Dan joins Intellect Resources with over 18 years of experience in the healthcare industry across public, private and government segments of the market and was most recently Vice President of Regional Extension Centers, Public Sector, with Allscripts.  During his tenure, Dan was responsible for sales, service, consulting, management, operations and executive leadership with industry leading software and/or services vendors.   In his new position Dan is responsible for building the sales and service functions within Intellect Resources including the processes, tools, and resources necessary to support the next phase of growth.

“Dan is a wonderful addition to our team and a former Healthlink colleague,” said Tiffany Crenshaw, President and CEO of Intellect Resources. “Dan brings an encyclopedia of healthcare IT knowledge and contacts to Intellect Resources that will help further our commitment to provide outstanding resources and service to our client base.  We look forward to continuing to grow and expand with a formalized sales department under Dan’s guidance.”

Dan is a native of Roanoke, Virginia and earned a Bachelor of General Studies in Anthropology, History and a minor in Political Science from the University of Kansas. In addition to his time with Allscripts, Dan is a former Executive Vice President for Healthlink.   Currently, Dan resides in Fort Mill, South Carolina and looks forward to connecting with colleagues in his new position.

Tweet this: Intellect Resources names Dan Stoke VP of Client Sales and Service

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I hate sales.  I vehemently dislike having a product pushed on me that I don’t truly need or find particularly appealing.  Even worse, I loathe when a less than thoroughly considered purchase results in a case of buyer’s remorse.  Don’t you?  At the same time, I’m a buyer.  There are things I legitimately need, that will serve a purpose in my life, products that I just fall in love with.  So, I’m always in the market looking for something, and I occasionally have to trust salespeople to point me toward the right product for my needs.

Now for a funny irony:  Though I hate sales, recruiting is a sales profession, and I’m a salesperson.  Ouch!  That painful admission feels a lot like part of a 12-step recovery process.  But, all joking aside, it’s true.  My clients are buyers, and the product I sell is YOU – your reputation, your professional experiences, your aspirations and unique qualities.  My clients trust me to identify the best available market talent for their project needs, for their teams, and for their corporate cultures.   This is a trickier proposition that you might think.  Because, unlike tangible products, people are multi-faceted, they’re often fueled by emotion, and they’re flawed before ever hitting the shelves.  People are complex.  What sets Recruiters apart from other sales professionals is that what we do is inherently personal.   When I do my job well, the results are meaningful, instrumental in my candidate’s career development and directly tied to their families’ well-being.   A successful placement is also critical to my client’s organizational health.

How do I sell you?  Please allow me to veer slightly off path for a moment in order to explain.  Bear with me…

I could write at length about the development of an effective resume.  I could detail the importance of streamlining your focus, aligning your experiences to date with your growth-oriented objectives.  I could tell you how important it’s become to quantify your successes.  I could instruct you on the proper use of white space, while offering formatting suggestions and appealing verbiage options.  In the end, the result of this collaboration would be an aesthetically pleasing, well-crafted outline of your professional achievements.  In other words, an illustration of what you DO. But you’re more than what you do, right?  A resume is a valuable and necessary tool in any employment search, but the best Recruiters (across industries) are interested in much more than your resume.

A good Recruiter will see the relationship she forges with you as being personal.  When working with you, she’ll invest in your career goals.  She’ll spend enough time with you to understand not just what you do, but who you ARE as an industry professional, as a teammate, as a leader.   She’ll listen intently to uncover your passions, as well as your hot buttons.  Next, she’ll use that information to envision the type of environment that would enable you to shine your brightest.  Then, like perfectly matching puzzle pieces, she’ll choose the right clients for you.  When she invests in you, cares about you, she can be assured of making an appropriate sell to her buyers.

So, who are you, beyond your resume?   Are you fiercely loyal, geared toward perfection, oddly good at breaking the ice in challenging situations?  Do you like to drive in your own lane?  Are you lacking an “off button”?  Do you need room for creativity in your day-to-day?   What drives you in your decision-making?  Don’t be afraid to share the nuances of your character and personal needs with Recruiters you deem trustworthy.  In the right hands, such insight is an invaluable sales and marketing tool.  For you, the consequences of sharing could be the difference between earning a paycheck versus thriving in your next role.  For your would-be employer, these revelations could ultimately make the difference between buyer’s remorse and falling in love.

