Federal Stimulus Incentives for IT Investments in Healthcare May Lead to a Talent Shortage

A recent article posted at Workforce.com highlighted the fact that the federal stimulus bill earmarked $19 billion for incentives related to computerization at hospitals and physician practices. It also included financial penalties beginning in 2015 for facilities that fail to meet certain electronic records standards.

 

With less than 10 percent of all hospitals using electronic records on even a limited basis, the need for IT professionals in healthcare is expected to rise dramatically. While job projections vary greatly, it is expected that at least 41,000 positions will need to be filled with some experts projecting almost 200,000.

 

With this increased demand for IT talent, many companies are becoming more proactive in their recruitment efforts. Here are a few things you can do:

 

• Collaborate with universities. Universities are looking for guidance in developing relevant curricula that will help their students get the best possible jobs. Help department heads determine which courses to drop, keep, or add so students will graduate prepared.

 

• Launch your own PR campaign. Get the message out to middle and high school students that IT careers are on the rise. Have your PR or marketing experts develop communications (kid-friendly brochures, press releases, or articles to go in school newspapers) to drum up interest in science, technology, and math courses.

 

• Create IT ambassadors. Have employees volunteer for career days at schools in your area. Bring classes in for interactive field trips (think hands-on, visual, and activity-oriented), or invite individual students to shadow tech professionals for a day.

 

• Send your new IT hires back. Ask a successful recent IT graduate to speak about his accomplishments to freshmen at local universities. By sharing his enthusiasm and experience, he can dispel common myths that technical professionals are just back-office geek programmers, and that all the good IT jobs are being sent to India. His real-life success story will act as a valuable recruiting tool for the university’s IT program.

 

• Offer internships or co-op positions. Providing work opportunities (paid or unpaid) for college students is a great way to support university programs. Your efforts will in turn ensure a steady flow of premium candidates into your organization.

 

• Last but not least contact LevelUp Force. As a leading IT staffing and employment agency, we continually recruit and source top IT talent. Whether you have a short-term project need, or are looking to add full-time staff, we would be happy to help. Contact LevelUp Force today.