VA Reconsiders Workforce Benefits to Address Health Care Staffing Challenges
Ross Franklin | AP
In a meeting with stakeholders and local staff, Secretary Denis McDonough affirmed burnout and low salaries are causing poor employee retention at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
While delivering remarks at the Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Charleston, South Carolina, Secretary McDonough outlined a 10-point human infrastructure plan to address these issues and better reward staff. To do so, the VA will revise its qualifications standards, overhaul the onboarding process, and expand remote and telework capabilities.
The 10-point plan, designed to help recruitment and retention efforts, includes:
Support efforts that would raise wages for Federal employees, including advocating that Congress pass the Raise Act (H.R.128), which will give the VA authority to pay employees what they are worth;
Increasing bonuses by eliminating the bonus cap for work done during the pandemic and raising the VA income level for childcare subsidies;
Enhance the ability for VA employees to advance through promotions and higher general schedule grades, funding employee scholarships, and work with the President to forgive student loans;
Redesign the national onboarding process and accelerate the hiring process by better leveraging hiring authorities;
Develop recommendations on how to address burnout and promote work-life balance through employee feedback, while also increasing telework flexibility; and,
Employ inclusion, diversity, equity, and access (I-DEA) principles across VA by integrating them into hiring, position management, and talent management, and by ensuring VA is a welcoming workplace for all employees.
Currently, the VA has its worst turnover rate in 15 years. Health care is the largest component of VA, where nearly 370,000 individuals work. However, officials estimate that over the next five years the VA will need to hire approximately 75,000 nurses will for hospitals to remain functional.
Secretary McDonough noted the department is prepared to up retention bonuses to 50 percent of base pay for employees, with authority from Congress to waive normal bonus caps. He further praised the workforce for perseverance during the pandemic and discussed the growing pay gap between the federal and private sectors, along with the historic burnout brought about by COVID-19.
“Due to unprecedented demand for frontline workers, salaries have grown to historic highs in the private sector, but they haven’t moved at VA,” Secretary McDonough observed, “These are real challenges—both for you and our nation—and we need to address them now, before it’s too late.”
The Senior Executive Association (SEA) has express concern that healthcare leaders need support as well. SEA argues the current compensation system at the VA undermines the value of strong leaders, in turn driving people away from public service.
In a recent op-ed, Military Veterans of America CEO Andrew Vernon and SEA's Director of Policy and Outreach Jason Briefel demonstrated concern that Secretary McDonough's human infrastructure plan fails to address pay reform and leadership support for senior executives and medical center directors.
Vernon and Briefel further pointed out that the private sector offers more money, without the federal employee headaches.
"Without a reform in all VA senior executive compensation, VA will not only fall short in attracting future qualified candidates to lead its health care system but will lose the dedicated men and women who currently serve in these roles," Vernon and Briefel noted, "Policy promises to veterans will be difficult to implement if Congress and the administration do not provide adequate support to VA’s important career leaders."
The department did not respond to a request for comment.