The post More Than a Resume; Sellers, Buyers, and You appeared first on Intellect Resources.

The prestigious award program recognizes entrepreneurs who demonstrate excellence and extraordinary success in such areas as innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities. These business leaders were selected by a panel of independent judges. The 90 Southeast applicants employ more than 42,000 people in the workforce, and report more than $8.5 billion in annual sales. Notably, Southeast finalists represent 79 percent of the employee total and 82 percent of the revenues reported. Award recipients will be announced at a gala on June 6 at the InterContinental Buckhead Hotel in Atlanta.

A comprehensive list of finalists can be found here.  “This outstanding list of finalists brings a great deal of enthusiasm to our Southeast program this year,” said Connie Austin, Southeast Entrepreneur of the Year Partner.  “Their dedication to innovation and entrepreneurship, with a strong focus on their communities, clearly demonstrates the increasingly important role entrepreneurs play in the business world. We are lucky to have them represent our region in this global award program, and thrilled to highlight their successes and incredible stories of turning a vision into a reality.”

To learn more about Intellect Resources, or to join our team, visit www.intellectresources.com
Tweet this: @Wespeakhit CEO Tiffany Crenshaw named as finalist in #EOYSoutheastUS by @EY_EOY

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About Intellect Resources

We speak the language of Healthcare IT. Intellect Resources is proud to offer comprehensive Healthcare IT consulting, recruiting and hiring solutions within the healthcare IT market.  Our talent offerings include recruiting, project management, implementation, upgrading and optimization of EMR systems, training and go-live support and the revolutionary Big Break^SM hiring process.

Big Break^SM is patent-pending American Idol style audition process where candidates compete to become a healthcare IT trainer.  Big Break offers hospitals systems a unique and innovative talent pool at a fraction of the cost of traditional hiring solutions.

A unique approach to standard service offerings sets Intellect Resources apart and allows us to constantly find new and experienced talent.  Through relationship-driven, hands-on services, Intellect Resources connects employers and Healthcare IT professionals.

For more information visit www.intellectresources.com or www.irbigbreak.com.

About Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur Of The Year®

Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur Of The Year is the world’s most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs. The unique award recognizes the significant contributions of entrepreneurs who inspire others with their vision, leadership and achievement.

About Ernst & Young

Ernst & Young is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. Worldwide, our 167,000 people are united by our shared values and an unwavering commitment to quality. We make a difference by helping our people, our clients and our wider communities achieve their potential.

For more information, please visit ey.com.

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The post Tiffany Crenshaw, President and CEO of Intellect Resources, Announced as Finalist for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2013 Award® appeared first on Intellect Resources.

Pssst!  Let me share a little secret with you: Recruiters and Hiring Managers are not mean people. Generally speaking we have lives filled with fun, family and friends. Most of us like to help others and enjoy connecting the right person to the right job.

So, why does it seem like so many Recruiters and Hiring Managers don’t get back to you, or worse, don’t recognize that you are a perfect fit for the job they advertised?  The job that you know is perfect you?

Well, here’s another little secret: Recruiters and Hiring Managers are overwhelmed. We are inundated with the day-to-day responsibilities of meeting with clients, conference calls, employee dynamics, filling out reports, answering voicemails, etc. Not only that, we are overwhelmed by resumes and emails from hopeful job applicants. At times, there are so many resumes it seems impossible to review, much less respond to, every resume and email we receive.

So, what do you do to make yourself stand out? It’s really pretty easy, because most of your competition is not trying stand out. I have been a recruiter for 17 years and know that when candidates follow the guidelines below, it greatly increases the odds that I’m going to contact them, even if it’s just to say “thanks, I don’t have anything for you now.”

