The healthcare industry is grappling with significant challenges that demand immediate attention.
The National Health Service (NHS), employing approximately 1.5 million full-time equivalent staff, is facing a staggering 121,070 vacancies as of September 2023. This includes around 42,300 nursing vacancies—representing 10% of the nursing workforce—and 8,850 doctor vacancies, which account for 6% of the medical workforce.
With projections indicating that by 2036, the NHS will require between 2.2 and 2.4 million staff to meet increasing service demands, the urgency for effective solutions becomes clear.
As healthcare providers face increasing pressures to improve service quality, reduce costs, and comply with regulations, adopting advanced human resource (HR) technology becomes essential.
This technology streamlines HR processes, enhances workforce management, and allows healthcare organisations to focus more on delivering excellent patient outcomes.
In this article, you will learn:
- The purpose of HR integration in the healthcare sector
- Various types of HR technology available for integration
- The benefits of integrated HR technology
- Challenges involved in integrating HR technology and how these challenges can be mitigated
Understanding HR integrations
The success of any healthcare organisation is tied to its people. The amount of money and resources you invest in hiring, training, retaining, and engaging your employees will reflect on the quality of services delivered to patients, the efficiency of operations, and overall organisational performance.
However, this process is not always seamless, as healthcare HR teams have to rely on outdated practices and complex technology to meet the evolving needs of a dynamic and modern workforce.
HR integration addresses these challenges by consolidating various HR functions—such as recruitment, onboarding, payroll, training, and employee management—into a single, streamlined system. This enables healthcare organisations to automate processes, reduce manual errors, and ensure better communication across departments, ultimately allowing HR teams to focus more on strategic initiatives rather than administrative tasks.
By integrating modern HR technology, healthcare organisations can enhance employee satisfaction, improve patient care, reduce operational costs, and drive overall efficiency.
Types of HR Tools
Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)
Recruitment is vital in the healthcare sector as it directly affects patient safety and care quality. To streamline this process, employers make use of applicant tracking systems to ensure they hire qualified and skilled professionals, therefore reducing the risk of medical errors and enhancing good patient outcomes.
For example, an ATS can automatically filter candidates with the necessary certifications, such as Registered Nurses (RNs) or board-certified physicians, ensuring only qualified applicants progress through the hiring stages.
It can also flag any gaps in employment history or missing credentials, allowing healthcare organisations to make more informed hiring decisions, ultimately leading to better patient care and safety.
ATS vary in terms of features—some focus on basic functions like resume parsing and candidate management, while others offer advanced tools such as AI-driven candidate matching, analytics, interview scheduling, and integration with other HR systems. This variety allows organisations to choose an ATS that aligns with their recruitment goals, budget, and technical requirements.
Background Check Systems
A background check system is software that helps organisations verify the personal, professional, and criminal history of potential hires. The data used is collected from various sources, such as criminal records, employment histories, and social media profiles. This system ensures that healthcare companies can confirm the qualifications and trustworthiness of potential hires, comply with legal requirements, and mitigate risks associated with hiring. It streamlines the background check process, making it more efficient and reliable.
There are various forms of background checks and each employer gets to decide the type suitable for the role to be filled and industry. For example, in the healthcare space, aside from criminal background checks, employers may choose to conduct additional screenings such as verification of professional licences, educational history, identity check, drug testing and checks for any sanctions or disciplinary actions from regulatory bodies. Health care organisations often place particular emphasis on ensuring candidates have a clean record in all relevant areas due to the sensitive nature of patient care and data handling.
Lastly, it is important for healthcare organisations in the UK to ensure their background check processes are CQC-compliant. CQC refers to the Care Quality Commission which is a regulatory body that oversees health and social care services in the UK. They are responsible for ensuring that these services are safe, effective, compassionate and high-quality. Failure to adhere to the CQC standards could lead to warning notice, cancellation of registration and suspension of services in which the healthcare organisation cannot continue to provide care.
Onboarding Software
Healthcare institutions face a plethora of challenges when it comes to integrating new staff members. They have to ensure that new hires meet strict regulatory and credentialing requirements, such as verifying licences and certifications to comply with healthcare laws like the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). Setting up onboarding software helps to address these issues by facilitating a smooth transition for your hires. Reports also show that employees who start well are more likely to stay in a company. This in turn helps to reduce turnover and lower hiring and training costs.
Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS)
Healthcare institutions can benefit from Human Resources Information Systems in many ways. For instance, this software application helps in automating tasks like payroll, benefits enrollment, and time tracking, which frees up HR leaders time to focus on more important work. It also centralises employee data, making it easy to access important information and improve decision-making.
Additionally, HRIS helps healthcare organisations comply with regulations by tracking necessary certifications and training, and it can generate reports for audits. The system reduces manual errors, ensuring that employee information is accurate and up-to-date.
Performance Management Systems
Performance management systems are modern HR tools designed to monitor, evaluate, and improve employee performance over time. It streamlines the process of setting goals, tracking progress, providing feedback, and conducting performance reviews. The system facilitates continuous communication between managers and employees, ensuring alignment with organisational objectives.
To ensure the best possible patient care, healthcare workers must be regularly assessed and evaluated.
By leveraging a performance management system, healthcare organisations can ensure that their workforce remains competent, compliant with regulations, and consistently delivers high-quality patient care. These systems help identify skill gaps, facilitate targeted training, and provide data-driven insights for workforce planning.
Learning and Development (L&D) Platforms
Training and professional development are crucial for healthcare workers because they ensure that staff members stay up-to-date with the latest medical advancements, technologies, and regulatory requirements. This continuous learning helps maintain high standards of patient care, improve clinical outcomes, and reduce errors. It also enhances the skill sets of healthcare workers, enabling them to adapt to evolving healthcare practices, meet compliance standards, and address emerging health challenges.
Payroll Systems
A payroll system automates the process of managing employee salaries, taxes, and deductions. It takes factors such as hours worked, overtime, bonuses, tax rates, and benefits contributions into consideration, ensuring accurate and timely payments while maintaining compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.
Time and Attendance Systems
Companies experience losses in both profits and productivity due to time theft. For example, approximately 43% of hourly employees admit to time theft, showing how this issue is widespread across various industries, including health care.
Time and attendance systems automate the process of tracking employee hours and help mitigate this issue by accurately recording time worked.
Healthcare institutions, in particular, can gain valuable insights into how employees spend their time, enabling better workforce management and improved operational efficiency. This system works by recording clock-ins and clock-outs, monitoring attendance, and ensuring that employees are working the hours they are scheduled.
Employee Self-Service Portals
An employee self-service portal, also known as an ESS portal, refers to a web-based platform that enables employees to manage HR-related tasks independently. When an employee logs on to the portal, they can access and update personal information, view payslips, submit time-off requests, review benefits, track attendance, and manage tax documents. This self-service functionality therefore reduces the administrative burden on HR departments and empowers employees to handle routine tasks quickly and efficiently.
Compliance Management Tools
Healthcare regulations are established by authorities to ensure patient safety and protect data security. These laws also help reduce preventable errors and financial losses. For example, a UK study found that 3.6% of hospital deaths are due to preventable medical errors, highlighting the critical importance of strict compliance measures. HR technology, particularly compliance management tools, play a crucial role in the healthcare sector by streamlining regulatory adherence, minimising legal and financial risks, and maintaining reputation integrity.
Case study: example of HR integration in healthcare
To better understand how HR tools work together in healthcare, let's look at an example of how these systems are integrated to streamline the entire employee journey.
When a healthcare organisation begins the hiring process, an applicant tracking system (ATS) is used to manage candidates from the job application stage. The ATS streamlines this recruiting process by automating job postings, collecting resumes, and screening applications based on predefined criteria, allowing healthcare HR teams to quickly identify the right candidate.
Once a preferred candidate is selected, the ATS automatically begins the next phase: background checks. The background check software integrates seamlessly with the ATS allowing candidate information to be retrieved and used for screening.
If the background checks are clear and an offer is made, the candidate's information flows into the HRIS. This happens automatically with no need for data re-entry. The HRIS stores personal details, handles payroll setup and manages benefits enrollment.
As the employee adjusts into their role, the performance management system monitors their progress.
If any skill gaps are discovered, the organisation uses a learning and development platform integrated with the HRIS to equip the employee with the necessary training to perform their job functions. They can receive personalised training programs based on their role or areas needing development identified during performance evaluation.
