Addressing labor shortages and unrest will once again be critical.
Healthcare CEOs with New Year’s resolutions undoubtedly have improving their workforce near the top of their list. Labor challenges were a major theme of 2023 and it doesn’t appear as if that’ll be any less of a pain point in the coming 12 months.
How those challenges and the strategies used to alleviate them evolve is yet to be seen, but leaders can get a better idea of what’s ahead by tracking the shifts occurring in the industry.
Here’s a look at three workforce trends for CEOs to keep an eye on this year:
Unionization
While healthcare is no stranger to unions, the realities of a post-COVID world are creating more unrest among workers.
Whether it’s doctors, nurses, or other staff, there’s plenty of discontent coming as the result of burnout, lack of compensation, and working conditions.
Physicians especially are showing their frustration as they feel the squeeze from hospitals and health systems under financial pressure, which is not only affecting them personally, but impacting their patients’ quality of care. As health systems seek out mergers and acquisitions, further consolidation of physicians will continue to be a reason for unionizing.
The more strikes occur and unions form, the more workers across the country will feel emboldened to organize. How will CEOs respond? The best way to deal with unionization is to prevent it from happening in the first place and hospital leaders will have to be proactive this year in heading off unrest before it becomes a movement.
Investing in people
Keeping workers happy is a clear priority for CEOs, but leaders are recognizing that it’s about appealing to workers’ desires, as well as their pockets.
With hospitals prudently managing labor costs and cutting back on agency utilization, it’s as important as ever for organizations to reduce workforce turnover. To achieve that, CEOs must be willing to invest in their workers to retain and attract talent.
That investment goes beyond pay increases. Hospitals that are struggling financially need to be creative in how they compensate and reward their workers. According to a recent survey by Aon, most health systems are adding premium benefits, including 95% offering tuition reimbursement programs, 93% offering flexible work options, and 84% offering personal level.
Supporting workers in all aspects will be an emphasis for CEOs to combat labor shortages.
AI’s role
How artificial intelligence affects the workforce isn’t just a healthcare question, but a global question. Healthcare, however, tends to adopt new technology more slowly than most industries, so it will be interesting to see how willing hospital CEOs are to invest in and implement AI in 2024.
It’s hard to ignore though that workforce challenges are creating a greater need for innovation. AI has the potential to significantly supplement the workforce by improving efficiencies and removing burden from workers, but it also requires educating staff on new technology.
AI’s presence is also affecting the C-suite with new leadership positions being created to oversee strategy. How different will executive teams look from traditional structures moving forward?
Ultimately, CEOs must accept that trial and error will be required in a lot of cases before AI’s role in healthcare is fully realized.
Jay Asser is the contributing editor for strategy at HealthLeaders.