Improving employee experience in healthcare: 7 key strategies

1. Addressing burnout through trust and effective management 

Burnout stems from chronic job stressors that have not been effectively managed. 

The responsibility to address these stressors doesn’t fall solely on the individual; it must also be shared by leadership and the organization. 

The CDC’s Vital Signs report highlights a concerning trend: burnout rates among healthcare workers have risen sharply, with nearly half considering leaving the industry altogether. 

This underscores the urgency for healthcare organizations to prioritize staff mental and emotional well-being.

Research shows that mitigating burnout requires more than surface fixes. 

Leaders need to address six interconnected areas: 

• Workload
• Autonomy
• Community
• Reward
• Fairness 
• Alignment with personal values. 

When these areas are managed well, staff feel supported and committed to their work.

At the core of all six drivers is trust. 

NRC Health’s study found that 91% of healthcare employees who trusted their organization were four times more likely to recommend it as a place to work and fifteen times more likely to recommend it as a place to receive care. 

For the remaining 9% who lacked trust, the primary reasons were culture and leadership.

As Jennifer explained during the webcast, “We know that the foundation of any healthy community is trust. We have to trust our colleagues and we have to trust our leaders in order to feel safe, psychologically safe, to have a great and thriving community.”

Building a culture of trust requires transparency, consistent leadership presence, and environments where staff feel psychologically safe to share ideas and concerns. 

When employees believe their voices are valued, they’re more engaged, more willing to contribute, and more motivated to stay.

2. Give employees more control

Autonomy is one of the six core drivers of burnout identified by Dr. Christina Maslach. When staff lack ownership over their work or decisions, frustration grows and engagement fades.

A study showed that workers with more involvement in decision-making and workplace protections reported lower rates of burnout and higher job satisfaction.

Despite this, many large health systems still struggle to give frontline employees an authentic voice. 

When staff don’t feel heard, they often create informal workarounds, temporary fixes that undermine efficiency and morale in the long run.

Jennifer noted, “Control is about autonomy and ownership and feeling that one is able to have innovation in their work. Without ways to capture good ideas, people either stay silent or create workarounds.”

Giving employees more control doesn’t mean handing over every decision. It means building structured channels for involvement, so staff ideas can influence the systems they work within every day.

3. Prioritize workplace community

Strong workplace relationships serve as a buffer against stress and high turnover, two of the most pressing challenges in healthcare today. 

The numbers tell the story: in 2024, the average hospital turnover rate was 18.3%, and for registered nurses, it was 16.4%, costing hospitals an average of $4.75 million per year in lost productivity and replacement expenses.

The first year of employment remains especially fragile. 

Nearly 30% of new hires and 22% of new RNs leave within their first year. 

High turnover rates not only strain finances but also weaken team cohesion, making it harder to deliver consistent care.

A growing body of research underscores the role of workplace relationships in retention. Studies show that environments where staff feel connected and supported see lower burnout rates and improved patient outcomes. 

Community and psychological safety are central: when employees trust their colleagues and leaders, they’re more willing to contribute ideas, take initiative, and remain loyal to their organization.

Toya Gourley explained the importance of shared ownership in building community:

“Teams are stronger, more productive, and there’s more trust when all members feel empowered and responsible for the team’s success.”

A 100+-bed acute care hospital partnered with NRC Health to address stagnant culture. In just 21 months, they saw an 11% reduction in nurse turnover. 

When organizations invest in workplace community, they address one of the most powerful levers for reducing costly turnover and stabilizing the healthcare workforce.

4. Recognize contributions both big and small

Valued employees stay longer. 

Healthcare organizations with strong recognition cultures can reduce staff turnover by around 31% and lower the chance of burnout by almost 50%. 

Employees who feel appreciated are up to 44% more engaged, and recognition initiatives can boost overall happiness by 25%, while even lowering stress levels significantly by nearly 50%. 

These findings reflect how acknowledgment directly supports staff well-being and retention.

At NRC Health, “Compliment Sharing” empowers teams to easily pass along positive patient feedback in real time, bringing recognition to the moment rather than waiting. 

Leaders can share heartfelt stories and encourage peer acknowledgment, building a culture that reinforces meaning and belonging.

Toya Gorley offered a simple yet powerful reminder, “If you see someone doing something that really exemplifies your organization’s values, say something in the moment. Those small but powerful things really lift people up.”

Effective recognition can take many forms and doesn’t require elaborate systems. 

For instance, encouraging patient feedback to name staff who made a difference, then sharing those stories with care teams, creating emotional connection and purpose.

Or, consider starting team awards. For example, quarterly “Patient Experience Awards” featuring trophies and banners or monthly “High-Five Awards” highlighting service excellence behaviors.

You could also start every day encouragement with“WOW” boards, take-one inspiration stations, chalk murals, and tear-away notes that remind teams they are appreciated.

5. Adopt continuous listening

Annual surveys no longer provide the speed or depth needed to address workforce challenges. 

Staff needs, stressors, and priorities change quickly, and waiting months for results makes it hard for leaders to respond in meaningful ways. 

Continuous listening, through multiple channels, helps healthcare organizations surface issues in real time and act on them before they escalate.

Research shows why this matters. When staff had access to structured feedback systems and felt their input was acted upon, burnout rates were significantly lower. 

Also, physicians working in collaborative, feedback-driven teams are 36% less likely to experience burnout.

Adam explained this shift well during the webcast, “The most powerful listening isn’t just collecting surveys—it’s empowering employees and leaders to act on what they hear.”

One NRC Health partner combined survey data with real-time staff conversations, managers were able to quickly spot patterns, like communication gaps between shifts. Within six months, the hospital reported a measurable increase in trust scores and a decline in turnover among early-career nurses.

UCI Health, a major academic system, launched a four-month rounding pilot using NRC Health’s real-time feedback platform to improve communication between nurses and providers in their Medical Surgical units. 

They formed a steering committee, including frontline champions, to co-design rounding workflows that enhanced collaboration and patient communication. 

After the pilot, they saw a 7.3% improvement in nurse-to-patient communication. 

Continuous listening shifts feedback from a box-checking exercise to a daily practice that builds trust, reduces burnout, and strengthens the connection between staff and leadership.

6. Address staffing and burnout directly

Healthcare leaders often hear the same feedback from staff: “If we just had more people, we’d provide better care.” 

While increasing staffing levels is an obvious long-term goal, the reality is that shortages are projected to continue.

 The National Academy of Medicine has warned that burnout has reached “crisis levels,” threatening both workforce stability and patient outcomes.

Jennifer stressed that designing work practices around reality—not best-case scenarios—is essential, “When we are co-designing practices, design for the real-life circumstance—not the best-case scenario. That gives us a better chance of sustaining those practices.”

7. Strengthen workplace safety

Workplace safety is inseparable from workforce well-being. 

Healthcare workers are five times more likely to face workplace violence than workers in other industries. These incidents increase stress, accelerate burnout, and raise turnover rates.

Toya emphasized recovery as a key part of safety, “One of the most important things after an incident is allowing space and time for employees to heal, whether that’s taking a break, speaking with chaplain staff, or taking a day off.”

Take Sanford Health, for example. Sanford Health partnered with NRC Health to implement a patient service-recovery system that prioritizes timely, localized response when service gaps occur.

A pilot across 12 clinics led Sanford leadership to roll the program out systemwide to help automated from real-time feedback that prompt department-level follow-up instead of relying solely on a centralized team.

This on-the-ground responsiveness not only resolves patient issues immediately, it also demonstrates to staff that their safety and patient care matters. When service problems are acknowledged and addressed quickly, workplace trust grows, and with it, a sense of safety.