Summer ‘15
21
FEATURE
The State of the Workforce for
Home Care and Hospice
By Eric Scharber
I
started recruiting for this industry over
15 years ago as a fresh grad from the
University of Florida. My first job was
as a recruiter for a health care staffing
company. When I started in this position,
I had no idea about the shortage of quality
health care professionals or the impact the
baby boomer generation would have on this
shortage. I only knew it was a decent job and a
way to get into the health care industry, which
was my goal.
I quickly learned how difficult it was to recruit
nursing staff and how much harder it was to
keep or retain them. It turned out that I had
a knack for it and I’ve been involved in the
recruiting world ever since. Although I’ve been
recruiting for home care and hospice agencies
since my first position in 2000, it was when
I founded Exact Recruiting in 2005 that I
devoted 100% of my efforts to this industry.
Since then, I’ve seen tremendous change
and evolution in the workforce specific to
this industry. Some recent observations are
exciting, but more often I’m worried about our
workforce. There are a few key areas where my
concerns lie.
Talent Development
It’s rare these days that organizations are
focused on developing their own talent. The
overwhelming majority of clients that retain
our services are looking for candidates that
already have significant experience in the
industry. They want nurses and management
professionals that are savvy with OASIS and
Medicare guidelines and that don’t need to be
trained. Frequently I’m told that their current
management doesn’t have time to “train”
or “mentor” someone and to only present
candidates that can “hit the ground running.”
I realize there are some basic requirements for
any position, but too often organizations are
eliminating much of their talent pool before
they even begin the search. The fact is that
there are not enough seasoned home care
and hospice professionals to go around. With
more and more seniors taking advantage of the
home care benefit and more and more of our
nursing population retiring from the workforce,
organizations HAVE to put in place a training
program and develop their own staff. There
are enough nursing professionals to go around,
they just need to be educated on the intricacies
of our industry. Remember, everyone in this
industry was new to it at one point.
Competition for Talent
In speaking to my clients I’m often told that
they have researched their competition and
know that they are compensating at the level of
all the other home care agencies and hospices
in the area. That may be the case, but that does
not mean they are competing aggressively in
the marketplace. Competition for good nursing
and management professionals is not specific
to our industry. Home care and hospice is also
competing against hospitals, long term care
and any other health care providers in the area.
I realize it’s tough to compete with large health
systems from a compensation standpoint, but
you at least have to recognize what you’re up
against and attempt to put a package together
that will attract and retain top staff. If you
ignore the other competition in the area, you’re
setting yourself up for disaster.
Image of the Industry
Unfortunately, we still have an “image issue”
in this industry. Many times we hear from a
candidate that they’re interested in home health
“ COMP ET I T I ON FOR GOOD NUR S I NG AND MANAGEMENT
P ROF E S S I ONA L S I S NOT S P EC I F I C TO OUR I NDUS TRY.
HOME CAR E AND HOS P I CE I S A L SO COMP ET I NG AGA I NS T
HOS P I TA L S , LONG TE RM CAR E AND ANY OTHE R HE A LTH
CAR E P ROV I DE R S I N THE AR E A .”
