Hiring Practices

Healthcare organizations are facing a workforce crunch. The combination of an aging population and the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of access to healthcare has increased the need for health services and resulted in employee shortages throughout the industry.

Healthcare compliance officers are challenged with overseeing their organization's compliance program, but they can’t do it alone, especially when it comes to new hires. They must partner with HR to ensure compliance is effectively integrated into the overall onboarding process.

A job candidate’s journey with a company from application to hire (or not hire) is no longer just a process, it’s an experience. As a job seeker travels through the different recruitment phases—sourcing, interviewing, screening, hiring and onboarding—they naturally develop their own perception or opinion of your company. Whether it’s a positive or negative experience, it can have a lasting impact on your employer brand.

With the combination of an aging workforce and a growing demand for services, the ongoing search for talent will continue to rank among the top human resources concerns for healthcare organizations through 2019 and beyond. 

While the talent shortage alone would be enough to test HR departments for the next several years, ongoing digital transformation and the incorporation of emerging artificial intelligence and automated tools — particularly in the recruiting space — are forcing further adaptation.

Continuous background screening was recently named as a top employment screening trend for 2019 by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Greater numbers of employers are weighing the advantages of conducting post-hire screenings on their workforce. While the benefits of recurring background checks are compelling to employers, successful program adoption also rests on sensitivity around cultural impact.

Healthcare is the fastest-growing sector of the U.S. economy, employing over 18 million workers. Healthcare workers face a wide range of hazards on the job, including sharps injuries, harmful exposures to chemicals and hazardous drugs, back injuries, violence, and stress. Drug use and abuse in the workplace not only puts the employees and patients at risk, it leaves the employers vulnerable to negligence claims and costs.  A strong and defensible drug and alcohol testing program and policy, including a robust random testing program, helps protect employers and their bottom line. 

Despite the old adage “curiosity killed the cat,” curiosity has proven to be one of the most important qualities for an employee in the workplace. In fact, according to a recent study in the Harvard Business Review, curious people were credited with bringing new ideas into teams and organizations and viewed curiosity as a catalyst for job satisfaction, motivation, innovation, and high performance. 

Cultivating the right culture can make a meaningful impact in patient care for healthcare organizations. As the industry faces ongoing changes such as population health and value-based care, a strong organizational culture can enable organizations to succeed in tomorrow’s environment. But how can healthcare HR professionals enable their organizations to drive change?

Here are a few ways HR can serve as a catalyst for cultural change in healthcare organizations.

Although not a novel concept, the practice of continuous, constant background screening has recently gained momentum among employers.

The 2018 American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration (ASHHRA) Conference took place this past week in the Steel City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This year’s theme was “Meeting the Challenge and Making a Difference,” which highlighted the always changing healthcare environment: from physician reimbursement, hospital quality measure, legislative updates, the increasing workforce shortage and more.