Managing your workforce has always been important for hospitals, nursing homes, and home health. Payroll and HR software helps you improve efficiency and streamline some of the most cumbersome HR management tasks.

Over the next decade, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that healthcare employment is projected to grow “much faster than the average” for jobs in other industries. Employers in the healthcare industry have their work cut out for them as demand increases and senior healthcare professionals age out of the workforce.

Treatment protocols change over time, but administrators have their own challenges in keeping up with constant changes in the industry. Here are a few of the biggest challenges managing a business in healthcare.

Current Challenges for Healthcare & Home Health Payroll & HR

Turnover

Since the pandemic and the “Great Resignation,” turnover has gone up and down, currently at 22.7% in healthcare. According to a report by NSI Nursing Solutions, that number was 17.8% in 2019, right before the pandemic.

Turnover is expensive because of the many recruiting and administrative costs. NSI calculated, “The average cost of turnover for a staff RN is $52,350 with the range averaging $40,200 to $64,500.”

Turnover isn’t just expensive; it erodes your company culture. Nobody likes to work alongside a revolving door of staff, even in relatively minor support roles, since it’s so much harder to perform consistently as a team. A short staffed business has a much harder time satisfying customers. The workers who remain are overworked to the point of burnout. Excessive turnover can become a never-ending loop, with the poor conditions causing more workers to quit. 

Compliance

As if federal regulations weren’t complicated enough, you need to follow any state regulations that address everything from hourly wages to healthcare procedures. Staff have access to sensitive data, and they need to take care of the reporting obligations covered by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). As an employer, you’ll need to manage background checks, verify licensing documents, and periodically check that certifications have been renewed.

Employee wellness

Don’t settle for the bare minimum when it comes to employee benefits. Emerging and popular perks and benefits include a variety of employee wellness programs. Gym memberships and nutritionists help your staff take care of their own fitness. Smoking is alarmingly common in healthcare, despite the long term effects. LPNs and respiratory therapists are more likely to smoke and therefore more likely to benefit from smoke cessation programs. 

Burnout

Staffing ratios and long hours have left a lot of healthcare workers frustrated and exhausted. NEJM Catalyst found that 96% of healthcare leaders saw physician burnout as a moderate or serious problem. Nearly two-thirds of workers said that at least one in four of the physicians they knew were burned out.

Overworked staff contribute to turnover and preventable errors. Doctors with signs of burnout are twice as likely to make medical errors. Although less than 10% of medical errors are reported, they might be the third leading cause of death in the United States.

Communication

Miscommunication and short staffing can have fatal consequences in a healthcare environment. Clear communication keeps everyone on the same page about treatment and scheduling. Improving efficiency in a hospital or home health network can improve patient outcomes.

When patient information is involved, communication channels need to be private and secure. Emergency messages need to be fast and reliable, whether you’re activating on-call staff or alerting on-site workers about an incident.

Learning & development

Continuing education credits help nurses and home health staff renew their certifications. Everyone needs refreshers on best practices and evolving protocols. Introducing new equipment and explaining your unique policies, you may need to offer specialized training courses.

Most healthcare professionals want to continue improving their own abilities, and many aspire to reach higher levels of certification. While keeping treatment within each worker’s legal scope of practice, your business can still encourage professional development and learning.

Scheduling

Considering how many restaurants allow shift swapping and virtual leave requests, it’s a shame for hospitals and healthcare providers to fall behind on scheduling software. Naturally, healthcare scheduling has additional complexity, where you need the right combination of nursing staff and certifications on duty. HR software for home healthcare businesses can quickly calculate Hours Per Patient Day and automatically flag scheduling errors.

How HR technology helps:

New medical equipment and pharmaceuticals continue to change familiar treatment recommendations, but it’s easy to forget the importance of HR technology. The latest software can help you take better care of your healthcare business’s most important asset: your people.

Payroll

Utilize healthcare and home health payroll services to ensure accuracy and timeliness to your employees. Bounced checks and delayed payments can drive away your best talent. Home health payroll software allows you to track hours, automate deductions, and send accurate payments on time. On-demand and daily pay options attract more entry-level workers.

Scheduling

Look for HR scheduling software with essential features like mobile-friendliness and shift swapping. Managers should be able to sort workers by roles and credentials, making sure that shifts are fully covered. Set alerts for scheduling conflicts and excessive overtime.

Recruiting & hiring

Use software insights to tap into new recruiting pools. Automated emails will guide candidates through the application process and paperwork submission, quickly scheduling interviews. With more efficient vetting, you can make timely job offers to the most qualified applicants. 

Onboarding

HR software keeps you organized and on schedule, avoiding common onboarding mistakes. Use remote onboarding so that your new hire’s first day isn’t wasted on paperwork. You can even provide online access to training and orientation videos.

Staffing Regulations

It’s hard for home healthcare businesses and hospitals to stay compliant with all applicable regulations. HR software automatically tracks hours and coverage, so you don’t have to trust handwritten logs or clocks vulnerable to buddy punching.

Training & continued education

A Learning Management System (LMS) allows you to offer all kinds of custom training courses. Help new hires learn your company policies and protocols. Track each worker’s completion of refresher training and other material.

Performance Management

System-wide metrics like patient outcomes don’t always reflect the contributions of each worker. Automatically track and compare key performance indicators like patient feedback. Track and compare manager effectiveness as well as each staff member’s performance.

Overall HR Management

People make a big difference in every healthcare business, and HR software helps you manage and support your staff. Use self-service portals to make benefits more accessible. Invest in HR software as one way to show you’re invested in the well-being of workers.

Employee experience

Healthcare staff want to be treated like adults. Give them access to check PTO accrual and verify their own paystub calculations. Employees want to be able to communicate about scheduling, benefits, and other programs that matter to them.

Compliance

Verify compliance with checklists and reminders. Automatically confirm the receipt of required paperwork like COBRA policies. Manage compliance across multiple locations for satellite offices, and protect the security of data transfers.

Mobile accessibility

HR software with a mobile app is accessible 24/7, whether workers are at home or running errands on the weekend. Quick questions and contact updates can be managed in minutes, even during a bathroom break. Mobile-friendliness has become indispensable for employers today.

Data & reporting

You’ve heard a lot about the potential for AI, but many healthcare providers still haven’t taken advantage of big data. With HR software, you can automatically collect and analyze data for decision-making insights. Track the most important HR metrics to reduce turnover and boost job satisfaction.

Discover how Netchex HR technology can ensure your home health payroll and HR services are easy and straight-forward: