The relationship between work-life skill and employee engagement of caregivers in nursing home; Bangkok area.

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, job satisfaction, and employee engagement were collected by a self-assessment questionnaire from 189 caregivers who were working in 13 nursing homes in Bangkok. In addition, in-depth interviews of five owners of nursing homes were conducted to obtain additional qualitative data to support quantitative findings. The study showed that educational qualification, work experience, and caregiver training programs had positive relationships with basic-care skills and work-life skills of caregivers. Work-life skills also had positive relationships with caregivers’ employee engagement and job satisfaction. The in-depth interviews confirmed that trained caregivers were perceived as more effective workers than untrained caregivers. Discussions and conclusions: 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.