The widening skill gap, increasing government regulations, and an aging population are just a few of the issues facing long term care facilities. And the industry changes keep on coming:
- There are an increasing number of special needs residents coming in facilities.
- There are more care options for seniors from home care to community assisted living.
- There are stringent regulatory requirements for staffing ratios and patient care hours per day while providing personalized care.
As the healthcare industry is people centric, the biggest challenge HR faces is having the right staff at all times. Many long term care facilities work with community volunteers as well as professional training institutions, schools, and universities, to form partnerships to find and train employees. Students get exposure to healthcare professions and opportunities while facilities have a stream of volunteers and/or interns which might later lead to full time employees.
Healthcare and LTC Hires Need above average EQ
In healthcare more so than many other professions, the right type of person is required to work in these high stress environments. These new hires not only need to possess the right credentials to perform the work, they also need an EQ (emotional quotient) better than average to be compassionate yet resolute and direct when dealing with mortality and the ethical dilemmas that may arise in certain scenarios.
Technology to the Rescue
In order to comply with the growing demands of the industry, care facilities have embraced technology not only for record keeping, but also to manage the talent spectrum. From training to hiring, HCM software is enabling LTC facilities to keep track of the credentials of their employees as well as monitoring and keeping record of all the applicants who have previously applied. Personality and aptitude assessments are tools that LTC facilities are using more and technology can help by providing questionnaires and online assessments to reduce the manual work HR is currently handling. Integration of these technical tools is key though as this data can be lost if the screening tool does not integrate with the core HR system in use.
Hiring Workflows with Behavioral Questions and Assessments
There are complete HR solutions that have workflow capabilities which enable organizations to automate their hiring processes and include personality testing and behavioral assessments. The data is then retained in the core HR system with full historical reporting capabilities. Some organizations set testing or assessment thresholds in their hiring workflow so that only those that meet the requirements, move on in the hiring process. Reporting is available on the data collected from such workflows to identify the best sources of previous hires and strengthen those partnerships or to work on areas of improvement in the process. The added advantage with these types of flexible systems is the ability to keep changing the criteria and process as required to meet industry and market trends.
Workflow technology presents tremendous untapped potential for HR. Download our free eBook to learn more !
