Of all the ways healthcare in the United States is evolving today, one of the most significant is in its sheer size and scope. Employment in healthcare occupations is projected to grow 16% through 2030, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That makes our already wide-ranging industry the fastest growing, with about 2.6 million new jobs expected to be added by the start of the next decade.
That growth is expanding the boundaries of what a career in healthcare could be. Roles in such areas as telehealth, patient experience and value-based care are becoming more permanent, according to a survey of executives by healthcare staffing company AMN Healthcare. Meanwhile, the Association of University Programs in Health Administration recently identified several curriculum content areas as educational priorities for the next generation, including population health, dynamic strategy and social justice, to name a few. As some roles grow in importance and others emerge, it may be time for healthcare executives to reconsider the qualities and team dynamics that make for a successful workforce.
Core competencies to recruit and retain talent have traditionally included business, healthcare and, more recently within roles, specialized skills such as medical informatics, or external-facing attributes such as consumer-facing knowledge and skills. Yet, to build strong, resilient and resourceful organizations, we may need to be more differentiating in talent considerations. That means screening candidates who can withstand crises with agility, fortitude, interprofessional skills and problem-solving abilities, which will be an imperative for the future.
Many of us as leaders already consider soft skills, such as collaboration and conflict-management, when developing teams. Indeed, the healthcare field has always been emotionally complex, and as our challenges of the past two-plus years—the pandemic, workforce shortages, lagging health equity—have demonstrated, those intricacies are likely to increase. For leaders, alongside that complexity is an urgent awareness that our workforce will be the differentiator of whether we can deliver on the promise of care for all.
As such, we must carefully evaluate and prioritize added dimensions of success that, while not new, have perhaps been reshuffled to the top of the deck. Areas such as self-awareness, stress management, agility and empathy may now be the defining success factors. Riding alongside these attributes is the necessity for leaders to inspire and motivate others, to listen and learn, to guide and coach so every person can thrive even in the most adverse of circumstances.
Prioritizing workforce competencies (i.e., knowledge, skills and abilities) and communicating them to all staff has the potential to inspire and open a variety of career paths that help people understand how to enhance and develop themselves. Providing growth opportunities has also been shown to improve retention, particularly for those in clinical roles.
Leading a workforce requires a careful recipe of all these factors, balanced to bring out the best in each of us for the collective good. Most importantly, it requires attention and investment for the short term and the longer term, with a focus on building strong and resilient teams.
Much has been written about our field’s workforce challenges, and these accounts are all too real. Despite all the statistics, I am optimistic about what leaders can do. Yes, innovation and new thinking will be necessary. Yet what we do right now, today, to strengthen our workforce holds the power to shape and define that pathway to the future. People are at the center of all we do, and how we respect that privilege will likely be the most defining legacy any leader leaves behind. Let us embrace this opportunity to strengthen ourselves, our teams and our organizations—for the benefit of patients and communities.
Deborah J. Bowen, FACHE, CAE, is president/CEO of the American College of Healthcare Executives (dbowen@ache.org).