New Bersin Company Report Identifies a Six Step Methodology Healthcare Organizations Can Use to Create Alternative Career Pathways

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Nov 16, 2022, 06:00 ET

AI-based analysis of trending skills, jobs, and role clusters helps identify opportunities to help people pivot from lower incomes into clinical jobs
Reskilling people from a whole range of other roles, whether inside or outside healthcare, is emerging as the most impactful strategy to fill severe gaps in nursing—potentially addressing 1/3 or 700,000 of critical sector vacancies
Healthcare employers need to be more vocal about no-cost retraining opportunities: although 61% offer tuition reimbursement, only 11% see this widely used by employees and just 8% say employees are aware of these options

OAKLAND, Calif., Nov. 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Josh Bersin Company, a research and advisory company focused on HR and workforce strategies, today publishes detailed practical advice for healthcare organizations looking to address the sector's alarming and fast-growing clinical workforce gaps.

Digging deeper into the detailed findings of its ongoing Global Workforce Intelligence (GWI) Project, The Josh Bersin Company's new analysis, The Future of Careers in Healthcare, produced in partnership with EdAssist by Bright Horizons, sets out specific actions for implementing "talent intelligence" that healthcare employers now need to take to make strategic human capital and business decisions for success today, and in the future.

The healthcare industry is the largest employer in the U.S., with 1 in 7 Americans working in the sector today. The vast clinical capacity gap (there will be a gap of 2.1m nurses, or 1 in 3 nurse roles, by 2025, according to recent Bersin Company research) is the biggest challenge faced by the sector both in the U.S. and globally.

Echoing the growing call to think laterally about how future roles will be filled, the study notes that demand for nursing roles is soaring (by 13% year on year until 2025) while administrative roles are declining at a rate of 8%. It is in these correlations that new opportunities for thoughtful talent reskilling needs to emerge, Bersin Company recommends.

The new report specifies what healthcare organizations should do now, based on this innovative, groundbreaking data—from benchmarking current workforce skills, and identifying roles in decline, using AI to identify skills and roles adjacencies, to determining career pathways to help bridge the capabilities now needed. The report also provides targeted development and educational programs to support people into the key roles of tomorrow.

The report looks closer at emerging best practices, including how Amazon is providing alternative career pathways to warehouse workers who might be displaced by automation. Healthcare employers can learn much, says Bersin researchers, from the way the retailer has rolled out its educational assistance program, Career Choice, based on a no-cost-to-employee education model partnership with Providence Health & Services to transition Amazon distribution center workers into nurse aids or licensed nurse practitioners in its nursing workforce.

Other The Future of Careers in Healthcare highlights include:

No-cost education allows healthcare companies to build capacity and democratize careers
Career pathways can even help raise communities from poverty to higher levels, solve societal challenges, and create equity and sustainability
Reskilling people from a whole range of other roles, whether inside or outside healthcare, is now one of the most impactful strategies to fill severe gaps in nursing, potentially addressing 1/3 or 700,000 of unfilled vacancies in the health economy
Healthcare employers need to be more vocal about no-cost retraining opportunities. Although 61% offer tuition reimbursement, only 11% see this widely used by employees and just 8% say employees are aware of these programs
Educational assistance programs—those that don't require employees to pay out of pocket—allow economically disenfranchised workers to participate and access genuine opportunity via these programs
Employees in declining roles like receptionists or environmental services workers have many of the skills needed to easily reskill to entry level clinical roles
Career pathways programs also significantly reduce the turnover of clinical talent—one of the biggest issues in healthcare (with some providers seeing rates of up to 60%).

The Future of Careers in Healthcare report combines a wealth of healthcare sector-specific talent intelligence with in-depth CHRO interviews, and highlights the vital role targeted reskilling can play once employers fully understand the scale of the challenge they need to address now with fresh thinking.

The Future of Careers in Healthcare's detailed practical recommendations have been specifically tailored to healthcare and have broad applicability to healthcare organizations of all sizes and to employers in converging industries, like retail, and expand substantially on the general theoretical advice provided in other Bersin Company resources.

