Build Your Talent Pipeline with Career-Ready Healthcare Professionals

Now is the time to start planning and identifying what your future workforce will need to be to address the lack of healthcare employees. The industry will also look different as new healthcare delivery models emerge, shifting from fee-for-service to value-based care focused on patient outcomes. As the industry evolves, staffing partners and recruitment organizations will need to stay ahead of changing workforce demands to effectively serve healthcare clients. That means going beyond filling today’s open positions and thinking strategically about the skills and roles that will be critical tomorrow. That means going beyond filling today’s open positions and thinking strategically about the skills and roles that will be critical tomorrow.

Several key trends are accelerating the shift:

• Critical shortages of allied health professionals at hospitals and health systems, with demand for these roles expected to grow by 20% through 2026.¹
• The rise of emerging technologies such as AI, EHRs, and remote monitoring will require today’s team, even those in frontline roles, to gain new technical skills to work effectively in hybrid and virtual environments.²

What Healthcare Leaders Can Do Now

With all of these staffing pressures here to stay, what steps can provider organizations take to address their ongoing allied health recruitment and develop an effective healthcare staffing strategy? Here’s what many leading organizations are doing to prepare:

• Conducting regular skills audits, analyzing patient population trends, and tracking how care models are shifting and defining the skillsets required to meet them
• Tracking shifts in care models (like value-based care), which emphasize patient engagement, coordination, and data use
• Using predictive workforce planning tools, combined with close collaboration among HR, clinical leaders, and educators, to help identify and close skills gaps and plan for future needs before they impact quality of care.

To find well-trained, job-ready talent, turn to a career-focused education partner like Ultimate Medical Academy, where the goal isn’t just to fill positions — it’s to build a workforce that’s adaptable, resilient, and ready for what’s next.

In a recent report, Mercer offered four recommendations for health systems to help them tackle today’s workforce challenges:³

• Prioritize those occupations and departments that are the most critical and that will require special attention and investment.
• Rethink recruitment strategies by expanding search boundaries to meet talent where it is and investing in internal training and credentialing programs.
• Keep the talent you have with competitive pay and benefits, flexible schedules, and career development opportunities.
• Reduce the need for hard-to-fill positions through technology or job redesign.

Embrace Task Shifting and Redefined Roles

With predictions of major workforce shortages in the near future, many healthcare organizations will need to reassign responsibilities across roles.

Shifting tasks strategically can:

• Extend the reach of other clinicians.
• Elevate care quality by assigning the right tasks to the right team members.
• Free up time for advanced providers to focus on high-acuity patients.

Growing Demand for Entry-Level Healthcare Roles

As healthcare continues to evolve, the demand for entry-level healthcare roles, both clinical and nonclinical, has become a strategic imperative for staffing partners. These roles form the backbone of effective, patient-centered care delivery and are critical when scaling health services.

Recent data supports the need to focus on these roles.

• It’s projected that there will be about 1.9 million openings each year on average (2024-2034) in healthcare occupations, driven by job growth and turnover.⁴
• Medical assistants are leading the growth curve, with employment expected to increase 12% by 2034 and about 112,300 annual job openings.⁵
• Medical and health services managers, who often supervise and coordinate clinical and support staff, are in real demand, with a projected growth of 23%.⁶

More than traditional roles, staffing partnerships can help broaden the scope of nonclinical, administrative, and tech-enabled support roles. Roles that include patient registration, medical billing, revenue cycle specialists, and medical customer service are critical for managing the patient intake journey, optimizing revenue flows, and enhancing efficiency.

While Robert Half reports low unemployment for these roles, 71% of nonclinical healthcare leaders report skills gaps, particularly in data analytics and digital business strategy.⁷ And, with growing demand for remote and distributed care models, hiring is underway for nonclinical roles tied to telehealth, patient services, and revenue cycle.

The top in-demand nonclinical roles:⁸

• Patient registration/admissions specialist
• Medical biller
• Patient access/services specialist
• Medical customer service specialist

Why This All Matters Now

The dramatic changes taking place in healthcare are demanding that staffing partners adopt a new perspective. With the surge in entry-level healthcare openings, combined with historically high turnover rates, it’s clear that staffing partners can’t depend on traditional recruiting pipelines alone.

At the same time, new technologies, care models, and patient expectations are creating demand for a more complex mix of skills. Entry-level candidates are now central to digital health adoption, patient engagement, and efficient practice management. Staffing partners need to respond by rethinking their approach: building talent pools that not only meet today’s requirements but are also adaptable to tomorrow’s challenges.

Why Partnering with a Career Training and Workforce Solutions Organization Makes Sense

By tapping into pipelines of career-ready graduates who are equipped with both technical and soft skills, staffing partners can deliver greater value to healthcare organizations. It’s not just about keeping positions filled, it’s about helping healthcare clients remain resilient, competitive, and prepared for what comes next.

Ready to Start Building Your Future Workforce?

Let’s shape the healthcare workforce of tomorrow — today.