Insights

Cultivating Careers in Healthcare: Addressing the Talent Gap One Candidate at a Time

Avatar photo

Avenica

LinkedIn

Even though it’s one of the largest industries with diverse career tracks and robust opportunities, it might be surprising to find that many people don’t consider careers in healthcare outside of those who are going into direct patient care. In fact, I recently conducted a poll of healthcare leaders and found that 70% of them did not plan on a career in healthcare when they graduated.

Due to lack of awareness around non-clinical healthcare careers and common misconceptions that to work in healthcare you must have a medical background or be a doctor, nurse, etc., many job seekers don’t actively pursue healthcare careers. Today, this continues to be a fundamental gap in the development of early-career professionals as they transition from education to career. A gap that we at Avenica are working to close. But not just with more people—with more of the right people.

For college students, especially those in liberal arts programs and schools, there aren’t focused career explorations (again, outside clinical positions), that allow students to discover and learn more about the wealth of opportunity within healthcare. Even those with business majors like finance, analytics, accounting, and marketing, students are often funneled to industry-specific careers—finance majors to the finance/financial services industry, marketing majors to marketing and ad agencies.

Today’s college graduates, 55%, in fact, will leave their first job within a year; up to 20% of new hires may even quit within their first 45 days. These numbers are staggering, especially when the cost of a bad hire is factored in. But what this really tells us is, there is a disconnect with talent matching and career pathing.

From a leadership and business perspective, and for the sake of our healthcare systems, retention needs to become a top priority because healthcare is an industry that cannot afford to lose its workforce so rapidly. With baby boomers quickly nearing or entering into retirement and so many changes that impact healthcare specifically (medical, technology, skill requirements, global pandemics), the delivery of quality patient care can only be supported by the right infrastructure both operationally and financially. This includes all areas beyond direct clinical/patient care, including scheduling, patient financial services, registration, coding, EVS, healthcare service providers, and more.

In a rapidly growing industry that’s plagued by turnover and retirement, many healthcare leaders will continue to struggle to find the right talent for their organizations. The good news is that GenZ has emerged with a strong, mission-driven work ethic (more on how to activate this emerging generation of professionals over at Avenica’s insights page). Having experienced a recession, and now a pandemic, this generation understands the value of a great career, and they aren’t taking opportunities for granted. Additionally, they’re tech-savvy digital natives who can quickly learn and adapt to change, and they possess the ability to self-manage and work remotely (if needed).

Continuing on in the coming months—as we’re currently bearing witness—will be a scramble for talent. But the difference maker for healthcare leaders will be in connecting to the right talent—for the role, for the culture, and for the healthcare industry.

Through relationships with more than 200 colleges, universities, and education providers nationwide; a vast referral network of successful professionals advancing their careers; and strategic partnerships with scholarship providers, education affiliates, and other organizations who work with students across diverse communities, we’ve built a talent engagement strategy that provides our client partners exclusive access to untapped talent nationwide. Couple that with Avenica’s ability to not only identify the right talent for healthcare but to transform them into high-potential professionals through targeted assessments and key coaching and training, gives our client partners the ability to compete at a higher level and focus on what really matters, providing quality patient care and meeting the demands of an ever-changing, rapidly-growing industry.

About Avenica

Through conversation, high-impact coaching, and best-in-class support, we translate and meet the needs of our client partners by identifying and transforming potential into high-performing professionals. With a deeply-held belief in human potential, we transform lives and enable organizations to achieve new heights.

Partner with Avenica to combat the healthcare workforce crisis.

Related Articles