Higher Salaries Among Health Care Employers’ Plans for 2015, According to CareerBuilder’s New Health Care Forecast

Adding headcount and increasing pay seem to be among many health care employers’ New Year’s resolutions this year. A new survey from CareerBuilder finds 35 percent of health care hiring managers plan to add full-time, permanent health care employees in the New Year, and 80 percent plan to raise wages for current employees, while 64 percent will offer higher starting salaries for new employees.

The nationwide survey, conducted online by Harris Poll in November through December, 2014, included 315 employers, hiring managers and human resource professionals in the health care industry and 460 U.S. workers in the health care industry.

Nearly half of health care employers (47 percent) plan to hire temporary or contract workers in 2015. Of those, more than 1 in 2 (52 percent) plan to hire those contract or temporary workers on a permanent basis.

A revitalized confidence in the future could be behind the hiring and wage increase plans. Nearly 4 in 5 health care employers (78 percent) believe their organization is in a better financial position than it was a year ago.

“With more people gaining access to medical benefits and an aging population who will need more medical attention in the coming years, health care organizations are gearing up now to accommodate these populations and provide the best quality care,” said Eric Gilpin, President of CareerBuilder Healthcare. “In certain areas, however, demand for high quality candidates is higher than the available supply, forcing health care employers to rethink how they retain top employees along with attracting new, highly qualified workers.”

Four Health Care Hiring Trends to Watch in 2015

In addition to the above results, CareerBuilder’s survey indicated five popular hiring and recruiting tactics health care organizations are employing to attract and retain top workers in 2015:

1. Raising the Minimum Wage: Not only do health care employers plan to raise salaries for current and new employees, but nearly 1 in 2 health care employers (47 percent) anticipate raising their organization’s minimum wage in 2015. Of those, 15 percent will raise their minimum wage by $5 or more.

2. On-the-Job Training: Just over half of health care employers (52 percent) say they plan to hire workers who do not have industry experience and train them on the job.

3. College Recruiting: Nearly two thirds of health care employers (65 percent) plan to hire recent college graduates in 2015, and 47 percent plan to hire interns. Eighteen percent plan to hire more recent college graduates than the previous year.

4. Taking Workers Out of Retirement: Almost half ofhealth care employers(47 percent) say they are “likely” or “very likely” to rehire retirees from other companies in 2015.

Where Is the Talent?

Despite employers’ plans to hire more workers, finding qualified talent to fulfill roles could be a challenge. More than half of health care employers (54 percent) believe there’s a significant gap between the skills they need at their organization and the skills job candidates have, and 46 percent have open positions for which they cannot find qualified candidates. Nearly half of health care employers (48 percent) have job vacancies that stay open for 12 weeks or longer.

Hiring Plans Include Higher Paychecks

In effort to help retain top performing employees and attract new ones in the New Year, many employers plan to dole out heftier paychecks this year. Four in five health care employers (80 percent) plan to increase salaries for existing employees in 2015. Sixty-two percent of employers plan to increase salaries by up to 4 percent, 12 percent plan to increase by 5 to 9 percent, and 6 percent plan to increase salaries by 10 percent or more.

Attracting New Health Care Workers

When recruiting new health care workers, employers may want to emphasize long-term potential, location and benefits, which are among the factors health care workers consider most important (outside of salary) when considering a new position. Other popular reasons include the following:

• Job stability: 63 percent
• Benefit plans are affordable: 57 percent
• Location: 56 percent
• Good work culture: 51 percent
• Ability to offer flexible schedules: 43 percent
• Good career advancement opportunities: 38 percent

Retaining Health Care Workers: What Makes Them Stay

When it comes to retaining health care workers, co-worker and work/life balance can have a significant impact on their job satisfaction. Among the reasons 87 percent of health care employees say they plan to stay in their jobs in 2015:

• I like the people I work with: 54 percent
• I have a good work/life balance: 54 percent
• Benefits: 45 percent
• Ability to make a difference: 29 percent
• Good boss who watches out for me: 28 percent

Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder among 315 hiring managers and human resource professionals from the health care industry, and 460 U.S. workers from the health care industry (employed full-time, not self-employed, non-government) between November 4 and December 2, 2014 (percentages for some questions are based on a subset, based on their responses to certain questions). With pure probability samples of 315 and 460, one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have sampling errors of +/-5.52 and +/-4.57 percentage points, respectively. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.

About CareerBuilder®

CareerBuilder is the global leader in human capital solutions, helping companies target and attract great talent. Its online career site, CareerBuilder.com®, is the largest in the United States with more than 24 million unique visitors and 1 million jobs. CareerBuilder works with the world’s top employers, providing everything from labor market intelligence to talent management software and other recruitment solutions. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI), Tribune Company and The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI), CareerBuilder and its subsidiaries operate in the United States, Europe, South America, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit www.careerbuilder.com.