The widening skills gap is costing organizations significantly In 2023, the medical device service sector saw a 6% increase in technicians. This uptick in workers, however, wasn’t the saving grace that these service teams needed. The findings found that the majority of these workers lacked the necessary skills required to complete a job efficiently, ultimately costing employers. More-seasoned technicians retired faster than their replacements could enter the workforce, even with the uptick in hiring, and the report found that technicians completed 3.3% fewer work orders overall, signaling that organizations struggled to upskill less-experienced workers quickly. While service costs across the industry were down, data shows the least-skilled technicians cost over 200% more in the bottom-performing medical device service companies.
In the top 20% of organizations across Aquant’s dataset, there’s a 30% difference in Resolution Cost, a metric that measures the total cost it takes to revolve and close a case, between top-performers and bottom-performers. In the bottom 20% of organizations, the knowledge gap between the most- and least-skilled technicians costs 203% more. Service teams need to address this widening gap now if they want to stay competitive, or for that matter, operating.
What would happen if all your employees could perform at an expert level? Aquant’s research reveals boosting low-performing employees closer to average performers would decrease service costs by 7%. But if everyone had the knowledge and skills to perform like the top 20% of the workforce, service costs would be reduced by nearly 30%. If ignored, the skills gap will lead to a heavier workload on teams, especially veteran techs who are often called in to help.
Narrowing the skills gap: improve efficiency for practitioners and better patient environments Refusal to narrow the skills gap could lead to an increase in service costs, a decrease in customer satisfaction, an uptick in customer churn, less capacity for organizational resilience, and a negative impact on growth. But those organizations who take the necessary steps to shrink the gap will not only improve overall business performance and customer relationships, but they will also improve the experience for their end customer: the health practitioners and their patients.
To get started, organizations can take the following steps now:
● Normalize data sanitation and ensuring that "clean" data can be easily accessed and analyzed to inform more accurate decision-making