The first thing you need is a great resume. What constitutes a great resume? Every great resume shares a few common elements:

1. Put the most important information front and center. If you haven’t caught the reviewers’ attention by the time they get halfway through the first page, they are not likely to go much further. Be brutal. Just because you are proud of something doesn’t mean it’s most important. For example, that degree in Entomology from Berkley might be an impressive accomplishment, but not if you are applying for a job as a financial manager.
2. Use perfect grammar and spelling. Have a friend check it for you – spell check misses things, like “manger” versus “manager”.
3. Be succinct and simple. A resume should be no longer than 2 pages even if you have 30 years of experience. If your potential employer requests more information you can give them an expanded version at that point. Those fresh out of college are ok to have a one page resume – but no one else should. If you have some experience, you can’t possibly represent yourself in 1 page.
4. Skip the fancy paper, graphics, photos, etc. They distract and make it seem like you are trying to compensate for a lack of substance.
5. Be clear. Make it very easy for the layman to understand what it is you do. Not sure if you’ve done that? Find an acquaintance that will look at your resume and see if they can grasp a basic understanding of your job. Even if your work is very specialized, the layman should still be able to understand what you do.
6. Leave off the objective. They are pointless. The only thing they serve to do is limit your options.

After you’ve got your resume in shape, email your resume directly to the recruiter or manager. Try to avoid going through HR or an on-line application process, unless of course, there are explicit directions stating you should do so.

When crafting your email, do not create your cover letter in a separate document. Instead, write your cover letter in the body of the email. Keep it simple, just a few sentences: Why you are reaching out, why you feel you are qualified for the position, and how you can be reached. Thank them for their time.

Name drop whenever possible and appropriate in your cover letter. If a colleague referred you, mention it. When a candidate I know refers someone to me, I always stop and take the time to look closely at that person’s resume and respond.

Now that you’ve sent the perfect resume and cover letter, don’t forget to follow up. Let a couple days pass and call. Chances are you’ll leave a voice mail, but that’s ok. The fact that you followed up via phone will leave an impression. Leave a simple message stating the reason for your call and how you can be reached.

If it’s a job you feel very strongly about and a week or more has passed, follow up again. This time send a quick, courteous email and leave a voice message. If you don’t hear anything after this point, as hard as it may be, drop it. You’ve done all you can and you’ve done it well.  This increases the odds that you could be noticed when the next job becomes available.

On the flip side, here are some things that are sure to send your resume to the bottom of the pile.

1. A long, rambling resume.
2. Sending an email with your resume attached, but no explanation or note.
3. A curt demand to be sent the job salary, description, or location, especially without offering anything in return.
4. Rudeness and impatience.
5. Calling repeatedly.  Several times a day, or even a week, is too much! Remember that calling and hanging up without leaving a message doesn’t work either. Everyone has caller ID these days – they know it’s you.
6. Bad grammar or spelling. If you don’t take the job seriously enough to proof your resume, why should anyone else take you seriously?
7. Insisting you are a fit for a job when you know full well you are not.
8. Dishonesty.

There you have it!  Important and easy ways to stand out from the crowd.  And remember, you want to stand out for the right reasons!

The post How to Stand Out from the Crowd appeared first on Intellect Resources.

Fed up with traditional recruiting sites and floods of irrelevant résumés, some recruiters are turning to the social network to post jobs, hunt for candidates and research applicants.

Twitter, which was founded in 2006, isn’t yet revolutionizing recruiting, but some employers are already using it to great advantage, citing quick, direct contact with candidates and access to broad networks.

The appeal will grow as the site develops, says Josh Bersin, principal and founder of Bersin by Deloitte, a human resources research firm owned by Deloitte Consulting LLP. “Companies see its potential and they know that over time it’ll get more sophisticated,” allowing recruiters to target the right individuals with both sponsored tweets—essentially, jobs ads—and regular tweets, he said.

Others remain skeptical.

And how does one write a 140-character résumé—a single tweet summarizing one’s experience and unique attributes—anyway?

In February, Enterasys, a Boston network-infrastructure firm, decided to exclusively recruit for a social media marketing position using Twitter. The firm promoted the position via tweets and only accepted candidates who tweeted their interest using the hashtag #socialCV. Among the requirements for candidates: More than 1,000 active Twitter followers.

“I am fairly certain I am going to abandon the résumé process,” he says. “The Web is your CV and social networks are your references.”

