As we began 2020, numerous trends were reshaping the employment landscape. Then, just as quickly as they emerged, COVID brought them to a halt while introducing a variety of new factors that organizations needed to adjust to immediately.
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As we began 2020, numerous trends were reshaping the employment landscape. Then, just as quickly as they emerged, COVID brought them to a halt while introducing a variety of new factors that organizations needed to adjust to immediately.
At the beginning of 2020, before COVID-19 hit, roughly 15% of healthcare IT organizations had positions that they deemed appropriate for remote work.
It’s always been our organization's policy to call candidates and inform them if they’re no longer under consideration after they’ve interviewed for a position.
There’s an evolution to an employee’s mindset when the economy goes into a state of sudden and massive job loss.
Recently, I’ve heard some thought leaders address how the most efficient and effective people on their teams can produce at a rate 10 times that of their average producer.
The healthcare data analytics market has been evolving for some time. But we’ve hit a tipping point: The amount of hiring in these spaces is growing at a faster pace than at any other time in the past decade. And projections are for continued growth.
When making business decisions, specifically those that require a significant financial investment, it’s customary for an organization to determine their return on investment (ROI). Without an idea of the ROI, it’s almost impossible to conclude whether the investment would be a good or bad decision.
New Year’s is a time when we put goals and resolutions in place. But resolutions tend to fade away and, ultimately, fail. Instead, it’s important to sit down and focus on just a few areas that you’re absolutely committed to improving.
Regardless of who’s available in the job market, your world-class talent-access process should remain consistent. Unfortunately, too many organizations change their methods based on how many candidates are available at a particular moment in time. Having said that, here’s an example of how changing your process greatly impacts the candidate experience.
You see it all the time: Talent Acquisition Teams. But what does the title actually mean? Are they looking for talent? Or are they looking for years of experience? Talent is defined as a natural aptitude or skill. But as we know, there are candidates who don’t get the job or even an interview because they don’t have a desired minimum years of experience. Does talent come to fruition only after a certain number of years?
Building a team requires more than just identifying and hiring the right people. Leaders have to integrate those people into their teams, provide ongoing training, and create and maintain an environment that people want to be a part of.
We frequently hear about “employer branding” — that is, a company’s brand as it’s perceived by the outside world. Is it a fun place to work? Does the organization have a social conscience? Are there sufficient opportunities for professional growth?
When we talk about “alignment,” we’re talking about building a long-term, high-performance team, as opposed to filling jobs. In order to effectively build those teams, hiring managers would do well to follow Healthcare IS’ model designed to produce the highest likelihood of employer-candidate fit.
Your résumé is typically the first impression an organization will have of you when you apply for a job.
Five years ago, an employer would review your résumé and, if they liked what they saw, they would invite you to an interview. However, for many employers today, liking your résumé is just the first step.
A recent article at Becker's Hospital Review interviewed several Healthcare IT executives to get their opinions on dangerous trends occurring within the Health IT space. Their opinions are listed below.
Within Healthcare IS’ Hire Value methodology, we discuss the importance of completing a market analysis prior to filling a position.
Many healthcare IT budgets are being cut due to organizations’ financial circumstances. As a result, leaders are facing major challenges as they attempt to train existing staff. Through conversations with industry leaders, I’ve developed some thoughts regarding an era of training when every dollar is being scrutinized. These concepts are not new, but they can serve as a helpful reminder of the resources that are readily available to most of us.
When considering your career or job options, you’ve always put location at the top of your list. That’s because most healthcare IT positions required that the person be on-site every day.
This is the time to reach out to your industry contacts and truly get a sense of what changes are coming. Be proactive and expand your network, so you can get a variety of perspectives. Many people have been furloughed or laid off. If you haven’t been, you may feel grateful and secure. After all, in today’s world, not being laid off means you have a job because your current employer needs your skills. However, that doesn’t offer you any guarantees for the future, and you should have an understanding of what’s to come.
General, Consulting, Career Planning, Healthcare IT, David Kushan
Figuring out how to best handle IT concerns can be a daunting challenge, especially for healthcare organizations transitioning to a new Electronic Health Records (EHR) system.
