Driving Skill Development to Provide Quality Care

Healthcare is one of the industries hardest hit by COVID-19 and is still working to mitigate the downstream effects. A key challenge that we have heard consistently from our customers and HR leaders is keeping talent. A McKinsey study found that nearly half of nursing departures are moving away from patient facing roles completely, causing additional strain on an already short-staffed role.

This issue gets exacerbated by organizations lacking information on their employees’ skills profiles. This goes beyond what skills are necessary for their role. Instead, it expands it to the skills the individual has, what skills they are interested in developing further, and what skills they enjoy engaging with the most.

Having this data provides a deeper understanding of an employee and enables employers to lift and shift staff into other roles within the organization. Some estimates state it costs an organization two-times an employee’s salary or more to lose them. By shifting and keeping employees internal, organizations save on sourcing, recruiting, onboarding, and time-to-productivity.

This concept can be applied to whole organizations, enabling top executives to have insights into the talent and skills of the entire workforce. This information can yield powerful results and help leaders meet the ever-changing needs of their people, but the proper tools and foundation must be in place.

Skill documentation and technology enablement are two key areas where healthcare organizations are struggling. Today’s technology can document skills by role, something that once took months, but now only takes minutes to do for the entire organization.

As we met with healthcare leaders at the ATD and ASHHRA conferences, we learned two key facts; there is a strong desire to become a more mature organization that can address the skills gap, and there is a struggle with resource planning and identifying the steps to get started. Exploring how technology can support your organization on this skill journey can be a powerful initial step.

Technology that empowers informed decision making can help grow talent from within. For example, an environmental services employee, a documentation specialist, or a recruiter, can identify nursing as a career interest along with the rest of their skills profile and provide that information to leadership. Leadership can then work with talent teams to create development opportunities, personalized with the right content based on the employee’s skills profile. Having greater insights into your people can help backfill and prepare new talent for short-staffed roles like nursing along with the many other positions across healthcare.

Skills are the talent currency of tomorrow across all industries -- and healthcare is no exception. Request a demo today to learn how Cornerstone can help you build your people development strategy.