Recruitment and retention challenges in healthcare aren’t new, but the urgency to solve them has never been greater. At Roundtable 2025, four leaders gathered to share how their organizations are rethinking traditional approaches and casting a wider net to attract and retain talent.
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A Data-Driven Look at Turnover
Cristal Mackay, VP of Advisory Solutions at Aya Healthcare, opened the session with a story — and a challenge. While a traditional mindset might suggest people should be content just to have a job, the reality is that today’s healthcare workforce expects more. Understanding turnover requires drilling into the details (National Association of Healthcare Recruitment, 2025):
- CNA turnover: 36% vs. Pharmacists: 9.7%
- Gen Z: 22.2% expect to leave within 2–3 years
- First-year staff loss: 37.5%
- Pediatric RN turnover: 12.2% vs. Behavioral Health: 22.8%
Turnover also varies by region and role, which means organizations must tailor their strategies rather than rely on blanket solutions.
Retention Starts with Understanding Your People
Each generation in the workforce brings unique expectations. Mackay outlined the need to personalize recognition and paths for advancement:
- Boomers value loyalty and structure
- Gen Xers seek autonomy and balance
- Millennials want purpose and fast growth
- Gen Zers expect flexibility, tech-forward tools and inclusivity
Benefits like tuition reimbursement, childcare, career pathing and flexible shifts can be powerful retention tools when thoughtfully implemented.
What’s Working: Real-World Strategies from the Field
Cristal Mackay then moderated a panel of healthcare leaders, exploring field-tested strategies that have strengthened the talent pipeline and delivered meaningful results across the industry.
Maury Regional
Tiffany Crews, MSN, RN, Director of Nursing Professional Development at Maury Regional, shared how her leadership team reimagined scheduling by adjusting weekend staffing and introducing weekday “mom shifts” to better meet demand. With women making up 88.5% of the U.S. nursing workforce, these shifts were designed to align with family needs. “They can drop their children off in the morning, come in, help us through the medication administration, physical assessment, get us through lunch and then go back and get their children and call it a day,” said Crews.
They also created a robust internal float pool, dropping their traveler count by 50%. A structured stay interview process — held within 30 days, at four months and annually — helped reduce turnover by 23%.
CentraState
Tony Cipriano, Director of Talent Acquisition & Physician Recruitment at CentraState, shared how their RN vacancy rate fell from 15% to 0%, and agency spend dropped from $44M to under $1M by:
- Launching a flexible staffing unit (converting 11% of travelers)
- Developing a 10-year international nurse strategy
- Building a PCT-to-RN pipeline with bootcamps and residencies
They also tie manager incentives to turnover metrics and use predictive analytics to forecast workforce needs.
UT Medical Center
Lara Kennedy, Director of Talent Acquisition & Employee Relations at UT Medical Center, emphasized collaboration across HR, finance, nursing and IT. “Everyone is a recruiter — recruitment is everyone’s responsibility.”
The team tracks conversion ratios, application drop-off rates and internal premium labor costs weekly. They also developed a collaborative staffing group, bringing HR, nursing, finance and IT together to pilot solutions and pivot quickly when needed. This test-and-learn approach led them to recalibrate shift bonuses, initially set too high, by working closely with nursing leaders and finance to find a more sustainable “sweet spot” that balanced staff needs with organizational costs.
Building Stronger Talent Foundations
Investing in Culture Over Compensation
When asked how to compete with higher-paying systems, Crews, Cipriano and Kennedy all emphasized culture as their differentiator. In-person interviews, student hosting days, shared governance and cross-generational engagement are just a few ways they bring their culture to life. Social media, testimonial campaigns and creative “day in the life” job previews also help amplify their employer brand to prospective hires.
Building the Pipeline Early
All three organizations are investing in high school and college partnerships, exposing students not just to nursing, but to roles in HR, IT, finance and facilities. By offering shadowing, internships and flexible entry points, they’re broadening awareness of career paths across the hospital.
Collaborating Across Silos
Finance and IT were repeatedly cited as essential partners in recruitment and retention efforts. Whether it’s evaluating the cost of traveler alternatives or analyzing application abandonment rates, this work can’t happen in silos.
Cipriano emphasized the need to prove ROI to finance: “If we make a $5M investment and save $7M in spend, that’s a $2M win.”
Final Takeaway: Recruitment Is Everyone’s Responsibility
Whether through leadership development, internal career ladders or better benefits, the message was clear: casting a wider net requires the whole organization to row in the same direction. The strategies shared weren’t one-size-fits-all, but they all reinforced one truth: when we invest in understanding, flexibility and culture, we don’t just fill roles — we build lasting teams.