3 Future Challenges For Global Healthcare Leaders

The healthcare sector is vital to the future wellbeing and prosperity of our world, especially as our population continues to grow and age. By 2030, it is estimated that 80 million healthcare workers will be needed to meet the demands of the global population, according to Deloitte – double the number who were employed in 2013.

Yet staff shortages and employee burnout are already a pressing problem in the healthcare sector. Furthermore, Deloitte predicts that without intervention, the world will be short of some 18 million healthcare professionals, mostly in lower-income countries. At the same time, geopolitical uncertainty prevails, new technologies are changing how the sector operates and social expectations are continually evolving, with implications for what healthcare workers expect from their employers.

Today is World Health Day, so it’s an appropriate time to explore the specific issues facing healthcare leaders as they lead their teams into the future. Here are three of their greatest challenges:

1. Attracting and retaining talent

The critical workforce shortage in the healthcare sector has been intensified by demographic changes, along with wellbeing problems. “Healthcare staff report issues relating to a lack of work-life balance, a lack of development opportunities, burnout and dissatisfaction with their working environments,” explains Bjørn Erik Mørk, professor in innovation at BI Norwegian Business School.

Mørk adds that in many organizations there is a lack of psychological safety, “which makes it difficult for employees to ask questions, admit failures or come with suggestions for improvements.” Consequently, these organizations can struggle to attract, recruit and retain competent healthcare workers. “Leaders need to have strong relational skills, emotional intelligence and well-developed communication skills,” he says. “They must be collaborative and show that they genuinely care.”

Professor Gerardine Doyle, from UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School in Ireland, believes that healthcare leaders should collect data to measure the level of burnout being experienced by their workers and seek to understand the causes. Then leaders can make “innovative decisions” in areas such as care processes, job design and recognition of excellence that may help to alleviate levels of burnout and enhance job satisfaction. This, in turn, should enhance patient satisfaction and patient outcomes.

2. Transforming the patient experience through technology

Artificial intelligence, electronic health records and telemedicine are all transforming the healthcare sector, with transformation set to create efficiencies in both clinical settings and administrative functions.

Nevertheless, healthcare lags behind other sectors in the implementation of digital strategies, according to Dr Rainer Sibbel, professor of international health management at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. This results in the continued use of highly manual processes – for example, patient appointment booking systems – which have been automated in other sectors such as banking and retail.

“Addressing digital transformation will require leaders to make strategic decisions regarding where in the organization to invest in technology,” Sibbel says. “In addition, a key leadership challenge is change management, to implement these new technologies successfully.”

Artificial intelligence and machine learning present healthcare professionals with opportunities to predict disease and provide earlier and more accurate diagnoses, leading to better health outcomes for patients. At the same time, however, these technologies also pose risks that could result in patient harm – risks such as data privacy breaches and algorithmic bias that exacerbates existing health inequalities.

“While healthcare leaders need to embed AI within their organizational strategy, rigorous governance of AI will also be required,” notes Doyle.

3. Being an adaptive leader

Healthcare leaders are hybrid leaders who must blend their professional expertise with managerial duties and responsibilities, argues Dr Éva Krenyácz, assistant professor at the Corvinus University of Budapest. They are expected to inspire and motivate a diverse and multigenerational workforce, with different generations having their own distinct values and communication styles.

Krenyácz notes that an increasingly visible trend in both healthcare and management is for younger generations to show lower stress tolerance and frequently change jobs. “Adaptive leadership – flexible, emotionally intelligent and responsive – is necessary to effectively motivate and retain diverse teams,” she says. “Developing these skills is essential for maintaining cohesion and performance in a multi-generational workforce.”

As well as dealing with generational shifts, health leaders need to learn from the Covid-19 pandemic to prepare for potential future health crises, advises Doyle. “Such preparedness will require organizational resilience, flexibility and the agility to adjust to an uncertain and rapidly changing environment,” she says. “Equipping staff with the skill set to be resilient, flexible and agile so they may cope with uncertainty while providing the highest quality care and achieving optimal health outcomes for patients will be critical for the future.”

Michael Freeman, associate professor of technology and operations management at INSEAD business school, believes that healthcare leaders must manage a “perpetual three-way tension” in their roles.

“While other sectors might optimize for shareholder value, healthcare leaders must simultaneously balance quality, access and cost,” he explains. “That said, the fundamentals of building high-performing teams, fostering innovation and strategic planning remain surprisingly similar. The best healthcare leaders apply business discipline while respecting healthcare’s unique imperatives.”

Challenges for healthcare leaders

Of course, healthcare leaders are not the only leaders to face challenges in relation to talent, technology and leadership approach. These challenges are also faced by leaders in other sectors. Nevertheless, the importance of human health means that healthcare leaders are under pressure to address them even more effectively than their peers.

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