By David Wolfe
You have no choice; millennials are the workforce for the foreseeable future.
And they are coming fast, especially in healthcare. A lot of providers are aging out. The average physician is in their early fifties. The average age of a Nurse Practitioner is forty-nine years old. By 2030, AAMC projects a physician shortage of one hundred thousand MDs. Many will be retiring in the next five to ten years. They’re going to be replaced by this generation.
So, what you’ll learn in my next few articles are the four ways to retain these workers. I suggest you start developing these strategies now, instead of sitting on your hands and complaining or waiting till you retire in ten years and letting it be someone else’s problem. Put these ideas in place now, so you can make your organization better now, and you can leave your organization better than when you came in. Make an adjustment now because things change faster and move faster. It’s much harder to play catch up.
I have heard it said that recruiters feel like they need to lower their standards for this future workforce. That’s not the case at all. Keep the standards the same or make them even higher. You will still get the right people on your team. Make the adjustments that follow and try to get them in place as soon as possible. Learn what the hot buttons are in this workforce so you can attract and recruit them. You will give yourself a better chance at building a really good team and, in the process, give your organization a competitive advantage.
“Millennials of all racial and ethnic backgrounds can make the case that investing in a more inclusive America is essential to the nation’s economic success and will, as well, benefit older populations. As they move into middle age, millennials will represent the new face of America in business, in politics, in popular culture, and as the nation’s image to the rest of the world.” – William Frey
- “Distribution of S. physicians by age group in 2016,” Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/415961/ share-of-age-among-us-physicians.
- “NP Fact Sheet,” American Association of Nurse Practitioners, last modified August 20, 2018, https://wstatista.com/ statistics/415961/share-of-age-among-us-physicians.
- Atul Grover, “New 2025 Physician Workforce Projections,” Association of American Medical Colleges, March 25, 2015