Industry Insights: Healthcare

Industry Insights | March 27, 2023 | Last Updated: Oct 30, 2024 | 4 minutes read

Everything you need to know about Healthcare Hiring

Healthcare executives agree that the greatest challenge to hospitals and health systems in 2022 was a chronic staff shortage, fueled by industry-wide competition for top talent and high turnover rates.

Supporting your healthcare workers is a necessity, not a luxury

Keeping up with the struggles of top candidates and providing solutions in the healthcare industry is one of the best ways to recruit and retain employees, even during record-high staff shortages.

Learn more about how you can maximize your employee experience and bottom line in 2023.

When you’re short on staff, focus on the employee experience.

More and more healthcare workers are asking for shorter and more flexible working shifts.
To make hiring challenges even more difficult, many of the competing industries are targeting the same pool of candidates and trying to rehire hourly workers at the same time.
Today, 33% of recruiters spend sourcing candidates over 20 hours a week. In the time it takes to hire one candidate, you could lose two workers.
Individuals who feel valued by their organization have almost 60% lower odds of experiencing burnout, self-reported anxiety or depression, and likelihood to leave.
A Medscape poll of 10,788 nurses conducted over the summer of 2021 found that at least 1 in 5 respondents in each nursing position category reported being very burned out or burned out.
For the doctors, nurses, and most other healthcare professionals we interviewed, attractive pay and benefits is the most important attribute when choosing an employer. But work-life balance is just behind, and pleasant work atmosphere just below that.

The Healthcare Facts & Figures

The national turnover rate for hospitals is 26%
25% of Americans have noticed or personally experienced the impact of staffing shortages in health care.
A majority (79%) of healthcare workers said they are at least somewhat worried that changes in the broader economy, such as inflation and the threat of recession, will impact their personal finances in the next six months.
65% of healthcare workers live paycheck-to-paycheck and 48% said they expect to need a short-term loan in the near future.

Over 230,000 physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and other clinicians had quit their jobs as of August 2022.
Hospitals average 100% staff turnover every 5 years
On the last business day of September 2022, there were 2.1 million job openings in health care and social assistance, yielding a job openings rate of 9.2 percent.
The World Health Organization predicts a shortfall of 15 million health care workers worldwide in 2030.

Vertical Fact

The average age of a registered nurse in the U.S. in 2022 was 52 years old.

Most senior and experienced nurses are nearing retirement while some may leave earlier than expected due to burnout.

What Healthcare Workers are Looking For

Candidates are rightfully asking for more benefits than ever before as work demands go up and hospitals and organizations have more and more job spots to fill. Relying on pay raises is no longer enough so employers need to look at implementing other strategies to attract and retain talent and stand out among the competition:

Implement shift flexibility to help workers achieve more work-life balance and have the time they need to be there for personal responsibilities including childcare, attending to elderly family members, and more.

Provide housing opportunities and transportation for workers who financially struggle with commuting to increase attendance, punctuality and efficiency.

Incorporate a mobile communication platform to digitize the employee experience and make it easier for workers to keep up-to-date with organization announcements and coordinate shifts with their colleagues.

When your staff suffers, your patients suffer

With “The Great Resignation” in full swing and candidates demanding more benefits, raising pay has swiftly become a standard requirement. As a result, employers will need to look at implementing other benefits to attract and retain talent and stand out among the competition:

ECRI named staffing shortages among its top 10 patient safety concerns of 2022, underscoring that clinical and non-clinical staff shortages have been an issue since before the pandemic have been a problem since before the pandemic and that it’s only getting worse. In 2020, hospital registered nurse turnover was 18.7% (U.S.).
One in six of the world’s nurses likely will retire in the next 10 years.
There is a concerning shortage of nursing students. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 80,407 qualified nursing school applicants were turned away in 2019 due to factors like inadequate faculty, clinical sites, classroom space, clinical preceptors, and budget.
Nurses in highly staffed units had much lower numbers of incidents of missed nursing care, and nurses on those units were significantly less likely to miss turning patients, mouth care, bathing/skincare, patient assessments in each shift.

Source: https://www.patientsafety.com/en/blog/staffing-shortages-affects-patient-safety

Source: BCG health care executive survey, August 2021

The Big Picture

There is a lot of potential for healthcare industry leaders to offer thoughtful and effective financial wellness benefits that help them stay competitive. These include flexible hours and scheduling, increased pay, vaccination incentives, employee discounts and training, and more.
Provide a safe, protective, and inclusive environment where workers feel comfortable voicing their concerns.
Give team members opportunities to communicate, grow, and collaborate.
Offer a healthy mix of perks, like on-demand pay, flexible hours, and incentives.
Do more to retain the staff you have by focusing on the employee experience with inclusive environments, more flexibility over their shift schedules.
Offer employment opportunities to younger people who don’t have prior experience and invest in skills and development training.
Plan to offer perks such as bonus pay for working difficult shifts, sign on and retention bonuses, a rewards and recognition program, tuition assistance, complimentary meals, transportation, and on-demand pay.
Social media springs up candidates.

Improving your hiring practices and retention starts with finding ways to support your workers from the first day they join your team. There are a variety of ways to do this through financial wellness benefits, housing and transportation incentives, flexible shifts, and more. It all starts with deciding to put your workers first.