Barry Asin, president of Staffing Industry Analysts, spoke about the roller-coaster ride in healthcare staffing during his keynote speech on Nov. 2 at the Healthcare Staffing Summit in Las Vegas. Asin shared key data points and statistics regarding where the industry has been, where it is today and strategies for the future. In this article, we share a few selected highlights from the keynote presentation.
The roller-coaster ride in healthcare staffing
The healthcare staffing industry was growing steadily pre-pandemic primarily due to an increased demand for medical services and a nursing shortage. SIA estimates the healthcare staffing sector grew more than three times its pre-pandemic size from $18.9 billion in 2019 to $68.7 billion in 2022, according to SIAs US Staffing Industry Forecast September 2023 report.
Digital innovations such as the rise of staffing platforms resulted in increased capacity for staffing firms to function as two-sided digital marketplaces — they allowed for greater automation, self-service and quicker time-to-fill with minimal human interaction. With significant digitization creating transparency for both talent and hiring managers, demands for better working conditions and increased pay rates for clinical workers resulted in what Asin called “talent in the driver’s seat.” That new power not only led to increased pay rates and flexible work offerings, but attention at the C-suite executive level at healthcare systems and hospitals.
The healthcare staffing market is currently in a new stage of development, battling a chronic talent shortage, a workforce under a significant degree of stress and increased utilization of temporary workers. The current situation is not just about a shortage of workers and new graduates, but of burnout and poor working conditions. Approximately 100,000 nurses left the workforce during the pandemic. By 2027, almost one-fifth of the 4.5 million total registered nurses intend to leave the workforce, threatening the national healthcare system at large, according to the National Council of State Boards of Nursing.
The growth in healthcare staffing stemmed from healthcare staffing firms filling clinical vacancies at high volume over the past several years, primarily in travel nurse staffing. According to SIA, in 2017, there were two firms that generated more than $1 billion in healthcare staffing revenue. In 2022, there were 16 firms that generated more than $1 billion dollars in healthcare staffing revenue according to SIA’s Largest Healthcare Staffing Firms in the US report. In addition, many smaller sized staffing firms were included in SIA’s Fastest-Growing US Staffing Firms list, with eight of the 10 fastest growing staffing firms in 2022 being nurse staffing firms.
Strategies to meet future demand
As a staffing firm that is considering strategic options, it is important to find the intersection of understanding the market, your firms’ strengths and where there are opportunities to make money. These strategies are broken down into three buckets: lead, follow or get out of the way. Some firms may choose the leadership route, making acquisitions and investing heavily in technology. Other firms may choose to follow and develop partnerships that suit current market conditions. The third option is to find a niche and be the best at a particular business. Learning how to sell is a component of this, but at the end of the day being able to retain and attract talent is a recipe for success, particularly in a period of an ongoing worker shortage.
As the US healthcare system and healthcare workforce settles into a new equilibrium, healthcare staffing executives will be wise to revisit their overall strategies. These topics above and many other strategic factors will be explored further at next year’s Healthcare Staffing Summit, which will be held at Loews Arlington Hotel, in Arlington, Texas, from Nov. 6 to Nov. 8, 2024. Corporate members can register for the event now.
