Staff Satisfaction Surveys

Staffing has been rated the number one problem for hospital, home care and long term care administrators. Reports have indicated that there is a staffing shortage and it is going to get worse. Fazzi Associates’ Staff Satisfaction Survey can help you to reduce your risk in this critical issue. Our survey will tell you how your staff really feels. What they really like. And what they say will increase staff satisfaction, morale and retention. Fazzi Associates provides you with a concise report of the findings. This report will provide indicators of staff satisfaction for the entire agency as well as findings by different segments of staff, such as patient care staff, administrative staff, and supervisory/management staff. The report is also benchmarked, compares different categories of staff, and includes comprehensive recommendations for improving retention.

For more information on Staff Satisfaction Surveys email: efreitag@fazzi.com.

Consider this: Turnover drives up your costs. You have the cost of overtime and per diems as you try to cover vacancies. You also have advertising costs, interview costs, training costs, preceptor costs, orientation costs and a myriad of other costs associated with hiring, training and getting a new staff person up to productivity levels.

Fifteen years of nursing turnover studies report that the cost of turnover in health systems range from a low of 1.3 times salary and benefits to a high of 2.6 times salary and benefits. Using a conservative 1.5 times salary and benefit ratio, if an average nurse costs you $60,000 for salary and another $20,000 for benefits (taxes, health coverage, disability cost, retirement, etc.), the cost of replacing that nurse would be 1.5 x $80,000 or $120,000. That’s an additional $40,000.

But, the problem doesn't stop here. Turnover means more pressure on remaining staff. Supervisors must refocus their efforts from service delivery to hiring. Patient relationships are broken as new workers are called in. Relationships with referral source personnel begin changing. Quality of services are threatened as per diems and possibly less experienced nurses take over.

What can you do? Consider using a Staff Satisfaction Survey as the first step. They are inexpensive. They are effective. And like Fazzi's Home Care Staff Satisfaction Survey, they will not only provide you with overall results, they will provide you with segmented analyses by department, team, discipline - any way you like. (Fazzi's survey also provides benchmark insights comparing your results to other home care and hospice agencies throughout the country.) And, as with any survey, you should expect to receive clear recommendations for improvement.

Once you know what staff like, don't like, and what you can do to increase their levels of satisfaction and retention, you can initiate highly focused quality of worklife efforts to address issues and reduce turnover. Best of all, by keeping one staff person and not having to go through the cost of recruiting, your savings will more than cover the cost of the survey AND all of your improvement efforts. You can't be more cost-effective than that.