High CNA turnover significantly impacts your facility’s ability to provide holistic and comprehensive care. Poor CNA staffing extensively strains existing staff and continuity of care, impacting resident satisfaction and ultimately your occupancy rates. This blog explores how a strong employer brand is the key to attracting and retaining CNAs, fostering staff satisfaction, reducing turnover, and improving care outcomes.
What is Employer Branding and Why It's Vital for CNAs
Employer branding is your organization’s reputation as a workplace. While the definition is simple, don’t let it fool you. Up to 95% of job candidates consider an organization’s employer branding before accepting a new position.
In today’s competitive hiring landscape, CNAs have choices. They seek supportive and stable work environments with a positive company culture. While the CNA workforce across the US is large, it can feel relatively small in some areas, especially rural communities. CNAs find this information by researching your word-of-mouth and online reputation as they navigate your healthcare recruitment strategies and processes.
Crafting Your Magnetic Employer Brand
Crafting an employer branding strategy to support staff recruitment and retention is imperative. Let’s review some factors you must consider when creating your branding strategy.
- Core Values and Company Culture - Most organizations have a mission statement and core values. However, not every facility treats them as a living document that CNAs translate into daily practice. Fostering a positive and respectful company culture that supports teamwork and open communication can go a long way in establishing your employer brand.
- Employee Experience - Creating a streamlined and respectful recruitment process requires planning and intention. However, if you want to stop the revolving door in your facility, you must consider how to institute ongoing support for your CNA workforce. Consider focusing on:
- Comprehensive onboarding practices
- Paid in-house initial training opportunities
- Opportunities for continuing growth, such as specialized training
- Consistent recognition and appreciation for staff
- Authentic Showcase of Company Culture - A happy and engaged workforce is one of your best assets. Share real stories online and in marketing materials from your CNAs. Leverage your online presence to share your core values, retention and recruitment strategies, activities, events, and growth opportunities.
Positive Outcomes of Strong Employer Branding
An employer branding strategy doesn’t happen overnight. The time you put in now to develop a strong and positive employer brand can have lasting effects. Here are some common outcomes of a strong employer brand.
- Attracting and Retaining Top Talent - A strong brand acts as a magnet for high-quality applicants, reducing recruitment time. Shortening the cycle time when reviewing applications, conducting interviews, and selecting the right candidates can help stabilize your workforce staffing quickly.
- Less Turnover and Higher Retention - Workforce shortages impact more than your staffing matrix. Not enough staff can cause untoward effects like poor patient outcomes, increased falls, and other unplanned incidents. It can also lead to staff burnout and dissatisfaction. Satisfied CNAs are less likely to leave, which is directly related to lower turnover and saves significant costs in hiring and training.
- Enhanced Staff Satisfaction: A positive work environment boosts CNA morale and engagement. When your CNA workforce feels valued and supported, they experience more connectedness to their work, increased job satisfaction, and less burnout.
- Improved Patient Outcomes - Residents and their families want to feel safe and secure in your facility. Consistent staffing leads to better continuity of care. Happy, engaged CNAs provide higher quality, compassionate care, leading to better care experiences and trust.
Practical Employer Branding Steps
Now that you understand the benefits of a strong employer brand on your CNA workforce, let’s review four actionable steps to improve your company culture and retain your CNAs.
- Assess Current Perceptions - You can’t improve your company culture and brand until you know the current state. Conduct an anonymous survey asking staff key questions about how they feel about your reputation, the workplace, and the staff experience. This strategy provides you with real-time data to create an action plan.
- Develop a Clear Employer Branding Story - Now that you have real-time data from your CNA workforce, use this to create your employer story. Consider what you want to be known for as an employer and weave this throughout your employer story. Add these details to your facility’s career webpage, social media accounts, and other places job candidates visit often.
- Empower your CNAs to be Advocates - Engaged and happy staff are your best brand ambassadors. Encourage them to share positive experiences online and refer other top CNAs they know. Consider an employee referral program to reward staff for finding and keeping high-performing employees.
- Track Progress and Adapt - Your employer branding strategy must change and grow with you. Survey your staff regularly to stay updated on how your efforts change staff satisfaction and engagement. Analyze recruitment, retention, and turnover rates over time and connect your data to the various strategies to see what works and doesn’t.
Invest in Your People, Invest in Your Future
Your employer branding efforts are more than a marketing tool. It’s a direct investment in your staff, your facility’s long-term success, and your residents’ satisfaction and health outcomes. A thriving workplace impacts your residents’ care and your organization’s future successes.