Qualified consultants with extensive experience handling these transitions can provide significant help.
If a consulting firm hires salaried employees, they are going to make an effort to have projects available for them when they are nearing their current assignments’ completion. They do this because, in the absence of projects, their employees will become pure expense. This is why many people who are getting into consulting think it is less risky to be a salaried employee of a consulting firm — they will have someone actively looking for their next project.
When I'm talking with people about their career options, the subject of consulting frequently enters into the conversation. Many times, they just aren't sure if consulting is for them. In these situations, I try to give them a starting point, in order to determine if it's a path they should explore further.
I want to share a conversation I had with a consultant, who, for the sake of this post, we’ll call Bob. Bob asked me for my advice regarding a contract he found on his own.
Anyone who was a contractor or in consulting during the last recession (2008-2009) either had his or her project end early or knows someone who did. When I say end early, I mean end prior to the end date established when the project began.
When you travel to a client location each week and spend 40 hours on-site, the client sees you there; they have no doubt that you put in your hours for the week. Therefore, they have no problem signing off and approving the hours you put on a weekly timesheet. They may have an issue with the quality of your work or whether you accomplished enough during that time, but that’s a different issue.
What’s better, a two-year contract or four six-month contracts? Well, it depends. In keeping with what I discussed in a recent post, there are two types of contractor mentalities: The “get a job” consultant (GAJC) will, nine times out of ten, be more attracted to the two-year contract. This person isn’t thinking about a long-term career in consulting; he or she is thinking about a very well paying contract with the convenience of limited travel. If you add the fact that he or she won’t have to be concerned with looking for another contract for up to two years, well, things just couldn’t get much better.
Can being happy at your job be bad for your career? Well, that depends what your mindset is when you are happy with your job. And for a good percentage of people, it definitely is.
In past posts, I've discussed the difference between firms that hire consultants and those that place consultants on a contract basis. There are firms that hire consultants as salaried employees and pay them whether they're working or not (bench time), and firms that bring on consultants and pay them hourly for the term of the project. There are also some firms that do both.
In a previous blog post, How to Price Yourself In Health IT Contracting, we discussed how to calculate the minimum hourly rate you need as a contractor in order to know that you’re making a sound financial decision.
As managing partner of a healthcare IT consulting/staff augmentation firm, I’m always having conversations with people who are looking to enter the consulting marketplace.
As a consultant, you're going to be traveling weekly. Some of the associated costs can be covered up-front by your firm; other costs you'll have to cover yourself and be reimbursed by your firm.
General, Consulting, Career Planning, Networking, David Kushan
When you are considering taking a contract, many people know to consider the following:
When joining a consulting firm, it's important to understand where your skill set and knowledge base fall within their overall focus. Many pharmacists or pharmacy professionals join consulting firms only to realize that even though they signed on to participate in an exciting first project, that project was an exception for the firm, rather than the norm.
As a pharmacy IT or pharmacy informatics professional, your primary focus is to participate on projects that have to do with enhancing the operation of your organization's pharmacy software, automation, and technology. As you work in this setting for a while, you'll gain exposure to a number of different projects, such as implementing a pharmacy system, CPOE, barcode administration, medication reconciliation, to name just a few.
As part of their day-to-day job descriptions, hospital IT employees typically have a number of different responsibilities. Most of those responsibilities can be filed in one of two categories: “new project implementation” or “support-type functions.” If you prefer one area over another, you probably can’t image how anyone could like the other area. Many people like the “new project” side because of the satisfaction they get from beginning something new, having a timeline to follow, and seeing a fresh solution implemented within their organization. People who like the “support side” derive satisfaction from working on an immediate problem-fix as well as being a go-to person who keeps things running smoothly. Some people like the variety of having a long-term project on which to focus while, at the same time, dealing with support issues that allow them to have a day-to-day sense of immediate accomplishment. Either way, there’s a multitude of variations out there to keep team members challenged.
