Healthcare industry

The healthcare industry remains in a state of crisis. It is still grappling with significant disruptions, especially around navigating workforce challenges, overcoming financial stress, embracing technology transformation and adopting value based care models.

This challenging period is not fleeting. Healthcare organizations must not only weather the storm but also undergo a fundamental reset in the delivery of healthcare in the U.S.

Key challenges

We project a nationwide shortage of 100,000 critical healthcare workers by 2028

Healthcare organizations that want to stay competitive must employ rigorous analytics to understand what talent they will need, when they will need it, and where they will find it.

Our report, Future of the U.S. Healthcare Industry: Labor market projections by 2028, explores the critical issue of healthcare worker shortages in the US, offering a comprehensive review of data to estimate future shortages or surpluses and recommendations for addressing these gaps.

Read the executive summary for more details or download the full report and view the interactive map.

Healthcare organizations are forced to do more with less. Work redesign deconstructs jobs at the task level to determine what tasks can be offloaded, augmented, optimized and/or automated to allow workers to practice safely at the top of their license.

Mercer's work redesign projects have achieved remarkable results, including up to a 40% increase in capacity and enhanced job satisfaction in critical, high-demand healthcare roles. Our scalable and sustainable approach allows organizations to boost their operational capacity without the need for additional headcount, all while fostering greater employee satisfaction.

40%

potential increased capacity and improved job satisfaction in key, high-demand roles

In today’s competitive healthcare talent environment, it’s imperative that organizations regularly put effort into boosting the employee experience and refining their employee value proposition to reflect the needs of their constantly evolving and changing employee population.

The results of Mercer’s latest (2024) Inside Employees’ Minds healthcare industry survey indicates a significant 9 point drop (in one year, since 2023) to the item, “I would recommend my organization to friends and family as a good place to work,” and the drop is even more significant (14 points) when we asked those earning less than $60K per year. The industry has been slow and inefficient when addressing these issues and it’s now crucial that healthcare organizations prioritize refreshing the employee experience.

Post-pandemic, the workforce has changed and the needs of the workforce have changed. Never before have employers had to manage the needs of five generations in the workforce.

The healthcare organizations that take a more modernized approach to total rewards will attract and retain top talent, be the healthcare organizations where people want to work and seek care, have a healthier employee population and better patient outcomes.

38%

of healthcare leaders said their reward packages are not meeting the needs of an increasingly diverse workforce¹

_{¹People Risk 2024, US Healthcare Industry cut, Mercer Marsh Benefits}

2025 is expected to see an uptick in M&A activities across healthcare. Healthcare is already challenged with major changes that are generally heightened by M&A activities that cause even more disruption to organizations. Therefore, there’s an increased urgency to synergize, rethink deals and how they integrate into existing systems.

Healthcare industry

A prescription for success

Key challenges

Key solutions for Healthcare organizations