned to recruit and retain staff. Of employees not planning on leaving their current positions, 87 percent say their workplace supports their well-being, and 84 percent say they have sufficient spaces, such as a clean breakroom or quiet room, in which to recharge or decompress.

Members of this group also are more likely than others to report that the patient spaces, break rooms and offices are clean and well-maintained, suggesting that workspaces with these features can help retain employees. By improving employee spaces for the whole workforce, healthcare providers can help improve their caregivers’ well-being and ability to perform their jobs. 

Invest in sound privacy

Sound privacy in patient spaces is important for caregivers because it helps protect patient confidentiality, enables better patient-caregiver conversations and prevents HIPAA violations. It makes sense that employees not considering leaving their healthcare jobs report adequate sound privacy in patient and employee spaces, according to JLL research. In employee spaces, privacy for phone calls or simply a quiet place to decompress can foster caregiver well-being in often-hectic healthcare settings.

Sound privacy is also an issue in traditional offices. JLL’s surveys of corporate occupiers consistently show that a lack of quiet spaces and private meeting or video chat rooms can result in a non-productive office workplace. Leading office occupiers are addressing these concerns with new furniture set-ups, acoustic dampening modifications, phone booths and white noise. Healthcare companies can make similar alterations.

Improve maintenance programs

The impact of well-maintained employee spaces is evident when comparing employees who have a positive experience and intend to stay to those who have a negative perception of their workplace or intend to leave. Of those not considering leaving, 64 percent report that maintenance requests are fixed the same day or within one or two days, according to the JLL survey. Among those considering leaving, only 53 percent report work-order completion within a day or two. 

Given that patient care is a healthcare facility team’s top priority, employee-focused spaces such as break rooms and offices are sometimes neglected by maintenance programs. As a result, employees rank employee space significantly more negatively than patient spaces with regard to maintenance, newness and sound privacy.

Less than one-half of respondents to the survey rank their employee space as new, and 28 percent say their break rooms and offices are old. Meanwhile, nearly 15 percent of employees say employee spaces are run down, and 11 percent describe them as dirty.

In addition to including more employee-focused areas in maintenance plans, facility managers can also use technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to upgrade a maintenance program to make it more efficient. Work order automation, preventive maintenance scheduling and smart building sensors are examples of technology and AI-focused approaches that make immediate changes to employee experience.

Add parking convenience

Whether a healthcare facility is one building or a large campus, parking can be problematic. This is the reason 18 percent of employees considering a job change say parking is hard to find. Empty spaces can be hidden in a large parking facility, and often the most convenient spaces are dedicated to patients and visitors. Employee parking also might be off site, requiring the use of a shuttle that adds time to the commute.

Using technology to track parking use can help healthcare systems understand the challenges that frustrate employees. Improved wayfinding and sensor systems to track parking availability can help both employees and patients save time and remove uncertainty. Designated employee parking with easy access to the building can reduce friction in caregiver commutes. 

Do not assume what employees want? 

When making improvements to the workplace, it is best to create a cross-functional committee that includes employee representatives to uncover gaps in perceptions of the workplace experience and operationalize feedback. The team, often created as an employee advisory board, can design surveys and focus groups to obtain feedback from a diverse sample of team members.

Input from a range of employees is important because different groups of employees have different perceptions and preferences. For example, JLL’s survey uncovered a gap in workplace impressions between physicians and advanced practitioners versus other clinicians and support staff. 

Human experience, culture and morale tend to be most positive among the most experienced and highly compensated workers and least positive among those workers with less training and compensation. But the issue that attracts and retains employees is the perception that the organization offers a high-quality, productive workplace experience to all. By improving team member experiences, facilities managers can improve caregiver attraction, retention and experience while better supporting the healthcare mission.

Amy Nunziata is an executive vice president with JLL’s healthcare work dynamics division.