HR Barometer Healthcare 2024

What is the current situation of HR in Belgian hospitals, and what are their top HR priorities and challenges? Additionally, we also take a closer look at this year’s hot HR topic – Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP). How does HR in Belgian hospitals approach SWP and are they prepared for future long-term workforce needs?

Domains such as Well-being, Leadership Development, Retention and Employer Branding are high on the HR agenda, but Selection & Recruitment is the absolute top priority. Combined with the fact that Retention is one of the biggest risers in terms of priorities (moving into the top 5), it is clear that HR is concentrating on Attracting and Retaining new Talent.

In terms of perceived mastery, HR leaders felt most confident about their departments' capabilities in domains such as Well-being, Learning & Development, Leadership Development and especially Selection & Recruitment – which topped again the list. As a result, Selection & Recruitment is considered as a clear strength, given its high priority and high mastery.

Yearly, Vlerick Business School and Hudson also conduct an HR barometer in the top 250 largest business organisations. We see some small differences compared to the results of the Hospital sector.

Hospitals have not identified specific areas for improvement – where the priority is high but the HR directors indicate they do not fully master it. The three domains that business organisations have highlighted needing attention – Cultural Change, Digital Transformation, and Employer Branding – are perceived more under control in hospitals. However, business organisations report more significant achievements in Compensation & Benefits and Industrial Relationships than hospitals. Additionally, HR Analytics and Teamwork are considered strengths in the hospital sector (high priority but well mastered), while these areas are not prioritized in the business.

When asking for the expected HR priorities for the coming year, these are closely aligned in hospitals with those in business organisations, with a notable emphasis on recruitment & selection and leadership development. This emphasis underscores a strategic focus on finding the right personnel and providing sufficient opportunities for their continued development.

Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) can be defined as a proactive business process that aligns organisational needs and external evolutions with an organisation’s people strategy and staffing needs. The goal of SWP is to ensure that an organisation has the right people in the right place at the right time to achieve its objectives.

SWP hasn't been indicated by the HR directors as a high priority in the HR Barometer Healthcare trends research. However, when asking more about SWP as the specific topic of this year’s survey  underscores its critical importance within HR departments:

• SWP is considered essential for future survival by 74% of hospitals, while only 3% dismiss it as a mere buzzword. Hospitals attach even more importance to SWP than the business where 65% considers it as essential and 30% sees it as a buzzword.
  
  
• Although more than 65% of hospitals use SWP in some way, as in business, it is mostly on an ad hoc basis (41%).
  
  
• The responsibilities for SWP are not really formalized: only 5% of the respondents indicating this is a dedicated function for at least one person and only 18% indicating that ‘someone’ has SWP responsibilities in their job description. In hospitals, the SWP responsible typically reports to the CEO (36%) and HR Director (26%), while in businesses, it is mostly the HR Director (56%). Most HR Directors see themselves in the driving seat to further professionalise SWP, although 18% do not. Additionally, 38% believe in partnering up for SWP, more than in business contexts (13%).
  
  
• The rather ad hoc approach, without clear responsibilities, results in a low satisfaction with only 5% of the respondents expressing being satisfied with the outcomes of SWP actions (which is even lower than the business with 13% satisfaction), and 31% indicating SWP remains a theoretical notion without clear actions.

The most popular action that hospitals take in terms of Strategic Workforce Planning, as in business, is demand forecasting: 90% identifies the future needs in terms of talent. Action planning to address SWP gaps is more frequent in hospitals, with 76% conducting this annually, whereas only 69% of businesses do so regularly.

71% of hospitals also look at the available supply of talent inside their own business which is less popular than the analysis of external talent supply (54%). Workforce segmentation (62%) is also not so popular and Actively working out scenarios is less common (37%).

When it comes to tools, only 21% of hospitals use specialized mapping tools which also mirrors the usage rate in business. Hospitals tend to focus on a one-year timeframe for SWP, with a greater emphasis on short-term planning compared to business.

In terms of specific positions, it is obvious that hospitals clearly focus on bottleneck professions (64% vs. 32% in business).

There is also an extreme focus on quantitative shortages, with 97% of hospitals indicating this (vs. 73% in business). More than on possible mismatches (41%) or surpluses (28%). Hospitals put more emphasis on teams. After ‘jobs’, ‘teams’ is the most popular focus, while for business ‘teams’ are less important (72% vs 42%) .

The main challenges for HR in Hospitals in further professionalizing SWP include a lack of necessary skills and the complexity of implementation, which are also common challenges in the business sector. Addressing these skill gaps and streamlining implementation processes are crucial steps towards enhancing the effectiveness and strategic impact of SWP initiatives within an organisation.

The HR Barometer Healthcare is an initiative by Vlerick Business School and Hudson. This online survey was administered to the CHROs and HR directors of Belgium’s hospital sector. In total, 42 (50% of the Belgian hospitals) participated in the survey. This research was led by Ellen Volckaert (Hudson Benelux), and Professor Dirk Buyens and Sarah Quataert (Vlerick Business School).

Download the full HR Barometer Healthcare report 2024 or contact Barbara Christiaens, Sr Business Manager Healthcare & Lifesciences.