Addressing healthcare staffing challenges through internal leadership development

Across the broader economy, hiring has slowed and job opportunities have become more limited, leaving many job seekers with fewer options and reduced mobility.^1,2 Recent data also points to a broad-based slowdown in job growth across industries, suggesting a wider softening of labor demand rather than an isolated trend.^1,2
Healthcare, however, stands apart from this trend.³ While other industries are struggling to grow their workforce, job growth continues to be concentrated in healthcare and social assistance.³ This concentration is pronounced, with healthcare accounting for the majority of net job growth while many other sectors remain flat or decline.³ In fact, healthcare has contributed such a large share of recent employment gains that, without it, overall job growth would have declined.⁴ Demand for healthcare roles also remains higher than pre-pandemic levels, reinforcing the sector’s continued need for talent.⁵   
This sustained demand is occurring alongside significant workforce strain.⁶ More than 138,000 nurses have left the field since 2022, and nearly 40% are planning to leave or retire within the next five years.⁶ Stress, workload, and safety concerns remain key drivers and show little sign of easing.⁶

At the same time, health systems are operating under increasing financial pressure.⁷ Labor expenses increased by $42.5 billion between 2021 and 2023, reaching $839 billion and accounting for roughly 60% of hospital budgets.⁷ These constraints are reducing operating flexibility and contributing to variability in how teams are supported.⁷

These challenges are expected to persist.^8,9 Workforce shortages continue to be driven by burnout, an aging workforce, and constraints in education and training pipelines.⁸ Long-term projections point to continued gaps across physicians, behavioral health, and allied health roles through 2038.⁹ Together, these dynamics signal structural volatility rather than a temporary disruption. ^8,9

Recruitment alone cannot keep up with the pace and scale of workforce disruption   

As a result, health systems are shifting focus from staffing levels to how work is performed across teams.⁷ This includes clinical professionals as well as service experts such as biomeds, HTM leaders, and in-house field engineers, who help ensure continuity across care delivery and technical operations.^5,7

In this environment, consistency in how teams operate can become an important differentiator.^8,12 Variability in communication, decision-making, and coordination can compound pressures as roles evolve and workloads fluctuate. Strengthening these capabilities across the workforce can help reduce variability and create more stable, predictable operations.  

When these behaviors are practiced consistently across the workforce, teams can be better equipped to absorb change and maintain continuity.¹² Clear communication, practical coaching, and disciplined decision-making help improve handoffs and support more reliable day-to-day operations.  

Building your future leadership bench requires clear development pathways   

Many health systems face a widening gap between the leadership capability they need and the talent they can attract.^10,11

Nearly half of organizations report significant difficulty recruiting qualified candidates for executive level roles, with smaller and resource-constrained hospitals often facing the greatest challenges.¹⁰ Recruitment pressures extend beyond the C-suite into midlevel leadership and operational roles, where pipelines remain limited and competition for experienced talent continues to intensify.^10,12

Across healthcare, difficulty filling roles is widespread, with roughly three quarters of organizations reporting challenges in recruiting skilled talent.¹¹  

This shortage has pushed many organizations toward more cost-intensive recruiting strategies.¹² Organizations are turning to executive search partners, widening their geographic and talent pools, and increasing compensation to compete for limited talent across both clinical and service functions.^10,12 These investments raise costs without addressing the underlying issue: demand for leadership and operational capability continues to exceed supply, and external hiring alone cannot sustain the pipeline.¹²

Clear internal development pathways can help reduce this dependency. They help provide employees with visibility into advancement, help strengthen long-term retention, and help develop professionals who already understand the organization’s workflows, culture, and expectations across care delivery and technical operations. 
In a labor market where external hiring has become increasingly unpredictable and expensive, internal development remains a reliable way to build and sustain a strong and adaptable leadership bench.  

Advancing talent from within is a strong retention strategy  

Retaining strong performers can require more than competitive compensation or reactive staffing tactics. People must see a credible future for themselves inside the organization. When advancement pathways are unclear, even high‑potential employees may begin to look elsewhere, which can increase turnover and weaken institutional knowledge. Strengthening internal mobility can help change this dynamic by signaling that an organization that values growth, invests in its people, and is committed to developing professionals who already understand its culture and operational realities across both care delivery and technical operations.^10,12

To address this gap, organizations may want to consider moving beyond informal development and adopting more structured approaches to capability building. This can include clearly defined career pathways, consistent mentoring, and deliberate development aligned with operational needs. These approaches are relevant across clinical and service roles, including biomeds, HTM leaders, and in‑house field engineers, where clear progression and skill development are equally important.

