Inclusive, local hiring: Building the pipeline to a healthy community
Every day, we learn more about how patients’ health outcomes are tied not only to the healthcare they receive but also to the conditions in the communities where they live. Social and economic inequities, amplified by race, often emerge as the leading factors explaining differences in health outcomes and life expectancies.
Through local and inclusive hiring, health systems can invest in an ecosystem of success that lifts up local residents; helps create career pathways for low-income, minority, and hard-to-employ populations; and begins to transform neighborhoods. In the process, health systems can develop a more efficient workforce pipeline, meet sustainability and inclusion goals, and ultimately improve the health of their communities. Establishing a local and inclusive hiring strategy is an important first step towards rethinking your health system’s role in the community. This toolkit can help you get started.
Case Studies
University Hospitals
West Philadelphia Skills Initiative
Emergency Medical Services Corps
Partners HealthCare
University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Johns Hopkins University & Health System
Key Strategies
Outside-in
Health systems that equip local residents for high-demand jobs through training and skills development, and connect these candidates to pipelines that provide entry points to the institution, improve the efficiency of their own recruiting and hiring processes and expand employment opportunities for residents. Learn more about outside-in strategies
Inside-up
Local hiring initiatives do not end at the moment of hire. The success of programs lies in connecting frontline workers to pathways for career advancement within the institution—ensuring a sustainable, effective program and a pipeline to opportunity for local communities. Learn more about inside-up strategies
Diving In
Simple Policy Fixes
- Adjust tuition reimbursement programs to allow for tuition advancement
- Change policies that prevent hiring individuals with criminal records
- Make diverse, inclusive, local hiring an explicit goal in the strategic p...
Quick Practice Upgrades
- Communicate with workforce partners and intermediaries about forecasted job needs
- Tweak job descriptions to eliminate unnecessary requirements
- Evaluate recruiters, hiring managers, and department heads on local hiring...
Readiness Checklist
The Big Questions
What does “local” mean to your institution?
What does “community” mean to your institution?
Which institutional priorities would be met if your hiring was more inclusive and local?
Learn how to ask — and answer — the big questions
Laying the Foundations
Measure your workforce baseline
Survey your workforce policies and practices
Map your community's assets
Identify your partners
Design around data and metrics
Plan for sustainability
The Return on Investment
Savings
Key benefits to your bottomline
- Reduce job turnover rates
- Make the recruitment process more efficient
- Reduce time spent filling positions
- Save internal training and orientation costs
Additional Benefits
A more expansive notion of ROI
- Address issues of health equity and identified community health needs
- Create a more diverse workforce
- Improve employee morale
- Improve the institution’s reputation in the community
- Reduce carbon footprint with more employees living closer to work
- Increase the number of residents with access to health insurance
Overcoming Barriers
- High volume of applications…
- Blanket policies prevent the hire of formerly incarcerated applicants…
- Staff are unable to take advantage of training opportunities…
- Employee demographics do not match the demographics of the surrounding community…
- Staff are unable to take advantage of tuition reimbursement because of the upfront costs…
- Healthcare system or hospital is too small to warrant a local hiring pipeline effort…