Intermountain now has 3,619 open positions across the organization. That’s more than 1,500 more open positions than this time in 2018 and 2019—which is putting an added strain on our remaining caregivers. Here’s a look at why this is happening, how Intermountain is addressing the problem, and how you can help.
There are several things contributing to staffing shortages Intermountain and many other local and national organizations are facing. Some factors include:
- Nationally, we join thousands of other employers facing staffing challenges with an increasing number of open positions. Baby Boomers are beginning to retire, and for the first time in U.S. history, the working-age population is shrinking.
- The Utah unemployment rate in May was just 2.7%, nearly half the rate in 2019. That’s one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. With so few people looking for jobs, it’s taking longer to fill certain positions.
- We’re competing with other local healthcare systems for caregivers, as they face similar staffing and hiring challenges—especially with entry-level positions and experienced nurses.
Some leaders are now filling roles they postponed hiring during COVID-19. - Redeployed caregivers are no longer available to help because they’ve returned to their home units and departments.
- We have several hard-to-fill roles, including important patient-facing roles like medical assistants and patient care techs.
- Patient volumes have increased in some areas, like Homecare.
“We recognize there are staffing problems throughout the organization and we’re partnering closely with leaders to fill vacant roles and help teams,” says Tiffiny Lipscomb, vice president of Human Resources.
A few things Intermountain is doing, in the short-term, to fill vacant positions:
- We’ve held three virtual career fairs this month focused on frontline entry-level positions like medical assistants and patient care techs, with more fairs planned. We’ll have a recruitment booth at the Days of ’47 rodeo now through Saturday, and an in-person care tech hiring fair will be Tuesday, July 27.
- We’ve actively called more than 350 temporary caregivers in the last two weeks to ask them to apply for permanent positions. So far, we’ve hired 84 of the temporary caregivers to permanent positions, 47 of the roles in nursing. If you’re a temporary caregiver who would like to work for Intermountain permanently, please email IntermountainTalentSourcing@imail.org for support.
- We’ve called in extra recruiters to help support the hiring workload.
- We’re looking into new processes to speed up the hiring process.
- We’ve increased marketing and advertising efforts to potential job candidates.
- There was a market adjustment pay increase for nursing roles, including RN’s and patient care techs, to retain staff and better attract new hires. This has already had a positive impact on our ability to recruit nurses. Intermountain’s compensation team continues to look at all jobs within Intermountain to ensure compensation aligns with the current market.
- We’re implementing a new float/resource pool model for nursing to retain and attract more float/resource pool nurses and to increase their skills and ability to float across more specialties.
- We’ve hired more than 50 contingent/temporary clinical people on a short-term basis to help us get through this high census period while we recruit more full-time, regular caregivers.
- We’re offering sign-on bonuses and referral bonuses for some roles.
- We’re working closely with students on Intermountain rotations to share job information with them. Leaders are encouraged to escalate hiring concerns to student coordinators so we can get more students in areas of need.
“We continue to identify new solutions to help alleviate the situation,” Tiffiny says. “Clearly there’s still much more work to do both to recruit new caregivers and to retain our current caregivers, for both short-term and long-term. We appreciate your hard work and extra efforts to support our teams and patients. Thank you for your patience as we work through this challenge together.”
Mark Briesacher, MD, senior vice president and chief physician executive, adds, “Staffing to address the needs of our hospital and clinic teams is a high priority for the organization. We appreciate the partnership with Human Resources and with each of you to resolve this problem and we continue to look for solutions. Thank you for your continued commitment to our patients, communities, and each other to provide the best service.”
How can you help? You play a critical role in helping us find top talented professionals to join our Intermountain team. You’re invited to share open positions with people you know who are looking for work and may want to join Intermountain. Social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) are great places to share job openings. Many positions from both Intermountain and SelectHealth are eligible for referral bonuses of up to $800.