Hampton Roads hospitals spending millions to retain and attract workers during ‘Great Resignation’

Hampton Roads hospitals are paying employees more and offering a bevy of new benefits to attract and retain the best health care workers during the pandemic — and they are promoting those raises publicly.

During the past two years, Sentara Healthcare has spent more than $310 million on employee raises, benefits, gifts and other compensation measures, the hospital network announced Feb. 10. Other hospitals are rushing to keep pace, offering their own pay increases, tuition coverage and even some unconventional ways of assisting health care workers and other hospital staff members.

During a pandemic, hospital leaders say they must take care of workers to make sure they don’t lose their most experienced and valuable employees.

“First and foremost, a hospital has to have a culture of safety,” said Reese Jackson, president and CEO of Chesapeake Regional Healthcare, which operates Chesapeake Regional Medical Center. “Your most experienced staff are the ones that keep you the safest.”

Sentara — which operates 12 hospitals, including locations in Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Williamsburg — will spend $110 million on pay increases and $15 million on enhanced benefits in 2022. Sentara will bump pay 5% for eligible workers beginning March 17, and employees will be eligible for a merit increase in May. According to Sentara, the moves mean more than 96% of its 29,000 workers are eligible for a combined 8-9% salary increase.

“Investing in our people is always a top priority and in line with our mission to improve health every day,” Sentara President and CEO Howard Kern said in the announcement. “I am grateful for their dedication and have been humbled to witness the resilience they’ve shown over the last two years.”

In what’s dubbed the “Great Resignation,” millions of workers have quit their jobs during the past several months. Health care workers have been quitting at the highest levels in at least the past two decades, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Resignations peaked in November, when roughly 592,000 health care and social assistance workers quit, or about 2.9% of workers in that category, seasonally adjusted. December’s preliminary figures are lower but still high: 503,000 workers, or 2.5%, quit.

Job openings in the same category also reached a 20-year high in October when the industry posted about 1.87 million openings. That figure also decreased slightly to about 1.86 million openings in December.

Like Sentara, Chesapeake Regional has boosted pay to keep the most experienced employees, Jackson said. They also offer bonuses to workers who, for example, commit to remaining with the hospital for two years.

“You have to offer them incentives,” Jackson said.

Beyond pay, the hospital has brought in behavioral health experts and chaplains to assist staff members and hosted town-hall style meetings where employees can voice concerns to hospital executives and managers, Jackson said. Even little things such as free lunches help when medical workers are completing long shifts, he said.

Hospital system Bon Secours — which has locations in Newport News, Suffolk, Portsmouth and Franklin — spent $100 million in 2021 on market adjustment pay increases as well as more than $87 million in bonuses related to the pandemic, spokesperson Jenna Green said in an email. Also, Bon Secours offers yearly merit raises and bonuses based on the hospital system’s and workers’ performance.

Beyond raises and bonuses, Bon Secours increased paid parental leave from two to eight weeks, began offering 100% tuition coverage for several education pathways and expanded its student loan repayment program in 2021.

“We are thankful for the resilience of our employees as they continue to provide quality and compassionate care to our patients and the Hampton Roads community,” Green said.

At Riverside Health System — which operates hospitals in Newport News, Gloucester, Hampton, Williamsburg and the Eastern Shore — employees received a pay increase of up to 17% in January, according to senior vice president of human resources Jesse Goodrich. Riverside spent more than $20 million on the raises.

Sentara leaders believe the raises and other incentives will pay off for the health system, Becky Sawyer, executive vice president and chief people officer, said in an email. She said leaders believe the actions have led to a below average turnover rate of 14.5%, compared with a national average of 19.5%. Additionally, Sawyer said the average Sentara employee has been with the hospital for nine years.

“We are optimistic that our compensation package and continued investments in our team members will help with both retention and recruitment,” Sawyer said.

Sawyer said Sentara hired more than 7,300 new employees during the past year, but still has more than 2,400 open positions — including 850 openings for registered nurses and licensed practical nurses.

Trevor Metcalfe, 757-222-5345, trevor.metcalfe@pilotonline.com