“On-Demand, Flexible, or Marketplace” are all terms used by legacy and newer workforce marketplace partner vendors alike to sell solutions for addressing the workforce crisis to healthcare leaders.
This is creating confusion in the market as to the differences and benefits between both legacy and marketplace models.
Further, there is competition, even amongst marketplace models, as they differentiate between Traveler App, 1099 Gig Worker App, Internal “Float”, and W2 On-Demand marketplace, or combinations of these models.
However, only one model helps your system build internal staffing capabilities, activate a local, latent supply of labor, and stabilize your workforce ecosystem. That is the “Powered by ShiftMed” model.
The “Powered by ShiftMed” model allows health systems to leverage their brand and build their own W2 workforce marketplaces to replace traveler contracts while emphasizing the use of non-wage incentives to attract and retain talent. It mitigates the use of 1099 gig companies that can create legal issues and financial risks for your system.
The following visual helps outline and delineate the differences between the models:
The Problem
Throughout the pandemic, health facilities ballooned their staffing budgets by turning to expensive travel and contract nurses to fill staffing gaps. Now, amid widespread burnout and nurses leaving the profession, health systems are struggling to recover, recruit and retain their workforce.
Health systems have historically looked primarily to wages to solve this problem. But when wages are the only incentive for workers, it drives wage inflation and impacts the bottom-line. It fosters a wage mercenary mindset for employees instead of a mission-focused mindset. And by emphasizing short-term returns for employees instead of cultivating a long-term relationship, it does not improve retention. While wages are an important component of a health system’s recruitment and retention efforts, wages alone don’t solve the workforce puzzle.
Non-Wage Incentives Are Key to ShiftMed’s W2, On-Demand Marketplace
Health systems are looking to Shiftmed’s workforce marketplace technology and DEI-based, incentives to create a sustainable workforce solution. ShiftMed leverages your data to tailor incentives around the desires and needs of your workforce.
ShiftMed targets various archetypal groups, analyzes their behavior, and helps reinforce the base of the Care Team Pyramid. An example of a potential CNA archetype is shown in the graphic below:
The Solution
ShiftMed uses Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion incentives to engage targeted workforce groups who need help to climb the economic ladder of opportunity. Customized “Non-Wage Incentives” extend compensation beyond wages and healthcare benefits to support unique desires and needs. Leveraging workforce marketplace technology to tailor, target, and distribute incentives is key to driving workforce sustainability in an age of high turnover, challenging recruitment, and increasing workforce costs.
ShiftMed guides health systems to apply the following DEI/Non-Wage Incentives-based approach, which includes education support, childcare, eldercare, and transportation through Shiftmed’s workforce marketplace technology.
1. Education ladders: Using education technology tools in a workforce marketplace, health systems can provide CNAs with easy access to education tools so they can become Registered Nurses, pay tuition instead of increased wages for shift commitments through a workforce marketplace, and offer learning modules for cross-training your workforce in a marketplace.
2. Childcare and Eldercare: Some health systems provide childcare and eldercare coverage for their workers, but most are full or underfunded. Women make up more than 80% of the healthcare workforce, and because they are the primary caregivers in their households, workforce marketplaces can facilitate connecting your workforce and childcare/eldercare needs via technology tools in a more efficient way.
3. Transportation: Securing rides to work is stressful, costly, and a common reason for missed shifts. Consider that 46% of healthcare professionals report experiencing transportation issues and many of those professionals are CNAs, who are falling short in supply across the country. When health systems provide transportation benefits through UberHealth’s partnership with ShiftMed for work-related transportation, it allows healthcare professionals the ability to focus on their work and not the stress and cost associated with securing a ride to their next shift.
Conclusion
Wage-centric workforce models do not support or sustain a workforce ecosystem that drives health system financial stability, focuses on the mission, or supports a sustainable, cohesive culture. A W-2 workforce ecosystem partner and equity-based incentives are the golden ticket to exiting the travel nursing staffing agency trap and getting on the path to workforce engagement and financial sustainability in your organization.
To learn more about how “Powered by ShiftMed” can help your health system, contact ShiftMed today.
