Industry Spotlight: Workforce Planning for 2009

By: Debbie Fledderjohann, President, Top Echelon Contracting, Inc.
& Donna Carroll, VP of Business Development & Recruitment, Systems Personnel

A lot has changed in the course of a year, at least as it pertains to the U.S. economy. Twelve months ago, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were still operating independently of the government, Bear Stearns was still in existence, and Ford and GM were still in good financial health. Now, though, we’re all too familiar with the current state of events and how those events are affecting the workforce. Which leads to this question: what are your workforce planning needs for the coming year? Not only that, might there be a more effective way to address those needs than you have in the past?

Workforce planning can be defined as a company’s efforts to accurately analyze their current staffing situation and then determine what adjustments need to be made in order to meet any needs or challenges they might be facing. There are a few major components of workforce planning, which are listed below:

• Ensuring that budget guidelines for employees are met

• Ensuring that there are the proper number of employees on staff

• Ensuring that those employees possess the necessary skills, knowledge, and abilities

• Ensuring that the employees are filling the correct positions (i.e., those that are best suited to their skills)

The current economic conditions in the country notwithstanding, there are a number of other reasons why workforce planning has become essential for the healthcare Information Technology (IT) industry:

1. Patient safety initiatives have created the need to implement advanced clinical applications for use by clinical staff (nurses, physicians, allied health professionals). Advanced clinical applications can help to streamline nurse workloads and incorporate clinical decision support tools that ensure safety, creating a quality environment for patients. As a result of advanced clinical application implementations, the need for qualified Health Care Information Systems (HCIS) professionals is growing as healthcare providers recognize the need for candidates with the specific software knowledge as well as a clinical background.

2. The growth of the healthcare IT industry has made competition for HCIS skilled professionals more fierce than at any time in the country’s history. Combine this with the fact that the Baby Boomer Generation, 77 million strong, is beginning to retire, and the availability of potentially qualified workers is rapidly decreasing.

3. The U.S. nursing shortage has had a very definite impact on the availability of skilled professionals. As healthcare organizations contend with clinical staff shortages, nurses are expected to treat an increasing number of patients more efficiently, all while maintaining the highest safety standards. These increasing demands upon their time make it very difficult to participate in projects (such as software implementations) beyond their primary responsibility of patient care.

4. Rural hospitals are at a particular disadvantage because, in many cases, they are the only hospital within their county or even a 100-mile radius. When seeking very specific skills, such as MEDITECH, the rural hospital often has no choice but to recruit from outside the area and to relocate individuals. This increases the cost of recruitment and duration of vacancies. Rural hospitals report that filling vacancies can take up to 60% longer than in urban hospitals.

5. Working for only one company your whole life is no longer the norm. People now work for between five and 10 organizations during the course of their career, sometimes more.

Taking all of those factors into consideration—plus the economy—how do you think your workforce planning strategy has changed for the coming year?

Assessing your needs
In order to maximize your productivity and keep your project plans on track throughout the coming year, it’s critical that you accurately assess your needs. The best way to ensure that you can meet those needs is to be flexible in your workforce planning, which includes maintaining a team of salaried staff members, along with utilizing contractors to fulfill specific needs on a temporary basis. Utilizing contractors for specific projects or for a limited duration eliminates the constant expense of salaries and benefits when you don’t need the additional headcount all of the time. While permanent staff hires may play the primary role in your workforce planning for 2009, there’s a high probability that contract staffing will be an increasingly important factor.

In fact, between 70% and 80% of all companies in the U.S. utilize contract workers in one capacity or another. That percentage could gravitate more toward 80% in the months ahead, and of those 80%, more companies could utilize contract workers to a greater extent. The primary reason is that they’ll be in need of flexibility, and contract staffing can provide that flexibility. Below are some scenarios that help to illustrate that point.

• The organization is under a hiring freeze, but still needs workers to complete a project.

• The organization has a direct-hire candidate, but it wants to place them as a contractor before offering direct employment (a “try-before-you-buy” tactic).

• The organization has located a contractor for a project, but does not want to add them to its payroll.

• The organization wants to bring retired workers back on a contract basis to help with a project or deadline.

• The organization needs to convert a 1099 independent contractor to a W-2 employee because of concerns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

And how, exactly, does contracting provide flexibility? First of all, contractors can be brought on board more quickly, in order to meet project deadlines. Second, organizations can reduce layoffs by using contractors to meet increased workloads. Third, contractors can offer a fresh perspective on the various issues that organizations face. Fourth, companies have the option of hiring contractors on a direct-hire basis...or just letting them go at the end of their contract assignment. Flexibility is the key.

Contracting: quick, easy, and painless
Many experts say that we’re currently in the throes of a recession. How long the recession will last or how deep it will be is anybody’s guess at this point. Flexibility will be the key to your workforce planning needs, and contract staffing will enable you to accomplish more of what needs to get done for your organization.

What some organizations don’t realize is that contract staffing can be quick, easy, and painless with the help of a qualified recruiter and a contract staffing service provider. Systems Personnel, a professional search firm specializing in the healthcare IT market, has placed highly qualified MEDITECH professionals in contract assignments for its clients all across the country. Capitalizing on the concept of flexibility, they have fulfilled a variety of contract staffing needs for healthcare organizations: implementation specialists, project managers, interim support analysts, integration analysts, interim directors/CIOs, etc. Systems Personnel maintains versatility in recruitment by utilizing the services of a contract staffing service provider, Top Echelon Contracting, Inc., to administer contract assignments. Once Systems Personnel has identified a contractor to suit your specific need, Top Echelon Contracting will take care of all of the financial, legal, and administrative responsibilities associated with contracting that candidate to your organization.

For even more flexibility, you can use Top Echelon Contracting no matter how you identify your contractor of choice. Whether the candidate applied to your organization directly, was referred to you by one of your existing employees, or is someone you already know (perhaps even a former employee or retiree); your organization can still use Top Echelon Contracting as the contract staffing service provider. Simply call Donna Carroll at 413-569-1111 for a step-by-step explanation of services.

So, provide your organization some flexibility with one more tool this year—contract staffing—when attacking the challenges of workforce planning for 2009.

Debbie Fledderjohann is President of Top Echelon Contracting, Inc., a contract staffing service provider since 1992. For more information, visit them online at www.TopEchelonContracting.com.

Donna Carroll is VP of Business Development & Recruitment of Systems Personnel, a professional search firm specializing in the Healthcare Management, IT, and Sales & Marketing fields. Systems Personnel also publishes a periodic online newsletter, The MEDITECH Community Bulletin, for the MEDITECH software community. For more information, visit them online at www.CarrollSearch.com.