Article review – The great workforce shortage
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Article review – The great workforce shortage
The specific topic for the article is “The Great Workforce Shortage” authored by Patrick Connole. The article addresses the work shortage problems, reasons and possible solutions for the high turnover rates in the long-term and post-acute care. The article is written to address the shortage of workers as a problem facing the caregiving field; therefore the audience of the article is to the relevant parties that are concerned with the recruitment of workers to provide long-term and post-acute care. Some of the relevant parties include; the government and the private sector. The employees need to look at the welfare of the workers to reduce the gap in employment in the caregiving field.
The author of the article has stated an explicit thesis, “All levels of workers are needed to fill the vacancies that exist throughout the skilled nursing and assisted living communities.” According to Patrick, the compensation is relatively static. The push for the long term and post-acute care should be considered more than a marginal job. The general compensation level and job characteristics for the direct care workers in most ways have minimally changed over the last ten years. According to Robert Espinoza, the wages have remained as 10-11 dollars per hour and adjusted for inflation, which has been the same for the last decade. The compensation for workers, therefore, has remained to be the same for many years and does not seem to change much compared to the inflation rate of the economy. Most of the workers are perceives that they are underpaid and despite the high economic problems that have increased the cost of living, the health care providers have continued to be remunerated in the same way that was done to workers in the same field ten years ago.
The main problem that faces the long term and post-acute care field are that the job has not been taken seriously in the past and even at present, the same trend has continued to manifest. Due to this, for the people who have been working in the sector for a long time, the most challenging thing is finding and at the same time keeping workers who have always been considered a tough sell. The jobs have never been considered a real profession, and this can be termed as the main reason as to why the workers in this field are offered a low pay despite their efforts to provide health services to their customers. The caregiving job has been faced with biases for a long time, and this dates back to 1930s where the political discourse argued that the caregiving job was not a real profession. They argued that most of the care giving jobs which are mostly held by women are innate and thus they required minimal skills or training. The same issue plays in the current times in that the caregiving job is considered as a female job of which doesn’t require much training as the females who are also parents have already attained the experience of providing care through parenting.
Worker longevity is needed in the caregiving field to reduce the rate of staff turnover. Meeting worker longevity is the hardest task, but if closely checked, it only requires motivation of employees through the rewards system. A lot of creativity is needed in the management of workforce issues especially in the long-term and post-acute care providers. Better remuneration, solid benefits packages along with focused attention to the employees’ needs and facility upkeep are key measures in reducing the staff turnover rate to as low as 5 percent in any given year. The article states that long-term rewards should accompany the hard work of the care providers. Workers who stay and works for the institutions need to be rewarded after a certain period as this will give the potential employees an urge for loyalty. Besides, providing the workers with the right tools for work is another biter method of rewarding the workers in that they would not have to strain with tools that are not effective and they would better relocate to a company that treats them in the right way. Providing the right tools for work simplifies the work of a caregiver, and this may result in a lowered staff turnover.
The article is an observation, and through this, the author is able to analyze what other people talked about the subject. Convincing the audience can be a challenging issue, and to do it the author quotes direct words that are related to the topic of discussion. Connole has acknowledged the statements of various scholars who have provided their views on the subject quoting the problem and as well, providing solutions to the problem. The author as well provides examples in the article to make it more concrete and convincing, telling how other companies have adopted the strategies of rewarding their employees to achieve worker longevity.
The thesis statement calls for all levels of workers to fill the vacancies throughout skilled nursing and assisted living communities. The article has been effectively tailored to address the issues that have resulted in the shortage of staff making it hard for the organizations in the long-term and post-acute care to staff their organizations. The article cites such problems as low salaries, lack of recognition and inadequate training have been at the forefront in hindering the effective hiring and maintenance the caregivers in their jobs. Poor remuneration is one of the causes of low recruitment, and it also influences staff turnover. Workers who are paid poorly don’t work for a long time in service, and this means that worker longevity is never achieved. On the hand, the article provides the relevant solutions that are all targeted at improving worker longevity at their place of work. The article states that employees need to be treated in a friendly manner; they need to be recognized as part of the company to develop a sense of belonging. For this to be possible, employee motivation is essential, and this only happens through a long term reward system. Employees who have worked with the company for a long time need to be rewarded as a way of appreciation for a good job and a symbol of loyalty. Better tools need to be provided to the employees to make them feel comfortable at the place of work as this will make them more pleased to work with the organization.
The caregiving job is just like the other professions that require training a better remuneration. The work is not specifically meant to be done by women as there are men who have ventured in the field. In the present world, most of the jobs have ceased to be one gender dominated field, and this means that both genders can venture into them and therefore, the perception that prior training is not necessary should but pulled off. Every job requires training for a worker to be effective in the provision of services. Workers need to be well paid and effectively trained to make their job success and as well, satisfy their clients. Poor services are as a result of inadequate training and lack of contentment among the employees, and therefore, if the vacancies will have to be filled, the wages need to be revisited, and the employees have to work on rewarding the workers to improve their longevity.
Works Cited
Patrick Connole. The Great Workforce Shortage. December 2018. Retrieved from: http://www.providermagazine.com/archives/2018_Archives/Pages/1218/The-Great-Workforce-Shortage.aspx
