Employee experience in healthcare 2024

Healthcare has always been a challenging industry, but the last few years put immense pressure on the workforce. Employee engagement fell to an all-time low, while burnout and turnover spiked across the nation. But finally, new data from Press Ganey points to a comeback—and signs of promise. “Employee experience in healthcare 2024” analyzes data from 2.2 million U.S.-based healthcare employees to better understand the workforce today—their challenges and expectations—and highlights opportunities for improvement.

Key employee experience takeaways for 2024

• Engagement is up, but not for all: For the first time since the pandemic, engagement is on the upswing—from 4.02 (out of 5) to 4.04 overall. But key groups (like leaders and clinical registered nurses) still face extreme challenges.
• Clinical RNs show signs of improvement: Nurse engagement is rising (up +0.04 to 3.89), proving that focused efforts can make a real difference among critical or at-risk groups.
• Leader engagement continues to spiral: Leader engagement has fallen for three years in a row, dropping 3.7% during that time frame. They’re one of the few groups that has not begun to rebound from pandemic levels.
• The retention crisis continues: One in five healthcare workers who were at their organizations in 2022 left the following year, with even higher turnover among new hires and nurses.
• Millennials’ rising star is dimmed by disengagement: Millennials, a large segment of the healthcare workforce, rate their experiences lower than other generations (3.89 out of 5 vs. 4.12 among non-millennials).
• There’s still work to be done: Nearly ⅓ of employees are disengaged, highlighting the need for further measurement—and action. And disengaged employees are 2x as likely to turn over as those who are highly engaged.

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