Your clinical workforce needs, wants, and expects more flexibility in their working commitment with their employer.
This requires employers to think differently about how to best structure and utilize their clinical workforce to better meet both employee needs and the demands within the patient care environment. Although employers have pursued successful strategies to build better work-life balance in the past, today’s workforce expects even more flexibility and innovation.
Embracing flexibility can support both greater clinical capacity as well as career mobility. Empowering nurses to be more involved in developing workforce solutions demonstrates a commitment from leadership and is an important step in creating a culture of respect and innovation.
The pandemic, along with the recent shift to gig roles, has forced leaders to pivot from the typical flexible offerings to find new strategies that support the needs of today’s evolving workforce. Offering an internal travel program is one such option. An in-house program that offers the flexible schedules nurses desire along with potentially higher wages can be an extremely effective way to compete with the gig worker role and stay ahead of the trend. These strategies also provide nurses with a unique opportunity to expand their clinical knowledge and experience. Whether it’s local, regional, or at the enterprise level of the health system, nurses can enjoy short-term assignments of their choice along with a schedule that best suits their lifestyle, all while maintaining the advantages of being employed by the health system. And, while it is an impactful solution in supporting core staff, it is also a crucial step in regaining control of and stabilizing labor costs. Using their own staff, hospital leaders are able to take a proactive approach to vacancies and staffing needs rather than a costly, reactive one utilizing 3rd-party labor.
THE HEAVY LIFTING
Implementing an internal agency, however, is not without its challenges. The complexity of building, deploying, and managing this type of resource can be significant. To ensure it drives the intended benefits, consideration must be given to the structure, the technology to support it, and the services and expertise necessary to manage it successfully. Developing a successful internal agency requires an exploration of many key variables, most notably scope, size, pay incentives, scalability, and operational logistics.
Other factors to consider include the implementation and ongoing management of this resource. Some health systems build it and own it; others fully outsource it. (Prolucent is unique in that we can build it and you can own it. Your success is our success.) Regardless of your approach, developing a flexible workforce model to best meet the needs of your organization and your staff has become essential.
LEADERSHIP PARTNERSHIP FOR SUCCESS
Workforce challenges remain the number one concern for hospital CEOs. While maximizing flexibility is an important component of a successful strategy, the complete long-term solution is more complex. Leaders must look holistically at the reason for burnout and turnover while continuing to maintain the organizational culture. A strong, collaborative relationship between HR and Nursing is essential. Partnering with a shared purpose creates a healthy work environment, leading to better outcomes. Developing a multi-pronged and multi-disciplinary approach that incorporates new ways of thinking is critical in addressing today’s workforce challenges. It is the combination of efforts across the enterprise that drives transformation.
Prolucent brings a new approach to workforce management. We partner with health systems to build sustainable end-to-end solutions in alignment with your workforce goals. Our AI-driven technology and custom services help you secure the workforce you need for today and the future.
We are reimagining the way healthcare builds a future-ready workforce.