Donation to the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses will help 80 nurses pursue certification.
Two professional baseball-affiliated healthcare groups hit the ball out of the park with donations to provide scholarships to more than 80 nurses ready to pursue CCRN or PCCN specialty certification.
The donations to the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) allows the AACN for the first time to provide professional development scholarships to support its nursing certification programs, according to a press release.
"Nurses have been on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are inspired by their dedication and resilience," said Ron Porterfield, director of player health with the Los Angeles Dodgers and president of PBATS, which represents athletic trainers at all 30 MLB clubs and their Minor League affiliates. "We wanted to recognize their hard work while helping them advance professionally at the same time.”
Sports medicine surgeon Steve Cohen, head team physician for the Philadelphia Phillies and a member of the MLBTPA executive committee, concurred.
"Throughout the pandemic, our nurse colleagues have continually demonstrated their commitment to patients and their communities, risking their own well-being to save others," Cohen said. "This donation is a reflection of our respect and our gratitude for their vital role as key members of the healthcare team."
Specialty certifications reaffirm nurses’ commitment to excellence and demonstrates to patients, employers, and the public that a nurse’s knowledge reflects national standards and a strong personal dedication to patient safety.
"Interdisciplinary collaboration and teamwork have been a hallmark of care during the COVID-19 pandemic, and this recognition underscores the value of those relationships," said AACN president Beth Wathen. "These scholarships will help dozens of critical and progressive care nurses earn their specialty nursing certification, which will have a lasting impact for the recipients, their colleagues, and their patients."
Each scholarship will cover a one-time certification exam registration fee, as well as access to one of AACN’s online certification review courses.
AACN members who are first-time CCRN or PCCN certification candidates can apply online for the scholarships through October 18, 2021. Recipients will be notified in December 2021 and must register for and schedule their exam within six months of notification.
Workforce innovations firm releases new annual data on U.S. direct care workers.
Direct care workers, who are "essential to the lives of millions of older adults and people with disabilities," struggled in poverty-level jobs across all long-term care settings, according to a new report from PHI, a national research, advocacy, and workforce innovations organization.
Direct Care Workers in the United States: Key Facts provides an annual look at the direct care workforce, including its occupational roles, demographics, job quality challenges, and projected job openings. It includes detailed overviews of three segments of this workforce: home care workers, residential care aides, and nursing assistants in nursing homes.
PHI annually releases new data on the direct care workforce, which in 2020 included 4.6 million workers, including 2.4 million home care workers, 675,000 residential care aides, 527,000 nursing assistants in nursing homes, and about 1 million direct care workers employed in other settings.
"Our new report emphasizes how longstanding poor job quality in direct care has prevented our country from effectively responding to the COVID-19 crisis and keeping workers and the people they support healthy and safe," Jodi M. Sturgeon, PHI president, said in a press release. "This data should serve as a call to action to further invest in this essential workforce."
Growing workforce sector
The direct care workforce expanded rapidly over the last decade, growing from 3.1 million workers in 2010 to 4.6 million in 2020, according to PHI. In the next decade, the direct care workforce will add an estimated 1.3 million new jobs to meet rising demand, the report states.
Despite that growth, however, long-term care employers will face difficulty in recruiting and retaining workers, given high turnover in this job sector. When including jobs that must be filled when existing workers transfer to other occupations or exit the labor force, long-term care employers will need to fill 7.4 million job openings in direct care from 2019 to 2029, the report says.
"It's difficult to imagine how the long-term care sector will meet demand for direct care workers without dramatically improving their jobs," said Kezia Scales, director of policy research at PHI.
The direct care workforce continues to be largely comprised of women, people of color, and immigrants, according to the report. For example, immigrants constitute 31 percent of the home care workforce, compared to 17 percent of the total U.S. labor force.
Workers in these direct care jobs also persistently struggle with poverty; the median wage for direct care workers was $13.56 in 2020, median earnings were $20,200, and 44 percent of these workers relied on some form of public assistance, such as Medicaid, nutrition support, or cash assistance.
Among residential care aides, for example, 32 percent do not have affordable housing and 17 percent lack health insurance.
Direct care workers also face heavy workloads and high injury rates, which have made their jobs even more dangerous during the COVID-19 pandemic, the report says. On average, nursing assistants support 13 residents during a typical shift and are more than three times likelier to experience workplace injuries than the typical U.S. worker.
