Amazon and Burger King are beating out the home healthcare industry when it comes to recruiting workers, an executive from a healthcare solutions talent management firm told McKnight’s Home Care Daily.
David Wilkins, chief strategy officer for Healthcaresource, said home healthcare providers and skilled nursing facilities must offer certified nursing assistants more than $12 an hour if they want to compete with other industries for talent.
But, Wilkins added, pay alone isn’t the solution. Providers must also offer career paths to becoming registered nurses or licensed practical nurses.
“We have to do more to clinically on-ramp these people from adjacent roles like hospitality and begin developing a pipeline of how we ingest these folks. CNA has to be a pathway to something else because then we will be able to more effectively attract people of higher levels of aspiration,” Wilkins said.
Last week, healthcare assistants virtually marched on Washington, demanding better wages, career development opportunities and recognition. The event’s sponsor, the National Association of Home Care Assistants (NAHCA), said the pandemic has shined a light on the vital role CNAs play.
Loss of workers
Wilkins said COVID-19 forced many CNAs out of the workforce last year, and some haven’t returned because of continued risk from the pandemic and low wages. As a result, he said many of his clients are struggling to find CNAs. The most recent employment report from the U.S. Department of Labor found healthcare and social assistance led all other industries with more than 230,000 job openings in February.
“Before the pandemic, (clients) were getting 20 applications for a role, now they’re getting seven to nine applications,” Wilkins said.
Training examples
Wilkins advocated a public-private approach to providing training, similar to the partnership LHC Group recently announced with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s College of Nursing. Wilkins urged other providers to get creative and instead of competing for workers, collaborating on ways to train more of them.
“The current state is robbing Peter to pay Paul. I take yours and then a few weeks later, you take someone from me. But no one is growing the (candidate) pool,” Wilkins said.
