Top Challenges in Healthcare Staffing and their Solutions

If you operate a hospital, clinic, or even a smaller nursing facility, we don’t have to tell you that finding and retaining good people right now is a nightmare.

We are recruiters, we do this stuff day in and day out, and we see the healthcare staffing market first hand and just how brutal it is. You’re short, you’re hurting patient care, your current team is getting crushed and you’re throwing money out the window.  But it need not be a constant fire drill.

Let’s review the top 10 biggest staffing challenges we see employers face on a daily basis and how you can actually fix them.

It’s tougher to find the right people

The demand for specialized medical skills is through the roof and the applicant pool seems smaller than ever. If you’re posting a job on the usual boards and crossing your fingers, you’re going to lose.

The Fix: Broaden your search. Use healthcare-specific job boards, sure, but start playing the long game too. Build relationships with local nursing schools and colleges. Create a pipeline so that when the students graduate, they think of your facility first.

Your employees are leaving (Retention)

High turnover is a killer. Your people leave for a better offer, or because they’re just plain miserable. It costs you a fortune and destroys team morale.

The Fix People don’t quit jobs, they quit bad cultures. Begin working on staff wellness and clear career progression. When your team feels valued and sees a future with you, they won’t be looking at the exit door.

“The pay is just not enough”

No one argues that working in healthcare is exhausting. If your compensation packages are stuck in 2020, your staff will be seeking a payday elsewhere.

The Fix: Do your research. Regularly check what your competitors are paying and match it. If you can’t bump the base salaries substantially, pile the deck with great health insurance, good retirement plan, or performance bonuses.

You’re paying a fortune to hire

Running ads, hours of interviews, onboarding new hires – recruitment bills can add up very quickly. For smaller clinics, this can absolutely trash a budget.

The Fix: Go high-tech. Automate the time-consuming stuff with a good Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Also, tap into your greatest resource: your existing staff. Develop a referral system. People tend to recommend good workers because their own reputation is at stake, and it is way cheaper than a headhunter.

The hiring process is way too slow

If it takes you a month to hire, the best candidates are already gone. And meanwhile your present crew is working double shifts and burning out.

The Fix: Go faster. Skip unnecessary interview rounds. Use automated tools for instant resume screening. Have a pre-screened “hot list” of candidates ready to go. Make haste, or someone else will. (Quick Tip from the Field: The #1 reason top talent accepts a competing offer is a slow interview process. If you can, keep it to two rounds max.)

Burnout is real (and it’s ripping your team apart)

Massive physical and mental burn out from long hours and high stress settings. When your team is fried, call outs go up and patient care goes down.

The Fix: You have to defend your people. Give them flexible schedules, require mental health days, and actually check in with them. If you see someone drowning, step in and lighten their load before they give up.

Job satisfaction in the gutter

When people feel like a cog in a machine, they stop caring. Morale is infectious. It can spread like wildfire.

The Fix: Provide something to get excited about. Talk to them about their career goals, give them clear paths to promotions, celebrate their victories. A simple sincere “thank you” or employee recognition program is worth a lot.

Skills are lagging behind

Medicine moves fast. If your team isn’t on top of the latest in technology and medical practices, your quality of patient care suffers.

The Fix: Don’t expect them to pick this up on their own time. Organize training internally, sponsor their certifications, or partner with online learning platforms. Invest in their brains and they’ll invest in your facility.

A Complete Absence of Upskilling

It’s not only technical skills. It’s leadership and communication as well. If you don’t train your people to handle new challenges, they’re going to flail.

The Fix: Make learning part of your company culture. Conduct workshops and provide easy access to online courses. It is always cheaper to upgrade your existing staff than to employ someone new to fill a higher role.

Massive Workload Imbalance

It’s a vicious cycle to overwork your core team because you’re understaffed. The more they work, the more fatigued they get, and the more mistakes happen.

The Fix: Be strategic about your schedule. During peak seasons, hire per-diem, part-time, or travel nurses to help ease your full-timers’ workload. Make sure people are actually taking their time off to recharge.

Managing healthcare staffing is challenging, however it can be achievable. You must establish a partnership with your recruitment and retention teams. Treat your employees with respect, make your hiring process straightforward, and create an environment for healthcare professionals to want to work in.