Looking ahead
While the total number of direct care jobs will increase in the years ahead, this job growth will be concentrated in home and residential care—while the number of nursing assistant jobs in nursing homes will shrink, according to PHI.
Public and private sector leaders must improve these jobs to ensure these jobs get filled, the report notes.
"Direct care workers are essential to the lives of millions of older adults and people with disabilities," said Stephen McCall, data and policy analyst at PHI, "and they deserve high-quality jobs that reflect their enormous value."
The gift is intended to increase access to healthcare, particularly for Montana's rural and frontier communities.
A $101 million gift to Montana State University's College of Nursing—reportedly the largest ever given to a college of nursing in the United States—is intended to increase access to healthcare, particularly for rural and frontier communities.
Provide funding for new facilities at each of the MSU College of Nursing's five campuses in Bozeman, Billings, Great Falls, Kalispell, and Missoula equipped with modern classrooms and state-of-the-art simulation labs.
Establish five endowed faculty professorships—the first in the history of the MSU College of Nursing. These endowed professorships will position MSU to attract top faculty talent during a nationwide nursing faculty shortage.
Develop an endowed scholarship fund that will allow the MSU College of Nursing to keep the cost of nursing education affordable for all students.
Create Montana's only certified nurse midwifery program, significantly increasing the number of specialized maternal healthcare providers for Montana's rural and remote communities.
"It is hard to put into words how moved and excited all of us are at Montana State University by the generosity of the Joneses, who are helping to address some of the most critical healthcare disparity issues in Montana, particularly in the state's rural areas," MSU President Waded Cruzado said in a press release.
"This gift will forever change healthcare in Montana, and it will serve as a model for the nation," Cruzado said. "Thanks to their vision, we will have access to tangible tools, such as high-quality simulation labs, new facilities across our nursing campuses, and more registered nurses, and doctor of nursing practice-prepared nurse practitioners and nurse midwives."
Access to healthcare has been a critical issue across the state, with 52 of Montana's 56 counties classified as medically underserved and health professional shortage areas by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
There are many counties in Montana lacking even one primary care, mental health, or maternal care provider, but this gift will provide the opportunity to more than double the number of family nurse practitioners and psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioners graduating from MSU, according to the university.
"We both grew up visiting Montana with our families, and now it is one of the places we call home," said Robyn Jones. "We've seen first-hand the health care challenges that Montana faces, and we wanted to do something that will make an impact on the people of this beautiful state."
Montana State is the largest producer of registered nurses in Montana and is the sole provider of doctoral nurse practitioner education in the state.
"This is a significant moment for MSU," said Sarah Shannon, dean of MSU's College of Nursing, "as we estimate we will now be able to meet the state's projected shortfall in baccalaureate-level registered nurses by 2030."
Crisis-level nurse staffing puts nurses' ability to care for patients in jeopardy, the letter said.
"Nurses have remained steadfast on the front lines since the beginning of the pandemic, while overcoming challenges, risks to their personal health, and safety such as limited personal protective equipment and the physical, emotional, and mental health burden of the COVID-19 virus," ANA President Ernest Grant, PhD, RN, FAAN, wrote in the letter. "Now, the Delta variant is causing cases to soar, overrunning hospital and staff capacity. These current circumstances have only exacerbated underlying, chronic nursing workforce challenges that have persisted for years."
"ANA is deeply concerned that this severe shortage of nurses, especially in areas experiencing high numbers of COVID-19 cases, will have long-term repercussions for the profession, the entire healthcare delivery system, and ultimately, on the health of the nation," he wrote.
Shortages of nursing staff are being reported across the country. For example, Mississippi has reported a decrease of 2,000 nurses since the beginning of 2021, Nebraska is recruiting unvaccinated nurses to address workforce challenges, and Louisiana had more than 6,000 unfilled nursing positions open across the state before the Delta variant caused a surge in cases, a shortage that may become more acute as the state deals with the aftermath of Hurricane Ida.
ANA, which represents the interests of the nation's 4.2 million nurses, is calling on HHS to deploy policy solutions to address the staffing situation:
Convene stakeholders to identify short- and long-term solutions to staffing challenges to face the demand of the COVID-19 pandemic response, ensure the nation's healthcare delivery system is best equipped to provide quality care for patients, and prepare for the future challenges.
Educate the nation on the importance of the COVID-19 vaccine to provide resources for widespread administration of the COVID-19 vaccine and any subsequent boosters.
Sustain a nursing workforce that meets current and future staffing demands to ensure access to care for patients and prioritize the mental health of nurses and other health professionals.
