As the Need For Healthcare Jobs Increases, Turnover Also Rises
Why are Professionals Leaving Healthcare Jobs to Pursue Other Opportunities?
Allied Health is an industry that never stops. It moves fast, barreling forward at an incredible pace. Trends shift, technologies advance, and each new medical discovery or breakthrough helps us all live healthier, happier lives.
Employment opportunities are through the roof, too. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, healthcare is one of the fastest-growing economic sectors. 2.6 million healthcare jobs need to be filled over the next ten years. That’s good news for professionals looking for a career path that offers a level of stability and security that other industries struggle to provide.
However, there’s just one problem: Well-trained, fully qualified job candidates are hard to find.
The rapid growth, increasing job dissatisfaction, an under-trained workforce, and high turnover make it all but impossible for health systems to keep their teams fully staffed. And with each vacancy taking an average of 49 days to fill, hiring managers often find themselves caught in an endless cycle of attrition.
But why?
What’s pushing people to leave their healthcare jobs behind to explore other opportunities?
The answer is multifaceted and layered with nuance—and likely to evolve over time. But that doesn’t mean we can’t pinpoint key drivers and take massive strides to combat the issue.
Our infographic below outlines five of the most significant factors limiting every health system’s ability to attract, develop, and retain star talent.
What This Means For Health Systems and Hiring Managers
However, here’s where things get real. The ever-increasing demand for healthcare jobs coupled with a widening middle-skills gap just perpetuates the cycle. The proof, as they say, is in the numbers. Roughly 23.8% of new Allied Health employees leave their employer after just one year, while 53.8% leave within two years.
And the impact is significant, hitting health systems hardest in two key areas:
The Bottom Line
Industry experts estimate the average cost of turnover is around $60,000 per employee. This is across all occupations in the healthcare industry, and results in multi-million dollar losses.
Quality of Patient Care
Understaffing results in greater workloads for existing employees. Additionally, it increases the potential for medication errors, patient mortality, and permanent disability.
The Next Phase of Allied Healthcare Jobs
High turnover throughout the industry shouldn’t come as a surprise. Job dissatisfaction, too.
Moreover, these rates have climbed steadily since 2012. And without a solution, experts predict these numbers will continue to trend in the wrong direction. Therefore, health systems across the country are exploring integrative job technology as a way to increase employee engagement, attract qualified talent, and provide upskilling opportunities.
Think: automated credential tracking, skills analytics, and even workforce placement.
And there are plenty of exciting use cases emerging as this new approach becomes more and more mainstream for modern health systems.
For instance, using the Carrus Skills Development learning library, the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) (named the No.1 hospital in South Carolina by the U.S. News & World Report for six years in a row) doubled overall productivity and cut hiring costs by upwards of $300,000.
Those are promising numbers. However, MUSC is just scratching the surface of what these innovative tools can do. In conclusion, it’s all a testament to the fact that with the right platform, you can formulate an end-to-end strategy designed to flip all these troubling stats on their head and build a stronger workforce—one that’s bursting at the seams with motivated talent.
Want to learn more about how digital solutions can help meet the demand for healthcare jobs?