Relationship between labour force satisfaction, wages and retention within the UK National Health Service: a systematic review of the literature
Objectives A systematic review was undertaken to understand the nature of the relationship between the UK National Health Service (NHS) labour force and satisfaction, retention and wages.Design Narrative systematic review.Data sources The literature was searched using seven databases in January 2020...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMJ Publishing Group
2020-07-01
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| Series: | BMJ Open |
| Online Access: | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/7/e034919.full |
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| author | Kweku Andrew Ampadu Bimpong Ausaf Khan Robert Slight Clare L Tolley Sarah P Slight |
| author_facet | Kweku Andrew Ampadu Bimpong Ausaf Khan Robert Slight Clare L Tolley Sarah P Slight |
| author_sort | Kweku Andrew Ampadu Bimpong |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Objectives A systematic review was undertaken to understand the nature of the relationship between the UK National Health Service (NHS) labour force and satisfaction, retention and wages.Design Narrative systematic review.Data sources The literature was searched using seven databases in January 2020: MEDLINE (1996–present), the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL via EBSCO) (1984–present), Embase (1996–present), PsycINFO (1987–present), ProQuest (1996–present), Scopus (all years) and Cochrane library (all years). We used medical subject headings and key words relating to ‘retention’, ‘satisfaction’ and ‘wages’.Eligibility criteria for selecting studies Primary research studies or reviews that focused on the following relationships within the NHS workforce: wages and job satisfaction, job satisfaction and retention or wages and retention.Data extraction and synthesis Two independent reviewers screened all titles, abstracts and full texts, with arbitration by a third reviewer.Results 27 803 articles were identified and after removing duplicates (n=17 156), articles were removed at the title (n=10 421), abstract (n=150) and full-text (n=45) stages. A total of 31 full-text articles were included. They identified three broad themes, low job satisfaction impacting negatively on job retention, poor pay impacting negatively on staff satisfaction and the limitations of increasing pay as a means of improving staff retention. Several factors affected these relationships, including the environment, discrimination, flexibility, autonomy, training and staffing levels.Conclusions This review highlighted how multiple factors influence NHS labour force retention. Pay was found to influence satisfaction, which in turn affected retention. An increase in wages alone is unlikely to be sufficient to ameliorate the concerns of NHS workers. More research is needed to identify the role of autonomy on retention. A system leadership approach underpinned by data is required to implement bespoke job satisfaction improvement strategies to improve retention and achieve the goals of the NHS Long Term Plan. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-dbd0a1dc69964a41b137976c8bf22c99 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2044-6055 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2020-07-01 |
| publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMJ Open |
| spelling | doaj-art-dbd0a1dc69964a41b137976c8bf22c992025-08-20T03:52:32ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Open2044-60552020-07-0110710.1136/bmjopen-2019-034919Relationship between labour force satisfaction, wages and retention within the UK National Health Service: a systematic review of the literatureKweku Andrew Ampadu Bimpong0Ausaf Khan1Robert Slight2Clare L Tolley3Sarah P Slight4School of Pharmacy, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, UKSchool of Pharmacy, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, UKDepartment of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, UKSchool of Pharmacy, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, UKSchool of Pharmacy, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, UKObjectives A systematic review was undertaken to understand the nature of the relationship between the UK National Health Service (NHS) labour force and satisfaction, retention and wages.Design Narrative systematic review.Data sources The literature was searched using seven databases in January 2020: MEDLINE (1996–present), the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL via EBSCO) (1984–present), Embase (1996–present), PsycINFO (1987–present), ProQuest (1996–present), Scopus (all years) and Cochrane library (all years). We used medical subject headings and key words relating to ‘retention’, ‘satisfaction’ and ‘wages’.Eligibility criteria for selecting studies Primary research studies or reviews that focused on the following relationships within the NHS workforce: wages and job satisfaction, job satisfaction and retention or wages and retention.Data extraction and synthesis Two independent reviewers screened all titles, abstracts and full texts, with arbitration by a third reviewer.Results 27 803 articles were identified and after removing duplicates (n=17 156), articles were removed at the title (n=10 421), abstract (n=150) and full-text (n=45) stages. A total of 31 full-text articles were included. They identified three broad themes, low job satisfaction impacting negatively on job retention, poor pay impacting negatively on staff satisfaction and the limitations of increasing pay as a means of improving staff retention. Several factors affected these relationships, including the environment, discrimination, flexibility, autonomy, training and staffing levels.Conclusions This review highlighted how multiple factors influence NHS labour force retention. Pay was found to influence satisfaction, which in turn affected retention. An increase in wages alone is unlikely to be sufficient to ameliorate the concerns of NHS workers. More research is needed to identify the role of autonomy on retention. A system leadership approach underpinned by data is required to implement bespoke job satisfaction improvement strategies to improve retention and achieve the goals of the NHS Long Term Plan.https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/7/e034919.full |
| spellingShingle | Kweku Andrew Ampadu Bimpong Ausaf Khan Robert Slight Clare L Tolley Sarah P Slight Relationship between labour force satisfaction, wages and retention within the UK National Health Service: a systematic review of the literature BMJ Open |
| title | Relationship between labour force satisfaction, wages and retention within the UK National Health Service: a systematic review of the literature |
| title_full | Relationship between labour force satisfaction, wages and retention within the UK National Health Service: a systematic review of the literature |
| title_fullStr | Relationship between labour force satisfaction, wages and retention within the UK National Health Service: a systematic review of the literature |
| title_full_unstemmed | Relationship between labour force satisfaction, wages and retention within the UK National Health Service: a systematic review of the literature |
| title_short | Relationship between labour force satisfaction, wages and retention within the UK National Health Service: a systematic review of the literature |
| title_sort | relationship between labour force satisfaction wages and retention within the uk national health service a systematic review of the literature |
| url | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/7/e034919.full |
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