IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In line with a general hiring upswing in all business sectors, 58% of health care organizations anticipate growing their workforces in the coming year, with nearly a quarter of those expecting hiring increases greater than six percent, according to the 2015 HireRight Health Care Spotlight. The increase in hiring for health care, however, is not just inspired by general optimism, but by the needs of an aging population, increased health care spending, and a larger segment of the population receiving health care as a result of the Affordable Care Act. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects an increase of nearly five million jobs from 2012 to 2022 in the health care sector.1 This would bring the total health care labor market to 22 million jobs, reflecting a 29% increase in employment in the sector (compared to an industry average of 11% overall) and an astonishing one-third of all new jobs created in the decade. The hiring requirements attributed to this explosive growth are critical and can be greatly impacted by a lack of available talent.
“It’s been years since health care organizations could easily find all the qualified personnel they require – and the problem is getting worse,” said Rachel Trindade, vice president of marketing, HireRight. “In this year’s report, we see great emphasis on factors such as improving the candidate experience in the hiring process, enhancing the organization’s brand and culture, offering tuition reimbursement, and accommodating flexible shift scheduling as ways of meeting the talent challenges. At the same time, health care organizations are using employment screening and drug and alcohol testing to be sure they hire candidates that complement and enhance their workforce.”
The Demand for Talent
Finding qualified job candidates (55%) and retaining good employees (51%) were cited by respondents of the Health Care Spotlight as the most significant talent acquisition and talent management challenges for the health care sector. Equally important to respondents, finding and retaining qualified personnel was the number one business challenge. The need is exacerbated by the challenges of retaining talent in the competitive health care market. Other frequently cited challenges include making human resources (HR) processes more efficient (33%), improving the candidate experience (31%), and maximizing employee engagement (31%). All of these priorities reflect a general focus on the need to effectively hire and retain good employees. Almost half of respondents indicated that all of their growth would come from direct employees, while 36% suggested that some increases in staff would come from the non-employee extended workforce, including temporary workers and contractors.
Healthcare Screening Practices
Respondents to the Health Care Spotlight indicated that employment background checks helped improve the quality of hire (54%), improved safety and security (48%), and improved regulatory compliance (49%), a critical factor for most health care organizations. Since more than 88% of respondents said they had found misrepresentations, lies or false information on resumes and/or job applications, it makes sense that a notable percentage of respondents (74%) said that screening uncovered issues that may not have been found otherwise.
Health care organizations have significantly different screening requirements than companies in other industries. When asked what types of background checks are performed on new hires, health care respondents most often cited criminal searches (94%) and identity verification (78%). However, to a greater extent than other sectors, 78% of health care organizations screen previous employment and/or references (vs. 68% among other industries). Notably, health care organizations conduct professional license verifications at more than twice the rate of other industries (74% vs. 36%).
The Health Care Spotlight is based on surveys of human resources, talent management, security, safety, and executive management professionals, and is a subset of the 2015 HireRight Employee Background Screening Benchmark Survey. Download the 2015 Health Care Spotlight here.
About HireRight
HireRight is a leading provider of on-demand employment background checks, drug and health screening, and electronic Form I-9 and E-Verify solutions that help employers automate, manage and control background screening and related programs. Many companies, including more than one-third of the Fortune 500, trust HireRight because the company delivers customer-focused solutions that provide greater efficiency and faster results. HireRight also provides pre-integrated background screening services through applicant tracking systems from top providers such as Oracle, Taleo, Kenexa, SAP, PeopleAdmin, HealthcareSource, HRsmart, and SilkRoad. For more information, visit the company's web site at www.hireright.com.
HireRight is a registered trademark of HireRight, Inc.
1 http://www.nasrecruitment.com/uploads/files/healthcare-workforce-outlook-to-2022-72.pdf