Given the limited options available to the pharmacy IT or pharmacy informatics professional in any given marketplace, it can be challenging to acquire the experience necessary to advance your career. If you live in a city with only two or three hospital IT or informatics departments, the opportunity for you to gain exposure to career options can be limiting. If you’re currently an informatics pharmacist or IT pharmacist, and you’d like to become a project leader or be in a management/director role in the future, the options you have within your current organization or any of the others in your local market may be restricting.
General, Consulting, Career Planning, Healthcare IS Podcast, Interviews, David Kushan
David Stansbury gives his insight in this month’s Healthcare IS podcast. Listen in and hear David’s experience in working as a pharmacist in IT, making transitions and what he’s observed in the last 30 years of his experience.
At the most basic level, the definition of a consultant is "a person who provides expert advice professionally."
General, Consulting, Healthcare IS Podcast, Interviews, David Kushan
Take a moment to hear Jerry Fahrni tell his story of experience in Pharmacy IT. He tells us how he came to be in the field of Health IT, what challenges he worked through and observed and what advice he would share with someone looking to break into Pharmacy IT. You can also follow Jerry’s Blog at www.JerryFahrni.com.
As an independent contractor whose current project is coming to an end, you're going to be talking with staffing firms about projects they have coming up for which you may be a good fit. If a particular project sounds like a good fit, the firm with which you’re talking will present you to the client. At that point, whether you’re their W-2 employee or a Corp-to-Corp, you’re being represented by that company. As far as the client is concerned, you’re part of the organization that’s representing you.
Unfortunately, some of the lessons you learn in the contracting business are learned the hard way. The hard way generally means that you were dealing with someone who took advantage of a situation that caused you some major inconvenience. Once these situations occur, of course, you do what you can to prevent them from happening again.
If you’re considering getting into consulting as a contractor, you obviously have to be prepared to get new contracts. Depending on the length of the projects you’re on, you may look for new contracts from one to three times a year on average. Unless you’ve built your own client base, you’re going to, most likely, make yourself available for projects through a firm that specializes in finding engagements that require people with your background.
Breaking Away From Your Firm
When you're an employee of a consulting firm and you're thinking about getting into contracting, one of the challenges you'll face is being able to break away from that firm in a smooth manner.
Very often when I am talking with people about their career options the thought of consulting enters into the conversation. Many times, people just aren't sure if consulting is for them. In these situations, I try to give them a starting point in order to determine if consulting is a path they should explore further.
Today's topic concerns something I'm asked quite often. When speaking to people who are working at a hospital and are thinking about getting into contracting, I'm commonly asked, “How do you price yourself in terms of the hourly rate you should be earning?”
Over the years, we’ve followed four main trends in a professional’s decision to transition from a career as a salaried employee to the lifestyle of an independent consultant. Consultants typically work at a higher rate due to the requirements involved, but also because of their scarcity. In order to work successfully as a contract consultant you need to fully understand what motivates you as a professional and what you can take away personally from this career option.
In my experience, hiring managers frequently review résumés for a minute or less and come to conclusions that are based on false assumptions. It’s from these false assumptions, in turn, that they base their decisions regarding whom to interview.
You can probably find more books, articles, and blogs on the subject of job interviews than on virtually any other topic. There are the basics of the process that should be well known — what to wear, when to show up, how to follow up, etc. — and which I will not cover in this post. I would like to focus, instead, on the 20% of the interview that is going to create 80% of your value. I simply want to talk about how to respond to questions.
When you’re in consulting, you’re offering your knowledge and skills as a service to organizations in need of that specific expertise.
Contractors frequently express that their #1 fear is not being able to find their next contract. It’s only natural for people dealing with that concern to look for ways to acquire as many skills as possible, in the hope of casting a broad net over contracts for which they can apply.
What I’ve found, over the years, is that there are two types of contractors: “Get a Job” Contractor (GAJC) & “Build a Practice” Contractor (BAPC).
When this type of contractor is looking for their next contract, dollar amount and travel convenience are their top priorities. The more money being paid and the less travel required, the better. This person gives little thought to the type of work or project. They fail to consider how this project will either increase or decrease their marketability for the next project.
