The business environment in healthcare is more complex and challenging than any other industry.  Faced with government regulation, physician integration, electronic medical records, workforce shortages and healthcare reform, the industry is in a continuous state of change.  These challenges make it difficult for healthcare providers to achieve its three most fundamental goals – reduce costs, improve patient safety, improve patient satisfaction.

Healthcare is also one of the most innovative industries.  With a drive for the well-being of the human population, continuous advancements in healthcare services, medical equipment and medical procedures are vital.   We’d all agree that this type of endless progress is an absolute necessity.  Innovation in how people are managed in healthcare…well, that’s another story.

I recently attended the HealthcareSource Talent Outcomes user conference in Las Vegas on November 7-9.  During my time there, I had an opportunity to listen to HR professionals from hospitals across the nation talk about the challenges that they face when it comes to hiring and managing people. I was struck by the simplicity and “immaturity” of their programs and processes.  When compared to other industries, including banking, business services, retail, technology, and manufacturing, healthcare is in a state of “catch up” when it comes to HR and Talent Management solutions.

Within Talent Acquisition, job postings in newspapers are still perceived as a sign of productivity. According to our just released Talent Acquisition Factbook research, healthcare organizations spend more than any other industry on print and billboards to reach their desired candidate audiences - an impressive 13 percent of their external budgets. Compared to other industries, healthcare organizations have also been slow to integrate professional networks into their recruiting strategies.  Social recruiting has barely penetrated this industry.  (Although, social recruiting was identified as the number two technology adoption priority within Healthcare, according to the 2011 Healthcare HR Initiatives Survey.)

Within Performance Management, the annual appraisal is still “king” and ongoing feedback and development appears to be secondary.  There is also a noticeable lack of transparency and discussion of talent across department lines, making it impossible to institute a culture of talent mobility – a desired state of many other industries.  

What I did witness, and what the healthcare industry does have, is a group of HR professionals with a strong desire to change this outdated mindset.  Every organization at the conference has turned to HealthcareSource as a trusted advisor and partner.  Clients are die-hard fans of the provider.  HealthcareSource is the only talent management solution provider that is 100 percent devoted to helping this industry evolve its talent management approaches, and is cognizant of how quickly (or slowly) this can happen within such a complex industry, filled with cost constraints, regulation and old-school mentality.  This awareness is vital for understanding the readiness and pace at which changes and improvements can be implemented.

What I learned about HealthcareSource is that its products and services offer just the right balance of automation and best practice implementation with an on objective of each new product release for steadily progressing the industry towards best-in-class solutions.  During the conference, HealthcareSource announced new releases of three of its products that supported this observation.

• Sourcing Manager℠ - announced a new tool that automates job postings and allows healthcare HR professionals to measure the ROI of their online recruitment media sourcing.
  
• Position Manager® v.11 – demonstrated un updated version of its applicant tracking system with additional functionality, a new interface and improved reporting.
  
• Performance Manager® - shared updates that are due to be released in 2012 that include modifications to the appraisals, competency management, learning management and reporting functionality.

There is a lot of opportunity for improvement in talent management within the healthcare industry.   I look forward to watching the maturation of hiring and managing people within this industry, and the products and services HealthcareSource offers it.

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