How organizations determine the cost of employee turnover can vary. Some look at only the recruitment costs. For example, in 2008 HealthForce Ontario estimated it costs $25,000 to recruit a nurse. Others look at broader impacts, including the cost of severance, recruitment, training, overtime and lost productivity. London Health Sciences Centre, for example, estimates the real cost of employee turnover can be as much as 1.5 times the position’s annual compensation.
At the Niagara Health System Kevin Smith, the government appointed supervisor, noted in his interim report the difficulty the regional hospital system faces in recruitment and retention, estimating a 5.7 per cent annual rate of turnover to 2019. That turnover is about equally divided between retirees and those who simply decide to resign and seek work elsewhere. That means about 1,750 staff will need to be replaced between 2013-2019. Seventy physicians will also need to be replaced over that period.
“There is intense pressure and frankly competition to attract the best and the brightest to any organization and the NHS is currently at a disadvantage,” Smith notes.
OPSEU Diablogue 