For more than 15 years, I built my career on the staffing side of healthcare.
I worked alongside incredible recruiters, account managers, and healthcare leaders who helped hospitals navigate some of the industry's toughest workforce challenges. I saw firsthand the value staffing partners bring - especially during periods of rapid growth, seasonal demand, and, of course, the unprecedented challenges of COVID.
Today, my perspective is a little different.
Working with health systems on the broader strategy behind workforce management has challenged me to think about success through a different lens. Not because the staffing model is wrong - it absolutely has an important place—but because I believe healthcare is beginning to ask a different question.
From Staffing Strategy to Workforce Strategy
For years, we've focused on building better staffing programs.
But what if the bigger opportunity is building better workforce strategies?
Those are two very different conversations.
Traditional MSPs have helped bring structure, visibility, and consistency to contingent labor. Many organizations have benefited tremendously from those partnerships.
At the same time, every organization is ultimately measured by its own definition of success.
Different Organizations Measure Success Differently
If you're an agency-operated MSP, success may naturally include metrics such as:
- Fill rate
- Gross margin
- Revenue growth
- Supplier utilization
- Travelers on assignment
- Market penetration
Those aren't bad metrics. They're important indicators of running a successful business.
But if you're sitting in the seat of a CHRO, CFO, COO, or CNO, your scorecard probably looks very different.
You're likely asking questions like:
- Are we reducing our reliance on premium labor?
- Are we building an internal workforce that's more flexible every year?
- Is our float pool becoming more scalable?
- Do we have real visibility into supplier performance and market rates?
- Are managers consistently exhausting internal resources before requesting agency staff?
- Are we building a workforce strategy that becomes stronger - not more dependent - as time goes on?
A Different Definition of Success
That's the shift I find most interesting.
The conversation is moving beyond contingent labor management and toward enterprise workforce strategy.
It's no longer just about filling open positions.
It's about creating a system that gives health systems greater control over how labor is sourced, deployed, measured, and optimized.
Ironically, success in that model may mean relying on staffing agencies less over time - not because agencies aren't valuable, but because they're being used more intentionally.
Staffing firms will always play a critical role. Specialized talent, seasonal demand, rural markets, hard-to-fill specialties, project-based work, and rapid response needs aren't going away.
The difference is that agencies become one component of a broader workforce strategy - not the strategy itself.
Perhaps the biggest distinction isn't whether one model is "better" than another. It's that different business models naturally optimize for different outcomes. When a partner's incentives are aligned with the health system's long-term workforce goals, the conversation shifts from filling jobs to building a more sustainable workforce.
One question I occasionally hear is, "If your goal is to help health systems reduce contingent labor, how does that benefit HWL?"
It's a fair question.
Like any business, we're a for-profit organization. The difference is that our success isn't tied to increasing agency utilization or maximizing contingent labor spend. Our goal is to become a long-term strategic partner by helping health systems optimize their workforce over time. When our clients gain greater control, improve workforce stability, and lower unnecessary labor costs, those partnerships tend to grow - not because they're buying more contingent labor, but because they're realizing value across their entire workforce strategy.
Why I Joined HWL
That's one of the things that drew me to HWL.
The philosophy wasn't centered on replacing staffing partners. It was centered on helping health systems build an infrastructure that gives them more ownership over their workforce.
Success isn't measured solely by how many travelers are working through the platform.
It's measured by questions like:
- Did premium labor spend decrease?
- Did the internal resource pool grow?
- Did float pool utilization improve?
- Are supplier relationships more transparent and accountable?
- Does leadership have better workforce data to make strategic decisions?
- Is the workforce becoming more sustainable and less dependent on premium labor over time?
To me, that's a different conversation - and one worth having.
Looking Ahead
As healthcare continues to evolve, I think we'll spend less time asking, "How do we buy contingent labor more efficiently?"
And more time asking, "How do we build a workforce that's sustainable for the next decade?"
I don't believe that means staffing firms become less important. If anything, I think the best partnerships will be those where every participant - health system, MSP, and staffing partner - understands their role and is aligned around improving workforce outcomes.
I'd love to hear from others across healthcare.
How has your definition of workforce success changed over the past five years? What metrics do you think health systems should be measuring going forward?