Like nearly every other industry, healthcare has become increasingly interested in data and the insights that can be found when analyzed.
And this obsession isn’t in vain. Data analytics have been proven to increase efficiencies and reduce costs. In healthcare, reducing costs and improving the delivery of care is invaluable.
In many healthcare organizations today, managers are using little more than guesswork and intuition to schedule the appropriate number and type of staff to match patient volume. Ensuring that quality clinical staff are in the right place at the right time is one of the biggest challenges for hospitals and other healthcare providers.
Many provider organizations have responded by partnering with healthcare workforce solutions companies that offer predictive analytics and advanced labor management strategies to make scheduling and staffing a scientific process instead of guesswork.
With analytics pushing further into healthcare, many professionals are left feeling the pressure to add another hat to their collection of skills – one which they may not have any previous knowledge of or experience in. And for those who don’t bask in the complex world of analytics, statistics and advanced mathematical modeling can seem like a foreign language.
With the right solutions partner, you won’t be bombarded with a massive amount of data and expect to immediately know what to do with it. But you should expect expert training.
The best workforce analytics companies will have a dedicated education department, a carefully crafted curriculum, and seasoned workforce experts who can provide thorough training. A company that teaches not only the ‘how’ of using analytics, but also the ‘why’ will enable staff to more effectively use data.
Workforce analytics companies should aim to be user-friendly – striving to make their clients’ lives easier, not more complex. A workforce planning dashboard is one such way to provide insights into workforce needs that are driven by analytics. An interactive online dashboard provides greater details of key workforce trends within the organization along with the ability for users to filter and export the data to support actionable next steps for their workforce planning goals.
By leveraging their data and utilizing their newly-acquired knowledge of analytics and workforce strategies, healthcare organizations can uncover the opportunities most critical to right-sizing and optimizing their workforce.