3 Areas of the Workforce CEOs Are Locked in On

Strategizing for these priorities is a must for leaders of hospitals and health systems to address their biggest pain point.

Rethinking and retooling approaches to the workforce as a hospital CEO right now isn’t just smart, it’s necessary.

The workforce is evolving in several ways, from newer generations becoming a wider base to how the work itself is done, forcing leaders to constantly consider and implement solutions designed to keep employees for the long haul.

Here are three aspects of the workforce CEOs are targeting at next week’s HealthLeaders Workforce Decision Makers Exchange, where hospital executives will come together to share best practices to combat the top threat to their organizations.

Recruiting and retaining younger generations

Regardless of what your organization is trying to achieve, it won’t be possible without the ability to bring in and maintain talent.

The workforce shortage may not be as dire as it was during the height of the pandemic, but it continues to be a thorn in the side of hospitals and is expected to only get worse in the coming years.

To avoid employee turnover, CEOs need to recognize the wants and needs of younger workers, who often place greater value on flexibility and work-life balance.

“Recruit, retain, and advance” is the focus for Crouse Health CEO and HealthLeaders Exchange member Seth Kronenberg, but bringing a worker through that journey looks different now than it did before.

“The linear path of ‘I stay as a bedside nurse for 40 years,’ that's really not where the younger generation is headed,” Kronenberg said. “People want to transfer into different disciplines and bounce around and work in person, work remote. So we want to be able to have those opportunities so that whatever somebody is looking for from a workforce lifestyle, we can provide.”

Meeting those demands can be complex and call for significant changes in how workers are managed, but by offering more options to employees, hospitals can cut down on burnout and seeing their staff walk out the door.

Utilizing the right technology

Another way to improve retention is by unburdening workers through the implementation of appropriate technology.

Choosing the right solution for the right purpose, however, can be a challenge with the number of choices that are currently available. AI is also still in its relative infancy, which means the limitations on its effectiveness, especially on the clinical side, is yet to be fully understood.

Where CEOs like Kronenberg see the immediate value of AI is in supplementing the workforce to relieve staff of administrative, time-consuming tasks.

“There's value in doing non-controversial, non-medical decision-making tasks that are just tasks that we're burdening our clinical teams with,” Kronenberg said. “That's where we're looking to invest while the rest of the stuff gets sorted out. But we we've seen the opportunity to leverage complementary services with AI that's not replacing the doc, but making the docs and the nurse function more efficiently.”

Examples of that include maximizing the electronic medical record, making documentation more efficient, and triaging patient messages.

Filling the gaps around your workforce with technology can result in organizations needing to hire less people to do many of these tasks.

Creating financial ROI

Ultimately, CEOs understand that they must make workforce decisions that will positively impact the bottom line.

One major way leaders are doing that is by pulling back their reliance on contract labor, which was crucial during the pandemic when turnover was high, but has since become too costly as the workforce has stabilized.

Cutting off labor from traveling nurse agencies or locum tenens is only possible though if organizations are keeping their recruitment and retention rates up by offering incentives that will be cheaper long term.

Instilling workforce governance to manage labor resources can also go a long way to ensuring financial health.

Identifying efficiencies starts at the top with leadership but should permeate throughout an organization because it’s the staff on the ground working closest with patients who can provide a much-needed perspective.

“It's a partnership with management and union. It's a partnership with senior leadership and the frontline managers,” Kronenberg said. “But we also believe very strongly in shared governance, so it's those at the bedside who have the best idea of how to create more efficiencies and partnering with them so they know that workforce initiatives are designed to help make their lives both easier and more efficient.”

Our Workforce Decision Makers Exchange is November 7-8 at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C.

Are you a CEO or executive leader interested in attending an upcoming event? To inquire about attending the HealthLeaders Exchange event, email us at exchange@healthleadersmedia.com.

The HealthLeaders Exchange is an executive community for sharing ideas, solutions, and insights. Please join the community at the LinkedIn page.