Welcome to The What, When, Where, Why & How Guide to Recruitment, Retention and Workforce Development. This guide is designed to help health workforce strategists resolve recruitment and retention problems. It also provides tools to pre-empt catastrophic future shortages predicted by numerous studies and projections.
This guide is a joint project of the Tennessee Hospital Association (THA) and the
Center for Health Workforce Development in Tennessee (CHWDT). In May and June 2003, THA asked chief executive officers (CEOs) at its member hospitals and health systems to name one individual to serve as an official THA contact on workforce issues. This diverse panel of healthcare professionals includes CEOs, nurse executives, human resources executives and other practitioners.
To determine the initial content of the guide, we surveyed this panel, along with members of selected professional organizations affiliated with THA:
We have taken an "out of the box" approach to the guide. For example:
This guide is not complete.
It is not in book form.
It is not like any resource you will find anywhere else.
We planned it this way to serve you better.
Incomplete. This guide is a work in progress. It is designed to grow and develop to meet the specific and evolving needs of health workforce strategists in Tennessee.
The guide will be released in installments posted to the CHWDT web site at www.healthworkforce.org. The first phase of the guide includes nine articles selected by a panel of Tennessee health workforce strategists from a list of 44 "hot topics."
To request a new topic for future installments, contact Bill Jolley, executive director, Center for Health Workforce Development in Tennessee, at 615-256-8240 or bjolley@tha.com.
Unique format. We have designed the guide to meet users? needs for accessibility, practicality and efficiency. It is available for downloading, printing or perusing at your convenience.
Tip: If you anticipate using the guide?s content for planning purposes, we recommend you print sections as released and collect them in a binder. A portable hard copy will ensure easy reference at any time, any place.
The guide includes reference material, summaries of benchmark programs and supplementary resources divided into sections, each covering an area of workforce strategy. These sections are:
- Pipeline Development (Building a Larger Health Workforce Supply)
- Recruitment (Coming Soon)
- Retention (Coming Soon)
The guide also includes a separate track of articles focusing on principles of marketing, strategic planning and organizational development that are especially pertinent to health workforce strategists. These articles are collectively entitled The Strategist's Toolkit. Articles in The Strategist?s Toolkit accompany each section.
Focused on outcomes. Our goal in developing this guide is simple but ambitious. The Center for Health Workforce Development in Tennessee and Tennessee Hospital Association are committed to ending health workforce shortages. We want this guide to be a catalyst for results.
Organizations across the country have produced excellent publications on health workforce issues. Many useful reports, toolkits, guides and "best practices" compilations are available from the
American Hospital Association (AHA), other state hospital associations, professional societies and research groups. Most are free or reasonably priced. Click here for a selection. Many of these publications include useful information on who is engaged in innovative programs, what those initiatives are accomplishing, when they were implemented and where to get more information.
This guide is not intended to replicate other resources. Instead, it adds another "W" to the mix ? the why.
The Center has done the research for you. We read the guides, the books, the studies, toolkits and articles. We looked for recurrent themes and lessons the healthcare industry has learned about successful recruitment and retention. We looked at successful programs and dug a little deeper, searching for reasons why they were successful. We compared theory with practice and research with results.
This guide, like others, is a compilation of case histories of innovative programs in Tennessee and around the U.S. In addition, it contains a short course on the elements of successful strategy.
The practicing workforce strategists who helped shape the guide?s initial content are the charter members of a new knowledge sharing community called the Workforce Strategy Network (WSN). The Center for Health Workforce Development in Tennessee is organizing this network to facilitate collaboration, idea sharing, peer support and professional growth among workforce strategists across Tennessee. If you are engaged in the development or implementation of recruitment, retention or workforce development in a Tennessee healthcare facility or system office, you are invited to join the Workforce Strategy Network. To learn more, contact Bill Jolley at 615-256-8240, bjolley@tha.com
The guide is organized to enable you, the user, to access just the material you want, when you want it. Whether you are new to recruitment and retention strategy or a seasoned professional, the guide has information you can use:
- To learn the principles underlying effective strategies, read the articles in The Strategist?s Toolkit.
- For a quick overview of proven or promising programs in Tennessee and across the nation, scan the articles and accompanying links.
This guide is for you. Please tell us how to serve you better. Contact Bill Jolley at 615-256-8240, bjolley@tha.com.
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