There seems to be an overarching belief that professionals like doctors, nurses, teachers, accountants, mechanics and other critical roles will always be there for us. And while the optimism here is completely understandable, it’s also misguided.
2020 was a challenging year for everyone. It was a time of dramatic change, and the historical significance is difficult to comprehend. But the world found ways to keep moving forward, and today — in the distant wake of all that upheaval — we find ourselves right smack in the middle of the Great Resignation. Or, as some might prefer, the Great Reshuffle.
Regardless of semantics, it seems that employers can’t do enough to retain their employees. People are quitting their jobs in droves. Health care professionals, in particular, seem tempted to seek out greener pastures and explore new opportunities.
The turnover rate in health care has risen nearly 5 percent across all jobs in the industry over the last decade. Moreover, 53.8 percent of Allied Health employees leave their jobs within two years. Those are troubling numbers, but here’s the really scary stat: Data from Elsevier Health shows that 75 percent of health care workers will leave the industry by 2025 — unless we do something about it.
It’s all indicative of a serious issue — one that isn’t isolated to health care.
Every industry (retail, hospitality, education, telecommunications, etc.) is caught in the midst of a perfect storm — but employers shouldn’t necessarily rush to hit the panic button. At least, not yet.
While tumultuous, this storm is rife with opportunities for organizations to shift their approach to hiring star talent and convincing them to stay for the long haul.
Let’s continue using health care as our model for the basis of this argument.
The World Health Organization estimates that by 2030, there will be a health care workforce gap of around 14.5 million. This indicates that the most in-demand skills for health care professionals will be vastly different from what they are today — and 50 percent of the entire workforce will need to retrain if they want to stay employable.
Digital literacy, cognitive flexibility, emotional intelligence — they’re all on the rise.
This is why health systems should be exploring viable, on-the-job training programs. Yet for many, a first-rate training platform might seem like a sunken cost. It’s mostly because it’s difficult to justify any expense that doesn’t yield almost immediate returns.
The average amount of time it takes for any organization to see true ROI in a fully automated LMS is between six months and one year.
And that ROI is difficult to ignore: Retention rates increase by 25 percent to 60 percent, engagement and morale both get a much-needed boost, and the cost savings through those greater retention rates can range anywhere from 100,000 to one million dollars per year — depending on the size and reach of the organization.
What’s more, a recent survey found that 77 percent of professionals in nearly every industry are more than willing to put in the effort to upskill and make themselves more employable.
In fact, they’re hungry for it, and a large percentage of these same professionals are willing to leave their current jobs for employers that provide long-term career development.
If all these statistics hold true, greater upskilling and reskilling opportunities could be what organizations need to combat the Great Reshuffle and break the seemingly endless cycle of attrition.
But to do that, employers need a deep understanding of how upskilling and reskilling differ from one another.
Reskilling is the learning of entirely new skills that often results in a career change. At the same time, upskilling occurs within an already solidified career path, giving employees clear opportunities for growth as they expand their knowledge.
The training itself is usually provided by a post-secondary institution or through an LMS hosted by the learner’s employer, and can take anywhere from six months to one year before completion.
How upskilling and reskilling are folded into each organization’s overarching people strategy will change drastically based on their industry, internal skills gaps and hiring needs.
But the rewards appear to be the same.
In the end, it all comes down to people — what many experts consider to be one of the greatest appreciating assets in any field. People want to be heard, and they want to be supported. We’re already living in a world where star talent is fought over so fiercely that employers have no choice but to acknowledge continuous learning as a viable alternative to broken hiring processes that waste time, cost money, and drain resources.
The other option is to all hold our collective breath and wait, hoping the current trends reverse.
