The past two years have brought a perfect storm of challenges for healthcare providers. COVID-19 has had a profound impact on healthcare overall—resulting in one of the all-time worst financial crises for providers. And the talent supply and demand gap has only widened as a result of compounding factors like the Great Resignation, the remote work shift, and workforce competition with employers crossing state lines to resource affordable talent. As a result, today’s healthcare providers are seeking transformation at the core of the challenge: attracting and retaining customer contact center provider services and revenue cycle talent.

Kaufman Hall surveyed hospital and health system leaders and learned that 75% of these leaders said their organization has experienced adverse revenue cycle impacts during the pandemic. And 92% of leaders said their organization is challenged with attracting and retaining support staff.

With high staff turnover due to vaccine mandates, employee burnout, and other new normal challenges, there is a pressing need for not just qualified resources—but the required supporting operational excellence and innovation needed to successfully execute on within new operating models. Today’s smart healthcare business process management (BPM) partners are among the best equipped to assist healthcare providers in accomplishing how to effectively address talent new challenges—with well-refined workforce management agility strategies to recruit, hire, and train the right talent across multiple geographies.

Today’s leading BPMs bring the healthcare operational best practices and astute skills to enable healthcare providers to compete more effectively under the current and evolving market conditions. Here we highlight three critical areas where the right BPM partner can help healthcare providers win the competition for talent:

1. Optimized virtual recruitment with tech-enabled, right-fit profiling:

With delivery centers strategically placed to align with unique provider staffing and labor cost requirements, and proven work-at-home programs, BPMs also have developed refined processes to recruit in the post-pandemic reality.

Well-experienced healthcare BPMs bring the flexibility to adjust to the changing needs of clients to right-size staff to meet volume fluctuations. These BPMs can often offer multiple delivery location options onshore, nearshore, or offshore, as well as blended shore options to optimize staff availability and specific process expertise.

To align with current remote-working solutions, some BPMs have developed the requisite artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools to perform role-based assessments to assist with finding the most qualified resources, while as well leveraging live video technologies to conduct interviews for successful hiring. These partners can incorporate virtual onboarding used with an integrated system and structured hiring process, regardless of geography.

Sagility case example:

Achieving a highly qualified hire is a top-of-mind item for every organization. Adding in remote hiring, video interviews, and remote assessments only creates greater risk of bad hires. In our experience of running captive healthcare payer operations, personnel is always a priority. The BPM industry has always provided a solution to staffing challenges, and Sagility is no exception.

At Sagility, all aspects of the employee lifecycle are conducted virtually and handheld by our cultural ambassadors for immediate connection to the organization. Our hiring strategy is supported by industry experts who create profile-matching, strong geography-hiring strategy, and realistic job previews. We have adapted to create a complete technological application that is built around AI learning, self-service, and real-time recruiter attention. This is all front-ended by our house-built bot application, which yields prepared, on-time hires.

2. Strong work-at-home solutions with improved quality and reduced attrition:

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare industry was required to quickly implement work-at-home solutions. There was a new appreciation for the value of offsite employees, with BPM partners already accustomed to secure work-at-home implementations.

Due to the lack of experience and limited understanding of these new approaches, some healthcare providers have been turning to the right BPM with a well-refined work-at-home program, including compliant technologies, standard operating procedures, remote processes, infrastructure, and training programs ready to deploy.

Ensuring strong program quality and resource retention means providing these remote employees the right tools for the job, while also providing the training and management structure needed to ensure successful job performance. BPMs have the expertise to quickly configure tools for secure access to necessary client systems while adhering to all compliance requirements. With the right technology, tools, training, and processes, the quality control and service-level adherence is achieved as a result of well-prepared employees.

Sagility case example:

Sagility has adapted to COVID-19 market changes to ensure work-at-home solutions are efficient and comfortable with speech analytics, an employee engagement reward system, and a complete remote performance dashboard and coaching platform. These integrations increase retention, maintain compliance, and ensure an always-ready workforce. Additionally, this strategy creates ease in the member experience. More importantly, we have increased our ability to right-fit candidates to our diverse profile of client needs. Year over year, our CSAT, NPS, and VOE results increase despite the current work conditions. Providing these types of tools for support and advocate use creates a more effective candidate and a better quality of care. Ultimately, Sagility strategies have often become enterprise-adopted practices, as the quality of service is unmatched.

3. Better satisfaction scores for clients, customers, and employees:

Winning the talent competition means harnessing the power of engaged, inspired employees. Engaged and inspired employees translate to better results.

Sagility prioritizes maintaining employee engagement and mental wellness in a virtual environment. Today’s BPMs encourage employee engagement activities, like gamification, during training sessions. Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) and HR helplines are always at the ready to provide needed support.

Sagility case example:

COVID-19 has been a straining exercise on our community, family, and individual well-being. Additional stress includes an aggressive opening in remote opportunities, which has made interpersonal connectively a foreign concept. Sagility knows people are everything; we have a people-first mentality and create a structure that supports overall well-being.

Our mission is a motivated and dedicated employee who understands their individual contribution is larger than it seems. Internal campaigns around access to care, first contact resolution, and best outcome treatment keeps the staff grounded and focused. Our leadership focus is access to EAP, HR helplines, paid leave, future preparedness, and crisis help services. When people come first, the results for our clients are high CSAT, NPS, and Star ratings. This results in growth and success for all included.

Undoubtedly, the past two-plus years have tested even the strongest healthcare organizations. Hiring and retaining the best talent has never been more crucial to the financial health of healthcare providers. The right BPM can deliver strong and consistent results to achieve success with the winning talent required