Health Wanted: Finding the next wave of Alaska's life-savers.

• Author: Henry, Arie
• Position: HEALTHCARE

It's no revelation that the healthcare industry is experiencing an economic boon in the Last Frontier. Indeed, Alaska boasts the best average wages for several healthcare positions, including optometrists, pharmacists, dental hygienists, and general technologists and technicians. Healthcare employment has recently seen consistent increases--not many sectors in Alaska are seeing that trend. What isn't common knowledge, however, is the process involved in filling the positions that fuel the growing demand for jobs.

The truth is that recruiting qualified employees is not as straightforward as one might think in such a "healthy" business environment.

It's a journey in which future employees and prospective employers do eventually meet, but not without help from educational outreach and staffing agencies.

"We're having a hard time finding talent that is qualified. Most businesses want people to have two years' experience, three years' experience. We're getting a lot of people right out of college or right out of school." says Kyle Thacker, client champion at Anchorage-based staffing agency Alaska Executive Search (AES).

According to Thacker. AES employer clients seek to fill positions with candidates who have a substantial amount of time in the field and who have practically applied their skill sets in real-life scenarios. After all, real lives are on the line.

The complication is that agencies like AES have a glut of Alaska-grown, soon-to-be employees just out of college or vocational school with little to no practical experience on their resumes.

So what is a graduate with a brand new degree and no prior work experience (at least in the medical field) to do?

It All Starts with School

The high demand/low supply situation has compelled employers like Providence Hospital to expand their searches to a national pool of talent.

"We do contract with travel nurses from staffing agencies to supplement our staffing while we are in the process of looking for permanent staff," says Providence Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition Kathryn Wade.

"We have a wide variety of marketing, recruiting, and mission-aligned outreach programs designed to connect with new grads as well as experienced healthcare professionals locally and nationally to highlight career and growth opportunities with us."

As far as boosting the numbers of those local prospects. Wade cites specific efforts to make that happen: in the state's largest city. Providence works closely with...