With the adoption of health information technology (HIT) and the promotion of a nationwide health information exchange, healthcare organizations are finding themselves with changing HR needs.  HR has to ensure its hospitals, nursing homes and managed care providers are staffed with qualified employees and address the ongoing demands HIT implementations have on their workforce.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. will add 5.6 million healthcare and social assistance jobs through 2020.  As one of the fastest growing sectors, here are four tips for healthcare HR practitioners to alleviate the growing pains:

Go social: According to Bersin & Associates, healthcare organizations spend 13 percent of their external budgets on print and billboards to reach their desired candidate – more than any other industry.  While many healthcare HR departments have been slow to adopt social recruiting and networking into their strategies, the influx of new jobs in the next eight years will force them to evaluate antiquated strategies.  Social recruiting will allow healthcare organizations to target and reach top talent across multiple Web 2.0 platforms.  By leveraging networks, referrals and shared resources, HR can find quality candidates – and have quality candidates seek them out.

Stay ahead of the learning curve: Healthcare technology and patient data are growing exponentially, requiring specialized skills and competencies from new employees.  With an aging population that will make up more than 25 percent of the U.S. workforce in 2020, the move from paper to electronic records will also impact the amount of training and development they’ll need.  How can healthcare HR effectively manage the entire learning process across multiple skill levels and disciplines?  A learning management system (LMS) can provide healthcare organizations with the ability to centrally manage, track and quantify all learning activities.  HR can streamline the creation and management of all types of training events based on the needs of its students, including web-based, instructor-led or on-the-job training.

Manage compliance with ease: The adoption of electronic health records presents a number of new and challenging compliance requirements, most notably with HIPAA.  How can HR ensure that its workforce understands how to apply HIPAA to their daily requirements in a new digital age of electronic health records?  With a learning content management system (LCMS), just-in-time learning can be applied to compliance-based training.  This ensures that employees receive training not only when it’s needed but when it’s required – year-round.  In addition, HR can schedule, track and manage the entire training process to ensure certification, licensing and documentation are current.  If you’re interested in learning more about just-in-time learning for compliance-based training, check out our recent blog post.

Let self-service do the work: With a workforce on an upward projection path, the automation of core HR functions will be essential for healthcare organizations as they grow their workforce.  A human resource management system (HRMS) provides HR with a system of record for its people, compensation structures, positions and employee performance.  The automation of these processes allows employees and managers access to HR data and information.  Self-service alleviates the time commitment once required of HR to manually complete such tasks.  For example, using a HRMS, an employee can make changes to their health benefits or review their job history.  As the healthcare industry continues to grow, a HRMS will provide organizations with streamlined core HR and empowered employees.

If you’re a healthcare HR practitioner, let us know what other growing pains you’re feeling.  We’ll happily address them in an upcoming blog post.