Put very simply, the entire working world took a major hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The lives of many people across all industries were turned upside down when suddenly they found themselves unemployed or spending their working days on Zoom. Now, as we attempt to shift back to normal the majority of companies are asking employees to return to work as they did pre-pandemic with little acknowledgment of the substantial adjustment that they’ve been through in the last 2 years.

The result? Not a lot of people are particularly eager to make the migration back to working life as we once knew it. And those that are returning to work are seeking increased benefits and better work-life balance now that they know it’s an option.

How will this trend impact the medical employment market?

As vaccination rates edge closer to roadmap targets and Australia enters a post-Covid world, practice owners and hospitals must get ready to batten down the hatches and respond to the rapidly approaching “Great Resignation”.

This phenomenon has already led to record “resignation rates” among US employees, and experts say the wave of post-Covid resignations is due to reach the Australian shores by March 2022.

How Will Medical Be Impacted?

Based on survey results from Jackson Search, 54 percent of doctors have reported that COVID-19 has caused them to alter their employment plans. Half of those respondents have planned to leave their current employer and another 36 percent have decided to retire early or even pivot into a new industry and cease practicing medicine all together.

This mass exodus or change of workplace of healthcare workers can be attributed to how mentally taxing the COVID-19 pandemic has been, particularly for the medical professionals bearing the brunt of the response.

While most of the Australian workforce had their working lives impacted, it is important to consider that healthcare workers were already operating at breaking point pre-Covid, with chronic under-staffing and a culture of working unpaid overtime and on-call the status quo.

Many healthcare workers are feeling drained after over 24 months of filling roster gaps on short notice, extra night-shift and on-call. They are missing out on opportunities for career progression with training programmes and assessments put on hold not to mention cancelled annual leave and other sacrifices to social and family life. There has been little reprieve, no opportunity to Zoom and binge watch Netflix or spend more time at the park while working from home.

In summary, our healthcare heroes have had their already difficult work-life balance further eroded into what is for many, an unsustainable and exhausting state.

Referring to our own firsthand experience at JPS Medical, in the last 3 months we have fielded an unprecedented level of interest from typically established Doctors who are looking for greener pastures. For some they are looking into medical tourism; locum tours around ANZ. For others, they are looking for enhanced clinical support, greater flexibility of working hours, ratio of RN’s and a higher quality of medical care as opposed to a conveyer belt experience.

How Can Employers Respond?

Employers that chose inaction do so at the risk of understaffed practices and departments. In some regional & rural settings this may mean service levels that are vital to local communities will diminish even further.

Practices who are proactive and have planned for the impending Great Resignation will come out the other side ahead of the competition.

Speak to an experienced Recruitment Consultant at JPS Medical to discuss the latest market conditions and get ahead of the curve.