Healthcare recruitment is more challenging than ever with monumental staffing shortages in healthcare. Workforce data shows an increased demand for 1.1 million new registered nurses to replace retirees, as well as 18 percent of healthcare workers who have quit since the pandemic began. Identifying and strategizing ways to tackle recruitment challenges in the healthcare industry is the first step to achieving appropriate staffing. Here’s our overview of the obstacles facing healthcare agencies and recruiters as well as our tips for how to stay ahead of them.
It’s no secret that we’re facing record staff shortages in health systems right now. By the end of the year, surveys predict a third of nurses and a quarter of medical workers plan to leave their jobs. This trend isn’t slowing down with an analysis of EMSI data finding there will be a shortage of 3.2 million health care workers by 2026.
A leading cause for these staffing shortages is the aging Baby Boomer generation, which greatly increases the need for healthcare solutions. Additionally, COVID-19 has caused a backlog of healthcare graduates, creating a lack of potential candidates ready to enter the job market. We’re also seeing a rapid increase of early retirements in the healthcare workforce due to COVID-19 burnout and other industry issues. All these factors, plus the current staffing issues we’re seeing trend now, are creating the perfect storm of labor shortages. Here are the current staffing challenges in healthcare.
While the spread of COVID-19 is trending downward, we're still dealing with some of the effects the pandemic had on the healthcare industry. One obstacle in hiring right now is a healthcare professional's level of comfort and safety. Sure, government efforts have been made to address the safety of healthcare providers and patients, which impacted around 17 million healthcare workers in the nation. The bottom line is as specialized nurses, rad techs, lab professionals, therapy workers, and other healthcare experts treat patients, they want to know and feel like they, too, are safe. In fact, a SHRM survey found almost 60 percent of respondents said they'd turn down a job if the employer didn't have safety protocols in place.
In addition to patient and provider safety, crisis pay rates are beginning to level out to pre-pandemic rates. Not too long ago, crisis pay rates were trending upwards of 40 percent more than pre-pandemic rates, depending on location and urgency. In fact, between January 2020 and January 2022, the average advertised pay rate for travel nurses alone increased by 67 percent, according to data from Prolucent Health, a workforce management tool for healthcare agencies. Now these crisis rates are leveling out in facilities across the country and more healthcare travelers are holding out for higher-paying jobs, making it more difficult to attract and retain talent.
Health systems have found themselves in a challenging position of keeping employees and patients safe, keeping up with changes in crisis pay rates, and trying to attract and retain employees on top of it all. This challenge has and will continue to be present in hiring trends moving forward.
Another hurdle is navigating healthcare technology systems, especially since travelers often have to learn new healthcare technology on assignment. A common concern among healthcare employees are Electronic Health Record systems (EHRs), with healthcare professionals giving them a F for usability, according to a study conducted by Stanford and the Mayo Clinic in collaboration with the American Medical Association. The study also found that worse functioning EHRs were correlated with higher reported levels of burnout. There’s a frustration with not being able to easily access comprehensive patient health data through these technology systems.
“You know as a nurse what you’re going to look for. Why do you have to go looking for it?” Susan Heichert, president of consultancy Cedar Isles Organization said.
Overall, healthcare workers don’t feel confident they have the necessary technology skills to work efficiently in the current work environment and health systems. Travelers often receive very little technology onboarding when they start a new assignment, and it’s easy to see how having to repeatedly learn new systems with little support could cause stress and contribute to burnout.
"People don't feel they have the skills to do the work they need to, and they feel a little overwhelmed with the amount of data," Shenita Freeman, senior director of analytics and informatics at Centurion, said. "For a lot of people who entered the profession, they never thought technology would be linchpin in this way."
Battling the last two years of the pandemic has caused extreme healthcare burnout. A Kaiser Family Foundation/ Washington Post poll found about 6 in 10 healthcare workers said pandemic-related stress had harmed their mental well-being and health. Another survey discovered one of the top challenges and reasons for healthcare staffing shortages reported by nurses was “emotional health and wellbeing of staff.” And the issue isn’t limited to the current healthcare workforce, as more than one-third of qualified physicians are discouraging young people from entering the profession citing burnout and a lack of work-life balance in the field.
However, COVID-19 isn’t the only factor contributing to burnout and staff turnover. Roughly half of the profession has reported persistent emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, pointing to burnout as a systemic issue in American healthcare. Workers are in desperate need of support and a prioritization on work-life balance in the industry. According to Medscape, 15 percent of physicians report depression and suicidal thoughts, but only 43 percent said they’d spoken to someone about those issues, and only one-third visited a therapist.
Ongoing challenges in recruiting includes staffing rural communities. The federal Health Resources and Services Administration found that rural regions make up 60 percent of areas facing a critical shortage of staffing in healthcare. Staffing shortages are extreme in rural areas due to the aging workforce and population, lower pay, and a more intense workload, as rural populations are generally older and sicker and fewer people have health insurance than in urban areas, according to a National Rural Health Association policy brief.