Provide additional resources including recruitment and retention incentives that will attract students to the nursing profession and retain skilled nurses to the demands of patient care.
"ANA stands ready to work with HHS and other stakeholders on a whole of government approach to ensure we have a strong nursing workforce today and in the future," Grant said.
"If we truly value the immeasurable contributions of the nursing workforce," Grant said, "then it is imperative that HHS utilize all available authorities to address this issue."
Nurses make up the largest segment of the healthcare workforce and, therefore, have the potential to drive the healthcare industry’s evolution.
Specializing, for example, is on the rise in nursing, in terms of both specialties offered and the number of nurses specializing.
"I believe in specialties [in] nursing practice, and I know that the outcomes do improve with specialty nursing services, but this pandemic showed us that we could be flexible in that nurses can learn new competencies and they will always step up in emergencies. That’s why we’re the most trusted profession in the world," says Jesus Cepero, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, senior vice president and chief nursing officer of Stanford Children's Health in Stanford, California.
"But I believe it’s still a very important point that we continue to assess and promote specialty practice because we always see improved outcomes with specialty nursing practice," Cepero says.
"For us to have an agile, flexible workforce, we need to have more nurses who are cross-trained and are multispecialty across the adjacent specialties," she says. "So while I absolutely agree specialties are important, we need to be really careful here and recognize that what really worked is multispecialty nurses who could go between adjacent areas, and that's where hospitals need to focus."
Staffing will continue to challenge nurse leaders as nurses leave because of a stressful work environment, inadequate staffing, and nurse burnout.
"We have to be honest with ourselves, pick up a mirror, and figure out what our part has been as nurse leaders for all these years where we have not been able to fix what we needed to fix, and what part our organizations have had," says Kathleen Sanford, DBA, RN, chief nursing officer for CommonSpirit Health.
"We are going to have to involve people at the very front line—staff nurses, wherever they are—to tell us what it will take, to tell us what they need, to tell us why they're frustrated. Then we must act on this input," she says.
"There's a place here for looking at technology and how it can help remove workload both from our nurses at the bedside taking care of our patients and our nurse leaders. There's a lot of data science going on behind what nursing is inputting, what the system is inputting from tests and results, what physicians are inputting, and making a lot of analysis and feeding that information," she says.
"So where we're busier than we've ever been, with sicker and higher-acute patients than we've ever had," Lockyear says, "being able to automate many of the things that we've had to do manually are the things that will help alleviate that burnout and create better environments."
Hondros recently expanded its education efforts beyond the classroom to host an entire week devoted to social justice at all its seven campuses.
One nursing school is educating and equipping their students "to be the change they wish to see" in their communities by focusing on social justice wherever there is a need.
"Because social justice is so prominent now and so close to home for everybody in society, we are looking at our course content to see how we can bring more awareness to social justice issues because this is not going to go away," says Dianna Tabern, dean and director of nursing at Hondros College of Nursing in Columbus, Ohio.
Noting that social justice is a core of nursing, Hondros recently expanded its education efforts beyond the classroom to begin hosting an entire week annually devoted to social justice at all its seven campuses.
"We want to spark more discussion on, 'What if this happens as a nurse? What should you do? How are you going to advocate for the fair and just thing to do?' We want to ensure there is equality in all aspects of providing healthcare," she says.
The need is there. For example:
Black adults experience higher rates of adverse safety events compared to white patients treated in the same hospital, according to a recent analysis by Urban Institute researchers.
Lack of access for sexual and gender minority (SGM) people to respectful, affirmative healthcare is well documented. Many LGBTQ+ individuals report having experienced discrimination by clinicians, including outright refusal of medical care, surveys have found.
In the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, nearly one in four trans people reported not seeking necessary medical care because they feared being discriminated against.
Tabern talked with HealthLeaders about how Hondros is teaching social justice to nursing students and how the 2020 murder of George Floyd was part of the impetus.
This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
HealthLeaders: How long has the Hondros College of Nursing been hosting social justice events?
Dianna Tabern: This was actually our first event. We started out with a small committee that really grew, and asked, "What can we do that may make a difference in the lives of students who may be suffering from some type of social justice issues?" [With the George Floyd tragedy], we really recognized that the younger generation of students are more proactive than probably my generation as an African American dean. I've suffered a number of social justice issues and the older generation has a different way of handling it, more like letters to the senators or you go to your boss and have a sit-down conversation about the way you've been treated. But the younger generation of people are much more proactive in the issues. I don't know if it's generational or the extent of the situation with George Floyd.
