Healthcare Workforce Retention

She moved back to Detroit to care for her mom. She ended up managing a rotating team of home-health aides while running her own business. Theresa de la Osa is an executive recruiter, and she ended up using her skills to solve the problem. She hired nursing students directly from local schools at $20/hour, instead of paying agencies $33/hour for aides earning just $16. Most of your employees can't do that. And they're solving it alone. Between 10% and 20% of workers across every industry are managing elder care right now, per KPMG economist Matthew Nestler, PhD. Unlike child care, it rarely comes with warning: it arrives as a crisis. The cost to employers? Lost productivity, and higher turnover. As Matthew noted for those leaders concerned about the cost of supporting new programs, "You're already in the red whether you know it or not." In Part 1, I covered what costs nothing: starting with simply making elder care a conversation that's encouraged. Today's Charter Pro piece outlines seven more steps companies can take. Here are three: 🧭 Add #eldercare concierge services. For employees navigating sudden, complex needs, concierge services help them understand their options: booking appointments, explaining next steps, interpreting medical information. 🗓️ Provide real flexibility. For caregivers, schedule flexibility determines whether they can get a parent to a 10am appointment. RTO mandates aren't neutral here. For frontline workers, predictable schedules matter just as much. 📋 Extend paid family leave broadly. Tracy Layney led this at Levi Strauss & Co.: eight weeks, any family member, any circumstance for all benefits-eligible employees (i.e., store staff). As she puts it: "I would rather have an employee take eight weeks away and come back than have them quit." And advocate for change beyond your own four walls: As Matthew says, workers and their employers are "subsidizing the healthcare industry" through unpaid care. Employers have real leverage and a direct business interest in pushing for systemic change. Replacing a frontline worker costs 40% of their salary. An office worker? 80%. The math on doing nothing is worse than the math on doing something. The full piece has four more, linked in comments. What support does your organization currently offer caregivers?

The CFO called soft skills "soft." Until the numbers arrived I was presenting to the leadership team of a logistics company. The CFO interrupted me 8 minutes in. "With respect, these are soft skills. We run a hard business. Can you show me ROI?" I said: "Yes. Can I ask you something first?" "How much does it cost you when a high-performer leaves?" He said: "Depends on the role." I said: "Let's use your mid-level ops managers. What's the replacement cost?" He thought. Then said: ₹12 to ₹18 lakhs per person. Recruitment. Notice period. Knowledge loss. Ramp-up time. I said: "And how many did you lose last year?" Eleven. Conservative estimate: ₹1.3 #crore I asked: "What was the number one reason they gave in exit interviews?" His HR head looked at me. Then at him. "My manager" ,she said quietly The CFO was quiet for a moment. I said: "Sir, what I train is the skill set that keeps your ₹12-lakh-to-replace managers in the building." That's not soft. That's the hardest thing you can do for your P&L. We signed a 6-month engagement that afternoon. Twelve months later, their mid-level manager attrition went from 23% to 9%. They calculated ₹94 lakhs saved in direct attrition costs. The program cost ₹6 lakhs. The CFO now sends me referrals. Soft skills is the wrong name. Call them what they are: retention skills, revenue skills, leadership skills. The number is always there. Most people just haven't done the math. #leadership

Last week I shared some thoughts about the reality of working through the school holidays and how it is all a bit shit. Even with teenagers, and even with a fair bit of flexibility, it’s still a juggle. And the response to the post really struck me. So many people shared similar stories of the stress, the logistics, and the sense of just trying to hold it all together. And no surprises, it was very heavily weighted to the female caregivers dealing with the majority of the crap. So I thought rather than just venting, I’d share some thoughts on how organisations might be able to reduce some of the stress: 1. Embrace genuine flexibility, not just flexible hours Let parents shift workloads across the fortnight, reduce non-essential meetings, or take blocks of time off without guilt. According to McKinsey, working parents are 70% more likely to stay with an employer that supports flexible work models during peak caregiving times. 2. Plan for holiday pressure in your resourcing models: School breaks aren’t a surprise. Treat them like other known capacity dips, stagger leave, adjust deadlines, or temporarily scale back expectations. Research from the UK’s Working Families charity shows that proactive workload planning is a key enabler of retention for working parents. 3. Normalise taking annual leave and actively promote this: When leaders model taking mid-year breaks to be with their families, it gives others permission too. Otherwise, we end up with ‘leave shaming” and burnout. 4. Consider offering school holiday programmes or subsidies It’s not easily achievable for every company, but consider offering school holiday care, on-site or subsidised. This can be a game-changer - especially for solo parents or those without family support nearby. 5. Just ask Not all support needs to be policy. Sometimes it’s as simple as checking in and saying: “What would help you get through these next two weeks?” This stuff matters. Not just for retention and performance, but for making work fit around life and not the other way around. I don’t think these suggestions will fix what is ultimately a broken system, but hoping someone might find a little inspiration to make life a little easier! Would love to hear any other ideas?

