Brain Drain in Health Care and How to Replace the Retiring Workforce

Introduction

The health care sector can face staff shortages due to brain drain resulting from poor recruitment and retention of employees. The ageing nursing workforce makes the health care administrators to anticipate further workforce shortages. The shortage necessitates implementation of an effective workforce retention approach (Clendon & Walker, 2016). Moreover, the ageing workforce implies that most of the staff members are retiring and this can lead to poor transition of knowledge to the incoming workforce. Therefore, the health care administrators must address the replacement of the retiring workforce to ensure proper recruitment and retention.

First, the organization can build effective interpersonal relationships between coworkers of different generations. For example, senior staff members should participate actively in apprenticeship programs by coaching and mentoring their junior colleagues. This strategy will ensure that the knowledge, skills, and expertise of the retiring workforce reflects on the new workforce after recruitment. However, the second strategy should focus on acquiring the right number of the staff members with appropriate educational qualifications and skills. The appropriate policy responses to the retiring workforce are expansion of the recruitment base and improvement of staff retention (Buchan, Duffield, & Jordan, 2015). The administrators can expand their recruitment base through strategies such as online recruitment, university partnerships, and internship programs.

Thirdly, the organizational managers should initiate flexible hiring procedures and working conditions to attract and retain top applicants. They can use a central staff recruitment agency to assess and approve the flexibility of their hiring process. Furthermore, the creation of a conducive working environment will retain these employees to cushion the organizations against brain drain that might lead to significant staff turnover levels. A positive workplace environemtn with interpersonal respect and employee engagement mediate organizational mission fulfilment and staff turnover reduction (Collini, Guidroz, & Perez, 2015). Additionally, the managers can address retirement by creating a transparent staff compensation and promotion policies to avoid voluntary retirement. In conclusion, health care administrators should take the responsibility of expanding their recruitment base and engaging employees to retain their staff.