Worsening labor shortages mixed with inflation and rising costs are prompting healthcare facilities to focus on implementing new methods to effectively manage contingent labor. At Favorite Healthcare Staffing, we offer flexible solutions that help you modernize your approach to attracting and retaining candidates with six simple strategies.
1. Right-Size Your Needs and Your Costs
Traditional healthcare staffing agencies typically require a minimum of a 13-week commitment for contract assignments, even if you only need coverage for six weeks. You can save thousands of dollars per week by only hiring healthcare professionals for the number of weeks that you need. This method allows you to keep hourly rates high enough to attract the high-demand talent you need while saving on your overall contingent labor spend.
Favorite’s partnership approach proactively delivers contingent labor cost savings solutions that include per diem, contract, temp-to-perm, perm placement, managed services, float pool management, and more. Reduce the stress of recruiting, credentialing, and vetting possible candidates while providing cost-saving solutions with Favorite’s MSP program.
2. Think Local Instead of Travel
The least expensive contingent labor option will always be local talent. By leveraging the talent in your community, you can decrease traveler costs by implementing a float pool or utilizing agency staff on a per diem basis.
Favorite has branch offices nationwide to help our clients manage a local pool of experienced healthcare professionals to efficiently staff float pool programs and internal agency pools. Whether it's managing hospital float pool resources or addressing fluctuating staffing needs, our expertise has enabled us to develop a precise methodology for recruiting and managing labor efficiently.
3. Align Your Agency Use with Your Talent Acquisition Strategy
You probably have too many full-time job openings and not enough candidates to fill them. Convert agency employees who are already familiar with your permanent staff and your facility into full-time permanent hires to supplement your talent acquisition efforts. This method gives you the ability to gage potential hires before bringing them on full-time.
Favorite not only offers staffing solutions like contract, per diem, and temp-to-perm options, but we’re also one of the only staffing agencies in the healthcare industry that provides direct hire recruitment and recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) services.
4. Focus on Engagement
A well-run MSP program is focused on true engagement with your team, the healthcare providers, and the agency vendors that support them. Make sure you clearly communicate your needs and expectations with your staffing partner and stay engaged with them throughout the hiring process. Collaboration, response time, attention to detail, communication, and transparency are the keys to successful agency partnerships.
Favorite's partnership approach streamlines the recruitment process for employers to support the hiring of both internal staff from their own pool and external workers from different vendor agencies. As an example of the partnership approach, Favorite establishes smaller vendor panels that are not tiered and lead to committed agencies that drive supply and outwork the competition.
5. Utilize Technology to Anticipate Your Needs
Technology that utilizes census tracking provides visibility into your staffing schedule to identify gaps before they happen. Forecasting your staffing needs allows you to leverage your internal staff to fill openings and decrease your agency use. With the right technology, companies can easily find and manage their labor support through this single scheduling tool.
Favorite Healthcare Staffing’s proprietary technology creates visibility into your staffing needs by providing data to help you identify potential staffing problems before they occur. Our VMS technology can flex to individual client needs and enables employers to hire both internal staff from their own pool and external workers from different staffing agencies.
6. Reduce Agency Costs, Don’t Just Manage Them
Contingent labor is one of the largest areas of addressable spending for hospitals and healthcare systems. Long-term solutions like float pool management and permanent hiring allow you to decrease your dependence on agency employees and reduce your overall agency spend.
If your current agency partner isn’t focused on reducing your agency spend or bringing you proactive strategies, Favorite can help. We have a track record of taking commercial risk around reducing traditional agency costs by providing long-term solutions like float pool management and direct hire.
Avoid the stress of dealing with unexpected staffing shortages by following these six strategies for managing contingent labor in your healthcare facility. Part of Acacium Group, a leading global healthcare delivery partner, Favorite Healthcare Staffing can help you solve workforce shortages and rising costs.
Find out how Favorite can support you today!