HL: So it was the students who drove this?
Tabern: No, we did this as leaders. The driving force was our CEO, Harry Wilkins, in regard to his own faith and belief in tolerance and fairness for everyone, which is something that the college has always stood for.
HL: Social justice is such a broad term; what parts of social justice does Hondros encourage its students to work for?
Tabern: Our hope is that our students understand how broad social justice is. It's not just about racism necessarily; it includes gender bias, poverty, hunger, ageism, refugee issues, income gaps, and access to healthcare. I mean there's a lot of things that are involved in social justice. I don't think that many people recognize that, or even think about it, especially if it doesn't affect them directly. Our objectives are an extension of our mission which states that our goal is to prepare students to demonstrate social responsibility, cultural sensitivity, and service to the community, so we want to make sure that they understand that.
As a little side note, one of our efforts in social justice week was students writing an essay about what social justice meant to them. One student wrote, "Social injustice: two small words, one big impact. I define social injustice as discrimination. Discrimination is the foundation of social injustice and until we fix the root cause, there will always be inequality. As a nurse, it is our duty to acknowledge the culture around us, identify the social injustices, and correct them. If we do not make a conscious attempt to correct them, then at the end of the day we are contributing to the problem."
HL: You said that people don't tend to recognize social injustice if it doesn't affect them directly. How are your nursing students, then, introduced to the idea of social justice?
Tabern: In the different classes they have, such as mental health courses, they are taught to get in touch with their own ethics, their values, and their beliefs, because in order for them to understand their own biases and how they might interfere with the care they provide, they have to understand themselves. They have to learn how to be tolerant and put their own biases aside, or they have to think more broadly about the issues.
What people really know is what they learn from their parents, or from the community, and sometimes you need to open up those thought processes so they can say, "Oh, I never thought of it that way," because otherwise, those thoughts interfere with how they provide care because of their own beliefs. They have to learn.
We give them more food for thought and it sparks conversation in some of the classes about different issues. That's when they learn about the issues that are global. Some do not know about global issues. One time when I was when I was teaching one of the courses on leadership, I started talking to them about Native Americans, and how they can get involved in working in some of the Native American communities in Colorado and Arizona that are very remote and don't have access to healthcare. Many of the students said, "Oh, I didn't know that that was an issue." But you don't think about it unless you're well-traveled. They're learning about the problems within the world.
HL: How have you seen your students carry what they learn about social justice out into the community?
Tabern: Access to healthcare and the problems with healthcare are part of social justice, and during the days when COVID first came about, our graduate students had temporary license to help in the field. We had a numerous amount of students who went to New York City and to different states to help in COVID units. To go above and beyond what you need to do to help those that need more healthcare provisions, that's part of social justice. They were willing to put their health on the line to go and do this.
When a lot of people hear the words "social justice," they really think it's about black power because the George Floyd case sparked it [recently, but] social injustice and discrimination has been here forever. But when you're looking at social justice as a whole, like with gender or LGBTQ, there's social justice issues everywhere. So, I really believe that as nurses, as students, we each have to decide whether or not we're going to be a part of the problem or part of the solution within our profession and within community at large, and how active we're going to be.
The new online center of excellence provides education courses and career development opportunities.
The Emergency Nurses Association (ENA), known as the leading provider of emergency nursing education, this week launched ENA University.
ENA University brings together in one place online the association's robust portfolio of education courses and resources that offer new skills and career development opportunities.
The new university also features the Industry Learning Lab offered by ENA's strategic partners, enhanced mentoring, peer engagement, and a design that allows emergency nurses of all experience levels to tailor continuing education to their needs, according to a press release from the ENA.
This week's launch sets the stage for two upcoming milestones: the debut of two career pathway programs in October and the introduction of an 18-week residency program in 2022. Emergency nurses will be able to find these and more on a newly created, mobile-friendly website and on a dedicated ENA University app scheduled for release later this year.
"ENA University is a landmark initiative that emphatically continues ENA's decades-long commitment to educating emergency nurses," ENA president Ron Kraus, MSN, RN, EMT, CEN, ACNS-BC, TCRN, said in the press release.
"Education is extremely important to me," Howard said. "Emergency nurses need the knowledge that gives them the confidence to care and advocate for their patients at the highest levels possible. ENA University puts everything ENA has to offer right at their fingertips."
