After job cuts, health ministry on hiring blitz
Spike in employment postings after exceeding reduction target
Nearly two years after setting out to abolish 1,300 administrative positions in the health network to cut costs, the Quebec government is now on a hiring blitz to recruit new managers, according to the latest job offers on the ministry’s website.
The hiring surge, say experts, suggests that Health Minister Gaétan Barrette’s administrative reforms may have backfired, as over-burdened and burned-out managers are quitting in droves while dozens of vacant positions go unfilled, despite being re-posted repeatedly.
The government’s own figures reveal that Barrette has already surpassed his objective of job cuts, raising concerns that he may have cut too deeply. Today, there are at least 1,452 fewer full-time administrators to run hospitals and clinics than in 2014.
What’s more, the government reached its goal two years ahead of schedule of setting a management ratio of one administrator for 20.3 employees. In fact, the health ministry attained a higher ratio — one manager for 20.7 employees — in 2015-2016, the first year of Barrette’s reforms.
“We’re noticing that more and more jobs are being posted, whereas before it was cut, cut, cut,” said Franceen Alovisi, executive director of the 1,400-member APER, representing health-care managers across the province.
“But the ministry is not able to fill positions. We told them this would happen.”
On April 1, 2015, the first phase of Barrette’s reforms, Law 10, came into effect, merging hospitals, clinics and other institutions under the authority of newly-created health organizations.
Every hospital and clinic lost its executive director and many senior positions were abolished.
Managers who previously worked at one institution were put in charge of up to a dozen, and much of their time is spent driving from one site to another.
Alovisi noted that a manager in the Eastern Townships logs 1,000 kilometres a month simply driving around the region.
Some unionized workers were saddled with tasks previously performed by managers. The government is not just on a hiring blitz for managers, but workers in all sectors, including dental technicians, nurses and orderlies, suggesting that burnout is occurring among the rank and file, too.
Worried that the health-care field might be getting a bad rap, the government launched a $250,000 ad campaign three weeks ago to try to interest young Quebecers in a career in health care.
In the last 12 months, an average of 300 positions — managerial and unionized — were posted on the ministry’s website, Emploi Santé Montréal, each week, say workers who follow the postings regularly.
But in the last couple of weeks, the total jumped to 470.
The number of managerial positions posted this week for all of Quebec is nearly 70, up from 30 to 40 a few months ago.
“To me, this means that a lot of people are not applying for jobs, while others are leaving the system,” said a manager, whose position was abolished.
The manager, who agreed to be interviewed on condition of anonymity for fear of not getting hired, said that workers are demoralized and have lost faith in the health system. In a survey of health-care managers published last April, 56 per cent of respondents said they felt stressed most of the time and 88 per cent felt they’re always rushing to complete their tasks. In addition, managers rated their work environment 5.1 out of a scale of 10.
“Managers don’t just want to fill out paperwork. They want to give good service to the population, and they find that it’s very difficult with the reform,” said Chantal Marchand, executive director of the Association des gestionnaires des établissements de santé et de services sociaux (AEGESS), which commissioned the survey.
“We believe that the government cut too many positions.”
In an emailed statement, Julie White, Barrette’s press attaché, did not address the question of why the government is on a hiring spree.
Instead, she observed that the total number of full-time managers dropped to 9,687 in 2015-2016 from 11,139 two years earlier. White did not provide figures for last year.
“The number of positions that are posted can fluctuate as a result of departures, notably because of retirements,” she explained.
“However, one should not draw a link between the number of jobs posted and the (hiring) objectives.”
In justifying the reform, the government estimated that abolishing 1,300 positions would save $220 million a year in salaries. Not all managerial positions are purely administrative. Some positions, such as the director of professional services, can decide on a wide range of clinical matters.