Health care providers trust employees to save lives and care for patients. Shouldn’t they be trusted with their own data, too?
After all, the industry’s employees juggle some of the most daunting responsibilities imaginable. And health care’s HR challenges — like a wave of turnover — stretches already-sparse staff even thinner. The last thing nurses, physicians and others in the field need is disjointed human resource systems that:
- are slow and hard to use
- require multiple passwords and logins
- are vulnerable to cybersecurity threats
- aren’t available anytime, anywhere
To understand how the right HR technology benefits health care employees, we first need to identify the industry’s obstacles. From there, we’ll pinpoint how HR tech simplifies their work and makes it easier for them to focus on providing a vital service.
What are the biggest HR challenges in health care?
Events like the COVID-19 pandemic made health care workers’ preexisting struggle with stress and burnout worse. With no signs of either issue subsiding, recruitment and retention are even more important for HR professionals.
Staffing shortages
Personnel challenges in health care are synonymous with shortages — especially of nurses. But they’re not the only health care professionals with dwindling numbers. The American Hospital Association (AHA) predicts a shortage of up to 124,000 physicians by 2033. The AHA also finds certain rural and urban communities are experiencing shortages.
But the need for qualified professionals keeps growing. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, health care occupations are expected to expand 13% between 2021 and 2031, generating about 2 million new positions over the decade — more than any other industry.
Recruiters face a tall order made even more difficult by low retention. In a Morning Consult survey, nearly 1 in 5 health care workers (18%) said they have quit their jobs since February 2020 due to:
- low pay
- stress
- burnout
- career growth
It may be hard for every health care business to address all of these issues. None of them, however, should lose talent due to frustrating HR tech.
Outdated hiring processes
Some challenges lie more with outdated processes. Hiring and onboarding is far slower than it needs to be for many health care organizations. According to AKASA, an AI developer for health care operations, here’s how long it takes to hire a new health care professional based on their experience:
| Experience | Cost | Time |
| Entry-level (0-5 years) | $2,167 | 84 days |
| Mid-level (6-10 years) | $3,581 | 153 days |
| Senior-level (10+ years) | $5,699 | 207 days |
Imagine how much more efficient a workplace could be if it reduced that time and cost by half or more.
Dispersed workforce
The health care industry also struggles with accurately and efficiently tracking labor allocations per shift for employees who work in multiple locations (similar to a restaurant or retailer).
And given the rising trend of travel nurses outlined by NBC News — a group that doubled in 2020 — accessibility to data anytime, anywhere is crucial for health care professionals.
Communication is also key to a scattered workforce. HR needs to ensure any policy change, announcement or request for feedback can get to employees no matter where they are.
Inefficient preparation
A health care employee qualified to provide needed (or required) training is subject to the same physical limits as anyone. In other words, they can’t be everywhere at once. This poses a problem for health care businesses across multiple locations.
Cybersecurity threats
Health care workers have enough on their plate. The last thing they need is for their personal data and pay to be in jeopardy. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what the staff of several health care providers endured. According to the AHA, a ransomware attack delayed payroll and threatened to seriously disrupt hospital operations.
The industry needs HR tech that’s accessible and secure. Any HR software that hasn’t been vetted, certified and proven may not have the protection a health care employee needs.
What should health care leaders look for in an HR software?
The right tech should help address all of health care’s HR challenges. Anything short of this is a missed opportunity. Keep these key areas in mind as you consider an HR software provider for health care workers.
Talent acquisition
Growth and retention are huge for health care companies across the country. The right tools help ensure strategies for recruitment, engagement and development are seamless, efficient and secure. Doing so helps new health care staff focus on providing and improving their quality of care.
Empowering health care employees begins before their first day. Streamlined software for tracking applicants lets hiring managers easily:
- communicate with candidates
- post new openings to popular job boards
- manage prospects through an easy-to-use interface
Finding employees is great, but they also need to be verified. A comprehensive tool for background checks and screens helps health care businesses hire and comply with confidence.
Plus, efficient onboarding tech lets new hires complete, verify and submit needed documents — such as tax forms and proof of identification — themselves so they can start serving patients immediately.
Engagement
Saving and improving lives is necessary and rewarding work, but it’s not without its challenges. As such, health care professionals deserve HR software that doesn’t bog them down. The right tech should allow them to communicate with HR and access data anytime.
Consider an HR communication tool that conveniently connects employees with the answers they need, even when they don’t know who to ask. Pair it with a self-service experience that keeps employees in the loop with instant access to their data.
Taking this a step further, employee-driven payroll allows health care workers to find and fix errors before payday. This gets ahead of mistakes that compound their stress and make work unnecessarily harder. At the same time, the tech helps employees think about and plan for their financial future.
When businesses invest in well-being, employees have less of a reason to look for opportunities in a different field. And employee-guided payroll builds trust and confidence without requiring any additional time from HR.
And with the right tech, health care leadership reap a reward, too. Look for a workforce management tool that helps supervisors easily:
- review and confirm timecards
- approve time-off requests
- create and approve personnel action forms
- develop interactive training materials for continued education
Health care companies should also invest in tools for easier scheduling and labor allocation, which help manage employees in separate locations.
Training
What if the staff responsible for training could record content that covers all the bases and distribute it to everyone at once? With the right learning management experience, the process becomes as simple as uploading a video or directing employees to courses from an existing content library.
The right tech also allows HR or other leadership to quickly identify who has (or hasn’t) completed a course. Easily verifying training completion in the event of an audit is indispensable to a heavily regulated industry like health care.
The health care industry changes fast. Employees have to stay ahead of the curve to provide the best care possible. When their training is accessible through the same app they use to manage all their HR data, it’s easy for seasoned employees and new hires to grow and excel.
Look for an HR provider that makes development:
- engaging with easy-to-make video content
- trackable through clear development paths and certifications
- valuable, especially when it comes to compliance-related topics
Compliance and security
Hospitals’ work is unique, and their tools need to be as agile as their employees.
Health care leaders should prioritize tech that efficiently tracks mandatory or recommended employee vaccines, like the COVID-19 and annual influenza vaccinations, as part of their employees’ HR record. Additionally, the recorded data needs to flow seamless through one software.
Health care teams already handle challenging work, but with recent and widespread ransomware attacks, their jobs are made even more difficult. Investing in HR software that protects their sensitive personal data gives your health care professionals the peace of mind they need to focus.
That’s why the health care industry benefits from a single software with proven, in-depth security measures with certifications like:
- ISO 27001
- ISO 27701
- ISO 9001
- ISO 22301
- SOC 1
- SOC 2
Health care providers also need tools that help ensure their operations’ long-term compliance. Their staff are responsible for some of the most sensitive information; data breaches, fines and penalties risk tarnishing a business’s image in the eyes of its employees and patients.
But with HR tech that prioritizes the privacy and safety of health care professionals and the communities they serve, health care businesses have the support they need to guide their operations into the future.
Explore Paycom to learn how its single software makes work easier for the health care industry.
DISCLAIMER: The information provided herein does not constitute the provision of legal advice, tax advice, accounting services or professional consulting of any kind. The information provided herein should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional legal, tax, accounting or other professional advisers. Before making any decision or taking any action, you should consult a professional adviser who has been provided with all pertinent facts relevant to your particular situation and for your particular state(s) of operation.