Strengthening our workforce – UVM Health Network

The national workforce shortage is impacting health care organizations across the country, and our region is no exception. Today, there are simply not enough health care providers, technicians and professional staff to fill all of the available positions here and elsewhere. To develop, nurture and retain talent in Vermont and northern New York, we are working toward:

Partnering to provide educational and training initiatives, and financial support, to people in our community interested in training for available work.
Filling vacancies and working to increase employee satisfaction by creating new opportunities for growth and development, as our financial position allows.
Analyzing compensation for positions across the Network and negotiating wage increases so they are competitive in the labor market. Additionally, we are offering sign-on bonuses for certain hard-to-fill shifts, as well as referral bonuses to current employees.
Alleviating the housing shortage in our region with two new housing units, while exploring additional opportunities to invest in high-quality housing and childcare for our workforce.

Increase and improve recruitment efforts

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an average of 800 job openings across our health care partners at any given time. More recently, this number has hovered at around 2,000, peaking in September 2022 at 2,200 open positions. While job vacancies are still high, they are moving in the right direction, in part due to our recent initiatives.

Recruiting