Owners of healthcare staffing agencies know firsthand that successfully sourcing, screening, and placing qualified medical professionals is challenging in any job economy. However, healthcare staffing agencies across every vertical are facing numerous new challenges created in the post-COVID market. The last 15+ months have proven eye-opening for the medical industry. The global pandemic revealed critical gaps in hospital infrastructure, budget, resources, and unrealized research capabilities.
Leading Healthcare Staffing Agencies Partner with Experienced EOR Vendors
Still, maintaining a sufficient workforce remained one of the biggest struggles faced by healthcare facilities across the U.S. The talent is scarce and the competition is fierce. As a result, healthcare staffing agencies recognize that the only way to maintain and grow their business is to stay focused on their primary responsibilities — matching elite medical professionals with the right job opportunities. To stay on top of their workload, savvy healthcare recruiters are outsourcing as many periphery responsibilities as possible to vendors with the skills, experience, and capabilities needed to deliver customized back-office support services. For many, the best option is aligning their recruiting agency with an Employer of Record (EOR).
Understanding Post-Pandemic Healthcare Staffing Challenges — And How an EOR Can Help
An EOR provider can prove a critical resource for healthcare staffing firms striving to support their existing book of business and grow in the post-COVID landscape. Here are some of the biggest issues faced by healthcare staffing agencies and how turning to an Employer of Record (EOR) can absorb some of the burden:
CHALLENGE: Lack of Qualified Resources
One significant problem plaguing healthcare staffing agencies is a general lack of qualified resources across every medical specialty. Healthcare professional shortages have long plagued the healthcare industry. Additionally, the lack of nurses and medical assistants only gets more severe with our rapidly increasing population. As a result, even before the pandemic, many medical facilities had a workforce that was stretched too thin.
The COVID-19 pandemic has further widened the gaps between patient demand and available resources. We realized firsthand just how ill-prepared we were as a nation for an emergency of that scale as the need for medical professionals and frontline workers surged, but access to qualified talent dwindled. Now, fifteen plus months later, healthcare staffing agencies are still responding to the furious frenzy to hire medical professionals, putting all hands on deck and pouring resources into the recruiting process.
SOLUTION: Comprehensive Back-Office Solutions That Save Time
To help stay focused on the constant need to find qualified physicians and practitioners, many healthcare staffing agencies are partnering with an Employer of Record provider to manage back-office support services. Offloading back-office, payroll, HR support, and more increases available bandwidth for the team. By eliminating these periphery functions to a professional EOR, healthcare recruiters can use their time more efficiently, zeroing in on the right talent to maintain fill ratios in even the toughest job economy.
CHALLENGE: High Turnover and Low Employee Satisfaction
The prolonged stretches of filling in gaps on an understaffed workforce have taken their toll on current physicians and practitioners. Employee satisfaction has plummeted, and turnover is alarmingly high for an industry that was understaffed before COVID. The 2020 National Healthcare Retention & RN Staffing Report shows that, since 2016, the average hospital has turned over 90.8% of its total workforce. The same study says about 17% on average of hospital turnover in a single year.
Turnover not only leads to an understaffed and overworked staff — but it can also have an alarming impact on a personnel performance. Low morale, burnout, and exhaustion are common side effects in an facility with high turnover that can put both the workforce and organization as a whole at a disadvantage.
SOLUTION: Automated Onboarding and Payroll Services
Accelerating the onboarding process and keeping health care employees paid while on contract can help boost satisfaction for temporary professionals. An experienced EOR provider offers onboarding services as part of their comprehensive solutions, managing the necessary documentation that enables medical professionals to hit the ground running during their contract.
Additionally, working with an EOR provider to manage payroll ensures that contractors receive their paychecks accurately and on time, which can also help drive satisfaction. Most importantly, an EOR payroll solution absorbs all risk for healthcare staffing agencies, ensuring full insurance and tax compliance with every pay cycle.
CHALLENGE: Technology Limitations
Technology plays a critical role in boosting a healthcare staffing agency’s efficiency, driving compliance, and minimizing overall costs and risks. It’s no secret that today’s recruiters need cutting-edge innovation to source, screen, and place medical professionals as quickly as possible. However, to truly stand out from the competition, healthcare staffing agencies need the right technology tools to support their current book of business throughout the entire engagement. Unfortunately, many small to mid-sized healthcare staffing companies don’t have the working capital needed to invest in this first-in-class technology, putting them at a disadvantage when recruiting against other agencies.
SOLUTION: Access to an EOR’s Technology Stack
The right Employer of Record offers healthcare staffing agencies access to the best-in-class technology needed to effectively support and automate all back-office functions. By outsourcing recruiting firm support services, staffing firms can have direct access to the latest office innovations and tech in:
- Payroll
- Human Resources
- Compliance
- Taxes
A capable EOR provider will manage these functions and more, freeing healthcare staffing agencies from having to absorb the entire expense internally. Best of all, EOR automated vendor services are integrated into their existing systems to improve overall infrastructure instantly.
Solving Healthcare Staffing Problems With Customized Solutions
The healthcare field seems to find more and larger gaps in critical infrastructure, resources, and staff availability every year. The ability of healthcare staffing agencies to manage backend functions, including payroll, HR, compliance, and more should not be one of those gaps. Instead, staffing agencies should have the support and resources needed to maintain their current workload while expanding their operations. An Employer of Record solution enables agencies to do just that. Outsourcing these functions to the right EOR provider equips healthcare staffing agencies with the tools needed to navigate even the most complex hiring challenges.
Headcount Management Supports Healthcare Staffing Firms of Every Size and with Every Need.
If you’re struggling to support your clients and contractors during an engagement, Headcount Management can help. Our customized EOR support solutions offer staffing agencies everything needed to absorb cost and risk throughout every contract — all while driving efficiencies and outcomes. Contact us today to learn more.
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