Proceedings | Operations Management area | Year 2018
 

The Relationship between Work-Life Skill and Employee Engagement of Caregivers in Nursing Home_1

by Natnaree Seeluangsawat; MM. Pharm B.; Borwornsom Leelaphan; Prattana Punnakitikasem
  
  APDSI 2018 in Bangkok, Thailand July 2018

Abstract

Caregivers were a major healthcare workforce taking care of the elderly, especially in nursing homes. As Thailand had recently become an aging society, the demands for caregivers had greatly increased. Hence, the current shortage of caregivers was a crucial problem for healthcare sector in Thailand. The shortage was partly caused by a continuously increasing turnover rate at nursing homes. Literature on human resource management showed a positive influence of job satisfaction on employee engagement, which was linked to positive work attitude and competencies of employees. Acquiring certain skills from the training programs also could influence job satisfaction. But unlike countries in Europe where both basic-care skills and work-life skills were required in the curriculum of caregiver training schools, only basic-care skills were required in Thailand. It was not known whether work-life skills, either obtained from schools or developed at work, were related to caregivers’ employee engagement. This research was aimed to fill the gap by studying the relationship between caregivers’ work-life skills and employee engagement in nursing homes in Bangkok areas. This study utilized a survey design. The data of basic-care skills, work-life skills and employee engagement were collected by a self-assessment questionnaire from 189 caregivers who were working in 13 nursing homes in Bangkok. The study showed that work-life skills had positive relationships with caregivers’ employee engagement and job satisfaction. Work-life skills were the keys to create job satisfaction and to engage caregivers in their careers, which consequently could help reduce the turnover rate in organizations. The importance of caregivers’ work-life skills should be more emphasized.

Keywords: caregiver, caregiver training, work life skill, employee engagement, long term care, human resourceh for health