The new software program will help fend off nurse burnout with evidence-based, self-directed tools.
A mental health software program designed to preempt major mental health events launched this week for Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic's nurses and frontline healthcare workers.
The Independence Blue Cross Foundation is collaborating with Trinity and NeuroFlow, a Philadelphia-based mental health software company, on a program to provide access to on-demand tools as well as care coordination for more than 1,800 nurses and frontline healthcare workers across three Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic hospitals, according to a press release.
"Most will remember the devastating physical toll the pandemic took on our population, but it has also been an awakening for mental health and the daily challenges we all face with stress and anxiety," Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic president and CEO Jim Woodward said in the release.
"Our healthcare workers need the same kind of access to care as our patients do," he said. "This collaboration with the Independence Blue Cross Foundation and NeuroFlow gives our staff another pillar of support and a better way to quantify when workloads are getting too strained."
Nurses can use the new technology to log daily insights, such as mood scores, journals, and sleep patterns, while viewing educational, evidence-based content, and resources tailored to an appropriate level of care.
A clinical care team will remotely monitor population health trends and "urgent alerts" triggered via individual activity that are designed to preempt major mental health events.
NeuroFlow has implemented similar programs with other major health systems and health plans across the country, along with branches of the U.S. military, with active contracts supporting more than 450,000 individuals.
The initial rollout will include Nazareth Hospital, Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital, and St. Mary Medical Center in the Greater Philadelphia region. As registrations increase and more users engage with the platform, Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic will evaluate adding more locations.
"Being healthy means taking care of ourselves physically and mentally. This initiative supports those who dedicate themselves day in and day out to helping others, and who have been true heroes during the past year and a half,” said Stephen P. Fera, executive vice president of public affairs at Independence Blue Cross.
"We are proud to work with Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic to deliver this innovative technology to thousands of nurses who care for our neighbors, and excited about the possibilities of replicating this to improve healthcare delivery in the future."
The Princeton Baptist CNO, who knows firsthand what it's like to be a traveling nurse, makes travelers' well-being a priority.
As hospitals once again rely on staffing agencies to boost their nursing ranks as the COVID-19 Delta variant fills up beds, traveling registered nurses (TRNs) are returning to the road to fill the gaps.
Vandalyn “Van” McGrue, chief nursing officer of Princeton Baptist Medical Center in Birmingham, Alabama, understands firsthand the excitement, adventure, and good pay of being a travel nurse. She traveled for several years as a nurse and later as a director of operations for large dialysis companies.
Traveling let her see new places, experience cultural diversity, and expand her capabilities with a wide range of colleagues, she says.
"When you're traveling, you learn something new every day," she says.
But McGrue also knows the stressors and difficulties of the travel nurse: missing family and friends; finding a comfortable place to stay; adjusting to a hospital's unique protocols; and not having a familiar support system at hand, particularly in taking care of critically ill COVID-19 patients.
So, for TRNs at Princeton Baptist, McGrue makes their comfort and well-being a priority.
"I like to keep my pulse on them because I know how lonely it can be," she says.
McGrew had her nursing directors place invitations on their monthly and weekly calendars dedicating one-on-one time with the TRNs, she says.
"It wasn't to ask personal questions, but to find out in general how they were doing, and ask, 'What can I do to help?' We were keeping that touchpoint available and transparent," she says.
"You have to have good communication with travelers, because when they start at your facility, they don't know what they don't know, such as quirks of each physician," McGrue says. "There is not a lot of time to build those relationships, so we try to educate them to everything possible."
It's also crucial to have—and clearly communicate—an open-door policy, McGrue says.
Importance of Thorough Onboarding
Nurse leaders can also help travel nurses adjust to their new environment by providing effective onboarding to prepare them for safe patient care within the parameters of the hospital policies and procedures and nursing work environment, according to the study, Travel Nurse Onboarding: Current Trends and Identified Needs.
"Nurse leaders should share realistic descriptions of unit patient ratios and acuity level with TRNs. Such conversations can help to determine whether the TRN's background and skill will meet the needs of the unit," the study says.
Onboarding schedules should be sent to TRNs within one to two weeks before the start of a travel assignment because these nurses usually have only a matter of days to get to the next assignment, get set up in their new home, and complete required paperwork, the study advises.
When they arrive at their assignment, they should be given plenty of time to learn about unit routines and to practice with the EHR, the study says.
