Healthcare Workforce Performance and Talent Retention Training Course

Course overview

Healthcare providers face a workforce challenge with direct consequences for patient access, quality, safety and financial performance. High turnover among nurses, allied health professionals, care staff and operational teams disrupts continuity of care, increases agency spend and places extra pressure on remaining employees. At the same time, generic annual appraisals rarely identify capability gaps, burnout risks, succession needs or barriers to retention early enough for managers to act. HR and clinical leaders need a practical performance and talent management approach that reflects shift work, regulated roles, multidisciplinary teams and workforce shortages.

This course equips participants to design and run a healthcare-specific performance and retention cycle. They learn to translate organisational priorities into role-level objectives, use competency frameworks for clinical and non-clinical staff, conduct evidence-based performance conversations, calibrate ratings fairly and build targeted development plans. The programme covers retention analytics, stay interviews, workforce segmentation, internal mobility, succession planning and action planning for high-risk roles. Participants also examine how to distinguish performance, capability, conduct, workload and wellbeing issues while maintaining appropriate documentation and escalation routes.

Teaching combines instructor-led frameworks with healthcare cases, HR dashboard exercises, manager role-plays and facilitated peer review. Participants work with sample turnover, absence, engagement and performance data to identify a priority workforce problem and test interventions. By the end of the week, each participant produces a Healthcare Workforce Performance and Retention Action Plan containing a role-risk analysis, measures, manager actions, talent review process and 90-day implementation schedule.

The course is designed for HR, people, workforce, clinical leadership and operational management professionals who need to retain scarce talent while improving the consistency and usefulness of performance management.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Build a healthcare workforce performance scorecard using turnover, vacancy, absence, engagement and internal-mobility measures
• Translate service, quality and patient-access priorities into role-level SMART objectives and behavioural expectations
• Apply a competency framework to assess clinical, technical and leadership capability gaps
• Conduct structured performance and stay interviews using evidence, probing questions and documented follow-up actions
• Segment retention risk by role, tenure, location, shift pattern and employee population to target interventions
• Facilitate a talent calibration meeting using a nine-box matrix and clear evidence standards
• Create individual development plans that combine learning, stretch assignments, coaching and internal mobility options
• Produce a 90-day Healthcare Workforce Performance and Retention Action Plan with owners, measures and review dates

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Healthcare HR Managers — who need to improve performance consistency and reduce regretted turnover across services
• Workforce Planning Managers — who analyse staffing risks and need retention actions linked to hard-to-fill roles
• Nurse Managers and Ward Leaders — who conduct appraisals, manage performance concerns and retain frontline teams
• Clinical Service Managers — who must connect team capability, patient access and quality objectives
• Talent Management and Learning Managers — who build succession, development and internal mobility pathways
• People Analytics Specialists — who need to turn workforce data into practical manager interventions

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic familiarity with their organisation’s appraisal process, workforce data and management structure, or equivalent experience supporting line managers in HR, clinical operations or workforce planning. The course assumes that participants can interpret simple tables showing headcount, turnover, absence and vacancy data, and are comfortable contributing to structured group discussions. Access to a laptop with spreadsheet software is useful for exercises. No prior experience with Workday, UKG Pro, Gallup Q12, statistical modelling or formal coaching qualifications is required. Complete beginners should expect a guided introduction to performance management terminology before applying the methods to healthcare cases.

Training methodology

The programme uses short instructor-led briefings followed by healthcare workforce scenarios, spreadsheet-based data analysis and manager practice sessions. Participants review a fictional provider’s turnover, vacancy, absence and engagement data; identify risk patterns; and select proportionate retention interventions. Role-plays cover appraisal, underperformance and stay conversations involving shift-based clinical teams. Small groups run a talent calibration discussion using a nine-box matrix, then test their assumptions against case evidence. Each day adds a section to an individual action plan, which receives facilitator and peer feedback on day five.

Course outline

Day 1: Healthcare workforce performance foundations

• The relationship between workforce stability, patient access, quality and safety
• Healthcare workforce segments: clinical, allied health, support and corporate roles
• Performance management cycle design for shift-based and multidisciplinary teams
• SMART objectives linked to service, quality and patient-flow measures
• Role profiles, job descriptions and behavioural expectations
• Competency frameworks for clinical and non-clinical capability assessment
• Performance evidence sources: outcomes, observations, feedback and compliance records

Workshop: Participants map a healthcare service objective to role-specific performance objectives and evidence sources for three workforce groups.

Day 2: Performance conversations and fair assessment

• Preparing for evidence-based appraisal conversations
• Structured questioning, active listening and feedback models
• Distinguishing performance, capability, conduct, attendance and wellbeing concerns
• Documenting performance discussions and agreed actions
• Managing difficult conversations in regulated healthcare environments
• Rating-scale design, rater bias and consistency controls
• Calibration meeting protocols and evidence standards

Workshop: Participants conduct a simulated appraisal and then calibrate two performance cases using a documented evidence template.

Day 3: Retention diagnostics and workforce analytics

• Turnover definitions: voluntary, involuntary, regretted and early-tenure attrition
• Retention metrics for hard-to-fill and patient-critical roles
• Workforce segmentation by role, tenure, site, shift pattern and demographic group
• Combining turnover, absence, vacancy, overtime and engagement data
• Stay interviews, exit interviews and listening data
• Retention risk indicators and intervention prioritisation
• Ethical use of workforce data and confidentiality boundaries

Workshop: Using a sample healthcare workforce dashboard, participants identify two retention hotspots and produce a prioritised diagnostic brief.

Day 4: Talent development, mobility and succession

• Nine-box talent matrix application and limitations
• Talent review meeting preparation and governance
• Identifying critical roles, pivotal roles and single-point dependencies
• Successor readiness criteria and bench-strength analysis
• Individual development plans using 70-20-10 development actions
• Career pathways and internal mobility for healthcare professions
• Retention interventions for high performers and scarce-skill employees

Workshop: Participants run a talent review for a clinical service and create succession and development actions for its critical roles.

Day 5: Implementation and performance improvement planning

• Designing a healthcare workforce performance and retention action plan
• Selecting leading and lagging workforce indicators
• Manager accountability, HR support and governance roles
• Change communications for appraisal and retention initiatives
• Piloting interventions in a ward, department or service line
• Review cadence, dashboard reporting and escalation triggers
• Measuring intervention impact and adapting the plan

Workshop: Participants complete and present a 90-day Healthcare Workforce Performance and Retention Action Plan with measures, owners, milestones and risks.

Tools & standards covered

Workday Human Capital Management, UKG Pro Workforce Management, Gallup Q12 Employee Engagement Survey, ISO 30414 Human Capital Reporting

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions