JWT Employment Communications, one of the world’s leading recruitment marketing and internal communications agencies, partnering with the National Association for Health Care Recruitment (NAHCR), has released the Metrics Online™ 2006 Year-End Report. Metrics Online™ is a national database, developed by JWT Employment Communications and hosted on NAHCR.com, which aggregates the data submitted by human resources professionals to provide national benchmarks for vacancy, turnover, cost-per-hire, days-to-fill and days-to-start. These benchmarks show national trends for the health care workforce and are used as guidelines to determine staffing, budgetary, and workforce retention plans at health care facilities. The Metrics Online™ 2006 Year-End Report includes data from over 850 surveys taken nationwide, and represents the first full year of data studied.
The graying of Baby Boomers, coupled with new employment opportunities for past hospital workers, pose serious problems for most health care organizations,
With the exception of a few peaks in the overall data collected, shortages of health care professionals continue in several critical areas. "The graying of Baby Boomers, coupled with new employment opportunities for past hospital workers, pose serious problems for most health care organizations," according to Shyrl Johnston, Senior Partner, JWT Employment Communications, who directed the Metrics Online™ research. "The average age of RNs continues to rise and younger workers are looking for opportunities that offer more flexibility than traditional bed side patient care. The nursing shortage is not new news. However, shortages extend beyond nurses into several other categories of health care professionals."
Key findings of the NAHCR/JWT Employment Communications Metrics Online™ 2006 Year-End Report, compared to 2005 data, include:
- Overall vacancy rate for nurses dropped. However, the vacancy rate for LTC, ER, Critical Care and CRNA remain high.
- Cost-per-hire for nursing positions rose.
- Turnover rate among nurses is highest for nurse practitioners and critical care positions.
- Overall vacancy rates for rehabilitation professionals were the highest of the job categories. The FTE vacancy rate for Occupational Therapists was low but improved considerably.
- Cost-per-hire for rehabilitation positions dropped, but days-to-fill averaged 90 days for rehabilitation positions.
- Allied health position vacancy rates rose and LPN turnover rates top the Allied Health category.
Cathy Allman, NAHCR Executive Director, said, "Although the vacancy rate for nursing has decreased slightly, there are still significant vacancy rates in some specialty nursing areas. In addition, the vacancy rates for Rehab and Allied Health emphasize the need for health care employers to provide recognition and rewards, creating an atmosphere that allows best practices and positive work environments. As health care profession shortages continue to be a challenge, retention is key and recruitment of the best and brightest must continue."
For more information on the Metrics Online 2006 Year-End Report, contact Amy Allman-Semesco at (407)481-2893.
Source: National Association for Health Care Recruitment
