Modernizing Benefits Packages for Healthcare Workers
As the Great Resignation continues to wreak havoc in the healthcare industry – the Great Resignation is going to be an ongoing theme in this article series – companies need to find new ways of making a career path in the business more attractive.
There are many ways to achieve this, and we’ll be covering a great deal of them in detail over the course of these articles, but an easy win for healthcare employers can be to take a fresh look at the benefits packages they offer employees and see if they can be modernized for the betterment of all.
Times change and benefits which may have been top of people’s priorities a decade ago, may not seem so important to them in 2022. Likewise, elements of benefits packages which had little importance previously may have found new relevance in the modern landscape.
A Benefits Review
In 2019, medical trade group, AMGA conducted a survey of 83 healthcare organizations across 34 states to explore the current state of benefits packages for physicians and discovered that they have remained largely unchanged since 2014.
Unfortunately, this is the most recent research available on the topic, but it would seem reasonable to assume, due to the COVID-19 crisis, healthcare organizations will likely have been rather too preoccupied to have changed things significantly in the interceding three years between then and now.
However, now the worst days of the pandemic are behind us, now would seem an opportune moment to take a deeper look at benefits packages for healthcare workers and see where improvements can be made.
Attraction and Retention
In other parts of the world, such as the UK, where a far higher degree of socialized services is prevalent, benefits packages don’t form such a key component of employment decision making. However, here in the US they are crucial and will often be the deciding factor which tips a prospective candidate to choosing your organization over another.
With it being such a candidate’s job market right now, healthcare providers which fail to modernize their benefits packages may find themselves sinking ever deeper into the ongoing and worsening talent crisis.
A Modern Benefits Package
The first thing you’ll be pleased to hear is that the basic needs of a benefits package haven’t changed in the last ten years.
Medical and dental coverage, paid leave, short-term disability, life and long-term disability coverage, qualified retirement, CME/professional dues, and malpractice coverage are, and continue to be, cornerstones of employee benefits which any employer wishing to be taken seriously by candidates should be offering. If your healthcare organization is not offering all of these benefits, the time is now to take a good hard look at your operation and ask yourself if you are serious about attracting talent in 2022.
Once you have the bare minimum locked in, you can start looking to supercharge your benefits packages with additional content.
Student loan repayment is a huge concern for young people considering a career in healthcare – especially physicians who must pass through many years of medical school before becoming qualified to even intern at an actual hospital. Arguing that higher education should be free is not within the remit of this article but making the case that healthcare providers should be helping with the repayment of student loans most definitely is.
However, only 20% of healthcare providers currently offer this assistance as part of their benefits packages, which provides a rich opportunity for those that do to differentiate themselves from the competition.
One element of working life which has found new relevance in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis is the desire to adopt flexible and remote working practices wherever possible. Lockdown life has given people a taste for this style of working and are now actively seeking roles which can offer it.
Clearly healthcare requires a lot of direct and face-to-face work, but employers should be making these kinds of working routines available whenever possible. Many consultations and other work can just as easily be carried out from a remote location as from an office – especially with advances in video conferencing and cybersecurity technology – and offering your staff a more level work/life balance through flexible and remote working can be a point of difference for candidates.
Final Thoughts
There are, of course, many other ways to modernize your benefits packages and you’ll need to carefully consider the needs of the modern workforce, and indeed your staff in particular, to effectively modernize yours.
Providing your healthcare staff with a competitive and well-rounded benefits package can go a long way toward creating an engaged workforce and attracting the very best new talent.
Modernizing benefits packages is set to be a hot topic at HR Healthcare 2022, taking place in October at the Hyatt Regency Austin, TX.
Download the agenda today for more information and insights.