Convincing traveling nurses to take an assignment in rural healthcare is often difficult and requires offering higher average hourly hospital wages than most rural hospitals are able to sustain. Common concerns with taking a job opportunity in a rural community include:
A heavy workload
Challenges taking time off
Call frequency
Professional solitude
Difficulties in keeping professional boundaries
A healthcare professional's family may also raise concerns when considering a rural job offer such as:
Limited job opportunities for spouses
Lengthy travel distances to schools
Availability of childcare and afterschool programs
Lack of groups and activities
“It’s just very difficult to compete with some of the size and scale that bigger systems have,” Mary Ellen Pratt, CEO of St. James Parish Hospital in rural Lutcher, Louisiana said.
Being aware of these challenges is essential to understanding a traveler's thought processes when job searching. Furthermore, this knowledge can help you better support travelers through these current healthcare recruiting trends. Here’s what you can do to attract the right talent, achieve speed to market, and ultimately overcome these healthcare staffing challenges.
One hiring strategy is to provide pay transparency on job postings. Travelers don’t want the runaround when it comes to money and they’re moving on quickly from job postings that aren’t providing information on salary, benefits, and working condition details. The impact of pay transparency is significant with social media scheduling tool company Buffer finding employees trust their company more, feel respected by their employer, and are 110 percent more likely to remain with the company when pay transparency is practiced. Going deeper, Buffer also discovered they received twice as many applications after they enacted pay transparency. A different study found jobs with a posted salary received 7.8 percent more applicants than postings without, showing that workers value pay transparency.
Plus, more applicants mean a larger pool of talented candidates to choose from when it comes to recruitment. Providing a salary from the get-go empowers travelers to evaluate the opportunity fairly, inquire more seriously, and have a clear idea of compensation before they invest their valuable time in the recruitment process. Even better are platforms, like Marketplace, with jobs that have pay and other factors listed, allowing travelers to compare jobs among competitive healthcare providers and agencies with ease and make the best decisions for themselves.
With more jobs than there are candidates, it’s essential to offer competitive benefits and pay. Healthcare professionals have the upper hand in the current job climate and are requesting benefits like flexibility, work-life balance, and more from potential employers. The current resources provided are not enough, as 88 percent of executives and 86 percent of HR leaders believe they provide sufficient mental health services to their employees, however, 87 percent of workers want their employers to care about their mental health, only 66 percent actually feel supported, and 28 percent feel their employer didn’t support their mental health during the pandemic. Workers are expecting more out of their jobs and will find work elsewhere if not given access to these resources.
It’s always good to broaden your horizons, and it’s even more beneficial when it comes to recruiting in the current job market! With a limited pool of healthcare professionals to pick from, finding new audiences is helpful for filling job vacancies. Some healthcare organizations are having luck reaching out to student groups and retirees to fill one-off healthcare positions. Other non-healthcare companies are using strategies like partnering with organizations that have furloughed workers to hire their recently displaced staff. Additional markets to tap into include partnering with nursing schools, ramping up referral programs, social media recruiting, and networking through virtual and in-person conferences. All in all, these people are on online job platforms like Marketplace, so partnering is a great way to achieve agency visibility and find new talent all in one place, without the scramble.
The hiring and compliance process in healthcare is lengthy and often cumbersome, which can be discouraging for healthcare professionals. Agencies can combat this issue by streamlining their processes with job boards software, AI technology in recruitment software, and applicant tracking systems that simplifies the hiring process. Investing in resources like these can help you expand your talent pool and allow your organization to focus on the most qualified healthcare professionals.
Similarly, maintaining online and remote recruiting strategies opens the door to new talent and increases accessibility to your agency. According to a LinkedIn study, 81 percent of hiring professionals agree virtual recruiting will continue after the pandemic, while 70 percent believe it will take over as the new normal. This is a plus for recruiters as job fairs and conferences that once couldn’t be attended due to travel or budget restraints can now be virtual and more accessible. Digital recruitment tools like online assessments, virtual interviews, and data-driven analytics can help make recruiting strategies more efficient and increase reach.
Marketplace can help agencies achieve all the above strategies. When you become a partner with us, you’ll have access to our large pool of qualified travelers to fill your staffing needs. With Marketplace profiles, travelers can add their job preferences and qualifications and share that information with recruiters, which means sorting through applicants has never been easier! Marketplace also makes it simple to manage applications and communicate with travelers all on one platform. In addition, agencies can employ pay and benefits transparency easily with Marketplace, allowing travelers to have all the details on your jobs at their fingertips.
Joining Marketplace as a partner not only allows you to tap into our candidate flow, but it also aids in reducing rising acquisition costs, build brand visibility, and take advantage of our lead generation. With Marketplace, you can combat staffing challenges in healthcare and find excellent healthcare talent.