PEOPLE SOLUTIONS

Aligning talent strategy with enterprise transformation in healthcare

Healthcare organizations continue to prioritize retaining top talent while navigating significant transformation across how care is delivered and work gets done.

A deliberate talent strategy and communication that place a strong emphasis on the employee value story are essential in this environment.

Attracting and retaining employees has long been a strategic priority, with a stable, engaged workforce fundamental to delivering high-quality patient care and advancing organizational goals. Many hospitals and health systems already offer market-competitive benefits, leaving limited room for incremental plan changes as costs continue to rise. Organizations should focus holistically on total rewards and how benefits, compensation, time off, flexibility, and the overall employee experience support a clear employee value proposition.

Healthcare organizations are implementing AI-enabled technologies, redesigning care models and streamlining clinical workflows. Retaining talent in critical roles and building the skills needed for new ways of working will be increasingly important to successful transformation. Aligning these workforce priorities with the organization’s total rewards strategy can reinforce why it's a place people want to work.

From workforce reductions and AI-enabled automation to the redesign of clinical and administrative workflows, many organizations are asking employees to absorb significant change while doing more with less.

At the same time, ongoing M&A activity, shared services redesign, and expectations from long-tenured employees are introducing new complexities for HR and leadership teams. A deliberate talent strategy is essential in this environment, not only to advance business objectives but to sustain engagement, retention, and workforce resilience.

What are healthcare employees saying?

3 key sentiment insights

Lockton’s analysis shows employee sentiment varies across healthcare settings, with employees in inpatient and outpatient hospital environments tending to express less favorable sentiment than those in other healthcare settings.

Across the industry, employees continue to place significant value on the purpose of their work and their colleagues, while benefits stand out as an important part of the employee experience. However, despite healthcare organizations generally offering richer benefits than other industries, employee sentiment around benefits indicates there is still room for improvement. This raises important questions about whether benefit investments align with the needs of different employee populations and whether their value is being effectively communicated.

01

Employees value the human core of healthcare work.

Positive sentiment across every segment consistently centers on purpose-driven work, supportive co-workers, team culture, benefits, flexibility, and opportunities to gain experience.
Team culture, camaraderie, family-like environments, and the meaningfulness of care delivery remain the strongest anchors of engagement across healthcare settings.

02

Strain lives in the systems around the work.

Negative sentiment tracks to whether the work feels sustainable: leadership and communication gaps, workload and staffing pressure, compensation concerns, limited advancement and development, turnover, and culture strain.
Mission alone is not enough when operating conditions fail to keep pace with job demands.

03

Pressure points vary meaningfully by segment.

Direct-care and facility-based settings (hospital services, services and facilities, mental health) show acute strain around burnout, staffing, and frontline supervision.
Administrative and insurance-adjacent segments (cooperatives, providers, and medical insurance) emphasize pay, training quality, and career pathways.

What employees value

Supportive co-workers and team culture
Meaningful, rewarding work
Benefits and work-life balance
Learning exposure

Source: Lockton July 2026 employee sentiment analysis of approximately 194,000 employee reviews across six healthcare segments.

Where employees are strained

Leadership and communication gaps
Workload and staffing pressure
Compensation concerns
Limited career advancement and development
Turnover and culture strain

2026 healthcare employee sentiment analysis

See the full report

How employers are responding with greater focus & discipline

Proactive employers are taking a more focused and disciplined approach to their total rewards and benefit strategies. Rather than continually adding new solutions, they are focusing on getting more from existing investments, committing to strategies long enough to evaluate their impact, and using measurement to guide where to adjust.

Building flexibility and safety nets into budgets to account for uncertainty and emerging cost pressures.

Prioritizing fewer, higher-impact initiatives rather than reacting to every new issue.

Committing to strategies long enough to measure results, then adjusting based on what is working.

Reassessing benefit design and affordability as healthcare costs continue to rise.

Doubling down on high-value strategies, including domestic networks, navigation, and other targeted cost-management approaches.

Balancing cost control with talent needs, recognizing that benefits remain an important recruitment and retention tool.

Ensuring benefit investments are valued by the workforce, considering whether offerings align with diverse needs of employee populations and how effectively that value is communicated.

Improving employee access and experience, particularly for remote and out-of-area populations.

Evaluating new therapies and innovations deliberately, considering both clinical value and financial impact.