The healthcare industry is facing strained talent resources in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. To ensure the healthcare industry’s successful future, it requires an improved, technology-driven, and collaborative talent management approach.
Businesses across the globe are pivoting operations and objectives as a result of the global health crisis. The healthcare industry—arguably one of the most vital communities in our fight against COVID-19—is no different.
Before COVID-19, the 2020 U.S. healthcare recruiting environment indicated that talent scarcity defined the market. Healthcare occupations were projected to outpace other industries, adding 2.4 million jobs by 2026. The healthcare environment was also evolving toward value-based care, driven by technological innovation, demands for healthcare cost control, and emerging competition from retail health providers like Walmart and Amazon.
Today, value-based care and cost control combined with the pandemic means talent resources are strained, especially as over 60,000 healthcare professionals have tested positive for COVID-19.
At the same time, HR leaders require increased aid to improve healthcare staffing efforts in terms of hiring, retention, and engagement. That means they need adaptable and flexible workforce strategies that can successfully deliver on staffing needs in an ever-changing landscape.
As such, ensuring state coalitions, federal agencies, and hospital systems have fully stacked workforces now and post-pandemic is critically important to safeguard the delivery of essential services.
Future-Proofing Healthcare Hiring
In the past, healthcare employment was siloed, and staffing was separated into clinical vs. nonclinical roles. However, this approach is inefficient, as it causes communication barriers that directly impact the ability to meet needs.
As communities work to meet the increasing healthcare needs of today’s public, a single, total workforce-integrated talent solution can meet these needs efficiently. The future of healthcare staffing demands that healthcare systems fill all staffing needs as quickly—and with the most suitable candidates—as possible.
As such, there must be a collaborative approach across businesses to ensure the wants, needs, and means in the industry are aligned and met.
Optimizing Healthcare Staffing with Digitalization
Streamlining talent pools is only one part of the equation. Another key component of optimizing healthcare hiring for the future is making smart use of the array of technological tools at HR leaders’ disposal that allow for greater flexibility.
Healthcare organizations are already championing digitalization through their direct-to-consumer products by harnessing a host of artificial intelligence (AI) and mobile applications to meet needs.
In fact, 86% of health systems have an executive responsible for innovation management. The next integral step, however, is leveraging technology within the realm of talent management to improve staffing and hiring. That’s why the industry is moving toward an integrated, advanced, and enterprise-driven talent management solution.
One of the most critical components of staffing is the ability to make data-backed decisions for talent management. To do this, leaders should be leveraging tools like predictive analytics software, AI, and proactive support models that allow healthcare systems to forecast their staffing needs now and in the future. This will set the stage for the way healthcare staffing happens and can shed light on how healthcare systems are adapting in a post-COVID world.
Investing in talent analytics reaps substantial rewards, including freeing up HR staff’s time to focus on more value-driven tasks.
The healthcare industry and those who make up the workforce are significant members of the communities in which we live, work, and play. As healthcare professionals continue to work hard every day to safeguard our future, organizations need to put an equal amount of care into the talent management, recruitment, and retention of staff. Cross-industry and technologically advanced partnerships are the way forward to make real change in healthcare staffing.
Traci Fiatte is the CEO of Professional and Commercial Staffing at Randstad US.
Dan White is the President of Strategic Workforce Solutions at AMN Healthcare.
The post The Tech-Driven, Collaborative Future of Healthcare Staffing appeared first on HR Daily Advisor.