General, Hiring, Corporate Culture, Networking, David Kushan
In December 2010, I was at the ASHP’s (American Society for Health Systems Pharmacists) midyear meeting in Anaheim, CA. Over the years, their track relating to Pharmacy IT and Informatics has really expanded.
Between sessions, I was engaged in a conversation with a Director of Pharmacy and a Manager of Pharmacy Informatics. Both were talking about the technology initiatives their organizations had in place related to pharmacy and the medication management process. Once the discussion evolved into specific project plans and go-live dates, it turned toward having the right people in place — both full-time employees and consultants. Of course, it doesn’t seem like you can have a conversation about hiring Healthcare IT employees without someone saying how hard it is to find the right people. So, when they started telling me how hard it’s been for them to find the right people, they were both a little shocked by my response: “Good people are easy to find.” I paused for effect and when they both stared at me like I was crazy, I added, “Good people are easy to find — they’re just very hard to get hired.”
Things are hot in the Healthcare IT marketplace today. As a result, many people I speak with think they need to leverage this demand and attempt to increase their compensation while the going is good. So, how do you make the most of this hot market? Can you just walk into your manager’s office and tell them how much demand there is for your skills and request, or demand, an increase in salary? I guess you could, but what if your manager says, “I would love to increase your salary, but we just don’t have it in the budget.”
Nothing can be more disruptive to an organization’s plans than the loss of key personnel. As a result, many times partnering organizations, vendor/clients, client/client, and even competing organizations will put in place formal and informal “agreements” to not hire each other’s employees. These types of agreements have existed for many years within various industries, Healthcare IT certainly being one of them. In fact, over the past couple of years, some Healthcare IT vendors and consulting firms have been very aggressive in establishing policies as it relates to hiring practices.
General, Consulting, Hiring, Corporate Culture, David Kushan
In this post, I want to discuss how to gain credibility with a hiring manager at the conclusion of an interview.
General, Consulting, Career Planning, Corporate Culture, David Kushan
When looking to get into a new marketplace in which you think there will be high demand, you'll want to consider a few factors:
• How difficult will it be to break into the new market?
• How long will demand last?
• Will you be better off than if you were to remain in your current market?
After consultants have been with a firm for about two to three years, most will stop for the first time and evaluate where they are in regard to their ability to continue traveling on a weekly basis. Put another way, if a consultant is going to burn out on constant traveling, this is typically when it will occur.
As a consultant, you need to know your sellable skill set, or knowledge base. Just as importantly, you have to be able to package yourself in a way that the people who are buying your services will be comfortable engaging you.
I decided to write this particular post as a result of being asked the same question by several consultants over the last two years.
Frequently, people looking to get into contracting don’t have a true understanding of what the Health IT marketplace has to offer in terms of money and required travel. It’s very important to have a realistic understanding of these two criteria in order to work consistently. What I see often is someone waiting to leave their full-time job for a contract that will meet their terms. On the surface, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this. In fact, it’s exactly what you should do.
Consultants who work primarily on a contract basis know that there will come a time when their “job” will come to an end, and they’ll have to look for a new one. Even though there are many benefits to contracting, this is the one aspect to which contractors do not look forward.
Many people get into contracting for different reasons. Some of those reasons I discussed in a previous post titled Guide to Successfully Working as a Consultant in the Healthcare IT Industry
General, Consulting, Career Planning, Networking, David Kushan
Contracting can be a bit tricky. You need to keep your current client happy, be on the lookout for your next engagement, while at the same time making sure you attain or maintain a skill set and knowledge base that will continually keep you marketable.
I have been talking with many consultants who work for consulting firms that are thinking about becoming a contractor. It's natural for people who are considering this change to have some apprehension. Because of this I wanted to take a minute to highlight the 3 common characteristics I see in successful contractors.
As a contractor (a consultant who works on a contract-to-contract basis, as opposed to an employee of a firm), you will engage in regular phone calls with firms that place people such as yourself on projects.