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. It’s having employees who stay — but are disengaged. • Because disengagement is silent. • It doesn’t show up in exit interviews. • But it slowly eats away at productivity, creativity, and morale. I recently had the opportunity to conduct a workshop for the employees of Zydus Group on two critical themes: Motivation and Engagement. Here’s what we discovered: • Motivation is often misunderstood. • It’s not about pep talks or incentives alone. • It’s about cultivating the right mindset. With a Fixed Mindset, challenges look like threats. With a Growth Mindset, challenges look like opportunities. That small shift makes all the difference. It gives you resilience, energy, and the ability to bounce back when things don’t go your way. But here’s the truth: Motivation alone isn’t enough. Without engagement, it fades. So we went deeper into what employees can do to remain engaged at work: ✔️ Seek clarity — know the “why” behind your work ✔️ Build connections — relationships drive belonging ✔️ Ask for feedback — growth thrives on reflection ✔️ Celebrate progress — even small wins fuel big momentum ✔️ Align with purpose — when you see meaning, energy follows The conversations in the room were powerful. People realized motivation is personal. Engagement is relational. And both together create the fuel for long-term success at work. The takeaway: If you want to stay productive, fulfilled, and growing — don’t just wait for your company to motivate you. Take ownership of your own motivation. Build habits of engagement. When you stay motivated and engaged, you don’t just survive at work. You thrive. This is exactly what I help organizations achieve through my experiential workshops — where employees don’t just learn concepts, they practice them, reflect on them, and walk away with actionable strategies to stay motivated and engaged. If your organization is serious about building a workforce that doesn’t just stay — but thrives — let’s connect.

Have you ever heard of the Sandwich Generation? You might be in it: It’s anyone simultaneously caring for their children and adult parents. So count me as a card-carrying member! But the thing is, those in the throes of all these caregiving responsibilities are often struggling. A LOT. According to a recent study from the University of Phoenix and Motherly: ▶️ 51% of working moms in the Sandwich Generation have left a job due to caregiving responsibilities. ▶️ 66% say the benefits offered by their employers aren't enough to meet their needs. ▶️ 30% say they don’t have time to access the resources currently available to them anyway! These are real business (and human!) challenges. And addressing them is not only good for people, but critical for business. According to Chief Strategy and Customer Officer at University of Phoenix (and a classmate of mine at the Kellogg), Ruth V., “As more employees take on dual caregiving roles, overlooking these challenges could result in widespread attrition, disengagement, and lost leadership potential.” Here is what Great Human Leaders can do to retain the Sandwich Generation. Hint: just adding mustard or mayo wont do the trick. 1️⃣ Give them a break (a real one!) Almost two thirds of Sandwich Moms’ sick time/PTO is used for caregiving and three quarters take time off “multiple times a year for unexpected eldercare needs.” Great human companies get creative about separating caregiving time off from a true vacation. At AT&T, managers are given up to 15 days per year specifically to care for ailing relatives (and this time is separate from their vacation and personal sick days). 2️⃣ Curate connections to other Sandwich Generation employees It takes a village, and their peers can help. Research shows that “Many sandwich gen employees cite feeling stressed (59%), frustrated (36%), or isolated (29%) at much higher rates than their non-sandwich peers.” Great Human Leaders create space for Sandwich Gen employees to connect with each other. An ERG/PRG will help them discover they are not alone, and that they can share resources. 3️⃣ Take professional development personally Just because the Sandwich Gen employees are really busy doesn’t mean they don’t want to grow and develop. But “57% feel trapped in their jobs due to lack of qualifications or time to upskill.” Great Human Leaders need to design creative ways to upskill this group, e.g make it during the work day, micro-learning, or asynchronous development. Ask THEM how they want to develop! Whether you’re in the Sandwich Generation right now or not, almost all of us, at some point, will pass through it. So we may as well design workplaces that not only account for the messy middle, but also support those employees going through it. And if you’re a leader who already has support systems in place for this, I’d love to hear about it. Here are some of my Sandwich Gen credentials :)