The benefits of integrating HR tech in healthcare
Enhanced efficiency and productivity
Integrated HR systems reduce administrative burdens by automating tasks such as scheduling, payroll, and benefits management. This frees up healthcare HR professionals to focus on more strategic initiatives that directly affect the organisation’s bottom line. For example, instead of spending time on manual data entry or processing payroll, HR teams can concentrate on employee engagement strategies, workforce planning, and developing training programs that enhance staff performance and patient care. Integrating HR tech in healthcare organisations, such as the background check software also enhances workflow and output among HR leaders. By automating the verification process and maintaining accurate records, it allows HR teams to focus on strategic tasks rather than manual data management. This ensures that organisations remain compliant with regulations while streamlining the hiring process.
Improved data management and security
Improved data management and security are essential in the healthcare sector, as these organisations face data security threats and vulnerabilities that can compromise sensitive patient information. Implementing robust HRIS solutions helps healthcare institutions protect against breaches by employing encryption, access controls, and regular audits. These systems ensure that only authorised personnel can access sensitive data, thereby enhancing compliance with regulations such as the CQC.
Better employee experience
Integrating HR technology in the healthcare sector helps to simplify and automate processes such as payroll processing, benefits enrollment, and performance assessments. This positively impacts the employee experience by reducing administrative burdens, improving access to information, and streamlining communication. Employees can easily manage tasks like accessing their pay stubs, enrolling in benefits, and receiving performance feedback, which enhances job satisfaction, increases engagement, and fosters a more efficient and supportive work environment.
Strategic decision making
Decision-making is the process of choosing the best actions to achieve long-term goals for an organisation. It involves looking at data, weighing risks and opportunities, and considering different factors that could affect results. In healthcare, making good decisions is important because it impacts patient care, how well the organisation runs, and its financial health. By using information from performance management systems and HRIS, healthcare leaders can make informed choices that support their goals, make the best use of resources, and improve overall performance.
Challenges with integrating HR technology in healthcare
Integration Complexity
When it comes to integrating HR technology in healthcare, the challenge lies in merging new systems with existing platforms such as Electronic Health Records (EHR), payroll, and scheduling tools. These systems are often highly specialised and complex, making seamless integration difficult. Misalignment between technologies can lead to inefficiencies, data errors, and workflow disruptions, affecting overall operations. To combat this, healthcare organisations should partner with experienced vendors who understand healthcare needs.
Cost Considerations
Healthcare institutions focused on quality improvements and patient satisfaction may decide to invest in HR technology to enhance operational efficiency and improve workforce management. However, the costs associated with implementing HR technology can be significant, making it challenging for healthcare institutions to balance financial constraints with the need for system improvements. Despite these challenges, healthcare institutions can overcome budget constraints by carefully evaluating their needs, exploring cost-effective options, and demonstrating the long-term benefits of HR technology.
User Adoption Resistance
Another challenge associated with integrating HR technology in healthcare is the resistance from staff to adopt new systems. Healthcare employees, already managing high workloads, may be reluctant to learn and use new technologies, fearing they will add complexity or increase administrative tasks. This hesitation can slow down the implementation process and reduce the effectiveness of the new system. To mitigate this, providing comprehensive training and support is essential. Clear communication about the benefits, such as reducing manual processes and improving overall workflow efficiency, can help ease concerns and encourage adoption.
Data Security Concerns
Reports indicate that 90% of healthcare organisations encounter at least one security breach, with 30% of these incidents occurring in large hospitals. This underscores the urgent need for strong data security measures, especially since HR systems in healthcare are particularly vulnerable to breaches due to the sensitive nature of both employee and patient information. To mitigate this risk, organisations should strengthen security by implementing encryption, using multi-factor authentication, and conducting regular security audits to ensure compliance with healthcare regulations such as CQC.
Final thoughts
The healthcare sector faces pressing HR challenges, including staff shortages, inadequate workforce planning, fragmented hiring systems, and lengthy recruitment processes. Integrating HR technologies provides a comprehensive solution to tackle these workforce issues.
Consolidating tools for recruitment, background checks, onboarding, payroll, performance management, and learning delivers enhanced workforce analytics for better strategic planning. Streamlining workflows also accelerates hiring and boosts productivity. Centralised data management improves security while eliminating duplications and discrepancies.
With patient demand increasing and staffing deficiencies worsening, the healthcare industry cannot afford disjointed HR processes that aggravate hiring challenges and burnout. Integrated HR technology empowers healthcare leaders to optimise their most vital asset – their workforce.
Healthcare organisations must leverage integrated HR systems to improve care. With long-term benefits for staff and patients alike, integrated HR technology merits serious consideration by healthcare providers seeking to overcome pressing talent acquisition and management hurdles.
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