Eurodiaconia participated in the final workshop of a project that set out to study effective health workforce recruitment and retention strategies in Leuven on the 10-11 March. The project, funded by the Health Programme of the European Union, studied initiatives aiming to attract health workers to the health care system and maintain them there, and will provide practical and policy recommendations. Initial findings were discussed in the meeting, and many of the challenges experienced related to staffing in the health sector mirror those in the social sector, and many of the initiatives to tackle those challenges would also work for the social care workforce.
Examples of initiatives that support retention include ongoing training, management that engages with staff and values their input, expanding the scope of nursing practice and peer support for rural practitioners. Some examples of initiatives promoting recruitment include work experience in specialist areas to de-mystify them and provoke interest, virtual professional networks and mentoring, more team work and flexible working arrangements. The research includes a number of case studies of initiatives across Europe
The study drew out success factors for successful initiatives in this field, although the researchers pointed out a lack of proper evaluation of the effectiveness of the initiatives. They should be part of a holistic, integrated strategy or action plan, with clear objectives and engagement of key stakeholders to build a strong support base. Financial incentives to the workforce are important, but non-financial motivational drivers related to intrinsic motivation should also be addressed. For an intervention to succeed there must be sufficient time allowed to those participating in it, and it must be backed up by the right financial resources. It was noted that replication of an initiative from one country to another is often difficult because of legal and cultural differences but there are still many elements of initiatives that can be transferred.
Eurodiaconia called for joined up work with the social sector, in order to boost recruitment and retention there and transfer learning from one sector to another. Once the final project results are published Eurodiaconia will inform readers of the E-news.