Slightly more medical practices report improving staff morale today versus the ones where it’s worsening. An Oct. 7, 2025, MGMA Stat poll finds that most medical group practice leaders say staff morale is about the same (41%) this year versus last, while 30% report morale is better and 28% say it is worse. Another 1% responded “unsure.” The poll had 386 applicable responses. 

What you told us 

In practices with better morale, leaders pointed to a common bundle of fixes: first, compensation resets (market-match pay, bonuses, and richer benefits) paired with steady engagement and communication — coaching by supervisors, inclusion in decisions, and visible appreciation. Morale also rose where groups became fully staffed (or at least “not short-staffed”), easing workload stress and cutting turnover.  

• Many cited leadership and culture improvements (e.g., installing new HR leaders, removing toxic or underperforming staff, and unifying culture across sites).  
• Relief also came from scheduling flexibility and workflow redesign, clearer training/checklists, and targeted tools and upgrades (new EHR features, equipment, improved facilities).  
• Rounding it out were well-being initiatives and incentive opportunities.  

In practices where morale held steady, the same factors were cited: Updated pay/benefits, ongoing engagement and communication, greater schedule flexibility, and modest staffing or tool upgrades. In short: pay equity, people engagement, and staffing stability, backed by cleaner processes and accountable leadership, are doing the heavy lifting. 

In practices with worse morale, leaders pointed to familiar issues:  

• Persistent staffing gaps that push workload higher; 
• Pay problems (no raises, compression, and widening gaps versus health-system pay) that feel unfair; and 
• Rising administrative burdens — from prior auths to disruptive EHR conversions — that steal time from patient care.  

Additionally, more respondents noted issues with leadership turnover, organizational turbulence (M&A, ownership changes, reduced hours after physician/APP exits), and other external headwinds (reimbursement pressure, Medicaid cuts, economic and political uncertainty, tougher patient behavior). 

Whether your result lands in the “better” or “worse” column, the picture behind staff morale this year is unusually mixed:  

• On one hand, pay benchmarks for many management, administrative, and clinical support roles surged again in the latest MGMA DataDive Management & Staff Compensation report, reflecting a reset that has helped practices compete for talent.  
• On the other, engagement across U.S. workplaces slipped to a decade low, and healthcare’s exposure to workplace violence remains an acute drag on well-being. 

What’s pushing morale up 

1. Real wage gains for key roles 

Our 2025 Management & Staff Compensation data (drawn from more than 4,300 medical groups) documents some of the most significant pay shifts in a decade. Leaders also report more frequent benchmarking of staff compensation to stay competitive (64% annually; 13% twice or more per year). These moves tend to stabilize turnover and signal commitment to frontline teams. 

2. Turnover pressure is easing for many groups 

A May MGMA Stat poll found 70% of practices said turnover in 2025 was the same or lower than 2024 (35% each). Even incremental improvements in retention relieve onboarding burdens and reduce peer overload, which are common morale killers. 

3. Workflow relief from better tooling, especially documentation 

Ambient documentation/AI scribing is not a panacea, but emerging evidence suggests measurable reductions in documentation burden and burnout among clinicians — benefits that often cascade to support staff who otherwise absorb after-visit work or schedule churn caused by note backlogs. 

4. Patient demand is steady to strong in many markets 

Stable or rising visit volumes bolster job security and justify reinvestment in staffing and tools, which employees perceive as organizational momentum rather than austerity. 

What’s pulling morale down 

1. Engagement headwinds beyond healthcare 

In a recent Gallup study, U.S. employee engagement dropped to 31% in 2024, with younger workers showing the sharpest declines. Even well-run practices swim against this current. 

2. Cost pressure and pay compression 

Operating expenses are up sharply in 2025 (about 11% YoY, per a July 2025 MGMA poll). Practices that can’t keep pace on base rates, differentials, and internal equity risk morale damage from perceived unfairness, even if pay rose nominally. 

3. Recruitment strain persists in pockets 

Despite gains, many leaders still list staffing among their top priorities, and some roles (e.g., MAs) remain hard to fill, creating overtime, schedule instability, and slower training cycles that frustrate remaining staff. 

4. Safety concerns and workplace violence 

Violence against health workers continues to sap morale and drive exits. Federal and accreditation attention has intensified; new Joint Commission requirements around workplace violence prevention took effect for several settings (including office-based surgery practices) on July 1, 2025. Studies estimate billions in annual costs tied to security, training, and the aftermath of incidents — and employees feel the stress and compensate with hypervigilance. 

5. Burnout remains real, even if improving 

An AMA survey on physician burnout found it eased from 53% (2022) to 43% (2024), but that still means nearly half of doctors report at least one symptom — conditions that can spill over to teams handling messages, prior auth, and check-in bottlenecks. 

How to interpret your morale result 

• If you are doing better: You likely paired comp updates with visible investments in safety, staffing, and/or workload fairness. Guard against backsliding by formalizing what worked and communicating it consistently. 
• If your team is about the same: Neutral isn’t bad in a year of broader engagement declines. Focus on micro-wins — schedule reliability, training pathways, and recognition rituals — that help shift perception in a positive direction. 
• If you are doing worse: Start with psychological safety and predictable staffing; consider de-escalation training; and review pay equity before adding new initiatives. 

A practical checklist for quick wins 

1. Benchmark and communicate pay realities 

Refresh staff compensation benchmarks; identify compression hotspots; set a timeline for adjustments or non-cash offsets (e.g., expanded PTO options, shift differentials). Share the “why” and the “when.” 

2. Stabilize schedules 

Audit schedule reliability by role (late changes, double coverage gaps). Add cross-training where feasible and tighten float rules so PTO doesn’t translate into chaos for peers. 

3. Find two administrative hassles per role to fix 

Run a “two hassles in, two hassles out” sprint with each team (front desk, billing, clinical support). Prioritize changes that shorten handoffs, reduce rework, or compress queues (e.g., clean up payer rules in the PM system; simplify patient message routing). 

4. Pilot ambient documentation or message triage where pain is highest 

Pick one clinic or specialty with note-related overhang; define success as fewer after-hours tasks and smoother close-outs, not just “AI adoption.” 

5. Rebuild micro-trust 

Lean on frontline huddles and check-ins to identify friction quickly; close the loop publicly when you fix something so improvements are credited to staff voices, not just leadership. 

6. Improve your safety posture 

Update workplace-violence policies, drills, and incident-response workflows; make reporting and follow-up highly visible. Clarify supports for affected staff (leave options, counseling, workers’ comp). 

7. Celebrate reliability, not heroics 

Shift recognition away from last-minute saves to steady throughput and error-free days. Over time, this rewires the norms of your team away from burnout-friendly “firefighting.” 

8. Measure and repeat 

Identify a “morale readout” of leading indicators you can influence now (e.g., schedule changes per FTE, time to close daily encounters). Keep an eye on this monthly in addition to ongoing work to track turnover and vacancies. 

Conclusion 

At the end of the day, morale rises when things feel fair — pay makes sense, schedules are sane, people feel safe — and when leaders fix what teams point out.  

The past few years have not been easy, but it’s not hopeless: Turnover isn’t spiking like it did in 2021, and there are more tools to make work less chaotic and more predictable. Medical groups that turn those wins into steadier days — and let staff see and feel that change — are the ones most likely to be feeling better at their next morale check.