Emergency medical service (EMS) is traditionally an area of the medical industry that has experienced its share of staffing issues. Like all medical care branches, your clients probably face significant challenges in attracting qualified personnel and retaining experienced staff members.
These obstacles can be especially difficult to overcome, given the pandemic that has pushed medical personnel to the brink. As the demand for qualified professionals continues to rise, your clients may find it increasingly hard to maintain their workforces.
The staffing crisis affecting the EMS industry
In a situation that’s been brewing for years, healthcare is undergoing what’s been described as an acute staffing crisis. This is apparent in many areas of the medical care industry, but it is especially noticeable in the field of ground ambulance services.
One of the prevailing characteristics of the problem is the widespread exit by workers, mainly due to the overwhelming difficulties associated with the prolonged pandemic. PPE fatigue is a common complaint, and most medical professionals suffer from general burnout.
In the EMS industry, facilities are noticing drastically reduced interest in entering the emergency care profession among new medical professionals. Worst still, the pandemic has forced EMT and paramedic schools to shut down or reduce their class sizes significantly. All these issues have resulted in an industry ill-equipped to handle the demand.
Sign-on bonuses: a double-edged sword
For your EMS clients, the obvious solution might be to make jobs more appealing to new professionals. Many companies have done just this, offering new workers increasingly higher sign-on bonuses.
But this solution has unearthed a whole new set of problems of its own. With bonuses reaching five figures, many have questioned the propriety of offering such perks to newcomers while seemingly neglecting current personnel.
Although sign-on bonuses may help encourage a handful of candidates to enter the EMS workforce, it usually isn’t enough incentive to feed the demand. Worse still, such practices often leave current employees feeling neglected, with most unrewarded for their years of loyal service to the company. Ultimately, it is a strategy that fails to address the inability to attract new workers and threatens to leave current employees frustrated.
Why investing in current personnel is a good idea
Given these concerns, what are your EMS clients to do? The answer seems to be to shift focus from recruiting new workers to retaining existing ones. Investing in current employees is a solution that seems more and more feasible given the challenges in attracting new workers, and it is fast gaining ground among EMS firms.
Such a shift involves using funds that would otherwise be earmarked for new employee sign-on bonuses and channeling them into the existing workforce. Your clients could think of it as rewarding their loyal personnel for their years of dedicated service. This move will undoubtedly go a long way in boosting employee morale.
Apart from helping loyal workers feel valued, rechanneling benefits from new candidates to current employees will benefit the organization as a whole as well. By keeping their current workforce happy, EMS employers essentially invest in the firm’s stability. With higher job satisfaction, turnover rates will likely decrease, and the company continues to benefit from having proven qualified and trained personnel in its employ.
The true cost of losing valuable employees
These issues highlight the relative benefits of hiring new workers and retaining existing ones. Although there is something to be said about having a fresh new workforce composed of eager young professionals, there is considerably more value in retaining workers that your clients already know to be knowledgeable and capable at their jobs.
Your clients must realize that losing such an employee is a lot more costly than they might think. Employees generally leave the firm two weeks after giving notice, but it will take most employers three months to get a replacement up and running if they’re lucky.
There are also the costs of recruiting, onboarding, and precepting, including advertising and actual recruitment. And don’t forget the sign-on bonus, which can range from $10,000 to $30,000 per new worker.
Given these factors, shifting efforts and resources from new candidates to current workers seems like a more feasible course of action. And with the staffing crisis likely to continue over the next several months, it is one that your clients may have to take.
About Provident Insurance Programs
With roots dating back to 1902, Provident Insurance Programs is a program administrator that serves paid and volunteer firefighters in addition to emergency medical responders with numerous custom-tailored insurance programs. We’ve also extended our expertise and experience to offer benefit plans and coverages to participant groups as well as Transportation Benefits. We are committed to continuing to provide superior customer service, and would be happy to speak with you to provide further information. Give us a call today at (855) 201-8880 to speak with one of our representatives.