Healthcare staffing has always been a difficult issue in the industry. Employers want to source people with adequate training and experience but also want to keep those employees. This helps to create a functional community and a good work environment.
Whether managers recognize it or not, staffing inefficiencies significantly affect healthcare employees’ dissatisfaction and departure. Staff feel unsupported, uninspired, and worn out. The staffing errors also have an adverse effect on patients and the treatment they get.
We’ve looked at some of the most typical healthcare staffing mistakes made by healthcare recruiters that hinder hiring successfully. This blog explains some of these errors and breaks down the tools and strategies you can deploy to tackle them!
The Slow and Inefficient Hiring Process
There aren’t many industries that depend on an efficient hiring process as much as the healthcare industry. Due to the training requirements and the necessary skills and experience expected from candidates, healthcare employers require sufficient time to decide on any potential employee.
Don’t let the hiring process drag on.
Healthcare staffing shortages cost hospitals $24 billion per year, according to a Premier assessment. Why is there a staffing shortage? On average, it takes 49 days to hire a new healthcare employee. That’s already longer than nearly any other industry, and the length of time has consequences.
So, employers need to take steps to reduce that time-frame, and technology is a great way to do that.
Find the right Candidate Source.
Finding the appropriate professional platforms might help you accomplish more than simply recruiting outstanding people. Some people look at it as the first step in strong employee retention. The University of Pennsylvania IMPaCT program reduced its turnover rate to only 1.7% by focusing on recruitment efforts.
The majority of healthcare recruiters (about 87%) utilize online job boards like LinkedIn, Indeed & Glassdoor as their primary recruitment source. Friendship referrals are also prevalent.
Harvard Business Review’s study states that knowing where to look and using the right assessment tools are essential to finding the right candidate. Their study provided some key and surprising insights. These insights cover some of the attributes that managers and patients seek in healthcare workers.
Community membership and altruism, along with education and clinical experience, are important for achieving desired outcomes in healthcare. With such attributes in mind in their job descriptions and interviews, managers can optimize their search for candidates. They can use specific assessment tools available on such professional platforms. m
Keep in touch with the candidates.
According to a review of American Hospital Association survey data, employment vacancies for nursing employees increased by up to 30% between 2019 and 2020. A great reason behind these job vacancies is the increased mobility in the labour market.
According to Healthcare Finance News, healthcare workers have taken advantage of the various opportunities presented by a rise in demand for labour, quitting their professions for better-paying occupations.
Employers should stay in contact with candidates and highlight the positive aspects of the company’s culture. This will help in retaining them. Showing candidates the company’s culture can make them more likely to stay. Keeping in touch with candidates is crucial for retaining them.
Of course, if you’re using a staffing agency, these issues aren’t as big of a deal. However, most employers prefer to have their own employees rather than relying on agency staff.
Job Burnout Prevalence in Healthcare Staffing
Some of our other blogs have discussed the prevalence of job burnout in the healthcare industry. Nurses are, of course, greatly familiar with workplace stress. Healthcare workers often work overtime, overexert themselves, and tackle different scheduling issues to receive their pay on time.
As a result, inefficient healthcare staffing and the burnout associated with the profession itself can lead to a high turnover rate in an industry essential to the economy.
Don’t overlook staff burnout.
Working in the healthcare field entails a great deal of responsibility, obstacles, and stress. This combination may burn out medical personnel. Burnout causes many employees to feel less motivated at work. In a variety of methods, practice managers may assist in reducing team burnout.
You can help your staff by having more one-on-one interactions with them about their workloads and problems and working together on potential solutions. You can also provide a single central platform for employees to cooperate and share responsibilities with their coworkers.
Work-life balance in Healthcare staffing
Work-life balance is important in any industry, but even more so in healthcare when burnout is so prevalent.
Communicate with your personnel about their workloads to keep them happy and enthusiastic so they can give high-quality treatment to your patients. Is there any way you can cut down on administrative work to assist your team in getting a few things off their to-do list?
Consider giving rotating schedules to spread out night and weekend duties. A scheduling tool may also provide your employees with greater control over their schedules and assist them in balancing their personal and professional lives. Celayix, for example, offers self scheduling and shift bidding options to allow employees select the shifts they want to work!
Are you ready to eradicate your staffing issues?
Congrats, you’re actively taking steps to get rid of all staffing issues at your healthcare organization! Remember, it all starts with recruitment, and then it’s about retention. Investing in the right tools can give you great returns in the form of long-standing employees who are loyal to you!
Employee scheduling software is a great tool that will help you give your employees more power over your schedule while also helping you improve your operations. Get your staffing levels right, reduce the time you spend on scheduling, and improve communications with your healthcare workers. Interested? Schedule a free consultation now!
