Healthcare organisations are increasingly looking beyond recruitment and retention to address workforce pressures, with new research from HRO Today highlighting a growing focus on redesigning how work is structured and delivered. However, Talent Acquisition teams are not yet consistently involved as strategic partners in these decisions.
The research, Healthcare Workforce Redesign: Rethinking How Work Gets Done, found that 62% of senior healthcare HR leaders consider workforce redesign more urgent than it was three years ago. Burnout and retention were identified as the biggest workforce-related pressures, cited by 64% of respondents.
The study was sponsored by Korn Ferry and surveyed 50 North American healthcare HR professionals, so its findings offer a snapshot of participating organisations rather than a representative picture of the global healthcare sector.
Staffing Pressures Push Healthcare Employers Towards Redesign
Recruitment and retention remain central to healthcare workforce strategies. However, the findings suggest that organisations are also considering whether existing workforce models can meet changing operational and patient-care demands.
Increasing recruitment efforts was cited by 42% of respondents as a primary strategy for addressing workforce challenges, while 31% identified retention initiatives.
Nursing was the function facing the greatest workforce difficulties, according to 51% of respondents. Behavioural health followed at 44%, reflecting the pressure on specialist roles and teams.
These challenges are prompting healthcare leaders to examine workloads, responsibilities, scheduling and how teams are organised, rather than relying exclusively on hiring more employees.
Technology and Automation Show Results
Technology and automation emerged as the area where respondents most frequently reported progress in workforce redesign. Some 84% said they had seen results from technology or automation in workflows over the previous 12 to 24 months.
Employee engagement and experience were also cited by 83% as areas where organisations were seeing results.
The findings indicate that workforce redesign is not limited to operational efficiency. Changes to workflows and the use of technology can also affect how employees experience their work.
For healthcare HR leaders, the challenge is to integrate technology into roles and processes in ways that support employees while helping organisations make better use of available talent.
Talent Acquisition Still Has a Reactive Role
Despite its involvement in workforce redesign, Talent Acquisition is not yet consistently positioned as a strategic partner.
The research found that 81% of respondents said Talent Acquisition was involved in workforce redesign to some extent. However, 41% said TA primarily fills roles after workforce needs have already been defined, while only 32% described it as a strategic partner in the redesign process.
This suggests an opportunity for TA teams to contribute earlier to workforce planning by assessing talent availability, identifying transferable skills and helping organisations reconsider job requirements.
The research also found that 74% of respondents said their organisations had modified job requirements to some extent during the previous year to expand talent pools.
Broadening requirements can help employers consider candidates with transferable skills or alternative qualifications, rather than relying only on traditional experience and credential requirements.
Workforce Planning Moves Beyond Hiring
The findings point to a gradual shift in how healthcare organisations approach persistent workforce challenges. Recruitment and retention remain important, but they may not be sufficient on their own to address burnout, rising costs and changing patient-care demands.
For HR and workforce planning leaders, the focus is increasingly on how available talent is deployed, how responsibilities are distributed and where technology can support existing teams.
Talent Acquisition also has an opportunity to move beyond filling predefined vacancies and contribute more directly to decisions about workforce structure, skills requirements and future talent needs.
The research: Download HRO Today's Healthcare Workforce Redesign report. The study was sponsored by Korn Ferry.
