Reskilling and Upskilling to Meet the Healthcare Industry Talent Gap

Florida’s healthcare employers, both public and private, are grappling with how to deal with a ballooning talent gap. Short-term solutions like shuffling and stretching team members lead to staff burnout, and cutting patient services impedes quality care. Recruiting and hiring for an increasing number of open positions is a serious issue for the healthcare sector.

The situation creates prospects for employers to expedite increasingly fulfilling careers for their staff. Strategically assessing current employees’ abilities and interest in new and upwardly mobile opportunities is an important retention tactic while addressing unfilled staffing needs. Developing programs to reskill and upskill staff takes expertise and resources in training, credentials, and coaching.

Since the volume of candidates requiring training could be substantial, most healthcare employers will not be able (or want) to create and organize meaningful internal training programs by themselves. Many experienced employees may not want to take on responsibilities for training coworkers, either because they are already feeling stretched themselves or they feel it’s a wasted effort in light of past trainees who have left.

Reskilling to Build Careers

Reskilling prepares employees to take on different jobs from the ones they have. This is a puzzle that involves providing junior employees with additional courses and training to advance into a new role or hiring promising new employees for jobs requiring more junior qualifications for which it’s easier to recruit.

Reskilling offers those in predominately entry-level positions an opportunity to accelerate their professional career path. For example, a capable medical office receptionist shows the desire to become a medical assistant, offering an opportunity to train them to practice clinical duties and take vitals as they fulfill their current role. It’s a new path for the employee, and it reinforces the organization’s culture by having a team member move from one role to another. It’s an efficient solution for employers to reskill existing employees and backfill with new hires for roles that require more junior qualifications.

Upskilling to Promote Talent in the System

Many new and entry-level healthcare employees are interested in learning what career paths are available to them. Upskilling provides additional knowledge and training for progressing to
higher roles with growing responsibility and compensation. This is a valuable way to boost employee satisfaction and help employers retain needed healthcare workers while attracting others.

Upskill training has the greatest potential when offered by reputable educational organizations with a track record of success. Institutions that customize a mix of certificate and degree programs, short-term training programs or courses, and continuing education courses can help employers set the foundation for employee lifelong learning, a critical success factor in the ever-evolving provision of services in healthcare.

Selecting the Right Educational Institution or Training Partner

When looking for an educational or training partner, those with a consultative approach yield the best outcomes. As you reflect on your organization’s recruiting and retention pain points, here are three critical qualities in a partner:

• Supplies an adaptable approach to engage healthcare workers asynchronously and ensure they grasp concepts while accommodating your organization’s schedule rotations
• Offers instructors with skills that match your business and strategic goals, and who have experience developing curriculum that is relevant for allied health positions, including educating/training on essential skills
• Provides wrap-around support for learners so trainees have the academic, social, and mental health support needed for success

When investing in reskilling and upskilling, employees feel more valued and grow more loyal to your organization. Typically, these workers are more excited about their jobs and will likely attract other talent. Likewise, when healthcare institutions take this approach, the communities that they serve benefit enormously with more services and support.

invite you to learn more at www.ultimatemedical.edu/

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