According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy beat expectations in April and added 268,000 jobs in the private sector, 37,000 of them in health care. February and March employment numbers were revised positively as well. The economy has added 2.1 million private sector jobs since February, 2010, and over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased 1.9%.
It is important, however, to keep these positive employment statistics in perspective. Consistent with Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke’s forecast, the labor market is only “gradually improving.” Continued progress for some time to come is needed, as the continuing high overall unemployment rate (9% in April) suggests.
Even with these numbers in perspective, it does appear that businesses have more confidence in the positive momentum of the economy. Employment is a good indicator of this, and recent unprecedented activity at Local Eye Site supports the notion of improved business confidence and an improving labor market.
What does this mean for your practice or organization? We believe that the combination of an improving business environment, and the inevitable affects of increased demand for eye care resulting from the influx of aging baby boomers will result in a significantly changing labor market over the coming months and years. It is well documented that we have a growing need for health care than is outpacing the training of providers at just about every level. As this dynamic becomes more evident, and business confidence improves, competition for this limited supply of health care physicians and support staff will heat up. Have you thought strategically about how your organization will respond to that?
Here are a few questions to ask yourself and your partners about your staffing plan:
1. Do we strategically think and act on staffing at times when we are fully staffed?
2. Is it time to move pro-actively, and replace some “C-players” with “A-players?”
3. Is our practice administrator or office manager charged with, and given time to think pro-actively about staffing?
4. My practice does have an employer brand. Do we know what it is? Do we really care?
5. Are we paying our staff market value?
We are all really busy, so especially if you are fully staffed, it is easy to let staffing slip to the back-burner. However, we also know that staffing is a top concern for most practices. Could it be that a lack of strategic planning is contributing to the pain you feel with regards to short-term staffing needs, and finally, what will be the impact of that to our practice in an increasingly more competitive staffing market?
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