Hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare facilities face a significant challenge: attracting and retaining qualified staff. The current healthcare recruiting landscape is tough, with a growing demand for skilled workers and a limited pool of qualified candidates. By implementing strategic recruiting methods and highlighting their unique offerings, healthcare facilities can attract top talent and build a strong, well-staffed team.
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Why is Healthcare Recruiting so Difficult?
In 2023 three-quarters of hospitals reported a vacancy rate higher than 10%. The majority of healthcare facilities are understaffed by more than 10%. The same report showed that 51.4% of hospitals had a vacancy rate of 15% or higher. There is a lot of competition for nurses especially as our population continues to age. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, nurses experienced a lot of burnout and heartache, which led to a pretty large exodus in nursing. Hospitals were paying high rates to get nurses to come to help them fight a global pandemic.
I asked our Director of Recruiting his thoughts on why healthcare recruiting is becoming more and more difficult. Here’s what he had to say:
“Right now, there is a huge demand to attract, hire, and onboard top talent in the industry. The biggest challenge we face is the shortage of healthcare professionals and the abundance of positions available in the market.” – Colin L. Director of Talent Acquisition at Cascade Health Services.
Healthcare Recruiters Are Fighting For The Same People
Since so many nurses exited at the same time, it created a nursing shortage that shook the whole industry. Smaller healthcare systems struggle to pay what is needed to get a quality nurse, and remain short staffed which leads to more nurse burnout. Even larger health systems are struggling to bring in enough quality candidates to fully staff their facilities.
Health systems are also in constant competition with per diem and travel nurse staffing agencies that offer higher pay than a staff nurse would normally make. Nurses who work per diem (PRN) jobs get paid a higher hourly rate for picking up a shift on short notice, or for picking up work at an understaffed healthcare facility.
Healthcare Recruiting Takes Tine
Recruiting nurses can take a lot of time. Since nurses work long shifts, weird hours, and do the work of multiple people, they can be pretty hard to get ahold of. Or interview. Day shift nurses are already working by the time any hiring managers enter the building, and they are still there by the time hiring managers leave.
Nurses Are Burned Out
New nurses are hearing about everything current nurses are going through and it scares them. Let’s just all be honest here, no one wants to work a 12-hour shift knowing they are off the next day just to be called in because their facility is short-staffed. Future nurses are hearing about how bad burnout is in the healthcare industry and they’re jumping ship to careers where they have work-life balance, or going straight into the per diem and travel nurse life. Since per diem staffing agencies allow nurses to create their schedules, there is less room for burnout. That combined with higher pay makes this a more attractive option for nurses.
How Do You Recruit Top Healthcare Talent?
Cascade Health Services has been in the healthcare staffing industry for over 36 years. We’ve had plenty of time to develop a healthcare recruiting method that worked. Attracting the right talent is easier said than done. Offering great benefits, and the highest pay is the easiest way to recruit top healthcare professionals. But for smaller healthcare systems, forking up more cash isn’t possible. Providing nurses with a flexible schedule, and a commitment to providing them with a healthy work-life balance could be enough to set your facility apart from the competition.
Targeting the right candidates can be tricky. But it is the most important part of your healthcare recruiting strategy.
- Write a clear job description – This may seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many companies don’t make this a high priority in their healthcare recruiting strategy. job descriptions don’t say what the job is. This will cause recruiters to have to answer more questions, and maybe even lose a potential candidate because of a misunderstanding in the job description.
- Highlight growth opportunities – People want to work for a company that is dedicated to their growth. Show off the opportunities for advancement in your company in your job description, and reiterate it when you’re interviewing.
- Efficient interview process – Don’t waste your candidates’ time with interview questions that are one-sided or don’t spark any kind of conversation. Though you want to be able to make sure your candidate is qualified, if your question can be answered by looking at their resume, you’re wasting your time and theirs. Ask questions that help you get to know who they are as a person and employee.
- Show off your workplace culture – No one wants to work somewhere boring. Even the most boring industries can create environments that people want to work in. Healthcare is a hard environment to work in. The long hours and nature of the work don’t make it easy to show up every day. Let the person you’re interviewing know that you realize how hard this job can be, and give them some examples of how you keep your facility smiling during the hard times. Workplace culture is an extremely underrated and often overlooked recruiting source.
- Get referrals – Good employees refer good people. When you’re about to post a new job, ask some of your employees if they know anyone who is looking for a new healthcare job. Odds are they’ll jump on the opportunity to work with their friend, especially if their friend likes the place they work.
- Show off your commitment to fighting burnout – Talk about what your company does to help ensure that no one is getting burned out. If you partner with a per diem staffing agency to fill your schedule when someone calls out. Tell the person you’re interviewing. Knowing that they won’t be bothered on their days off will be music to their ears.
- Don’t overpromise – The best healthcare recruiters don’t lie to the people they are interviewing. Overpromising does not help build your company culture and will make new employees jump ship or silently quit.
healthcare recruiting is hard, and finding the best talent is harder. Because of the changes COVID-19 brought to the healthcare industry healthcare facilities are looking for a light at the end of the tunnel. By implementing these tips into your healthcare recruiting practices, you’ll be able to stand out from the crowd.