Josh Bersin, global HR research analyst and CEO of The Josh Bersin Company, said:

"Career pathways in healthcare are a critical building block to address the clinical talent shortage, which will have significant impact on the economy and society at large. Career pathways are different to career paths. They help people pivot from lower income, uneducated jobs into more satisfying and better compensated clinical jobs, and they are at the heart of what healthcare is about today. Creating them is a C-suite issue, and the kind of innovation we're seeing, as in the Amazon and Providence partnership, is happening at the highest level. It's visionary, and it's exciting, and we need to see a lot more of this if U.S. healthcare is to recover and get ahead of our growing and aging populations. If necessity is the mother of invention, then healthcare should be the industry to watch for powerful new approaches to talent management."

Kathi Enderes, SVP, Research, and Lead Healthcare Industry Analyst at The Josh Bersin Company, said:

"Healthcare has 2-3 times as many job titles, skills, and career clusters as other industries, but traditional recruitment and retention solutions alone aren't effective enough to close the clinical capacity gap. Career pathways from dead-end administrative roles to future-proof clinical jobs are one of the most strategic solutions to fill the clinical shortage over time. However, employers will need to develop long-term strategies to build their pipelines, as the certification requirements and learning/reskilling timelines are very long for clinical roles. As a result, healthcare organizations must think and act outside of the box, and they must start today if they want to survive beyond tomorrow. What's interesting is that leaders in any industry can learn from these innovations to future-proof their organizations."

Jill Buban, General Manager and Vice President of EdAssist by Bright Horizons, said:

"The current labor market has left healthcare organizations desperate to recruit and retain talent to meet the needs of patients. EdAssist works with more than 70 of the nation's top healthcare organizations who are ramping up their investments in education benefits like free college degrees, customized career pathway programs to fill in-demand job openings in fields like radiology, and tuition reimbursement programs to part-time workers and even dependents—all in an effort to attract and keep the very best talent. Working with these forward-thinking organizations has given us considerable insight into the powerful impact these benefits can have to not only attract top talent, but also cultivate existing talent, ultimately allowing them to build a stronger, more diverse workforce."

The new The Josh Bersin Company report, The Future of Careers in Healthcare, produced in partnership with EdAssist by Bright Horizons, and available exclusively to subscribing members, is available now.

About the Global Workforce Intelligence (GWI) Project

Where most other HR research draws on limited payroll, job postings and/or small survey samples, the Global Workforce Intelligence (GWI) Project uses eightfold.ai's extensive talent intelligence database combined with The Josh Bersin Company's comprehensive global HR leadership insights to understand jobs, job roles, skills, and career pathways, as well as organizational data. Combined, the data reflects the real workforce and HR practices actively in use today, across tens of thousands of companies around the world.

About The Josh Bersin Company

The Josh Bersin Company provides a wide range of research and advisory services, including a corporate membership program, to help HR leaders and professionals tackle the ever-evolving challenges and needs of today's workforce. The firm's research team covers all topics in HR, talent, and L&D, including diversity, equity, and inclusion; employee experience; remote and hybrid work; wellbeing; HR strategy and capabilities; learning and career mobility; HR technology; organization design and development; and talent acquisition and mobility. With the Global Workforce Intelligence (GWI) Project, The Josh Bersin Company also serves to expand its support of market-leading businesses by helping them navigate the challenges of industry convergence while remaining future-focused.

Under the company's umbrella is the Josh Bersin Academy, the world's first global development academy for HR and talent professionals and a transformation agent for HR organizations. The Academy, which has seen more than 50,000 program enrollments since its 2019 launch, offers content-rich online courses, a carefully curated library of tools and resources, and a global community that helps HR and talent professionals stay current on the trends and practices needed to drive organizational success in the modern world of work. Visit www.joshbersin.com or email [email protected].

About Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc.

Bright Horizons® is a leading global provider of high-quality early education and child care, back-up care, and workforce education services. For 35 years, we have partnered with employers to support workforces by providing services that help working families and employees thrive personally and professionally. Bright Horizons operates approximately 1,100 early education and child care centers in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Australia and India, and serves more than 1,350 of the world's leading employers. Bright Horizons' early education and child care centers, back-up child and elder care, and workforce education programs help employees succeed at each life and career stage. For more information, go to www.brighthorizons.com.

SOURCE The Josh Bersin Company