Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., experienced a record year for hiring in 2022, the health system confirmed in a statement shared with Becker's on July 6.
"We welcomed more than 6,200 new hires in Rochester," spokesperson Heather Carlson Kehren said. "Like other organizations, Mayo Clinic's job vacancy rate increased during the COVID pandemic. We have had a steady decrease over the past two years in job vacancies due to an increased focus on staff retention and strong hiring."
Existing staff members are part of these efforts. Ms. Kehren said their participation in many regional and national professional organizations and strong connections to their training programs have resulted in strong pipelines. The health system also attributed the record-setting year for hiring to initiatives such as clinical rotations, as well as internships and externships.
Regarding retention, Mayo Clinic "has better retention than other systems, but generally, we are subject to the same recruitment and retention challenges as healthcare systems broadly," Ms. Kehren said. "Our leadership teams have been actively engaged in efforts to retain our staff and continue to work on meaningful changes for our teams."
Mayo Clinic's record year for hiring comes as vacancies and workforce challenges in healthcare persist in Minnesota. The Minnesota Hospital Association's 2023 Workforce Report found that new hires among Minnesota's healthcare workers (13,963) outnumbered exits (12,840). However, the report, based on data from 82,971 employed at 105 healthcare facilities, also found a 17 percent vacancy rate for report year 2023, up 253 percent since report year 2019.
As of July 6, Mayo Clinic locations across the U.S. had 1,905 job openings.