Healthcare staffing agencies can find it difficult to keep pace with hiring demands and run their business. Whatever the medical specialty, healthcare staffing agencies have one primary focus: find and fill open opportunities with skilled and credentialed medical professionals. Still, these business owners also have to oversee their operations, providing back-office support services to both clients and candidates.
COVID-19 Caused Rampant Disruption for Healthcare Staffing Agencies
Maintaining the balance between earning future business and supporting the current business is challenging in any job economy. However, this past year has changed the way we view healthcare in the United States forever. The disruption of COVID-19 revealed vulnerabilities and challenges within the healthcare industry that none of us could have expected. Medical professional shortages have long been a concern across multiple verticals, and as we begin to settle into our post-pandemic new "normal," healthcare, in particular, is feeling the pinch. Hospitals, private practices, and other health organizations are now facing a growing need for healthcare expansion but an utter lack of candidates to fill the positions.
On the surface, the rising demand for healthcare professionals post-COVID can seem like an inevitable business boom for staffing agencies. But the heightened urgency for qualified candidates, coupled with a dwindling talent pool, can have dire consequences for healthcare staffing agencies that haven't properly prepared for the surge. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Employment in healthcare occupations is projected to grow 15 percent from 2019 to 2029, much faster than the average for all occupations, adding about 2.4 million new jobs. Healthcare occupations are projected to add more jobs than any of the other occupational groups. This projected growth is mainly due to an aging population, leading to greater demand for healthcare services."
Understanding some of the specifics about the current healthcare candidate shortages can ensure you're ready to optimize opportunities and minimize risk for your agency.
Healthcare Candidate Shortages: The Problem in Numbers
The issue of candidate shortages is not a new concept, with reports of candidates for nearly all healthcare roles dropping off for over two decades. Nursing, in particular, demonstrates an increasing gap between demand and available resources, with studies showing “upwards of one million additional nurses [would] be needed by 2020,” even without enduring a year-long global pandemic.
A 2020 NPR article showed that 1,000 U.S. hospitals are “critically short” on staff — with more shortages expected to continue throughout 2021. An inability to source talent isn't the only factor working against our healthcare system. Recent reports show that a growing and simultaneously aging population will require healthcare services by 2030. Additionally, studies also reveal that two out of five active physicians will turn 65 in the next 10 years, outlining a potential perfect storm for a major gap in healthcare professionals.
Why is There a Healthcare Candidate Shortage?
Recognizing that there is a shortage of qualified healthcare candidates is essential. However, for staffing agencies specializing in medical recruiting, knowing why there is a shortage of skilled healthcare candidates can help agencies better prepare for success.
So why are healthcare candidates difficult to source in today's job economy? One answer may be a "buzzword," but it still seems to be more and more common: burnout.
Burnout — the state of emotional, mental, and/or physical exhaustion caused by prolonged stress and effort — is common in all industries. Pressure from both external and internal forces can cause burnout, but what makes burnout so significant in the healthcare industry is how hard stress, worry, and anxiety hits due to the long, physical hours of healthcare workers.
Medical Professionals Experience Burnout Based on Specific Factors
While burnout from looking at a screen or spending hours rehearsing a presentation in a corporate field can often be solved by a weekend away, or a night offline, nurses, doctors, and other healthcare professionals rarely have the chance to disconnect completely. Additionally, the physical burnout of being on the floor or on call for days at a time can take years for recovery.
There is no 'offline' for medical professionals, and no amount of sleep can undo years of physical exhaustion from working the floor of a hospital. While numerous articles have been written on the massive burnout in the healthcare profession, we continue to have understaffed hospitals and overworked employees, exacerbating this cycle further.
COVID & Healthcare Shortages
The COVID-19 pandemic offered another glaring insight into the staffing shortage within the healthcare industry. As our hospitals overflowed with COVID patients, the country's lack of qualified medical professionals became increasingly evident. This is not a problem that is specific to one region or a single kind of medical practice. A simple search for research on "burnout in healthcare + COVID" shows an impressive 9,470 cited articles since the beginning of 2020. This problem knows no bounds and has no geographical limitations.
Pennsylvania registered nurse Mary Lou Arocena was quoted as saying, "With COVID, a lot of nurses got burned out. A lot of them quit, and sometimes it takes forever for them to hire somebody, because actually nobody wants to work there."
Other Contributing Factors to Healthcare Candidate Shortages
Beyond typical burnout and the COVID-19 virus, other factors currently contribute to a shortage of healthcare professionals in the industry today. A 2020 report published by the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California says these four things also contribute to our health care staffing shortage:
Aging Population
By 2030, the population of Americans aged 65 and older requiring additional healthcare services will increase by 55%.
Aging Healthcare Workforce
Nearly half the current healthcare workforce will be eligible for retirement in the coming years.
Increase in Chronic Diseases
An American Action Forum publication points out that chronic disease is “expected to worsen over the next several decades among all age groups.”
Limited Capacity of Educational Programs
Nursing and medical institutions simply don't have the capacity to train every individual interested in getting into healthcare.
Employer of Record Solutions Allow Healthcare Staffing Agencies to Do What They Do Best
Healthcare staffing agencies recognize that there will always be factors and variables out of their control. For example, there is no solution to an aging population or preventing an unexpected global pandemic. However, healthcare staffing agencies do have a significant opportunity to step up and alleviate burnout by providing high-performing, fully-credentialed medical candidates to facilities struggling to keep up with an overwhelmed and stretched-too-thin internal workforce.
With so many factors playing into the medical professional shortage, savvy healthcare staffing agencies recognize the need to double down on their recruiting efforts and partner with a qualified Employer of Record to manage their staffing agency support services.
An experienced Employer of Record develops customized back office support services that include:
- Payroll funding and processing- Human resources support
- Taxes and compliance
- Insurance claims
- Unemployment claims
- Automated candidate experience
- Credentialing/background screening
- Back office support — invoicing and collections
- Weekly profit reporting
Leveraging the benefits of a full-service Employer of Record provider allows healthcare staffing agencies to dedicate their time and resources to finding top talent in a dwindling candidate pool with the peace of mind that comes with knowing that time-consuming onboarding and back office support needs are being met.
Headcount Management Creates Customized EOR Support Solutions
Right now, healthcare staffing agencies across every vertical are scrambling to find the best available candidates to fill open opportunities. Headcount Management's EOR support solutions can free up the time and resources you need to stay focused on staffing while we manage your back office support needs. Contact us today to learn more.
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