The demand for great leadership in senior care is growing, but finding and keeping these professionals is a major challenge. If you’re struggling to hire the right people, you’re not alone. Here are 10 hiring challenges senior care organizations face in 2025—plus how Aspen Associates can help.
Not Enough Qualified Candidates
Senior care organizations need top leaders with a mix of healthcare knowledge, leadership skills, and business expertise. The problem? There just aren’t enough experienced candidates to go around – at any level. Research conducted by Mercer projects a shortage of 100,000 critical healthcare workers in the U.S. by 2028.
How Aspen Helps: We have a proprietary database of over 100,000 senior care professionals and can connect you with qualified candidates quickly.
Intense Competition for Talent
Senior care organizations aren’t just competing with each other for leadership talent – they’re up against hospitals, home health agencies, and private healthcare companies. As a result, candidates can be picky about where they work.
How Aspen Helps: With a 97% offer-to-acceptance rate, we help you make competitive offers that top candidates actually accept.
Leadership Burnout and High Turnover
Long hours, stressful work, and constant regulatory changes have left many senior care leaders burned out and looking for a change. The CDC reports nearly half of all healthcare professionals experience burnout; further research has found that work overload can double or even triple the risk. Roles like Executive Directors, Directors of Nursing, and Wellness Coordinators have especially high turnover rates.
How Aspen Helps: We focus on matching candidates with the right culture and leadership style to ensure long-term success and lower turnover.
Keeping Up with Regulations
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has delayed nursing home survey changes for another month, with implementation now beginning April 28 rather than March 24. We join our clients in being glad we’ve been given more time to prepare, educate and test procedures. As these regulations change, hiring professionals who understand compliance, quality assurance, and risk management is more important than ever.
How Aspen Helps: We specialize in finding regulatory experts who can keep your organization compliant and ahead of the curve.
Leadership Skills Are Changing
Today’s senior care leaders need more than just healthcare experience. They must be comfortable with telehealth, financial management, new technology, and change itself. An Accenture C-suite survey found that 60% of healthcare leaders expect more change in 2025 than in 2024.
How Aspen Helps: We identify leaders with the right mix of healthcare, business, change management, and technology skills to move your organization forward.
Rising Salaries and Budget Limits
Salaries are going up across the board: one study found that healthcare executive pay went up 4.6% in 2024, with health system leaders seeing the biggest increases. Many senior care facilities, however, don’t have the budget to match higher wage and benefit expectations.
How Aspen Helps: We analyze industry salary trends and help you craft compelling compensation packages without breaking the budget.
Retiring Baby Boomers = Leadership Gaps
Many senior care executives are retiring, but there aren’t enough experienced professionals ready to step into those roles. Without a plan for leadership transitions, organizations risk being left without strong management.
How Aspen Helps: We help organizations plan for leadership changes and recruit the next generation of executives.
Lack of Leadership Development and Succession Planning
Without structured leadership development programs, it’s difficult to fill key roles, let alone prepare for eventual retirements. One 2024 survey of medical group leaders found that only 36% have a leadership succession plan. Lacking these plans, organizations risk leadership gaps that can disrupt operations and patient care.
How Aspen Helps: Our consulting approach helps you identify and develop internal talent while sourcing external candidates to strengthen the leadership pipeline and ensure long-term stability. With Aspen, you can proactively plan for the future instead of scrambling to fill critical positions.
Changing Work Expectations
Many senior care professionals want hybrid or remote work options, especially for corporate and regional roles. But in-person work is still essential for facility-based positions, creating a tough balancing act.
How Aspen Helps: We help organizations set clear expectations for flexibility while attracting top talent.
Senior Care’s Reputation Needs a Boost
The senior care industry faced tough challenges during the pandemic, and many professionals hesitate to work in long-term care. Facilities need to improve their employer brand to attract great people.
How Aspen Helps: We highlight your organization’s strengths, career growth opportunities, and culture to make it more appealing to top candidates. We emphasize how a different role will affect their quality of life and how it will appeal to their ego, and we also cite potential for career advancement.
Hiring in today’s senior care landscape can certainly pose plenty of challenges. Fortunately, working with an experienced recruiting partner like Aspen can help set your organization apart! Our well-rounded approach matches your critical positions with best-fit talent (including passive talent) and highlights your opportunities to best appeal to top candidates.
Turn today’s challenges into opportunities to stand out. Connect with Aspen to learn more and to elevate your recruiting strategy!
By Tom Zeleny, NHA