Industry executives share what’s keeping them busy, what’s actually working, and where they see the market heading.
At the Healthcare Staffing Summit in November, we had the opportunity to sit down with leaders across the staffing ecosystem — from technology innovators to agency operators to benefits providers. Their conversations revealed some interesting patterns about where the industry might be heading.
While each leader brought their own perspective, certain themes kept surfacing: the push to make better use of data, questions about where AI actually adds value, and the ongoing challenge of building loyalty in an increasingly transparent market. Here’s what stood out from these conversations.
Data becomes predictive, not retrospective
The era of gut-feel decision-making in staffing is ending.
“Data should be what makes the decision, not something we go back to after the fact to justify a decision we already made.”
At the most basic level, this means using traditional metrics differently, moving from weekly reports that explain what happened to real-time dashboards that guide what to do next. As Hummel explains, “The basic KPIs still matter — they’re your macro indicators. But they’re rearview-mirror metrics: submissions, placements, people on assignment. They tell you what happened, not why.”
The leaders we spoke with are connecting those outcomes back to the activities that drive them, creating forward-looking views that predict where they’re leaving money on the table before they miss targets.
But the real transformation goes deeper, into previously untapped data. Firms are mining unstructured sources — recruiter notes, text messages, engagement patterns — to surface insights that traditional reporting misses. “All those messages and notes are telling you something about the candidate, the clinician, and the client you’re trying to sell into,” Hummel explains. “A simple example: a lot of firms don’t realize how many times a candidate has actively engaged — shown clear interest in a job — and then doesn’t hear back for 24 or 48 hours because the recruiter is overwhelmed.”
Adam Butera, Head of Product at Opus Match, emphasizes the importance of behavioral data in predicting redeployment: “You get to know, for each candidate on assignment, what’s the key time they tend to re-engage and start looking at new jobs. Then you can serve up the right opportunity at the right time.”
AI hits the middle office first, not the front lines
While AI dominates staffing conversations, the real impact is happening away from recruiter desks.
“Where I think AI and automation really change the game is the middle and back office. That’s where you still see bloated cost centers — 12 people in credentialing, 12 in payroll — doing work that should be automated.”
— Rob Mann, Head of Sales & Partnerships, Leap Advisory Partners
The goal isn’t replacing recruiters but amplifying their effectiveness. Gavin Megnauth, CIO of CoreMedical Group says, “I always joke that our tech stack is a bit like Iron Man… We’re not looking to replace [recruiters]. We want the human aspect of our recruiters, but we want to take what they do and make them more efficient.”
Here’s how Megnauth approaches implementing AI: “Something I’ve done over the last seven or eight years is go into businesses and ask people: ‘What’s the bottom 25% of your job that you hate the most — that you wish you could get rid of?’ More often than not, those tasks lend themselves to automation.”
Candidate experience becomes the true battleground
“I believe the most successful recruitment companies will be data companies that are also great at managing human relationships.”
— Gavin Megnauth, CIO, CoreMedical Group
In a pay-transparent market where jobs are visible across platforms, the candidate experience is the new primary differentiator.
The leaders we talked to are seeing an evolution from transactional job placement to strategic career partnership, which is reshaping how firms approach every interaction. Marci Overstreet, who oversees Strategic Partnerships at Benefits in a Card, envisions staffing firms becoming “true career advisors,” while Rob Mann sees recruiters evolving into consultants who can “quickly understand what a healthy career path looks like in a given specialty.”
But getting there means overcoming significant friction in the candidate experience. Chris Sund, President of Uniti Med, describes the challenge: “The amount of text messages, emails, robotic spam calls that are out there makes it even harder for somebody to even want to pick up the phone or respond to a message.”
The solution requires rethinking every touchpoint. Butera explains, “The big theme is: give them the opportunity. Let the clinician or candidate drive their own success, and express their intent by how much information they’re willing to provide at each stage.”
Trust is a key component of building a strong candidate experience, and Sund says it’s as simple as “doing what you say you’re going to do.” That trust leads to positive reviews and ratings, then to referrals that build an agency’s talent community. “So you have to lean into the experience so hard that you’re creating raving fans — people who want to take the time to tell others, ‘I’ve had a great experience here. If you’re looking, I highly recommend it.'”
Purposeful scaling requires cultural architecture
As consolidation continues and firms pursue growth, maintaining culture while scaling has become a strategic imperative. Cultural architecture — the systems, values, and practices that shape how teams work together — determines whether growth strengthens or dilutes what makes a firm successful.
Rob Mann identifies leadership culture as the key differentiator. “The leaders who are good at this are the ones asking questions, getting into the technology themselves, learning… If you have a culture of learning at the leadership level, you see smoother transitions.”
“Company culture is very much a leadership responsibility and everyone’s responsibility.”
— Chris Sund, President, Uniti Med
This shared ownership of culture becomes especially critical during periods of change. Sund notes that when bringing companies together through acquisition, “sometimes the best answer isn’t ‘your way’ or ‘my way’ — it’s a third way you discover together. That’s the real merging of the minds, and it can be extremely powerful.”
Several leaders we spoke with shared similar visions for where the industry might be heading. The path forward requires balancing multiple priorities: automation with human connection, speed with quality, scale with personalization.
As Sund concludes, “If everybody in the company focused on getting just a little bit better, constantly, in all departments and all aspects of the business, I think you’ll be just fine.”
What emerged from these conversations isn’t a roadmap so much as a shared recognition. The firms finding success seem to be those making thoughtful choices about where technology adds value and where human connection remains essential. The executives we spoke with aren’t chasing every shiny new tool, but making deliberate choices about where technology amplifies human value and where the human touch remains irreplaceable.
