Workers from outside of healthcare may have experience and skills that could be useful to the industry, and recruiting from outside of the industry could be a way to bolster the healthcare workforce.
That’s according to results from the Study on Allied Health Workforce Retention, released this month.
The nationwide study was commissioned by Ultimate Medical Academy. Researchers surveyed 1,000 people aged 18 to 55 years, including prospective employees who might consider working in healthcare, along with current employees in support positions and people who used to work in healthcare.
“We believe that well-targeted outreach programs and commitments of additional training to build new skills will be highly effective in attracting workers who have recently lost jobs in hard-hit industries and occupations, and especially those currently working in hourly wage jobs or those seeking more fulfilling full-time careers,” Ultimate Medical Academy President Tom Rametta said in a statement. “There are employees across the retail, hospitality and restaurant sectors and many others with the soft skills that healthcare needs who are ripe to work in healthcare jobs.”
The situation could represent an opportunity for long-term care and other employers to better communicate with prospective employees that they may have skills that would be transferable to their workplaces.
“As a sector, and as individual employers, we need to be more deliberate in creating and especially communicating the opportunities we offer that would be welcomed by workers from other industries,” Rametta said.
Fifty-two percent of the prospective employees who responded to the survey indicated that their main reason for not considering or applying for healthcare jobs in support roles is that they “don’t think they have the appropriate job training or education.”
More than a fourth (28%) of the prospective employees said they currently are working in the retail, restaurant/fast food or hospitality industries, and an additional 14% said they are employed in professional/business services. Less than half (45%) of those workers, however, noted “customer service skills to help you work better with patients or the people you serve” as being valuable in a healthcare job. Additionally, only 43% of prospective employees said that their “team-building skills” could be valuable in healthcare.
“The trend of plentiful jobs in healthcare support roles and not enough workers can have major implications on how employers address recruitment. Those employers who tap into prospective employees’ expressed motivation to help people will be most successful attracting employees from different sectors and demographics,” Rametta said.
“The healthcare industry offers many ways to prepare for a career, not just a job, with advancement opportunities as well as the chance to help others, job security and training to make it easier to translate their skills into our workplaces,” he added.
