Why Co-Sourcing May Be an Answer for You
If you work in healthcare, you know that the industry is constantly changing. New technologies and medicines are discovered daily; we’re beginning to understand our DNA; and we’re even seeing robots take over hospitals .
Unfortunately, this means that the medical workforce also requires specialized skills every year: Businesses need to hire new workers with different education levels and experience. But something has changed in the workforce over the past few years, and not for the better: there are now more retiring workers than new workers entering fields like nursing .
Co-sourcing may be an answer to this problem. It is a term that focuses on how businesses should work together to maximize resources without increasing costs. While co-sourcing has traditionally been used in the IT industries, it also applies to other fields like healthcare.
Co-sourcing is simply defined as “the act of businesses working together out of mutual benefit”. If your business uses co-sourcing, you will be able to get specialized knowledge without having to hire additional workers. This allows businesses to save money while focusing on their core strengths.
Why should you consider co-sourcing in the healthcare industry?
Co-sourcing is ideal for industries that require complex, high level work. And what other health care profession requires more information than nursing ? A nurse must be knowledgeable about medicine, neuroscience, pharmacology…the list goes on and on! They also need to know how to deal with patients in emergency situations. On top of all this, nurses are expected to keep up with new developments in science and technology , so they can integrate them into patient treatment options. Currently, there are nearly 3 million registered nurses employed in the United States . With the retirement rate expected to rise dramatically over the next 10 years, it’s easy to see that finding and connecting with new nurses is going to be a problem .
This brings us back to co-sourcing. As we mentioned, this term applies to the sharing of knowledge between businesses. Rather than hiring individual employees for specialized skills, you can hire another business that has those specific skills instead. So what if your business could hire a nurse without having to hire an entire nurse? This would allow you to save money and time while still getting someone who knows how to do whatever it is you need done. This also allows your workers to focus on their core strengths rather than expanding into other fields where they don’t necessarily belong (and becoming mediocre at both).
Co-sourcing sounds like a great solution, but why hasn’t it been used more frequently in the healthcare industry?
The co-sourcing trend has been a popular one for a while now. In fact, it’s so popular that even colleges and universities have begun offering courses specifically on the topic . But what about businesses? For some reason, they haven’t immediately latched on to this idea.
There are a few possible reasons for this. First of all, many businesses tend to assume that co-sourcing only works in the IT industry. They assume that hiring IT companies will save them money by doing the work for them, but this is not always true. As with any other business transaction, you have to make sure both parties are getting what they need out of it. So hire an IT company because they can do something well for your business , not simply because they exist .
Secondly, co-sourcing has typically been used for projects where work can be split into different tasks or categories. For example, “we want to build a new website. We want you to do the coding and we’ll handle the design.” While this sort of project is easy enough to break down into parts that need to be co-sourced, it becomes more difficult when the end result is an entire product. This means that businesses that are co-sourcing may need to invest more time into finding the right partner to work with.
Another possible reason for this resistance is the trend of remaining competitive . Businesses believe they can create a better product or perform better work than their competitors if they hire and retain more of their own employees. This is especially true in the healthcare industry, where doctors and nurses claim that they can provide better care than anyone else because they’re highly trained . However, just because a product may be better for one person doesn’t mean it will work out that way for everyone.
If co-sourcing actually provides businesses with the tools and workers they need to succeed, then it’s definitely worth looking into. And if co-sourcing can help your business increase productivity while freeing up employees to do what they do best , then it may be an answer for you as well.
Benefits of Co-Sourcing:
Fewer human resources to manage
Increase in productivity through specialization
Decreased costs due to streamlined work process
Improved product or service by specialized workers
Better workforce for growing businesses
We don’t want you to think that this is just another “quick fix” solution where there are no consequences or negative results. There are pros and cons to everything, after all! However, we also hope that you’re beginning to see how co-sourcing can benefit your business—and perhaps even save it from being left behind as competitors continue to progress.