A while back, Healthcare IS interviewed seven pharmacists who have successfully transitioned from the role of a traditional inpatient pharmacist to that of an IT or informatics pharmacist. The pharmacists in question are some with whom I’ve developed strong relationships. They’ve all been in IT for more than ten years and have profiles on LinkedIn. The objective of these interviews was to provide insight to pharmacists who are looking to enter this field. The questions were broken down into specific topics on which our firm is regularly asked to comment. We believe these short posts that address specific issues will provide value to pharmacists looking to enter this field.
Many people who get into pharmacy informatics/pharmacy IT consulting are motivated by the additional income they can earn. However, there's one factor that keeps many more from transitioning into the market space: the required travel. In fact, the travel makes demand for qualified people that much greater. Still, most people probably wouldn't do the required travel without some additional financial incentive.
When looking to get into a new marketplace in which you think there will be high demand, you'll want to consider a few factors:
When a pharmacy IT or pharmacy informatics professional is looking to get into consulting, they’ll realize that they have essentially two options: They can work as an employee of a consulting firm or as an independent contractor. Without going into the details of each here (for more information on both, download our free eBook), many people choose to join a consulting firm because of the paid bench time. The advantage of having their salary paid while they’re between projects is perceived as a big benefit. Make sure that you have a solid understanding of bench time first.
Some companies prefer filling positions on a contract-to-hire basis. These are full-time positions within an organization, but rather than hiring someone straight into the role, the company opts to hire the candidate on a contract basis first. Then, if things go well, the company converts the person to FTE (full-time employee) status.
General, Consulting, Healthcare IS Podcast, Interviews, David Kushan
That’s just one of many questions we addressed with Ron Burnett in our latest Healthcare IS Podcast. Ron has been a practicing pharmacist for the last 29 years. Primarily working in hospital pharmacy practice, he has also done work in home infusion and the retail space. With 14 of those 29 years spent in the informatics space, Ron comes with immense insights from all angles of practicing pharmacy and our country’s implementation of informatics in hospitals.
Once you've been in the consulting field for a reasonable amount of time, you'll be faced with a client that's in a bind and wants you to start immediately.
Most people who get into Healthcare IT consulting come from a career spent, primarily, in hospital IT or informatics departments. By the time they seriously explore such a career move, they have five-plus years of industry experience and have worked for multiple organizations.
One of the questions we're asked most frequently is, Which department is the best to work for, Pharmacy or IT?
I tell contractors that when the next recession comes around (and it will), the rate they’re able to charge for their work will likely drop. Most of them understand why. During a recession, there’s less work. When there’s less work (i.e. less demand) with the same number of consultants looking for projects (i.e. same supply), contractors are likely to see the amount they can charge go down.
"Emotional equity" is a term I use to explain something that I realize exists, but that most hiring managers do not. The problem is that most hiring managers I deal with are not only unaware of the term, but they’re also unaware of the concepts.
Most candidates who have more than ten years of professional experience cannot list all of that experience, not to mention their associated accomplishments, in the concise format of a professional résumé.
There are hiring managers who will not interview a candidate unless his or her resume looks good. Some of them would say, "I won't consider anyone who's not taken the time to put together a good resume." Others would say, "People know that, if they're going to apply for a job, they'll need a resume. So what does it say about a person who's not taken the time to learn how to put together a resume?"
Times are good now. That means most contractors are not going to pay much attention to this post. Which is a shame, because while many contractors do well during good times, the longevity and fruitfulness of their careers is directly proportionate to the work they do at times just like these — not when projects slow and times get tough.
If you have been a hiring manager long enough, inevitably you have hired the “wrong” person. When you hire someone and realize within the first 90 days it not going to work out, most people would classify this as a bad hire…or a hiring mistake. Most people are easily able to figure our how costly this mistake can be.
General, Resume Tips, Industry News, Corporate Culture, David Kushan
The May 2013 issue of Inc. magazine featured an infographic (on page 24) concerning trends in big company hiring.
Specific references were made to the fact that, for most companies that are hiring, online “job boards” are not producing the results they used to. When it comes to hiring online, employers need to be where the employees are. At the dawn of Internet recruiting in the late ’90s, people looking for jobs would regularly go to job boards or would post their résumés online when they were open to hearing about job opportunities.