Jocelyn Lai, a talent acquisition manager for advertising firm GSD&M in Austin, Texas, says she regularly uses Twitter to get a sense of a candidate. “I watch people interact, learn what their positions are, who their best friends on Twitter are, whether they have a sense of humor. From that you can get a pretty good picture,” she says.

Still, most HR executives and recruiters haven’t embraced Twitter for filling jobs, finding other social-media sites like LinkedIn more effective. Moreover, they aren’t sure their audience is using it for job-seeking purposes.

In March, HR consulting firm CareerXroads found that of 37 large U.S. companies, none was using Twitter extensively for posting jobs or for identifying candidates. But the survey did show that recruiters expect to use the platform more in the future, especially for getting the word out about openings.

In corners of the job market, such as media and technology, candidates and recruiters swear by Twitter’s value.

Lars Schmidt, senior director for talent acquisition and innovation at NPR, turned to Twitter when he moved to the nonprofit public radio company from Ticketmaster. With tighter resources, creative strategies were essential to meeting his recruiting goals. He started an @NPRJobs Twitter account and now uses it not just to broadcast job openings but to share information about NPR’s work culture, publicize openings at member stations, and build community by offering career tips.

“The people who are great aren’t always looking for jobs, and they’re not necessarily going to our career site, but they are on social media,” said Mr. Schmidt. Two of his key hires last year applied for jobs after seeing postings on the Twitter feeds of people they followed.

Mr. Schmidt says the interaction with candidates and potential candidates is what makes the tool work. He estimates he replies to about 90% of the tweets he receives. “Companies that fail at recruiting on Twitter are the ones that only use it to broadcast jobs and don’t interact with anyone. If you’re just posting jobs, it’s no better than a job board,” he said.

Twitter, which says it has more than 200 million monthly active users, is well aware of the network’s use as a recruiting tool.

Earlier this year the company co-hosted a job-search Twitter chat at its San Francisco headquarters, receiving several hundred tweets in response to questions. The public nature of Twitter “allows you to develop a certain rapport with recruiters and companies you otherwise would not have access to,” says Twitter spokeswoman Alexandra Valasek. “A tweet is much easier to send than an email or a phone call.”

In February, job seeker Dawn Siff, a former radio journalist, used Twitter’s new video program, Vine, to create a six-second video résumé. In the spot, Ms. Siff, wielding whimsical props such as a Rubik’s Cube, light bulb and a light saber, says she is an “idea machine,” as well as a journalist, strategist, manager and “deadline Jedi.”

The tweet went viral, leading her to increase her Twitter followers fourfold and earn television coverage.

Ms. Siff just started a new job as a project manager with a major media company. While the Vine video wasn’t directly responsible for the job, she says that executives at the firm were impressed by it.

“This is a new era where everyone needs to have a voice, and you want to leave a digital trail of yourself,” says Ms. Siff.

Not so lucky was Eric White a former journalist seeking to break into public relations, who tweeted a link to his CV, but with only a few dozen followers, he didn’t get much traction. In the end, he opted to start his own PR firm.

After recruiters and job seekers find each other over Twitter, more traditional means of hiring usually take over: Candidates may tweet a link to a résumé or a more complete social-media profile, followed by phone or in-person interviews.

But for making that first connection, Kathryn Minshew, founder and chief executive of career-resource site TheMuse.com, for one, is an advocate of the 140-character résumé.

A tweet, she explains, “is the new elevator pitch.”

Tips for a Twitter Job Search

Hunting for a job on Twitter can be tricky, particularly because the social network combines a person’s personal and professional identities. Here are some tips, gathered from recruiters, job-seekers and career experts, on how to best leverage the social network.

1. Follow companies – and if possible, individual hiring managers and employees — you’d like to work with.
2. Re-tweet and converse with hiring managers and employees at companies of interest. If you’re currently employed, you can directly message employers once you have established a rapport.
3. Use your profile to indicate you’re looking for a job. Nothing says social-media novice more than a Twitter account with the default picture, but make sure your photo shows you in a professional, positive light.
4. Don’t shy away from personal tweets or humor, as hiring managers want to know what you’d be like among colleagues. But keep posts clean.
5. Don’t be offended if a hiring manager doesn’t respond to your posting. Many people dip in and out of Twitter and don’t read it religiously.
6. Create a 140-character resume, a concise summary describing your skills, what you’re interested in and how a recruiter could find out more. Also consider creating a Vine video, a six-second video highlighting your skills.

