Healthcare Talent Management

The cost of a vacant position in healthcare can be staggering not only in financial terms but also when it comes to patient safety and satisfaction. This type of vacancy can also increase legal and reputational risk. It should come as no surprise that hospitals and healthcare systems are working to set up systems and partnering with the leading healthcare search firms to help them acquire the right talent, develop it, and retain it. The team at Summit Talent Group works to become a true healthcare search partner to all our clients. That means going beyond executive search services by supplementing search engagements with interim talent when deemed appropriate, succession plans, and – of course – healthcare talent management. Today, we’ve put together a list of talent management tips so that you and your team can begin the process of securing your talent. We hope you find these helpful. If you have any questions for us, let us know. We look forward to speaking with you.

Healthcare Talent Management

 talent management strategy
A guide on how to draft an effective talent management strategy to help you achieve your healthcare organization’s mission.

When a healthcare organization invests in talent, it is not only a time and financial investment. Placing the right leadership has a direct effect on team satisfaction, patient population, and future growth. As such, it is of utmost importance that plans are in place for identifying, attracting, developing, and retaining c-suite and executive talent.  

Why Healthcare Talent Management

We speak of talent management because each member of your leadership team is key to a solvent, functional and developing institution. It is important that their needs and desires are managed so that the tenure of the talent you have invested in is longer than the industry average, allowing them to achieve goals and to go beyond expectations.

A talent management plan will optimize organizational performance, encourage professional growth, and identify talent voids to ensure that your organization and its team is working at top performance.

Involve Current Leadership

This type of initiative goes beyond the expected tasks of human resources. Healthcare talent management is about progress and growth. When beginning to work on a talent management plan, it is crucial to keep the goals of the organization in mind and consider not just the type of leaders that will be needed to meet those goals, but also how to prepare your current workforce, how to keep them engaged, and how to hold on to those key people who are integral to your organization.

In order to draft a successful healthcare talent management plan, it is important to involve leaders at all levels, not simply human resources. Current departmental leaders need to be active participants in managing talent and should put into place departmental management plans to develop future leaders from within the department. This includes engaging employees so that their professional needs can be met with ease.

Identify Strengths and Place Accordingly

Because of the many facets of the healthcare industry, it is important to look for the strongest qualities of each individual.  For example, there are positions where there are strictly delineated responsibilities. In this case, it is important to find individuals who are more analytical, enjoy optimization, and excel at routine. When a role is defined by the unexpected, it is important to find those who are more adverse to mundane tasks and thrive in an ever-changing environment. Placing an appropriate personality into a task results in happier team members and a more productive department.

Listen, Humanize, and Engage

People want to have a goal in life. They want to feel as if they are doing more than just a job. People want to make a difference. If they are to make a difference, they need to be personally involved and understand the importance of their role in respect to the mission of the organization. When it comes to this aspect of healthcare talent management, it is recommended that those who are on the path to leadership are made aware of the impact their contribution makes. This can be achieved by incentives as simple as awards, bonuses for projects, training to help them further their career, performance reviews, and personal touches such as handwritten thank you notes and small, but meaningful gifts for important personal events such as an engagement or the birth of a new child.

Recruit the Right People from the Start

Starting with the right talent for your organization can make all the difference. If you start with talent which has professional aspirations that are aligned with the goals of your healthcare organization, you are ahead of the game. It is incredible what hiring the right candidates at the start can do for the health and growth of a healthcare institution.

Set Goals & Success Metrics

If you have clear goals for what you plan to achieve from your healthcare talent marketing plan, as well as distinct milestones and a way to measure them, you will be able to make appropriate changes if you find your plan is not moving along as intended. Begin with simple goals for recruitment, management, and retention.

Once you have a clear view of your goals, conduct a deep dive and analysis to understand current metrics such as talent turnover, upward mobility, and work to grade the current standings of your organization. If your metrics are not meeting or exceeding industry standards, then it is important to analyze the status quo to discover what is and is not working.

A clearly outlined budget with projections for scenarios where there is an unexpected vacancy for a high-level position is key to healthcare talent management. Include metrics such as the average time to hire, the cost to hire, the cost of an interim healthcare leader, and similar costs that are associated with a vacancy.

Ultimately, healthcare workers spend more time at work than they do elsewhere. If your organization has set up a robust talent management plan that focuses on building leadership, creating a pleasant work environment, and building a culture that feels that they matter to the overall mission of the organization, you will attract better talent while reducing burnout and turnover to foment a culture of growth and success.

Work with Healthcare Executive Search Firm, Summit Talent Group

If you are currently looking to develop your healthcare talent management plan, contact us. The team at Summit Talent Group partners with not-for-profit, for-profit, academic, governmental and faith-based hospital systems; physician enterprises; ambulatory and surgery centers; long-term-care, skilled nursing and rehabilitation operations; home care agencies; healthcare consulting firms; managed care companies; and life science organizations to assist with retained and interim talent services.  Our executive search experts also assist with practicing physician research and candidate development. If you would like to learn more about our services, our process, and our people; contact us. We look forward to becoming your healthcare search partners.