Medix and QuestionPro recently released the on-demand webinar: “Transformational Talent—How Healthcare Leaders are Leveraging New Skill Sets in Their Digital Evolution.” The webinar covers perhaps today’s most pressing issue for healthcare IT leaders: digital transformation. More specifically, Medix and QuestionPro experts review survey data from 200+ healthcare technology executives and offer insights on the following topics:
- The healthcare IT talent shortage
- Digital transformation project plans
- The most in-demand skills and roles
- Workforce augmentation and management
- Working with staffing partners and consultants
In this article, we highlight some of the key data points that healthcare IT leaders must know when planning their digital transformation roadmap for the next two years. We also offer some key advice on how to take action and ensure you assemble the team you need to reach your technology goals. If you would like to skip straight to the full webinar, you can watch it at any time .
72% of healthcare IT leaders are concerned about the talent shortage.
Even though economic worries persist and capital investments fight to stay steady, most hospitals and health systems are continuing to take on technology projects to improve patient care. This of course requires top healthcare IT talent. While there have been major layoffs in Silicon Valley and beyond, putting some IT professionals on the job market, many of these professionals lack healthcare-specific experience. And despite this slight influx of outside candidates, the overall tech unemployment rate continues to be low, hovering around just 2%. So it’s clear that the talent shortage remains, and it’ll continue to be difficult for healthcare organizations to find, hire, and retain qualified talent in 2024.
How to Take Action
As the old saying goes, the early bird gets the worm. First, know your local market, ASAP. What are professionals’ salary expectations? Where do passive candidates sit, and what do those places lack? This puts you in a position to better relate to candidates and their needs. Second, recruit early and often, identifying, screening and interviewing candidates before your competition does. This gives you a head start, often leading to the first offer. Third, focus on the development and retention of your current staff. Ask them what they need and where they want to go, and offer a meaningful response. This helps you reduce burnout and costly turnover.
85% of healthcare IT leaders have changed the type of IT staff they’re recruiting.
As healthcare organizations continue to innovate with new technologies and transition away from legacy systems related to CRM, EHR, ERP, informatics, security, and more, they have no choice but to think outside the box when it comes to staffing and recruiting. Based on the data, this means increasing the investment in recruiting and casting a wider net in order to build a larger pipeline of candidates. Being open to a broader candidate base, while also seeking experience in specific technologies (whether for implementation or optimization/support), can make for a challenging dynamic.
How to Take Action
Consider how to expand your candidate pool by loosening some hiring requirements (maybe considering candidates without healthcare-specific IT experience and certifying or training them, for example), increase flexibility by leveraging a mix of temporary and permanent staff, and upskill internal talent to take on new technology roles. It requires a multifaceted approach to find the professionals and skill sets you need to reach your digital transformation goals. You should also have a specialized staffing partner by your side, constantly building a pipeline of talent, reducing your time and money spent on recruiting, and helping you balance your mix of temporary and permanent staff.
35% of healthcare leaders plan to rely on at least some temporary staff.
By relying on temporary staff to some degree, healthcare organizations can create a new level of flexibility and cost control. Temporary staff can onboard during high project-demand periods, and offboard once their skills are no longer needed. Here at Medix, we’ve noticed an influx of high-level technology talent looking for contract or temporary work, providing a boost to this particular layer of the job candidate pool.
How to Take Action
Analyze your upcoming project plans today, and consider how you can leverage temporary talent to save money, without compromising your digital transformation efforts. It almost always makes sense to start by pinpointing project needs where you lack internal resources or skills. Temporary staff can help you fill these gaps, quickly scale up or down throughout a project’s life cycle, and oftentimes, leave behind new knowledge and perspectives for your full-time staff. Not to mention, when working with a specialized staffing partner like Medix, you have the option of easily transitioning temporary staff to permanent status.
Partner with Medix.
Now, more than ever, it’s beneficial to partner with a specialized staffing agency like Medix. Because when you have trouble finding enough qualified healthcare IT talent, we can find it for you. When you need contractors to support your full-time staff on projects, we can hire and help integrate them. And when you need to reduce your reliance on costly consultants to support your technologies, we can step in as your strategic staffing partner and workforce management advisor.
There are countless other relevant data points and helpful insights in our full webinar. Watch how healthcare leaders are leveraging new skills and share it with your colleagues. If you would like to discuss your healthcare organization’s specific IT staffing needs and how Medix can help, get in touch.