Finding new employees and living with short-staffing has become a crisis that needs high-priority attention. “The Great Retirement” and “The Great Resignation” (aka “The Big Quit”) of 2021 are wreaking havoc on practices’ ability to recruit and retain employees.
The pandemic has created fundamental shifts in the economy and a rebalanced workplace resulting in employees demanding more money, flexibility and job satisfaction. Employees are less willing to endure inconveniences or feeling disrespected.
An added pressure is that practices are finding it hard to control the unfortunately more common episodes of patient incivility and displaced anger directed at the staff. Even if you respond with full support for your staff, the reality is that you cannot prevent all incidents from occurring. This is just one more irritation for staff that must be offset by other positives in the practice.
Workers are still resigning at unprecedented rates. In October, the US Labor Department reported that 4.3 million Americans left their jobs in August 2021, or about 2.9% of the national workforce — the highest number on record. Practices that are complying with COVID vaccination mandates have lost multiple employees all at once. Unfortunately, employees are often correct to assume that they can leave a job and find a better-paying one quickly.
In the face of this ongoing staffing crisis, here are 17 pearls for recruiting and retaining staff.
1. Advertise in new or creative ways and places.
In some markets, Indeed.com still works well, but not in others. Examples range from the traditional contacting of local trade schools about employment opportunities to social media platforms.
2. Call the applicant the day you receive their resume.
Hiring decisions are being made now with lightning speed. Don’t be left in the dust. Modify your hiring practices (eg, screening resumes, interviewing, reference checking) so you can make faster decisions.
3. Utilize your staff.
Harness the social contacts your existing employees have, and pay them a finder’s fee. The finder’s fee depends on the regional market you are in and its competition for new employees. We now typically see a bonus range of $250 to $1500 for the employee who referred the new employee (once the new hire stays 3-6 months). The harder it is to recruit for a specific position, the higher the finder’s fee. This market-driven decision will change over time, and you can communicate this to your employees so they know to expect change in the future.
4. Pay a signing bonus to the new hire.
Your level of generosity will depend on how difficult it is for existing staff and doctors or how financially impacting it is to function with the position unfilled. A $1500+ figure is increasingly common.
5. Utilize local staffing agencies.
Local agencies can assist with both permanent hiring and temporary employee assistance. Temps can be converted to your permanent staff after you both have the opportunity to see if there is a skills and general fit in the position.
6. Hold hiring events.
Have a weekend career fair in your practice, combined with an open house and even a free vision screening.
7. Collaborate with local colleagues to share applicants and staff.
Non-competing practices may be willing to share a part-timer who wants full-time hours. Alternatively, you can agree to take turns advertising and share the responses. An applicant who does not appeal to you may be a fit for another practice, or vice versa.
8. Place banner signage on your building.
This can be as simple as “Now Hiring 213-555-1212.” Some practices with changeable sign boards should post specific positions at a time like this.
9. Hold on to old resumes.
Mine them on a regular basis for potential candidates who may be recruited away from their current employer.
10. Consider other industries and backgrounds.
Banks, bars and restaurants all employ people with skill sets that transfer well to medical/surgical offices. They have customer-service experience, constant, fast-paced work to perform and a tendency to possess good short-term memorization skills. As you are out in the community, always carry your business cards and hand them out to talented individuals with encouragement. You can ask something like, “Have you ever considered a career in health care?”
BIG PICTURE CONSIDERATIONS
- You will have to live with mildly tapering profit margins, perhaps permanently as wage inflation is locked in.
- The longer you delay increasing salaries while other practices raise them, the higher the risk that you will lose experienced staff and will be replace them with less experienced staff.
- The higher your acute staff turnover, the higher the risk that the corporate culture and aggregate skills you have cultivated for years become diminished until over time you can rebuild them.
- Process documentation is key for environments with higher turnover and practices with more part-time workers. This includes: written policies and procedures (an operations manual) for every department, written on-boarding and training tools and checklists that help managers and staff stay organized.
- Double down on communication and team building to help newer employees and part-time staff feel connected.
- Evaluate and address any adverse work conditions: uncomfortable work stations, temperamental doctors, staff cliques or unreasonable rules and expectations (eg, don’t schedule patients in a way that results in staff missing their lunch break). Also, if your practice has not done so, get more relaxed about staff tattoos, piercings and other forms of personal expression that don’t really have an adverse effect on patient care.
11. Network with local hospital HR executives.
This is particularly effective if you practice in a close orbit around one or more health systems. They may have community knowledge or an overflow of CVs that could assist your recruitment efforts.
12. Perform a local market salary analysis.
This will help to determine if your pay scale needs revising. In this current highly competitive market, it is likely that you will have to adjust the salaries of existing staff members when you have to pay higher on your salary scale to attract new employees.
No matter your practice rules, employees will talk to each other about their compensation, so you must be prepared so you don’t lose employees as you hire new ones.
13. Pay staff retention bonuses.
Show appreciation. It will stand out more if you don’t tie it to an expected, traditional holiday bonus.
14. Realize that people work for love and money.
Practices that only throw dollars at the current hiring challenges will not be as successful retaining staff as those who create an environment that people love to work in.
15. Flexibility is key.
With the pandemic, many jobs have opened to work remotely. This can be good for the worker and practice alike. With effort, you will find that many tasks formally thought of as in-office positions can be handled from home. These include call center, billing and authorizations, history taking and administration.
16. Perform exit interviews on every employee who leaves.
Without the fear of retribution, these interviews often provide both large and small pieces of information that can help you make improvements in your practice. Now is an especially important time to pay attention to the details of what may be irritating to staff. Since there is more opportunity and more inclination to change jobs now, the smaller things you may have not reacted to in the past may now be important to consider.
17. Employ more part-time staff.
People are re-prioritizing their life over their work, but they still have a practical need to make an income. Allowing staff to job share allows you more flexibility, appeals to a subset of the workforce and provides a pool of future full-time workers. In addition, the cost savings on benefits can be shifted to pay higher hourly wages in order to attract workers.
CONCLUSION
The Gen Z cohort entering the workforce is smaller than the millennial cohort, and the baby boomers are going to continue to retire at a faster pace. These facts will continue to create a shortage of workers, especially for entry-level positions, so don’t delay. Prioritizing how your practice will address staffing shortages and taking fast action before the problem gets worse, will help you significantly in this competitive hiring and staff retention environment. OM
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