|
By Steven Boyd
10/09/07
Where Have All of the Techs Gone?
Steven Boyd
The answer is simple. They have gone to the beach,
to the grocery store, or are on the church choir trip. They are babysitting
the grandkids that they haven’t seen in a while. They are doing many
things other than worrying about whether to call that purplish round thing
in the microscope a lymph or a mono.
The fact is that the techs are retiring at a rate much greater than new ones
are being graduated from school. Or is that just the perception? Could there
really be enough techs to fill all of the voids? Where are they? Could it be
that they are not called techs, medical technologists (MT), or medical laboratory
technicians (MLT)? Does a chemistry degree give someone enough knowledge to
work in a medical chemistry department? How about a biology degree? What does
this qualify someone to do? Oh yeah, there are also those folks who claim to
be techs after having worked in a medical setting.
Well, you get the point.
Finding qualified techs has become an increasingly difficult task. It seems
that a laboratory must have its own recruiting department just to keep the
tech vacancies at a minimum, much less fully staffed. I would guess that there
are very few, if any, laboratories functioning with a fully staffed technical
department. However, if you are fully staffed, please give me a call. Better
yet, give me the extension to the evening shift chemistry department. I would
like to entice them with some very nice sweltering summer heat in the Deep
South.
All joking aside, there is a significant tech shortage affecting the
entire United States and, perhaps, even the world. The MT schools are dwindling
due to lack of interest and/or funds; the work ethic of the current generation
is reaching epidemic status; and the laws of economic supply and demand are
driving tech wages higher. As the wages increase, the monetary interest in
the profession will increase as well. However, don’t forget what your
CFO has been preaching: “How are we going to increase our bottom line
when all of the costs are going up, yet the reimbursements are going down?” It
is a tough question, and one with as many answers or nonanswers as any question
that we currently face. Thank goodness for advances in technology. Without
technologically advanced analyzers that require fewer tech hours to operate,
we might very well be in a tougher situation.
With fewer laboratory-related
curriculums being offered by universities and colleges, it is much harder to
find a reasonably close school to attend. Even if you find one, the likelihood
of a graduating tech reaching the marketplace is low. Most MT schools are associated
directly or indirectly with hospital systems. And, to their credit, if they
train a good tech, they want to keep them in their network. When MT candidates
go into the marketplace to perform internships, the hosting institution works
diligently to hang on to its good graduates. Again, kudos to the them. So how
do the rest of us recruit quality candidates? Let’s throw a few answers
to the issue.
In an effort to offer value-added benefits to an otherwise standard
benefits package, some employers have attempted to create a better workplace
environment for their employees. Here are a few examples of extra-effort benefits
that might offer you the edge you need in recruiting:
• Create
an area for children. One of the issues that
we all face is when an employee needs to tend to a sick child. Many times,
the child has a minor illness, such as a cold, and is just sick enough that
they shouldn’t attend school or daycare. In such cases, you may lose
the employee for the day, and the employee loses either a day of earned time
off or a daily wage. In these cases, a general area for children can be created
to allow them to rest and be close to mom or dad who can check on them in between
performing their work duties.
• Offer signing bonuses. This
is an old tactic now used by many firms. If you are going up against an entity
that offers a signing bonus, you must be willing to match or surpass that bonus.
All things being equal, the prospective employee will go for the money each
time. There is no need to get too crazy with this tactic. Offer a fair fee
that is around 10 to 15 percent of a yearly salary. It may sound steep, but
an open position is far more costly.
• Create a happy workplace. It’s
no secret that good employees hate to walk away from comfortable and well-liked
workplaces. This is also an attractive feature if the prospective employee
has friends that work there and can get a word-of-mouth referral. Do this by
offering a token of appreciation from time to time, such as a free T-shirt,
pen light, cake and ice cream, etc. Hold regular meetings with folks to get
their insight on pressing issues. You’ll be amazed at how many good ideas
are in your staff’s heads. When recruiting a candidate, walk them through
your lab and let them talk to your staff. Your staff adds credibility to your
claim that “This is a good place to work.”
There are many other
strategies that have proven successful. These are just a few that I have experienced
recently.
Once you find a candidate, there is no guarantee that he or she will
be ready to hit the ground running. This may be true of an experienced tech;
however, I am speaking of recently graduated techs. Whether the new tech is
from MLT or MT school, it is imperative that the employee’s skills be
evaluated. I have recently heard a few horror stories about the inadequate
knowledge of recently graduated techs. It seems that the schools have relaxed
their passing criteria just a little. I am certainly painting a very general
picture, and this certainly does not apply to every school across the board.
However,
the fact remains that the training is becoming suspect. For example, I recently
heard the story of a new tech just out of school who was asked the question, “What
routine chemistry tests are affected by moderate hemolysis?” The
answer may seem a simple one to many techs; however, this tech could not give
an answer. And this wasn’t just an experience with the one tech. Several
techs were asked the question and could not give an answer. The point here
is that a new graduate may certainly possess all the ability, but to throw
them straight to the bench may be a disservice to all. A well-planned training/orientation/introduction
regimen will create a happier employee and a happier employer.
There is no clear
answer to the tech shortage. Obviously, we need more techs to enter the industry.
However, we do have to work with the situation at hand. The effort to fill
open tech vacancies is a commonality among all in the laboratory industry.
It is up to us to continue to promote the laboratory profession whenever and
wherever possible to keep the attention of young adults coming out of high
school. After all, the laboratory is still one of the most useful tools in
the diagnosis and treatment of a patient.
|
