The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) issued its monthly report stating a record 4.5 million workers resigned or changed employment in November 2021. The healthcare industry was one of the top three industries impacted by the “Great Resignation”. 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 play a significant role in healthcare employees’ dissatisfaction and departure. Staff feels unsupported, uninspired, and worn out as a result of these mistakes. The errors, resultantly, 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 provides a strategy for avoiding 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 as well as necessary skills and experience expected from candidates, healthcare employers require sufficient time to make the right decision regarding any potential employee. However, the healthcare market is always changing. Employers are required to adjust for the change in their hiring process almost immediately. As previously stated, the “Great Resignation” was defined as a sharp increase in resignation among healthcare workers. This comes as a result of a variety of factors. These include low-wage jobs with few opportunities for advancement, rising child care costs, increased responsibility, grueling work conditions amid Covid-19 surges, and fatigue from the pandemic. As a result, hiring replacements or giving workers a reason to stay is critical for the healthcare industry. How do we make that possible?
Don’t let the hiring process drag on
Healthcare staffing shortages cost hospitals $24 billion during the epidemic, according to a Premier assessment of labor statistics released in October; an extra $3 billion was spent on procuring personal protective equipment for workers. 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 ramifications.
According to a Robert Half survey, if a recruiting process is too lengthy, 39% of applicants lose interest in positions. What is the exact length of time that is too long? If 1-2 weeks pass between an interview and a job offer, over half of respondents say they begin to have concerns. Focusing on strengthening your technology and internal procedures so you can hire faster is the greatest strategy to avoid losing prospects to competition.
Find the right Candidate Source
Finding the appropriate professional platforms might help you accomplish more than simply recruit outstanding people. It really aids in their retention. The University of Pennsylvania’s IMPaCT program reduced its turnover rate to only 1.7% by focusing on recruitment efforts. They chose places where their ideal candidates were likely to congregate, according to one case study. Rethinking how you locate applicants may make a huge difference in your workforce.
So, who are the candidates in the healthcare field? 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. You’ll be able to send your job postings to these sites automatically if you use powerful healthcare recruitment technologies.
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, as well as patients, seek in health care workers. Besides the level of education and past clinical experience, community membership and altruism were some attributes that would best help achieve desired outcomes. Keeping such attributes in mind in their job description and interviews, managers can optimize their search for candidates. They can use specific assessment tools available on such professional platforms. For example, multimodal assessments are starting to emerge in healthcare hiring. Multimodal evaluations are one of the most efficient ways to maximize healthcare staffing. These, in addition to resumes, diplomas, and training certificates, which are regularly reviewed credentials healthcare companies employ to assess applicants.
Automate repetitive tasks
By automating repetitive operations, most healthcare staffing teams may greatly increase their efficiency. Celayix’s software, for instance, can automate many tasks. Everything from entering candidate information into your system to sending follow-up messages to arranging interviews.
Manual work costs time and creates hazards when it comes to these essential organizing duties. You may suffer delays, irritation, and a bad applicant experience if mistakes are made due to human error. However, automation eliminates this annoyance. You can enhance candidate engagement and minimize time-to-hire by automating chores without placing additional strain on your HR personnel.
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 labor market. According to Healthcare Finance News, healthcare workers have taken advantage of the various opportunities presented by a rise in demand for labor, quitting their professions for better-paying occupations with less exposure to Covid-19. As a result, it is important that employers retain as many candidates by consistently communicating with them and showing positive signs about the company’s culture.
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. Not only do healthcare workers often work overtime and overexert themselves, but there are also always different scheduling issues that they have to tackle to ensure they get paid 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 very essential to the economy. Fortunately, there are ways to decrease this burnout and even avoid additional stress that healthcare workers face.
Don’t overlook staff burnout
Working in the healthcare field entails a great deal of responsibility, obstacles, and stress. Medical personnel may become burnt out as a result of this combination. The COVID-19 epidemic has simply added to the workload, scheduling, and imbalanced staffing ratios. 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. Increasing engagement with employees and proactively addressing any signs of burnout can significantly help healthcare workers remain in the industry.
work-life balance in Healthcare staffing
Over half of healthcare professionals said their work-life balance has deteriorated since the start of the pandemic. Furthermore, the COVID-19 epidemic has blurred the lines between work and home. Employees may become overwhelmed if there isn’t a sufficient balance, and they may consider quitting their positions.
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 get a few things off their to-do list?
Consider giving rotating schedules to spread out night and weekend duties, as well as telecommuting opportunities. A scheduling tool may also provide your employees greater control over their schedules and assist them in balancing their personal and professional lives. These applications make it much easier for individuals to set their availability, claim the shifts they want, and swap shifts with eligible team members if they need to take time off for personal reasons or have family obligations to attend to.
Any glimmer of hope?
According to an analysis released in October by Science Table, staff turnover caused by COVID-19 pressures has increased from 18 percent to 30 percent in some hospital departments (e.g., emergency, intensive care units, and nursing). Even after the epidemic, nonprofit hospitals — particularly lower-rated, smaller hospitals — will have personnel difficulties, according to credit rating agency Fitch Ratings. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the main expenditure item for hospitals is labor (salaries and benefits), and average hourly hospital pay climbed by 8.5 percent between February 2020 and August 2021. As a result, it is extremely important to compensate healthcare workers for their effort sooner than later, Moreover by learning to reduce burnout, improving the nurse-patient ratio, implementing support programs, and involving nurses in scheduling, Celayix provides employee scheduling software that can help solve the most common mistakes that take place in healthcare staffing.
