How can Healthcare build a digital workforce?

The tech skills deficit is causing digital transformation delays in many industries, and in Healthcare this problem is amplified by issues such as less competitive public sector wages and a lack of knowledge of the digital career path within.

With many parts of the NHS currently undergoing various levels of digital transformation using technologies such as AI, machine learning and remote care, digital skills are becoming a necessity to sustain modern healthcare.

This fact is only made clearer in The Topol Review, which outlined a series of recommendations to ensure that NHS becomes a world leader in digital technologies to benefit patients.

The report found that nearly 90% of roles within the organisation will require some level of digital skills over the next 20 years, and staff need to prepare for an increase in data-rich healthcare environments.

Speaking on a panel at the Digital Healthcare Show 2022, the CIO of Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Toby Avery and Mark Kenny – the trust’s strategic transformation lead – spoke alongside Lisa Emery, CIO at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation, about the challenges of attracting top tech talent and what steps they’ve taken to procure and nurture it.

Avery claims that his Trust is limited by what it can offer in terms of public sector pay as well as being in situated in a borough that’s only a stone’s throw away from London, where the wages are higher.

He says that this is particularly true of traditional IT roles such as network and server engineers as well as systems architects – where the pay rates don’t match the private sector, particularly in London: “Often if there’s a 10k pay difference,” he adds.

Employing clinicians, however, is not as difficult as many are eager to pick up digital skills, according to Avery, along with other roles that are more transformation oriented.

This suggests that a learning-on-the-job approach to IT roles, alongside training supported by managers, may be a solution – mirroring the recruitment and training models used by the UK’s financial services.

A fellow panellist from the private sector – Colin Petford, director of technology capabilities and innovation at Discover Financial Services, said that rather than outsourcing employees and joining the competition with other industries for skilled candidates, the company found that looking inward was a strong option. It was up to the NHS to “provide vision for your staff,” he said.

Petford added that the financial services firm chose to build a tech academy and rearchitected every role. With time, the leaders and managers looked at potential career paths for their employees and provided them with future promotion prospects. This allowed managers to better support their employees by providing training in digital skills and therefore fulfilling skills gaps.

Similarly, at The Royal Marsden, a specialist cancer hospital, Emery said that their flagship London site has taken the time to invest in the teams they already have.

The CIO explained that this involved looking at the levels and proficiency of current skills and then showing the junior analysts how they could progress within the company.

Developing skills and training their current employees, rather than filling in the gaps, offers valuable internal progression within the company, according to Emery.

Apprenticeships and graduate schemes to phase in new people are also a good solution if the same skills cannot be sourced externally – something that both Emery and Petford have embraced.

“Only 13% of pupils go into IT degrees which doesn’t satisfy demand, so how do we build the capacity ourselves? Through apprenticeships,” said Petford.

This low percentage of pupils going into IT degrees is contributing to the tech skills gap, with students not truly aware of what technology roles are out there. So how does a company make these digital positions known, and, in turn, encourage more pupils to head into these degrees?

According to Kenny, keeping an active Twitter profile helps Surrey and Borders raise awareness and interest in technology roles in healthcare.

Kenny noted that forging relationships with industry and universities also helps, alongside promoting the opportunity to create a tech career in a fulfilling sector.

Ultimately, it’s up to employees to take responsibility for the skills they’d like to develop. Emery said to inspire this, “there’s a role model aspect” which involves leaders being seen to invest in their own development as well as encouraging team leaders to do the same.

“One of my directors empowers the senior team to have learning time,” says Avery. Which is an “opportunity to think and reflect. Not necessarily just going to get qualifications and certifications but thinking about skillsets as well”.

“By setting the example, you will then see others picking it up and thinking about their own self-development.”

Further up into the C-Suite, Avery stressed that there wasn’t too much sideways movement from other industries into healthcare. One issue is that CIO certification for healthcare rules out people from other sectors, who could help open more digital opportunities for the NHS.

Machine learning, AI and remote monitoring are all transforming the healthcare industry but need skilled employees to carry on, and, according to the panel, digital representation on the board is critical.

Ultimately, the panel agreed that a rewarding career is the main selling point for a digital role in healthcare: “There are lots of opportunities in the NHS at every level. Even though there’s not as much pay, they can really stimulate your mind,” said Avery.