Learning
Credentialing
Compliance
Healthcare onboarding best practices are the sensible way to stay ahead of what seems like a revolving door in today’s staffing environment.
Onboarding new employees can be long and tedious with boxes to check, policies to acknowledge, and training to complete. And there’s added pressure because a slow start for healthcare new hires can lead to costly delays and an overall decrease in productivity.
Calculate the time you can save with automated new hire onboarding.
According to the 2022 NSI National Healthcare Retention & RN Staffing Report, the average facility turnover rate among employees in 2021 was 25.9%. That means HR teams ended up replacing an average of one in four workers!
Historically, most organizations view healthcare onboarding as a necessary burden to get new hires compliant so they can see patients. And who can blame them? Things are B-U-S-Y!
But, putting a bit more thought into healthcare onboarding best practices can turn the tables, so you aren’t constantly hiring. Organizations that put extra effort into a great onboarding experience have significantly higher employee retention. Plus, when a good onboarding process includes medical credentialing, then you’re also getting providers paid faster, which will make them happier in your facility.
Benefits of Better Healthcare Onboarding Practices for New Hires
Statistics show that companies with solid employee connections experience several benefits, including:
Increased Staff Retention
Giving new hires a great healthcare onboarding experience is how you get an above-and-beyond commitment from them. Show them what makes your organization special — engaged employees who feel a meaningful connection to the organization and a commitment to improvement will be less tempted to leave.
Revenue Growth
Your organization — and providers — are losing money every week with credentialing and payer enrollment delays. Streamlining these processes will get providers in front of patients sooner, which boosts the bottom line and retention.
Increased Employee Satisfaction
Attracting great talent is much easier when you’re recognized as an employer of choice. Sure, competitive compensation and a great work environment play a big role, but giving employees a great experience in the beginning will set you on the right path.
Improved Staff Productivity
Using healthcare onboarding software helps employees ramp more quickly so they can contribute more, sooner. Simplify the compliance training process and reduce time in training with role-specific courses. That way, staff are getting exactly what they need to perform their job.
Six Healthcare Onboarding Best Practices
Making just a few tweaks to your new hire onboarding in healthcare, you can reap the benefits. Here are a few ideas to improve your process:
1. Share the larger purpose of your organization.
According to research by Brandon Hall Group, 88% of organizations say it is critical that “employees believe in what the organization stands for” as part of the onboarding process. To bring this to life, healthcare onboarding best practices call for training materials that share your organization’s mission, vision, and values. It could be a pre-recorded video from the CEO, a story about how the organization helps patients, or a group chat with a leader to explain what makes the organization special.
2. Talk about the value of an employee’s specific role.
Sometimes it’s hard for new staff to see how a lower-level role is impacting the organization’s mission. To make this connection during onboarding, share quotes or short videos profiling staff members who put their own personality or spin on their work, and who understand how their role contributes to the overall mission.
3. Develop a connection with coworkers.
Increase new hire engagement by scheduling time during meetings for ice-breakers or games that help employees get to know each other better. Encourage onboarding leaders to take individual staff members to lunch or coffee. This healthcare onboarding best practice shows employees they are valued, and also gives leaders an opportunity to hear from staff.
4. Begin onboarding as soon as the offer is accepted.
Healthcare is one of the most highly regulated industries, so you need to start the onboarding process immediately, so you’re not paying the new hire to sit in the breakroom their first week. Healthcare-specific training is required for every employee, and if you use an online learning management system, you can give them access before their first day.
Some healthcare organizations even offer virtual new hire orientation. The employees can complete their training and policy acknowledgments from home before even coming to the facility.
5. Make it easy for new hires to get up to speed.
An online system makes the healthcare onboarding process that much quicker and smoother for new employees. With a system that allows electronic form-filling for HR documents, reviewing policies, completing training remotely, and easy visibility into progress, new hires can be ready to begin practicing in a fraction of the time when compared to a manual process.
6. Check in on progress.
Checking in during healthcare onboarding helps you to smooth out the process. You may find that many people are getting stuck at the same point, or performance is poor in a certain course, and you need to make updates. While you can reach out to the new hire and ask for feedback at any point, it is much easier to check progress and performance using a compliance management platform.
Use Technology to Improve New Hire Healthcare Onboarding
Onboarding new employees in a medical facility is no small feat. On average, it can take up to eight weeks to ensure that all the necessary credentialing and training are in place for a healthcare new hire — a process that can be extended when you add the ideas above. But the time is well worth it. In addition to the healthcare onboarding best practices, take advantage of technology and automation.
Automate Healthcare Onboarding
Use healthcare onboarding software to automatically assign all necessary training, HR forms, and policy reviews based on the new hire’s role, location, and department. The HR team can assign all needed courses in a couple of clicks, instead of multiple processes, and the new employee knows exactly what needs to be completed.
Automatic Reminders and Reporting
Manually sending reminder emails is probably one of the most time-consuming parts of onboarding. An onboarding compliance software will automatically send reminders based on the course or attestation due date. Plus, you can schedule reports to automatically send to your inbox to stay on top of completion.
Digitize Credentialing
The credentialing process is tedious for everyone. Use a digital credentialing system that enables you to email providers a link to a secure online platform where they can upload their documents. Now, it’s even easier with the help of an AI Upload Assistant.
Continuous reminders and a standardized workflow will ensure no credentialing tasks fall through the cracks. Lastly, using a digital credentialing system that has a secure API integration with CAQH helps your team get clinicians credentialed faster. With one click, you can pull data directly from CAQH’s database into your credentialing software, saving time and reducing errors.
Accessible Anywhere
Don’t let paper forms and files hold back your new hire. Instead, with healthcare onboarding automation, let new hires fill out paperwork and complete training online instead of waiting until their first day of work. It’s easier for you as well — no more filing!
Ready to take your healthcare onboarding to the next level? Schedule a demo with MedTrainer to see how we can help.