In many organizations, employee engagement is mistakenly equated with a series of planned activities—monthly team lunches, festive decorations, fun contests, town halls, and birthday celebrations. While these moments add flavor to the workplace, they are often just that—moments. But true engagement is not episodic. It doesn’t start and end with an event invitation. It is systemic, emotional, and deeply human. It shows up not in how often an employee smiles at a party, but in how meaningfully they show up to work every day. Engagement is when: 1)       An employee feels respected—for their time, input, uniqueness, and aspirations. 2)       They see growth—not just in titles or pay, but in skills, confidence, and challenge. 3)       They feel a sense of belonging—not because of inclusion initiatives, but because the environment naturally welcomes and values who they are. These are not created through a playlist. They are cultivated through everyday interactions, leadership behaviors, policies, and the organization’s deepest intentions. Events may spark joy, but culture sustains commitment. In short: Activities attract. Culture retains. Purpose engages. Growth fulfills. When respect, growth, and belonging are embedded into the DNA of the organization, employee engagement becomes less of a goal and more of a byproduct of how things are done. #TheSanjeevCode #EmployeeEngagement #WorkplaceCulture #PeopleFirst #EmployeeExperience #EngageToRetain #FutureOfWork #StrategicHR #LeadershipMatters #HRWithPurpose #ReimagineHR #WorkCultureMatters #SanjeevaniEffect

Is your unit heading towards the edge of a retention cliff? Nurses don’t leave suddenly. They leave slowly, in stages you can see coming if you know what to look for. The problem? Most organizations don’t recognize the warning signs until they’re already in crisis mode, scrambling to fill vacancies, and watching their most experienced staff walk out the door. Here are the 3 signals that should tell you if your unit is headed toward a retention cliff: 1. Nurses stop speaking up because nothing changes When feedback becomes futile, silence becomes survival. If nurses have raised the same concerns repeatedly such as unsafe ratios, broken equipment, inadequate support and nothing improves…they will stop wasting their energy. They stop coming to meetings. They stop filling out surveys. They quietly start updating their resumes instead. 2. Documentation expands without removing other work Every new regulatory requirement, quality metric, and compliance checklist gets added to the nurse’s plate. But nothing ever gets taken off. The expectation becomes: do everything you were already doing, plus this new thing, in the same amount of time. This makes nurses start to feel like data entry clerks instead of clinicians. And that’s when they start looking for roles where their expertise actually matters. 3. Moral distress becomes normalized When nurses start saying things like “this is just how it is” or “you get used to it” in response to unsafe conditions, or impossible workloads, that’s not resilience. That’s a red flag 🚩 Moral distress should never be normalized. The moment it becomes background noise instead of an urgent problem to solve is the moment the ability to retain the nurses who care most deeply about the work is lost. This is not an inclusive list. All of these signals are preventable. The units that avoid the retention cliff are the ones that: ∙ Respond to feedback with visible change ∙ Protect nurses’ time and eliminate low-value tasks before adding new ones ∙ Name moral distress when it happens and create space to address it Creating conditions where nurses can do the work they were trained to do without sacrificing their well-being, their professional integrity, or their belief that their voices matter is the barrier before the fall(out). Drop a comment below👇 Let’s talk about what real retention looks like. Not the surface-level fixes, but the structural changes that actually keep nurses at the bedside.

Your company spends around ₹10-20 lakh on training but the majority of employees forget 70% of it in a week. Here's how to fix that. Most of us have attended a 2-day leadership workshop And most of us forgot what we learned by the following weekend. Research shows employees forget 70% of training within a week. Here's why and how to fix it: 1. One-time events don't work.  A single session isn't learning. It's exposure. Build follow-ups at 24 hours, 7 days, and 30 days. 2. Passive consumption kills retention.  Watching slides isn't learning. Practicing is. Add interactive exercises, not more content. 3. No real-world context.  If examples don't match their actual challenges, 40% mentally check out. Tie scenarios to daily decisions. 4. No spaced repetition.  One session, then silence. Spaced repetition boosts retention by over 200%. Send short reminders over weeks. 5. No accountability after training ends.  95% of skills fade without structured follow-up. Assign owners. Create practice checkpoints. 6. Content feels generic.  Emotionally meaningful content is remembered twice as well. Use real stories, not templates. 7. Old habits return.  New behaviors fade within 30 days without integration. Embed learning into daily workflows. 8. One-size-fits-none.  More than half disengage when training feels irrelevant to their role. Personalize by function and level. 9. No feedback loop.  If employees never hear whether they're improving, motivation dies. Add real-time feedback and simple check-ins. The problem isn't people who can’t retain information.  It's how we train them to do it. What's one training insight that actually stuck with you?

