How Build, Borrow, or Buy Works
Since 2012, the concepts in the academic book Build, Borrow, or Buy: Solving the Growth Dilemma have gained popularity in HR and corporate leadership circles, and are being adapted as a tool for addressing talent, capacity and growth.
Organizations can buy talent on the market, borrow it through temporary arrangements or build it internally through training and career advancement. While “buying” and “borrowing” may feel expedient, they are also costly and unsustainable for extended periods of time. Building talent is the only true long-term solution – but it requires a fundamental shift in mindset from reactive to proactive.
The Hidden Costs of Buy and Borrow In Healthcare Staffing
When HR teams wait until a position is vacant before coming up with a plan to fill it, that creates a cycle of endless plugging holes. Vacancies are addressed piecemeal and recruitment budgets balloon. For example, a study at a family clinic found the total estimated turnover cost for a medical assistant equals approximately 40% of the average annual salary of medical assistants.
Meanwhile, critical but less visible roles – those who support frontline clinicians and keep the entire system running – are overlooked because they aren’t seen as revenue producers. They are when, for instance, you consider 60-70% of a hospital’s revenue comes from the operating room (OR) and ORs can’t function properly when dealing with a shortage of surgical technologists. For example, a surgeon in West Michigan admitted that after his hospital’s orthopedic scrub tech team was reduced by 50%, surgeries were taking longer, and the quality of care was somewhat sacrificed.
Not having enough allied health professionals also means the existing staff is overworked and more likely to burn out. While hiring temporary workers can decrease the workload on existing staff, it’s prohibitively expensive. An AMN Healthcare survey found 56% of healthcare facilities cite cost as a reason to not use temporary allied healthcare workers.
Calculating Allied Health Training Program ROI
Paying for certification training has proven financial benefits for healthcare employers. For example, the 7th largest rural healthcare network in the U.S. upskills 54 Medical Assistants annually through MedCerts. By doing so they’ve avoided more than $2 million in estimated turnover-related costs over six years, proving the long-term financial ROI of internal training programs.
However, MedCerts understands that every healthcare employer is different and before jumping into creating their own allied healthcare training program, they need to align their training investments with their unique short- and long-term needs.
To measure KPIs and better understand the projected ROI of launching an allied health training program, MedCerts created a proprietary ROI calculator that equips HR leaders with a revenue-focused lens. The question becomes not just, “How much does this program cost?” but rather:
- Does patient care and satisfaction increase
- Does retention increase?
- Does our spend on open requisitions decrease?
This repositioning of HR from cost center to revenue driver changes the conversation at the executive table. It elevates education from a nice-to-have benefit to a strategic imperative. For access to the ROI calculator and an assessment of what the financial benefits would be for your facility, please contact us at [email protected].
Building A More Sustainable Pipeline
At MedCerts Partner Solutions, we’ve found that if you want to keep costs down and more effectively retain employees, avoiding competing on the open market for talent and training the next generation of allied healthcare professionals yourself is the better strategy.
MedCerts offers online certification training for over 50 allied healthcare and IT-related healthcare jobs. Since the curriculum is completely asynchronous and students can learn on their own schedule, it’s an opportunity for existing employees and new recruits to study for a new position – without having to give up their existing jobs in the interim.
Students are taught via a variety of online techniques, including instructor-led videos, 3D animation demonstrations, game-based learning, and performance-based exam prep. When applicable, learners will complete their clinical hours through the healthcare employer, in coordination with MedCerts.
By teaming up with MedCerts Partner Solutions to create an allied healthcare training program, healthcare systems can proactively project what positions will have the most staffing vacancies in upcoming quarters and create certification training cohorts accordingly.
Learners are often required to agree to stay working at the healthcare facility for a one- or two-year period, in exchange for their MedCerts’ tuition being paid for. This can have a dramatic impact on retention numbers. For instance, after two years on the payroll, the rural healthcare network referenced above still reported an 86% retention rate for MedCerts-trained staff.
Conclusion
When reorienting your allied health hiring strategy away from buy-and-borrow talent acquisition, the future of our allied workforce is much brighter and more sustainable. Through teaming up with MedCerts Partner Solutions to build an allied healthcare certification program for your facility, costs can decrease, retention should improve and filling vacant allied health positions no longer has to feel like crisis management.
Want more information about how MedCerts Partner Solutions can help solve your facilities’ allied healthcare staffing issues? Or how The MedCerts ROI calculator can help project the value of creating an allied health certification program for your healthcare system? Contact us today at [email protected] to learn more!