The post The New Résumé: It’s 140 Characters appeared first on Intellect Resources.

Mount Sinai views healthcare IT as medical center-wide clinical transformation initiative, not only as a technical installation because it involves changing behavior.  The human dimension, people, determine healthcare IT’s success.  As a result, it is imperative the healthcare IT resource Mount Sinai partners with is dedicated to finding the right people for the job who are experts in the healthcare IT field.  Mount Sinai and Intellect Resources have a shared definition of success for employees and consultants, and because of that have forged an important partnership.  Specifically, Intellect Resources contributed to the hospital’s successful EMR implementation project, which boasts a net savings to date of 20 million dollars, due to their creative and traditional hiring solutions.

Mount Sinai Queens Goes Paperless with New Epic Electronic Medical Record

The rollout of the Epic Electronic Medical Record (EMR) at Mount Sinai Queens is complete, this is the second major phase of Mount Sinai’s $120 million EMR rollout.
ASTORIA, NEW YORK - Less than a year after the project began, the rollout of the Epic Electronic Medical Record (EMR) at Mount Sinai Queens is complete, with the system going “live” as of earlier this week.  This is the second major phase of Mount Sinai’s $120 million EMR rollout, with the first phase having taken place at the Mount Sinai Medical Center’s campus in Manhattan.  The implementation of Epic allows Mount Sinai Queens staff to chart patients using an EMR instead of paper records, and makes for the seamless transfer of medical records between inpatient treatment areas and doctors’ offices.

“The Epic EMR provides numerous advantages and added safeguards for patients, allowing for the enhanced coordination of patient care,” said Caryn A. Schwab, Executive Director of Mount Sinai Queens. “This top flight technology will allow Mount Sinai Queens to continue to provide efficient patient-centered medical care.”

“Both patient and clinician benefit greatly from electronic medical records, and with Epic, Mount Sinai Queens now has the gold standard in EMR,” said Kumar Chatani, Chief Technology Officer of The Mount Sinai Medical Center.  ”We are confident that Epic will greatly improve the patient experience and allow us to meet the goals of maximizing health outcomes for our patients.”

The Epic implementation will help physicians maintain a more complete and accurate history of patient’s prior conditions and prescriptions.  For example, Epic can caution doctors about medications that could cause allergic reactions in patients; provide information to emergency medical staff even if a patient is unconscious or otherwise incapacitated; and alert doctors to potential safety problems before they occur.  EMRs can also help numerous providers that may treat a patient stay current with the patient’s condition and with any treatment or medications the patient may have received from other hospital staff, physicians, or specialists.

“The new electronic medical record system fully integrates information throughout the entire Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, Mount Sinai Queens, and physician practices throughout the five boroughs,” said David Nierman, MD, MMM, Vice President, Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer, Mount Sinai Queens.  ”There are numerous and specific advantages to an electronic medical record. We are looking forward to the many ways Epic will allow us to better serve our individual patients, as well as contribute to the well-being of our entire community.”

“This project has been a transformational journey for the entire Mount Sinai community, with strong executive sponsorship and partnership with every department key to the success of Epic,” said Kristin Myers, Vice President of Information Technology for Mount Sinai, who has led the program since its inception.  “The implementation of Epic at Mount Sinai Queens will help ensure a single electronic medical record for every patient, whether they are seen in Queens or at our Manhattan campus.  This will facilitate improvements in efficiency, communication, care delivery, and patient safety for our patients.”

To ensure the success of the Epic rollout, comprehensive training was provided for 875 employees and medical staff; new hardware was also deployed across the campus, including more than 280 stationary and mobile workstations, 44 pharmacy and label printers, and a robust campus-wide wireless network.

