How can we combat future labor shortage in the healthcare sector? – Analyses of factors related to high staff turnover and of how organisations address future skill supply
Facts
- Contact person:
- Hanne Berthelsen
- Financer:
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- FORTE
- Responsible at MaU:
- Hanne Berthelsen
- Project members at MaU:
- External project members:
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- Linda Corin - Institute of Stress Medicine
- Constanze Leineweber - Stockholm University
- Hugo Westerlund - Stockholm University
- Time frame:
- 01 January 2024 - 31 December 2027
- Faculty/department:
- Research environment :
- Research subject:
Project description
High staff turnover, a problematic work environment and exit from key professions are threats to healthcare services. The overall research question is therefore how to better retain staff in such services in the future.
We aim to address this by investigating:
- How has the turnover problem developed over time?
- Who leaves to where and for what reasons?
- What is the importance of organizationorganisational and contextual specific drivers of turnover in welfare occupations?
- How do HR departments, given their important role supporting line management at strategic and operational level, approach the problem?
The project has a mixed-methods design based on longitudinal data from the SLOSH cohort, organisational exit survey data from the Region Västra Götaland (VGR), and interviews with HR-staff from regional healthcare organisations. Quantitative analyses will be supplemented with qualitative analyses of open-end survey responses. Interview data will be collected and analysed through the lens of enacted Psychosocial Safety Climate practices to understand the role of HR departments in supporting the line organizationorganisation to combat staff turnover.
The project is a collaboration between researchers from the Centre for Work Life and Evaluation studies at Malmö University, the Institute of Stress Medicine in Gothenburg and from the Stress Research Institute, Department of Psychology, Stockholm University. Securing skill supply for healthcare services is among the most pertinent problems for the coming decade.
This project will generate important insights for strategic human resource management in public welfare organizationorganisations, and for occupational health professionals as well as authorities and policy makers.