A survey has revealed that skill shortage around the global talent pool is among the greatest challenges’ employers are facing in the hiring process today. However, only one in four companies have made the effort to address the issue within their organisation. If this get ignored, this trend will only intensify across all industries and company sizes therefore having a massive impact on large economies. Industries that obligate specific training or education, such as Life Science, will be impacted the most.

Indeed, the demand for IT, Life Sciences and engineering professionals has risen persistently over the last few years and there are more jobs than professionals available for the roles. It is also estimated that two million jobs will be available by 2020, in those industries, mostly due to retirement.

As a result of an ageing demographic, requirements in Life Sciences and more precisely in Healthcare have changed, calling for AI to be integrated quicker. Surely, the jobs that will disappear by 2020 due to disruptive technologies will be replaced by new jobs tied to digital skills.

According to WHO/Europe, “population growth, ageing societies, and changing disease patterns are expected to drive greater demand for well-trained health workers in the next 15 years. The global economy is projected to create around 40 million new health sector jobs by 2030”.

Another reason for the skill shortage in Life Science is due to the negative perceptions, death, old age and diseases are associated with the industry. For instance, a study taken in 2017 showed that only 3/100 life science companies were chosen, when students were asked what companies they would like to work for. The reason being, because students have issues with the ethics surrounding the industry.

How to manage skill shortage in Healthcare?

The first way to manage skill shortage is by workforce planning. Healthcare organisations need to start planning their future steps to face the everchanging healthcare talent pool. They should be able to understand today’s challenges and the upcoming ones as well as the need to change their strategy to attract and retain new talents with digital skills.

The key is to focus on convincing younger people, today’s Millennials, to enter healthcare and start giving them a positive outlook on the industry. Often, HR leaders only think of already trained candidates and forget about future Talents i.e. students. To succeed in attracting candidates, health care organisations need to build a strong employer brand, for example by focusing on charity, and meet the needs of millennial workers and those in Generation Z (work/life balance, creative and dynamic work environment, innovation, supportive leaders, leadership opportunities…).

Another way to manage the skill shortage is to focus on retention. HR leaders need to be able to recognise the weight put on their current employees due to the skills gap. They need to combat them by avoiding under-staffing and longer hours from their staff therefore, preventing mistakes, exhaustion, stress and burnouts.

Healthcare organisations can retain their employees by developing their skills through training, coaching or mentoring. This will help them face the disappearing jobs and disruptive technologies, allowing a good combination between past, present and future talents within the company.

Lastly, many are looking to experts in RPO, MSP and Total Workforce Solutions to manage growing skill shortage. These partners can help provide a view of the whole talent spectrum as organisations plan for their future workforces. To tackle specific needs of the company they should seek for partners with the right experience.

As a key player in Health environment and the European leader in Talent Strategy, STRAMMER provides The Full Talent Solution®, a unique offer to help guide our clients to face their human challenges, recruit the best talents and develop middle managers and leadership teams in Europe.

References

• Clinician Today. (http://cliniciantoday.com/navigating-the-healthcare-skills-shortage-insight-from-a-global-job-search-engine/). 4 July 2018. Claire Cavanaugh. Navigating the Healthcare Skills Shortage: Insight From a Global Job Search Engine
• People Scout. (https://www.peoplescout.com/managing-skills-shortage-health-care/). 29 September 201. Nicole Fuqua. Managing the Skills Shortage in Healthcare
• World Health Organisation. (http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/Health-systems/health-workforce/data-and-statistics). Data And Statistics