The healthcare industry is always in need of qualified candidates. The challenge is matching candidates to their ideal positions with the right incentives to stay. Healthcare is often a high-stress environment and has a high turnover rate for employees. A solid healthcare industry recruitment strategy could alleviate some of the problems, creating a higher quality workforce.
Not only do healthcare facilities employ trained medical professionals, but they also need food service workers, maintenance, and office staff. To have a successful business, your company needs to find the balance between benefits to the employee and the benefits to the employer.
Here are 10 healthcare recruiting strategies to adopt right now:
Start Early:
Many healthcare positions require advanced degrees, training, and certification. Most of these candidates decide where they want to work during this time, so it makes sense to begin recruiting while your candidates are still in school. Job fairs, mentorships, and on-campus representatives can increase the visibility of your company from the start.
Healthcare Job Boards:
After graduation, many candidates will be looking for jobs online if they did not find a connection while in school. There are excellent general job-seeking sites, but there are also sites directly tailored to the healthcare profession. In addition, job boards can help find both active and passive applicants willing to change jobs for the right benefits.
Better Benefits:
This leads us straight into the benefits package offered to new employees. For an in-demand field like healthcare, the available benefits are often what sway the candidate to choose one job over another. Benefits can be simple, but they must remain competitive to remain a contender.
Most benefits for full-time positions include medical insurance, but you can set yourself apart by offering higher compensation for medical school debt or increased paid time off.
Branch Out:
Some fields are only a small step to the healthcare industry. Offering paid training for certified positions can increase the applicant pool for your facility. Not every job requires a medical license, so use this to your advantage to fill these positions. Medical personnel from the military are also excellent candidates for vacant positions.
Upgrade Your Applicant Tracking System (ATS):
An outdated system can remove qualified people from your candidate list without you realizing it’s happening. Tracking systems become more advanced every year, so you should strongly consider an upgrade if yours is a few years old or more. An advanced ATS can save recruiters time, and in turn, save you money as well.
Cross Utilize or Hire From Within
Many positions in the healthcare industry are part of an advancement tree. Your current employees are likely looking for a raise and more responsibility, so post your jobs in-house for higher-level opportunities. The current employees are already familiar with your company and can probably adapt to their new role more quickly than an outside hire.
Be sure to fill the lower position in a timely manner to not add more stress on your other employees that need to fill the gaps. Another option is to cross utilize part-time roles and convert them to full-time. Then, they will get the extra benefits of full-time employment, and you will fill an empty role with a candidate you already know is capable.
Long Term Incentives:
Hospitals or large corporations often offer their doctors loan repayment benefits that increase the longer they are with the company. For example, if a doctor stays with you for 1 year, they get $20,000 as a bonus for loan repayment, but if they stay 5 years, they can receive $150,000. Do your research to find the competitive values in your area.
The healthcare field has a higher than average turnover rate than many other industries, and it is partially due to benefits offered at other facilities. Many of the newly hired employees left after less than two years at their facility. Long-term benefits can help offset this turnover and retain employees for a longer period of time.
Internships:
Summer internships or semester internships can offer potential candidates a window into their future with your company. They will have the hands-on experience that you are looking for in an applicant and the added bonus of already being familiar with your policies. Either paid or college credit internships can be a great addition to your recruitment plan.
Teaching Hospitals:
Teaching hospitals offer the chance to train your own workforce before they are hired as full employees. Similar to internships, you can determine whether a student is a fit for your facility and if they have what it takes to be successful. These programs are often many years and encompass training for higher-level positions within the medical field.
Hire an External Staffing Firm:
Large corporations may have the resources to have their own hiring department, but smaller facilities should consider hiring a staffing agency to advertise their open positions and recruit candidates. These staffing firms can be remote-operated but should understand what you are looking for in an ideal candidate.
Recruiting is Always Changing:
In the past decade, recruitment has changed dramatically, with more and more people finding jobs online rather than in person. Of course, you don’t need to change your entire system of recruiting if it is working for you, but if you are struggling to find new qualified applicants, you might consider a new strategy.
Skilled healthcare candidates can be challenging to come by in the shortage of healthcare workers, but these strategies can get you one step closer to finding long-term success. Solid recruitment strategies should be part of your long-term goals.
Early recruitment is essential for drawing applicants to your facility before they are wooed by larger corporations. Even though most of the recruitment process is online, a personal touch will have a significant impact on potential employees.
With access to social media and online platforms, candidates are more likely to share negative experiences with a company than positive ones, so ensure your recruitment process promotes growth and learning rather than explicit rejection. And remember to look outside the medical field for positions that don’t require specialized training or degrees.
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