Dive Brief:

• The healthcare business is no walk in the park these days, with rising expectations for industry-wide quality care while keeping operating costs in check. One way for healthcare delivery facilities to help manage those challenges is by transitioning to integrated HR systems, according to the Association for Talent Development (ATD).
• The article, by Gabriela Ammatuna, ATD's healthcare project manager, explains that adapting to fourth-generation integrated systems will require HR and talent leaders to drive innovation across the organization.
• Ammatuna writes that HR leaders must upgrade to "21st century strategies and structural processes" because that can close skills gaps and upgrade competencies. Ammatuna says traditionally healthcare HR departments managed typical tasks such as legal compliance, staffing and employee management. But healthcare needs to change.

Dive Insight:

Willis Towers Watson's 2014 report, Renovating HR for the New World of Health Care, says HR is shifting from the traditional role to a strategic “advice-giving role” for senior management. As healthcare HR transforms itself, it will also impact areas such as employee experience and culture, talent management practices and the way HR programs are segmented for new essential roles.

Based on the ATD article, it seems healthcare is catching up to the rest of the HR industry in developing "HR strategists" who require new skills and competencies, including "change management, business acumen, critical thinking, problem solving, and the ability to prioritize issues and tasks," all skills mentioned in the Willis Towers Watson report.