The TRNs who participated in the study identified three resources that enhance their onboarding, which, in turn, contributes to better job performance:
An assigned experienced unit nurse to serve as an ambassador and resource person
A photo directory of providers
A list of essential contacts
Offering a personal touch
At Princeton Baptist, McGrue not only requires her directors to meet regularly with the TRNs, but she frequently checks in on them herself.
"Since I've been here, I've gone to the floors where the travelers are to meet them and establish rapport, and then I go back a couple weeks later to implement what I'm preaching," McGrue says. "We appreciate the help and I want them to feel like we have a family atmosphere here."
"The first time I did that, they said, 'Now who are you?' Now, they're used to me and look forward to my coming by," she says.
McGrue hopes that by creating a collegial, welcoming atmosphere, the TRNs know they can turn to their colleagues at Princeton Baptist when life on the road gets difficult.
"It seems like everything is so hard right now," she says, "and we can encourage [travelers] to take emotional care of themselves."
One-third of health organizations are considering a blend of in-person, hybrid, and remote work locations, a new survey says.
Nearly one-third (32%) of healthcare leaders surveyed strongly agree that employee preference is the most important factor in developing their return-to-work plans, compared to 25% across all industries.
The new survey released by PwC on the future of work provides insights into the changes executives across all industries are making as they redesign their workplace to accommodate how their employees want to work.
After a year of reconsidering their needs and ambitions, many employees want a new model of work; the survey found that 65% of employees are hunting a new job and 88% of executives are seeing higher-than-normal turnover.
Health organizations are mostly considering a mix of work locations for the fall, with 34% of those surveyed saying their workforce plans entail a blend of in-person, hybrid, and remote. Another 22% say they’ll concentrate on hybrid.
Though certain health industry roles have less flexibility, such as clinical care in hospitals, health leaders are finding areas where work can be done remotely, such as with back-office operations for insurers and health systems, according to the survey.
Other key findings of the survey include:
Concerns vary across the C-suite as executives evaluate the impact of employee turnover.
Executives are experiencing the labor market churn in different ways:
CMOs are acutely feeling the negative impact of staff shortages on customer experience, with 40% citing it as a major issue.
CHROs say retaining employees will be their No. 1 priority over the next three to six months.
CFOs are split; 36% say they’re very concerned about the turnover remaining high indefinitely and weighing on revenue growth while 45% are somewhat concerned about turnover and its impact on growth, but they also expect it to return to pre-pandemic levels more quickly.
Schedule flexibility, expanded benefits, and compensation are top incentives for employees seeking new opportunities.
Companies should expect job candidates to negotiate aggressively for what they now see as table stakes: competitive packages and perks coupled with flexibility and expanded benefits such as career growth and upskilling opportunities.
Some may also see job changes as an opportunity to close pay gaps. Women are more likely than men to be seeking higher salaries (46% vs. 34%)
In good news for leaders, efforts during the pandemic to build trust and step up on social issues are showing results with employees.
Executives and employees agree almost equally that there is a high level of trust between leaders and employees—77% and 72%, respectively. Also, 79% of executives and 77% of employees say their leaders are inclusive.
The challenge ahead lies in addressing culture as companies define their work environments.
Though many executives look forward to return to an in-person environment, an all in-person workplace is no longer the norm.
One-third of executives (33%) will have a mixed model, with some in person full time, some hybrid, and some fully remote. They cite corporate culture as the biggest challenge to making hybrid work successful—36% say it’s a major challenge, and 36% say it’s moderate challenge.
New ways of working
Among employees looking for new jobs, almost one in 10 say it’s because they moved away from the office while working remotely and don’t want to go back on-site.
Almost one-fifth (19%) of all employees would like to be fully remote today even if COVID-19 were no longer a concern. An almost equal number (22%) would like to be mostly in the office (<=1 day remote per week), and 21% say the nature of their work does not allow them to work remotely. Others prefer a hybrid work setup, with some days in the office and others remote.
Faced with this new workplace reality, executives (36%) say that eroding corporate culture is their biggest challenge.
Other reasons that may be restraining companies from expanding remote work options include loss of mentoring (30%), loss of innovation opportunities (26%), and potential equity issues between on-site and fully remote workers (25%).
Vaccine mandates
Health industry executives showed more interest than other industries in having a COVID-19 vaccine mandate—most likely because their employees have been on the front lines of the pandemic.
Of those surveyed, 43% of health leaders support mandatory vaccines, compared to 30% across other industries, which may indicate sensitivity to the anti-vaccination sentiment across sections of the workforce, the survey said.
