Finding qualified employees puts damper on revved up healthcare jobs market

CHICAGO | January 30, 2013

Results from a new survey on the state of hiring in the healthcare market confirm what has been reported for years, even in the midst of an economic downturn: the healthcare jobs market is scorching. Trouble is, hiring managers are finding it challenging to get the qualified people they need.

According to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive for CareerBuilder, one of the largest online employment companies in the country, 22 percent of healthcare hiring managers are planning to add full-time, permanent employees in 2013. That’s up three percentage points from 2012. But, 23 percent of healthcare employers also reported they have open positions for which they have not been able to find qualified talent.

[See also: Healthcare industry adds 45K jobs in December]

“Basically it comes down to one thing, and that’s general supply and demand,” said Jason Lovelace, president of CareerBuilder Healthcare. “There are more positions today then there are people.”

Lovelace said that even as hospitals and other healthcare organizations face declining reimbursements and struggle to function as viable businesses, healthcare jobs will not contract. Why? Because organizations that can’t withstand the changes brought on by changing payment models like pay for performance will be “gobbled up” by bigger organizations that can.

“The bottom line,” Lovelace said, “is that there’s always going to be people that need to be serviced.”

And that’s good news for those who are looking to enter the professional market, he said. “Healthcare is going to scream opportunity,” he said. "It’s almost recession proof. The opportunities will exist.”

[See also: Survey finds eight in 10 healthcare businesses impacted by bad hires]

Regardless of the number of people looking for jobs in the market, healthcare organizations are going to need to be proactive if they’re going to find the people they’re looking for, and many are already doing that, Lovelace added.

The CareerBuilder survey found that healthcare employers are taking such actions as increasing compensation for both established employees and newly-hired employees, increasing their efforts to retain employees and retraining existing staff rather than waiting long periods to hire the “right” person.

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Joan Baird say: Finding Qualified Employees

January 31, 2013 | 13:29 PM GMT

These articles continue to amaze me. There are thousands with advanced degrees in informatics in this field who cannot find work. The positions remain open for months, sometimes years. In that amount of time, the employer could have hired someone and trained them. Instead, it ends up costing the employer a lot more because they end up paying other staff overtime to do the work of the open position. Often HR and hiring managers don't see the effect of leaving positions open. It costs the organization money one way or another, usually much more than the cost of a new hire. As a small business owner, you see the cost to the company when you don't hire someone. It's usually in lost sales or inability to fulfill current sales. The result is lost customers. Healthcare hiring managers are shielded from this type of feedback.

Even recruiters are complaining recently. I have had at least four in the last week say that hospitals in general are way too picky. One said, "They are looking for unicorns." Healthcare needs to understand that many people have been trained to implement EMRs with Master's degres and other avenues. ONC spent millions to train people to do this. Unfortunately many people still are not getting hired because "they have not been through one implementation cycle or have 3-5 years experience." How does one get experience without it? I know some people who have been looking for work for THREE years who are well qualified for these positions. There is a disconnect here that needs to be addressed.