In Gettysburg, where the OPEN MINDS office is located, it is great to see that the tourist traffic has picked up again. But there is a big problem. Visitors (and even locals) are hard-pressed to find a place where they can grab a bite. Many of the town’s popular restaurants are only open three days a week because they are…

Across all health care in the United States, the pandemic made the growing workforce crisis worse. A 2018 survey had revealed that almost half (48%) of clinical professionals wanted to change careers. And 80% of those who wanted to leave the profession cited extreme workloads as the top reason, while 78% said they had burnout…

Paying more is the simplest solution to competing for talent but it is a strategy that is fraught with challenge. The big question—can the service line be re-engineered to pay more and maintain a margin without a customer price increase? How to analyze each service line and the ability to increase wage rates is the critical step…

One way to pay more without raising wage rates is to create performance-based compensation models for team members. This allows “gainsharing”—team members make more when their service line (or their individual performance) creates additional margin for the organization. This will encourage focus on key organizational and customer metrics. However, most executives are reluctant to adopt performance-based compensation strategies for…

Jack Welch said, “If we get the right people in the right job, we’ve won the game.” In health care, both regulation and tradition are often an impediment to the “right people.” Where possible, organizations should review the relevant regulations for scope of practice for their licensed team members—and move to delivery system models that focus the majority of their…

Technology can be a strategic tool for addressing workforce issues in several ways. First, technology can improve productivity and throughput of team members by automating everything from client assessments to scheduling to reporting. Second, technology can make some functions obsolete—and eliminate the need for staffing of that function. (In the health and human service field, we have everything from…

For provider organizations looking to attract fresh talent, a robust internship and externship program could offer a distinct competitive advantage by helping to “catch them young” and provide a meaningful experience as college students and recent graduates make career choices. But success with this program will require investment in marketing and referral development, thoughtful and…

The “employer of choice” concept has gotten much emphasis in recent years—an organization that people choose to work for, and stay with, when presented with other employment choices. To make this concept work, organizations need to invest in strong branding and marketing that is geared to target workforce cohorts. But no “employer of choice” strategy is the same—every group of…

Volunteers are often defined as an “unpaid workforce.” There is tremendous untapped potential to build a volunteer corps—engaging consumers and family members, retirees, students, and members of the local community in a range of activities—peer support, marketing, referral development, fundraising, mentoring for clinical professionals, customer service, social service referrals and care coordination support, administrative work, technology support, transportation, and more.…