For any service provider organization, your workforce is your most important strategic asset. And managing that asset is a critical competency and a challenge. For health and human service organizations, the situation is compounded by the shortage of clinical professionals and home care workers. The shortage of clinical professionals is well documented-for example, 44% of…

The reality is, staff leave an organization for a lot of different reasons—not all of which are directly related to their work at your organization. But some reasons—like poor leadership, bad supervisors, toxic workplace culture, inadequate pay, and high stress—are clearly issues that can be addressed in a concerted effort to improve team member retention.…

Psychiatrists play an important role in the mental health care treatment continuum, primarily providing biological and somatic approaches to treatment such as prescribing antipsychotics or proving electroconvulsive therapy. Whether an area has enough psychiatrists is central to health system planning and providing consumers with adequate access to services.
In 2014, there were 46,104 psychiatrists…

Health care is now the largest employment sector in the United States (see Health Care Just Became the U.S.’s Largest Employer). There are over 13 million Americans employed in the health care industry (see Total Health Care Employment). But “health care employment” as defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Standard Occupational Classification System covers…

Employee recruitment is one the most challenging issues facing behavioral health and social service organizations today. Consider the challenges: many workers are part of a low-wage workforce and are already hard to recruit (see Reducing Paraprofessional Employee Turnover); the demand for professionals to fill this positions are likely to rise in the coming years (see The High…

Unfortunately, health and human service provider organizations can “do everything right”, but your staff can still “burn out.” Burnout is the result of long-term and poorly-managed stress, which results in physical and mental exhaustion, detachment, and feelings of ineffectiveness. Symptoms of burn out may include chronic fatigue, forgetfulness and impaired concentration, increased physical illness, isolation,…

What do the following two trends have in common?
First, there are projected shortages for every type of labor in the health and human service field—there are too few psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, direct support professionals, and home care workers (see Staff Vacancies Just Got A Little More Important & Complicated, Workforce Shortages As A…