In late 2012, Mount Sinai received the prestigious Davies Award of Excellence from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) in recognition of its EMR system.  Among other reasons, HIMSS cited Mount Sinai’s use of Epic EMR to reduce Medicare readmissions by 56 percent, and – as the following table shows – for other increased hospital quality measures, such as provision of discharge instructions for patients and dispensing antibiotics prior to surgery.  And last year, Mount Sinai was named to the “Most Connected” list by U.S. News & World Report, as a national medical institution recognized for clinical excellence that is also at the forefront in the use of digital technology.

About The Mount Sinai Medical Center

The Mount Sinai Medical Center encompasses both The Mount Sinai Hospital and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Established in 1968, the Icahn School of Medicine is one of the leading medical schools in the United States, and is noted for innovation in education, biomedical research, clinical care delivery, and local and global community service. It has more than 3,400 faculty in 32 departments and 14 research institutes, and ranks among the top 20 medical schools both in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding and by U.S. News & World Report.

The Mount Sinai Hospital, founded in 1852, is a 1,171-bed tertiary- and quaternary-care teaching facility and one of the nation’s oldest, largest and most-respected voluntary hospitals. In 2012, U.S. News & World Report ranked The Mount Sinai Hospital 14th on its elite Honor Roll of the nation’s top hospitals based on reputation, safety, and other patient-care factors.  Mount Sinai is one of 12 integrated academic medical centers whose medical school ranks among the top 20 in NIH funding and by  U.S. News & World Report and whose hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll. Nearly 60,000 people were treated at Mount Sinai as inpatients last year, and approximately 560,000 outpatient visits took place.

About Mount Sinai Queens

Mount Sinai Queens is a 235-bed licensed acute care hospital, providing adult medical and surgical services, with a team of nearly 500 physicians representing close to 40 medical and surgical specialties and sub-specialties.  Between the physicians and staff, 35 languages are spoken; just one of the many ways that Mount Sinai Queens serves the needs of the culturally diverse population of our community.  Mount Sinai Queens serves the communities of Western Queens and beyond by providing primary and specialty care; occupational, speech and physical therapy; outpatient surgery; cancer care and a range of radiological testing.

Mount Sinai Queens is the first and only community hospital to bear the prestigious Mount Sinai name and is unique in the community because it is not just affiliated with Mount Sinai Manhattan— it is a fully integrated part of The Mount Sinai Hospital, combining medical excellence with the compassionate, caring environment you expect from a community hospital.  For more information, visit http://www.mshq.org/.

The post Mount Sinai Queens Goes Paperless with New Epic Electronic Medical Record appeared first on Intellect Resources.

The Towers Watson survey, which included responses from more than 100 healthcare providers and hospitals, found that two-thirds (67 percent) are having difficulties attracting experienced IT workers, and 38 percent are reporting retention concerns. Officials say the staffing problems prove even greater for Epic-certified professionals, with nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of the respondents reporting difficulty hiring these individuals, whose specialized skills are essential to meet new electronic medical record requirements under healthcare reform.

“Hospitals have an urgent need for experienced, highly-skilled IT professionals to ensure they can meet new government requirements and qualify for financial incentives,” said Heidi Toppel, a senior rewards consultant in Towers Watson’s hospital industry group, in a press statement. “In addition, the ability to share patient care information and records accurately and seamlessly with a range of other providers will be essential to achieving patient satisfaction and quality-of-care outcomes in a more integrated approach to healthcare delivery.”

George McCulloch, deputy CIO at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told Healthcare IT News in an October interview that one solution for other struggling CIOs may be to hire experts outside the healthcare industry, particularly for non-application-based needs. “On the infrastructure side, we’ve certainly taken people outside the industry,” says McCulloch. He explains that up to 50 percent of IT staff at Vanderbuilt University Medical Center are not from healthcare backgrounds.  The survey also found that one obstacle in providers’ ability to recruit and retain IT employees is some misconceptions about what attracts employees to a healthcare organization for employment in the first place.

According to an earlier Towers Watson survey, healthcare workers ranked job security, competitive base pay, healthcare benefits, convenient work location and career advancement opportunities as the primary reasons for accepting an offer of employment with a healthcare provider.