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 They treat it like a one-time event. A workshop. A box ticked. An expense. The result? Underwhelming impact and wasted budgets. The truth is: training only works when it is designed like a leadership journey, not a classroom session. That’s how executive presence gets built - through repeated practice, reflection, and reinforcement. Here are 3 ways to make training stick and deliver business results: 𝟏. 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞 Build structured journeys. Pre-work, dynamic sessions, post-work application. Like a mission, not a meeting. 𝟐. 𝐑𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧  Group Coaching, virtual peer huddles, and daily quick-hit refreshers so new skills don’t fade. 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 Track the business impact. Not just attendance sheets and smiley-face feedback. One of our clients discovered this the hard way. For years, they invested in sending leaders to The Ivy League MBA schools, skills workshops, communication templates, even role-play drills. Each worked in rehearsals. But in real CXO and board conversations, the impact never stuck. That’s when they shifted to our 𝐄𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 that included an 𝐄𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 and 100-day journey. The difference? Senior leaders didn’t just learn, they practiced, measured progress, and reinforced behaviours until they became second nature. Within 4 months, senior leaders reported: ✅ 𝟔𝟑% 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡-𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞  ✅ 𝟓𝟕% 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧  ✅ 𝟓𝟓% 𝐮𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 CEO noticed the shift immediately in boardroom decision-making and stakeholder engagement. When you do this, training shifts from being an expense to becoming a strategic asset that fuels collaboration, loyalty, and decision-making. That’s how organizations grow leaders with true presence. 👉 What’s one reinforcement practice you’ve seen work well in your company’s L&D programs? #ExecutivePresence #CoachVikram #Impact #Leadership

Employee engagement: It's far more than just pizza parties and expensive gifts. While those gestures are appreciated, they often just scratch the surface. True employee engagement runs much deeper. It's built on a foundation of: • Consistent & Transparent Communication: Do your employees feel informed, heard, and valued through regular, open dialogue about the company's vision, challenges, and successes? • Clear Expectations & KPIs: Are managers effectively defining roles, responsibilities, and key performance indicators, so every team member knows exactly what's expected and how their work contributes to the bigger picture? • Defined Career Paths & Growth: Can your employees envision their future within the organization? Are there clear opportunities for development, skill enhancement, and upward mobility, supported by meaningful discussions about their aspirations? • Robust 360-Degree Feedback: Is feedback a two-way street? Do employees receive constructive input from all directions, and more importantly, do they feel their own feedback is genuinely considered and acted upon without fear of reprisal? • Psychological Safety & Open Systems: Is there an environment where employees feel safe to voice concerns, propose new ideas, or even admit mistakes without fear of punishment or negative repercussions? Does leadership truly listen and integrate this feedback? • Trust in Leadership & Vision: Do employees believe in the integrity and competence of their leaders? Do they trust the direction the organization is heading and feel confident in its ability to navigate challenges? • Recognition Beyond Rewards: Is hard work and dedication acknowledged consistently, not just with monetary bonuses, but also through genuine appreciation and opportunities for impact? • Work-Life Balance & Well-being: Does the organization genuinely support employee well-being, understanding that a sustainable pace and personal time are critical for long-term engagement and productivity? You can throw all the parties and lavish gifts you want, but an employee who lacks clarity, feels unheard, or sees no future will still disengage, and eventually, leave. Engagement isn't about buying loyalty; it's about earning it through a supportive, transparent, and growth-oriented culture. So, I ask you: Are you truly engaged today? And what's one thing your organization could do to foster deeper engagement? #EmployeeEngagement #HR #WorkplaceCulture #Leadership #CareerDevelopment #Feedback #Trust #HumanResources #FutureOfWork