Practice Title: Combating Employee Burn-Out by Investing in our People
Department: Larimer County Department of Health and Environment
Size: Medium (Population of 50,000-499,999 people)
State: Colorado
Summary of Practice:
It is no secret that the pandemic caused high levels of stress and burnout in the public health workforce. Towards the end of 2020, the Larimer County Department of Health and Environment (LCDHE) started to feel the impact of the pandemic. Through the 2020 county-wide employee survey, staff reported increased feelings of burnout, anxiety, and depression, and a decreased feeling of community. Between 2019 and September 2022, our overall separation rate for regular and limited-term employees was 40.7%. By year, this breaks down to 10.4% in 2019, 20.7%% in 2020, 19.6% in 2021, and 15% in 2022 with the total number of separations, during this time at 61. Separations include staff who voluntarily or involuntarily left the organization as well as those who retired. Although the pandemic was far from over, the department’s leadership understood that we couldn’t wait any longer to invest in, and best retain staff.
At the beginning of 2021, with the pandemic still looming, our leadership refocused our priorities to help staff avoid burnout. We started by listening to staff and learning about how to support them in achieving and maintaining a healthy work-life balance. We then created a new employee onboarding system so that new staff would feel a sense of belonging. Thirdly, we increased professional development funds to encourage and empower our staff to seek out new training opportunities.
Throughout all these new projects and processes, we implemented steps to ensure all staff could participate and were learning about equity and inclusion every step of the way. One of the ways we did this was by offering interpretation services for staff during orientation for those who have limited English proficiency. Additionally, in new employee orientation, we dedicate a section to the basic principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Although we can’t include everything, we want staff to know that equity is one of our values and how these principles are applied to our public health work every day. Our Health Equity Initiatives Coordinator is also working closely with staff to discuss the barriers to providing services to the community and discuss what specific training related to equity would most benefit their work. Teams within the department are then using our training funds to pay for these training sessions.
Overall, our objectives were to:
1. Increase staff ratings of “Work-Life Balance” and “Amount of work is reasonable” on the employee survey.
2. 100% of staff attend new employee orientation, this includes existing staff who did not have the opportunity to attend such an offering when they started at LCDHE.
3. Increase staff knowledge of our mission, vision, values, organizational structure, roles and responsibilities, and programs.
4. Make staff feel valued by investing in their professional development.
5. Significantly reduce staff separation rates.
Achieving these objectives required collaboration across the department and buy-in from all levels of the organization including the Board of Health, which is the body that governs our department. Supervisors hosted informational interviews with all of their staff, staff adjusted their schedules to attend orientation, leadership created budget line items to fund training opportunities, and management created tools and resources to improve bi-directional communication. Additionally, staff was asked to provide feedback and we made adjustments, when possible and when needed, based on relevant feedback. This project required all egos to be set aside and for everyone to commit to our common goal of investing in our people and is something that has been very successful.
This collaborative and comprehensive effort has led us to be very successful in reaching our objectives. From 2021 to 2022, employees increased their rating of “the amount of work is reasonable'' by 5% and “work-life balance” by 10%. We have launched and trained all supervisors in our new onboarding process and over 75% of staff have attended the new employee orientation. Through pre and post-orientation surveys, we have learned that staff has increased knowledge of LCDHE’s mission, vision, and values and a better understanding of their roles and responsibilities and how they fit into the organization. Staff is increasingly using professional development funds and seeking out innovative training such as learning a new language, improving writing skills, and learning how to better manage conflict.
With public health agencies being in the spotlight more than ever before, we must have a strong workforce who understand their roles and responsibilities within the community. It is also important that we are spending our time providing the services we offer instead of constantly hiring and onboarding new staff which can cost upwards of $4,000 per staff member hired. LCDHE is committed to continuing these practices in years to come and hopes to continue to increase our employee retention, satisfaction, and well-being.
Combating Employee Burn-Out by Investing in our People
Category
Workforce and Leadership
Description