Every time the American economy comes out of a recession, the employment landscape changes. Typically, this occurs due to the adjustments companies have made to survive, as well as the shifts in mindset among employees who were directly affected. As we know, many employees either lost their jobs, had their salaries and/or benefits reduced, or had their roles changed virtually overnight.
As a staffing firm, we’re reaching out to new people on a daily basis. So, in the age of caller ID, when our phone number is unrecognized by the person we’re calling, you can imagine that we leave a lot of voicemails. Due to the many referrals we get, and with the wide use of cellphones, most of the time we place our first call to someone’s mobile number.
Meaningful use has been a driving force behind Health IT employment, and as organizations look to make the most of federal funding the demand for resources has increased as well. In the U.S., total employment has grown by 157,000 this past January, while professional unemployment rates are in a downward trend. Also, a notable increase in the demand for specialty trade contractors has led to 26,200 additional contractors (across all industries) in the month of January.
Once Health IT employees gain a certain level of experience working at a hospital, they have the option to consider working as consultants. As Health IT consultants, they would have the ability to increase their income by 25-70%, depending on their specific skills and the type employment or contracting relationship they put in place. Now, I understand that money isn’t everything, but it’s a motivator for many people who get into consulting. However, what keeps most people from getting into consulting is the amount of travel required.
The election has passed, and as Obama moves into his second term we can see that not much will change in the efforts of improving healthcare in the U.S. As we continue to move forward with Health IT initiatives, job demand is growing substantially. Government agencies are working toward a solution to ramp up the workforce of Health IT professionals, but we need the seasoned knowledge of the senior-level experts to lead us in implementation.
General, Hiring, Corporate Culture, Healthcare IS Team, David Kushan
I’ve always been a sports fan. In fact, I played various organized sports from the time I was six all the way through college, where I played baseball. In my opinion, so much of what happens in the sports world has direct correlations to everyday life. I also believe there are many lessons there that can be applied to hiring and team building.
In past posts, I've made reference to some of the many articles publicizing shortages that currently exist, and will persist, in finding and hiring specialized skills within the Healthcare IT/Informatics market.
General, Industry News, Hiring, Corporate Culture, Networking, David Kushan
It simply amazes me (and I’m not amazed too often) how bad some people are at hiring or building a team. It's almost as if - and I'm not trying to be sarcastic here - some people are trying to mess things up. Otherwise, I can't imagine how someone in a management role could stop, think, and then still do the things they do.
In my last post, I talked about the concept of a candidate being “deliverable.” From a hiring manager’s perspective, a candidate being deliverable translates to the likelihood of a prospective candidate accepting your offer. A candidate may have a low level of deliverability for one position but a very high level for another.
Lately, everyone I talk with expresses how significantly demand has picked up in the Healthcare IT job market. Most employers have multiple positions open and most candidates I speak with say the volume of calls they receive for positions has certainly picked up compared to a year ago.
General, Hiring, Corporate Culture, Networking, David Kushan
Optimal performance during this process reflects very positively on the organization, as this is where first and lasting impressions are made among all parties involved. Thus, structure, formality, and the positive alignment of all decision-makers are highly important factors for on-boarding the very best candidates. If this alignment is not present during the process, then clearly the candidate will sense this and might have hesitancy or doubts as to whether this is the “dream” career that he or she is seeking.
General, Hiring, Corporate Culture, Networking, David Kushan
As parts of the overall job market are starting to improve (Healthcare IT being one of them, of course), I’m beginning to see a lot of the same headlines I saw when the economy was coming out of the 2001 recession. Articles about employment branding (which should never stop, even in bad times), the war for talent, etc. are popping up quite a bit. Estimates are showing that the Healthcare IT industry could be up to 50,000 new positions.
In the past, our firm has taken on projects for multiple hires with health systems with which we’ve never worked (it’s always exciting when taking on new clients). One particular client, like many healthcare organizations across the country, continually embarks on very ambitious projects. This client has a track record of fantastic accomplishments.
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