However, in a complementary survey of healthcare employers, Towers Watson officials found that, with the exception of job security, healthcare employers did not rank any of these same elements when considering drivers of attraction for IT and Epic-certified employees. Instead, they identified challenging work as the most important factor in attracting an IT employee to an organization, followed by the employer’s reputation as a great place to work. They ranked base salary eighth on the overall list of draws for employees.

By Erin McCann, Associate Editor

Original article

The post Health IT leaders face hiring woes appeared first on Intellect Resources.

The Towers Watson survey of more than 100 health care providers, including hospitals, found that two-thirds (67%) are having problems attracting experienced IT employees, and 38% reporting retention issues. The attraction problem is even greater for Epic-certified professionals, with nearly three-quarters (73%) of the respondents reporting difficulty hiring these individuals, whose specialized skills are essential to meet new electronic medical record requirements under health care reform.

“Hospitals have an urgent need for experienced, highly skilled IT professionals to ensure they can meet new government requirements and qualify for financial incentives,” said Heidi Toppel, a senior rewards consultant in Towers Watson’s hospital industry group. “In addition, the ability to share patient care information and records accurately and seamlessly with a range of other providers will be essential to achieving patient satisfaction and quality-of-care outcomes in a more integrated approach to health care delivery.”

The survey found that one obstacle in providers’ ability to recruit and retain IT employees is some misconceptions about what attracts employees to a health care organization for employment in the first place.

According to an earlier Towers Watson survey, health care workers ranked job security, competitive base pay, health care benefits, convenient work location and career advancement opportunities as the primary reasons for accepting an offer of employment with a health care provider. However, in a complementary survey of health care employers, Towers Watson found that, with the exception of job security, health care employers did not rank any of these same elements when considering drivers of attraction for IT and Epic-certified employees. In fact, they identified challenging work as the most important factor in attracting an IT employee to an organization, followed by the employer’s reputation as a great place to work. Perhaps most surprisingly, the employers ranked base salary eighth on the overall list of draws for employees.

“The stark differences between the factors that employers believe attract IT employees and those that employees themselves say attract them are quite surprising. What’s clear is that employees are focused on the practical, while employers are focused on the developmental. The good news is that the vast majority of employers are taking steps to close the talent gap, and seek more balance in their employee value proposition and rewards program,” said Laurie Bienstock, North American rewards leader at Towers Watson.

According to the survey, more than half (55%) of respondents are taking at least three measures to address their attraction and retention issues with IT professionals. Among the most effective are increasing base pay rates, offering retention bonuses, and providing additional education and training.

“Given the importance of a competitive salary in attracting IT and Epic professionals, health care providers should take whatever steps they can to meet this need. But focusing on money is only part of the solution. Presenting career and growth opportunities remains important as well, and savvy employers will create as comprehensive a program as possible. Our data confirm that IT recruiting in the health care industry is a matter of striking the right balance between the practical needs of workers today and the longer-term goal of helping an industry transform itself for a different future,” said Toppel.

ABOUT THE SURVEY

The Towers Watson survey, Closing the IT Talent Gap in Health Care, was conducted in February 2013. A total of 102 U.S. health care provider organizations participated. More than half (52%) of the respondents are hospital systems, and two-thirds (67%) have 5,000 or more employees.

ABOUT TOWERS WATSON

Towers Watson (NYSE, NASDAQ: TW) is a leading global professional services company that helps organizations improve performance through effective people, risk and financial management. The company offers solutions in the areas of benefits, talent management, rewards, and risk and capital management. Towers Watson has 14,000 associates around the world and is located on the web at towerswatson.com.

The post U.S. Health Care Providers Having Difficulty Recruiting Experienced IT Workers appeared first on Intellect Resources.

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According to Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman authors of Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing  the most successful woman entrepreneurs have ring fingers 10% to 20% longer than their index finger.

Now check out this picture of Intellect Resources’ President and CEO Tiffany Crenshaw’s hand. That’s a might long ring finger, if you ask us!

Don’t judge her cuticles too harshly. Tiffany has been busy running a company that’s had triple digit growth the past three years.

Check out the full article here.

The post How To Tell If A Woman Is Going To Be Successful In Business appeared first on Intellect Resources.