The Case for Talent Intelligence

In 2010, a friend of mine decided to get into the real estate business. He had experienced some early success and felt he could expand on his own to earn a higher percentage of his profits. He purchased several homes in our area with the intent to hold them as the market improved and then unload them. The problem was the area in which he chose to invest was filled with an influx of young homeowners who did not want to pay for older homes. Instead they chose brand new starter homes that were being sold at a lower total cost and came with perks. My friend suddenly had a dozen houses he could not sell. His business plan was sound, but his lack of market research led to significant losses.

What does this have to do with healthcare staffing? A lot actually. According to a recent poll, “growth” remains healthcare executives’ number one concern, very closely followed by “staffing”. Healthcare executives are continuously looking to expand their organization’s footprint or grow service lines. They know the community needs the services, and the patients are out there (so is the revenue), so why is purchased land going undeveloped, and why are beds sitting empty?

They are looking at the environment like my friend looked at his real estate business. The houses were there, the area was growing in popularity, what could go wrong?

In both cases the issue is incomplete research. Healthcare organizations spend millions each year on market research to better understand population health, community needs, and market trends, but of the 6 organizations I’ve interviewed in the past few months, only one is investing in Talent research. A quick online search shows only a few organizations in the US with jobs that include talent research or intelligence. Is it possible we have a disconnect at the executive level between the idea of growth and the reality of the talent/labor market?

Let’s take a dive into history to better understand our current state. (I promise I’ll keep it quick)

1800s: Healthcare was not even a term. There were hospitals within communities, often established by local religious or charity groups. There were also physicians who often operated separately from the hospital, they either made house calls or had small independent clinics. The quality of the healthcare an individual received was largely based on their ability to pay and/or travel to receive services.

1940s/50s: WWII changed much about the US economy. People began moving to cities to work in office settings, advances in healthcare research and technology started to support larger hospitals and hospital networks, and birth rates in the US began to skyrocket during the “baby boom”. Nurses were being hired at increased rates to support larger patient volumes and they were often educated, trained, and even housed by the hospital they were to support. This generation typically chose a career and a company and stayed there until retirement.

FIGURE 1.1

Sacred Heart School of Nursing Graduates, Pensacola, Florida (1947)

SOURCE: Courtesy of Frank Hardy Photography

1970s/80s: Computers began automating more work which allowed organizations, including healthcare, to streamline office/corporate roles, freeing up dollars to reinvest in growth and development. Small hospital systems became the norm, and some began their journey from not-for-profit organizations, to for-profit companies. Seeking operational efficiencies, health systems began outsourcing, or handing over the reins of nurse training, to local community colleges or universities in larger numbers.

1990s/2000s: Healthcare advances continued to encourage health system growth to include new service lines, specialty hospitals and a more complete continuum of care. Nursing schools also gained enhancements and a push to more bachelor-prepared nurses took center stage during this period. Nurses and other caregivers (Respiratory Therapists, Radiology Technologists, etc.) separate themselves from under the “support” banner and establish their professions as the subject matter expertise groups they deserve to be.

2010-Today: Healthcare is a trillion-dollar industry. And it isn’t just health systems playing in the sandbox any longer. Giants like Amazon and Walmart are not only adding increasing competitive pressures to healthcare business, but they can attract the talent that hospital systems so desperately need. People no longer stay with one organization until they retire, in fact, most 40-year-olds have already switched career fields at least twice since their 20s. However, nursing demographics have remained largely unchanged. The field is dominated by women who are often asked to balance the difficult work at the bedside with being a primary parent or caregiver in their personal lives adding to increased reports of burnout and ultimately exiting the workforce.

Okay, now that we’ve seen where we’ve been, where do we go from here?

To restate our issue, healthcare systems want to continue to grow, and indeed, if you build a new facility, clinic or micro-hospital, it’s entirely possible the patients will show up…but who will be there to treat them?

We have a crippling labor shortage and it’s only getting worse. If your business is struggling to grow or produce the results the C-Suite is hoping for, it’s likely that much of the problem stems from people: not enough people, not the right people, too many people leaving and not enough returning. Healthcare is experiencing this even more acutely with the American Hospital Association reporting a 258% increase in labor costs from 2019-2022.

How do you begin to turn the tide?

Work smarter. Just like business development and strategy teams perform market research to understand patient populations, payer mix and even research on traffic patterns near a desired location, we must do similar research to understand the talent landscape. How many providers are within or target zip code? How many competitors? What are the traffic patterns? How close are you building to area schools (if a caregiver has to drive the opposite way to drop kids off and then circle back to you, this ultimately increases their drive time and decreases their interest)? How many schools/universities are in the area and producing what you need? How many graduates per year? How many enrollments?

A strong talent intelligence team can help healthcare leaders with their overall business strategy. Does the organization need to partner with the local college to supplement enrollment? Are there entry-level populations that could be hired and trained? Is there another local zip code that recruitment efforts could target where supply and demand might be more favorable?

As they would with market researchers and business analysts, leaders need a subject matter expert they can trust to help them understand the labor landscape. Working hand-in-hand with the talent acquisition and HR teams, a talent intelligence analyst can forecast trends and identify areas of opportunity where recruitment can capitalize.

Perhaps you already have the talent you need, but they are in areas where demand is slowing. You can partner with your development team to create an upskilling or training pathway for those employees to ensure they are ready to meet business demands.

If labor is the number one impediment to your growth strategy, it’s time to set a new place at the table.

If you’d like to hear more about what Talent Intelligence is and how it can help your organization, contact us! Lauren.king@threesailtalent.com