What Are the Right Health Care Roles to Outsource in Today’s ‘Gig’ Economy?
Companies have begun to outsource significant amounts of work in virtually every industry. As a result of this rising trend, more and more businesses are exploring ways to outsource tasks to freelancers, contractors, and gig workers.
Healthcare, an industry consistently plagued with staffing shortages, is one field in which this practice is starting to be considered. However, many healthcare organizations are unsure which roles they should be outsourcing to gig workers.
Fortunately, having some guidance around the process of enlisting gig workers in the healthcare industry can help make the task easier.
Here are the right healthcare roles to outsource in today’s gig economy.
The Benefits of Outsourcing
For many, the idea of outsourcing healthcare roles may seem like a confusing practice. Why would these organizations want to outsource roles when they have the resources to hire teams of full-time employees?
The truth is, there are many benefits to outsourcing specific tasks and roles. Understanding these benefits can give one more insight into the reasons behind healthcare’s current foray into the gig economy.
The benefits of outsourcing include:
- Not having to pay employee benefits
- Not having to pay employees a full-time salary
- Being able to hire specialists for specific tasks
Ultimately, outsourcing tasks to gig workers offers healthcare organizations a chance to save money on labor while also tapping individuals with highly specialized knowledge. Consequently, healthcare organizations across the country are now trying to determine which roles are conducive to outsourcing to gig workers in their operations.
Roles Healthcare Organizations Should Outsource to ‘Gig’ Workers
Given the clear benefits of tapping gig workers to perform a range of tasks, many organizations in the healthcare landscape are now testing out this practice. However, many are still unsure of the exact role that the gig economy will play in the future of healthcare. As a result, many of these companies are now looking for roles conducive to gig workers.
Here are the roles that healthcare organizations should outsource.
Accounting and Billing Services
In healthcare, accounting and billing services take up a substantial amount of time. As a result, many employees often feel overworked, spread thin, and prone to experiencing burnout. In addition, hiring more full-time employees to only engage in accounting and billing services can result in an exorbitant amount of expenses for healthcare organizations.
Fortunately, gig workers can be the perfect remedy for this industry-wide healthcare dilemma. By hiring professionals on a contractor or ‘gig’ basis, healthcare companies can ease the burden on their employees while also saving a significant amount of money.
Marketing
The practice of outsourcing marketing practices is nothing new. In fact, many companies have partnered with marketing firms to grow their audiences throughout history. However, the practice of calling upon individual agents to engage in marketing efforts is relatively new, and many still have tentative attitudes toward its viability.
Regardless of its lack of a long history as a practice, healthcare organizations can benefit immensely by tapping gig workers to perform marketing duties. These marketing efforts can be broad and include a number of practices including:
- Writing ad copy
- Crafting newsletters
- Creating advertising campaigns
- Conducting market research
- Managing social media pages
- Generating design materials
Utilizing gig workers for marketing purposes is beneficial in many ways. One fundamental way is by saving money on a range of full-time salaried employees. Rather than having a whole team receive pay throughout the year, gig workers will save healthcare organizations money by only working on specific projects.
Beyond the benefits of saving money, healthcare companies can also be sure that they’re hiring gig workers who are experts in various aspects of marketing. In this way, healthcare organizations have a chance to save on labor costs while ensuring that each part of their marketing efforts is robust and effective.
Scheduling and Other Patient Services
For many nurses, the workday can be grueling, long, and stressful. This often causes nurses to experience extreme fatigue and burnout, affecting their ability to serve patients consistently. To make matters worse, nurses often have to engage in non-medical tasks that can take up precious time and add to their fatigue.
In particular, the tasks of scheduling patients and checking them in often fall onto the shoulders of busy nurses. This reduces efficiency in medical facilities while also putting more stress on the healthcare workers who serve patients.
Fortunately, tasks such as scheduling and checking in patients can easily be outsourced to gig workers with a specific skill set. Given the importance of nurses being able to help patients reach optimal health outcomes, this form of gig work is a perfect fit for hospitals and other medical facilities. In addition, this practice can help healthcare organizations streamline the process of scheduling and checking in patients, creating a more enjoyable patient experience.
Healthcare Can Benefit from the Gig Economy
While many people don’t usually think of the connection between healthcare and the gig economy, the truth is, it has the potential to be significant. From outsourcing marketing campaigns to tapping gig workers to help with patient scheduling, there is a vast array of ways that the gig economy can benefit healthcare.
As time goes on and more organizations in the healthcare sector begin exploring these options, gig workers will likely become a normalized facet of the industry.
