Top 5 Challenges And Solutions Facing Hr In The Healthcare Industry

By Author: Jack Hall
Total Articles: 7
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Employees are the greatest asset for any organization. This is true across all industries but pertinent to health care. Medical professionals are highly skilled and being responsible for others' life is a vital part of their daily routine. Hence, meeting this workforce's needs in the rapidly growing medical industry is not a small task. Read on what are the 5 pressing challenges facing HR healthcare professionals today.

Challenge 1- High turnover rates
● With high demand and limited supply, healthcare professionals wish to explore new opportunities.
● According to the Bureau of labor statistics, Unemployment in the industry is at 2.4%—the lowest in over a decade—and 391,000 new jobs have been added over the last 12 months.
● This leads to skyrocketing turnover rates which in turn costs million to the hospitals and things only turn worse.
● Turnover among nurses is also especially high.
● According to a recent industry survey, the turnover rate for bedside registered nurses is 14.6%, meaning that hospitals will lose nearly 15 out of 100 nurses this year.

Challenge ...
... 2- Staff Shortages
● Hospitals or clinics, small or big feel the constant pressure. Staffing deficiencies and employee burnouts are some of the common issues.
● According to recent studies, healthcare is under tremendous recruitment pressure as compared to other sectors.
● With the advancement in medicine, improved technology and aging population, there are several new demands and needs from the medical professionals. In the coming years, these demands will increase.
● Also, according to research, with the retirement of Baby Boomers, the shortage of nurses will double by 2025.

Challenge 3- Employee Dissatisfaction
● A stressed workforce is a challenging workforce.
● More than 40% of physicians exhibit at least one symptom of burnout, according to a study by the Mayo Clinic.
● While workplace stress is on the rise, it equally affects the patients because medical employees are not able to perform their responsibilities emotionally, mentally and physically.
● This creates burnout further leading to emotional detachment between healthcare professionals and the patients. The situation, therefore, becomes unpleasant.
● According to survey results, the nursing department experiences the highest percentage of burnout at around 70%. Nurses often feel they can do a lot more than they are allowed to, or due to too many assigned patients, they are unable to give proper care.

Challenge 4- Records Compliance
● The healthcare industry is being targeted by hackers and phishing schemes whereas data breaches are also on the rise,
● According to Thomson Reuters, due to large amounts of valuable digital data and insufficient cybersecurity, data breaches are increasing.
● Breaches can result in fraud and identity theft therefore State and federal laws mandate that employee records are stored securely.
● Maintaining medical records compliance can be a laborious process in the healthcare industry.
● It can be challenging due to high turnover rates, large numbers of part-time employees, multiple office locations and complex licensing paperwork.

Challenge 5- Training and development
● A survey by CareerBuilder found that a lack of upward mobility was one of the top reasons healthcare workers left their jobs, and nearly 25% aren’t satisfied with their career progress.
● In the world of constant changes ad developments, the employees are required to keep themselves updated and well trained to excel at their positions.
● Here comes the responsibility of HR to ensure proper training of all the staff members. But HR also needs to ensure that these training sessions are way beyond just the necessities.
● The organizations should therefore provide enough opportunities to grow also including leadership opportunities.

Some other important facts-
● 44% of physicians experience burnout symptoms.
● 1/3rd of nurses have high burnout.
● 29% of physicians say they experience burnout because of insufficient compensation.
● Additional working hours lead to less sleep and this leads to stress further.
● 45% of healthcare workers get less than 7 hours of sleep per night.
● 23% nearly a quarter of physicians' burnout is from lack of control.
● Half of the workday hours are spent on EHRs. this contributes to burnout rates of over 50percent.

Solutions
It can be overwhelming for an HR in the healthcare industry to fulfil these duties on a daily basis. Here are a few problem-solving ideas to address healthcare challenges.
● HR Document Management Systems
There are platforms that can help employers automate tasks and manage vast amounts of employee data. The storage of this huge amount of information can look overwhelming to anyone. That’s where the presence of digital systems helps to ease the work process. They can prove to be resources and time-saving in both recruitment and onboarding.
● Document Security
Maintaining a huge amount of data on a daily basis is a tedious task but in the presence of appropriate tools, it becomes convenient and manageable. A fully integrated Human Resource Management System such as HRMSpectrum ensures that employee data is effectively maintained and secured. The compliance tools are helpful in assisting HR to prepare for what is required beforehand only.
● Employee engagement tools
These tools are integral to HR functions. These tools help improve the line of communication and secure valuable employee feedback. Even if it seems unimportant, feedback plays a vital role while carrying out functions in a smooth manner.
● Employee Training
An automation in Employee Training and Development is of utmost important in today’s challenging time. In order to bring new recruit to a desired knowledge level, it is essential that clinics/hospital adopts to structure training/webinar and group meetings that are available in a central training system.