Dive Brief:
- Hospitals face a serious talent shortage, regardless of location, size and number of beds, a new survey by management staffing firm Leaders for Today warns.
- Nearly a third (31%) of respondents said their organization can’t find enough candidates, and nearly one-fourth (24%) reported that the qualifications of new hires are questionable — suggesting hospitals may be lowering the bar to fill some positions.
- The survey also suggests HR personnel are overloaded when it comes to recruiting new talent. More than six in 10 hospital-based HR recruiters handle 10 or more searches at any given time, and 27% handle 20 or more, according to the survey of more than 200 healthcare leaders.
Dive Insight:
The lack of talent and large HR caseloads could account for long delays in filling key management positions within hospitals. About three-fourths of searches for hospital leaders take more than four months to fill and 35% take more than seven months, the survey shows.
The problem goes beyond finding talent. Hospitals are also failing to retain good people they hire. An earlier survey by Leaders for Today found 37% of candidates plan to leave their current hospital within the next two years and nearly seven in 10 plan to leave within five years.
Not surprisingly, the new survey shows goals like retention, career development and improving organizational culture at the bottom of HR teams’ priorities.
The survey adds to concerns already mounting around the ongoing doctor and nurse shortage in the U.S. A 2017 report by the Association of American Medical Colleges projected the physician shortage in the U.S. will reach 105,000 by 2030. A more recent report by the American Medical Association found the number of physicians increased just 2.2% between 2012 and 2015, at a time when more people were gaining coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
Despite overall growth in healthcare jobs since the ACA was passed, there has been a recent slowdown in industry job growth. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures for 2017 show just 300,00 jobs added — 70,000 fewer than the previous year. The drop in hiring stems from a host of financial pressures on healthcare organizations, with labor costs often one of the first places to cut.