Without this level of structure, development may remain inconsistent and readiness for expanded responsibilities may continue to lag behind demand. Organizations that invest in formal development systems can be better positioned to create predictable internal pipelines rather than relying on reactive hiring in an increasingly constrained labor market.¹¹

Advancing talent from within can also help stabilize teams more effectively than external hiring.¹² Internal contributors step into new responsibilities with established relationships, familiarity with workflows, and a grounded understanding of local challenges.¹² This can help shorten the adjustment period and reduce disruption across units.¹² As organizations face sustained workforce pressure, internal development can become one of the most reliable ways to protect continuity, maintain engagement, and build a strong, adaptable bench that can support both clinical and technical operations.¹²  

Why are frontline roles the highest leverage entry point?  

Frontline roles carry the weight of workforce turbulence more directly than any other layer in a health system.^6,8 They manage schedules, oversee operational flow, support newly onboarded staff, and absorb the immediate impact of vacancies and turnover.^6,8 Their influence shapes how teams respond to stress, how quickly new staff become effective, and how consistent processes are followed. ^6,8 These responsibilities can make frontline roles one of the most powerful leverage points for improving stability in an environment defined by continuous change.^6,8

Many organizations elevate clinical or technical experts into roles with greater responsibility without the structured development needed to manage people, navigate conflict, or influence across teams.^8,12 When this gap persists, individuals may rely on personal style rather than shared capability, and teams may experience variation in expectations, communication quality, and decision‑making.^8,12 This variation can surface quickly in operational performance, including throughput, overtime use, and staff engagement, meaning small inconsistencies in how work is managed can drive significant downstream effects.^8,12

Strengthening capability at this level can help create systemwide benefits. Clear direction helps reduce confusion and rework. Effective coaching supports team members as they grow and remain engaged. Consistent decision‑making contributes to more predictable operations, even when staffing levels fluctuate. Over time, these gains can accumulate across units and service lines, supporting improvements in workforce stability. Frontline roles therefore offer a high return because they influence daily behaviors. In many cases, individuals in these roles determine whether teams can adapt to ongoing volatility or become overwhelmed by it.⁹

What a sustainable leadership baseline looks like and why it matters   

A sustainable leadership baseline is a consistent set of behaviors that hold steady even when financial constraints, staffing shortages, and daily disruptions place pressure on teams. This baseline can become essential in an environment where workforce challenges are expected to persist over time. Teams may need to operate through ongoing volatility rather than short periods of disruption, which can require habits that remain stable regardless of external conditions.  

The foundation of this baseline is practical. Individuals in frontline and supervisory roles set clear expectations, communicate in ways that carry reliably across shifts, and make decisions through routines that are understood by the team. These behaviors help create predictable operations and reduce the need for reactive fixes when staffing flexes or workload increases. They also establish the conditions in which development can take hold and produce measurable results.  

As Bessie Cherry, Senior Product Manager for USCAN Service, explains:   

“When individuals across the organization learn and reinforce these behaviors, they strengthen team stability. Development that focuses on practice, coaching, and real‑world scenarios helps both current and aspiring contributors build judgment, manage conflict, and calibrate workload with greater clarity. As these skills become routine, teams experience fewer disruptions, handoffs improve, and changes are adopted more smoothly. The cumulative effect is reliability.”   

Developing internal talent to strengthen leadership capacity   

Strong development can help provide a more reliable path forward for both emerging and current leaders. Clear expectations, personalized feedback, and opportunities for applied practice can help leaders better understand how they can grow within the organization. These elements often signal commitment, support internal mobility, and they may reduce reliance on costly external searches. They can also contribute to a more unified leadership culture, which can help narrow performance variation across units and support greater predictability in care delivery and operations.  

The GE HealthCare Leadership Academy provides a practical pathway for developing leaders who can support teams through today’s operational pressures. Aspire prepares emerging leaders by helping to strengthen communication with purpose and helping to navigate change, streamline decision-making, and enhance team cultivation. Participants complete more than twenty hours of applied, instructor-led learning supported by coaching and assessments, which helps them build confidence early in their leadership journey.  

Empower help develop frontline leaders who guide daily operations and influence team stability. The program focuses on intentional communication, growth-oriented coaching, strategic influence, delegation, and goal-aligned execution through immersive, practice-based sessions and ongoing coaching.  

These training programs offer a structured, scalable approach to building leadership capability inside the organization. They help leaders manage teams with consistency, support staff through change, and maintain performance under pressure, helping to strengthen retention and reduce reliance on external recruitment.