Sustainable employability of long-term care staff in self-managing teams: a qualitative study regarding their needs

Aim: To discover what long-term care staff working in self-managing teams consider necessary to remain sustainably employable. Design: Qualitative study with semi-structured interviews. Methods: In 2020, semi-structured interviews were conducted one-on-one with 25 long-term care workers from a medium-large Dutch organisation providing long-term care. All interviews were audio-recorded, anonymously transcribed verbatim and analysed with thematic content analysis in the software program Atlas.ti. Results: Long-term care workers indicated a need for autonomy. They wanted their control and involvement in decisions to be strengthened. Furthermore, long-term care workers indicated a need for relatedness, by experiencing support, a feeling of togetherness, and more time to have attention for the residents. Lastly, long-term care workers expressed a need for (assistance in) further developing their competence. Conclusion: In order to remain willing and able to work, long-term care workers in self-managing teams want their needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence to be addressed. Working conditions are important to these long-term care workers’ sustainable employability since they can hinder or promote the satisfaction of their needs. Implications: It is important that management in long-term care is aware of the importance of long-term care workers’ needs for sustainable employability. We recommend that management critically reflect on and invest in addressing these needs by enhancing indicators and limiting inhibitors of the needs.