Healthcare Needs Tech Workers — But Tech Workers Also Need the Healthcare Industry

Since the pandemic, organizations are assessing tech needs in healthcare, and technologists have been in higher demand in order to service IT operations and maintain servers.

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Mounting costs and widespread economic instability are causing tech giants to aggressively cut down their staff. From Meta to Zillow, excessive hiring in past years has forced platforms in different markets to adjust their workforce size, especially as persistent inflation reached a 40-year high.

The silver lining for tech professionals? Healthcare is hiring. Pandemic-triggered changes in the healthcare industry have required hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare facilities to scale up their technology operations, resulting in high demand for tech experts. Now, organizations can capitalize on the unique altruistic appeal of healthcare and recruit the tech specialists needed to keep your patients healthy and your organization humming along.

Help Wanted: Technology Needs in the Healthcare Industry

Throughout the pandemic, telehealth was instrumental in providing services remotely, allowing consumers greater access to care without needing to leave the safety of home. Since then, organizations are assessing tech needs in healthcare, and technologists have been in higher demand in order to service IT operations and maintain servers.

As technology adoption in healthcare has moved from reliance on large "mainframe" systems to cloud-based data storage, tech professionals are needed to administer updated training for employees at all levels of an organization. Database management and maintenance are essential components of telehealth that require advanced technical skill, as do the implementation of heightened data security and phishing/malware protection measures. Finally, network mapping and communication skill sets are more necessary than ever for securing data points between networks and clouds.

Healthcare organizations have an interesting competitive advantage when it comes to luring top tech talent away from other possible suitors. Workers tend to experience a heightened sense of purpose when their work is meaningful. This, in turn, improves their performance and commitment to the job. Not many industries can claim to make more meaningful contributions to society, and working in healthcare provides employees with a real sense of value, satisfaction, and reward. This goes for everyone in the healthcare sphere, from those working directly with patients to the unheralded professionals playing a critical support role behind the scenes.

How Healthcare Can Recruit Top Tech Workers

For healthcare organizations that want to attract and retain the best tech help available, here are a few strategies to consider:

1. Remove degree requirements in job postings. To attract a deeper talent pool, open the door to people with more diverse skill sets and backgrounds. This could be accomplished by waiving academic qualifications or considering unconventional skilling pathways when sourcing qualified candidates, as well as offering incentives and benefits that will further draw in talent from across multiple industries.

2. Boast the ancillary benefits of working with your company. One way is to tout the environmental and social perks. For instance, if your organization is committed to sustainability initiatives or providing access to underprivileged communities, highlight those endeavors. Offering flexible hours or the ability to work remotely can be appealing to those looking for a better work-life balance.

3. Explain how working in healthcare offers lateral opportunities. If you're looking to hire IT in healthcare, explain that these opportunities aren't limited to clinical roles. Anyone who works within a healthcare setting can be exposed to new developments, processes, and best practices that might prove valuable. From coding and software development to data analysis and cybersecurity, there are numerous jobs available that tech careers in healthcare can open the doors to.

4. Highlight transferable skills that apply to healthcare. Soft skills such as adaptability, organization, strong communication, empathy, problem-solving, and a focus on patient-centered care create strong relationships between clinicians and patients; they also lead to improved job satisfaction among staff. Tech professionals often have these skills after spending years in demanding, results-oriented roles at previous career stops.

The increase in tech jobs in healthcare — and the demand for highly skilled professionals to do those jobs — isn't going away any time soon. Attracting talented workers requires unique strategies that emphasize meaningful work, transferable skill sets, and a range of ancillary benefits. By making tech jobs in healthcare more attractive, your organization can tap into an incredibly diverse talent pool to improve operations and ultimately better serve your patients.

Claire Anderson is senior director of company relations at LaunchCode, currently working to match quality tech talent with applicable career paths in technology.