As a healthcare recruiter or hiring manager in the sector, you can already point out all of the challenges that you face every day in healthcare recruitment. From hiring for low-paid jobs to the issues with turnover, recruiting in this industry can be a constant struggle. Make it easy for yourself by reading our list of tips and ideas to do it successfully.

Challenges in Healthcare Recruitment

Currently, there are numerous challenges in healthcare recruitment. The current staff shortages are only expected to continue growing in the years to come. One piece of research discovered that there will be around 45,000 fewer primary care physicians than required in the next decade and a similar shortage of medical specialists and surgeons.

Not only that, but there is also a shortage of non-clinical staff in the healthcare industry, such as security guards, food service workers, and other staff.

Turnover is also a massive issue in for the health industry. How can you ever keep up with the demand for new staff if people are leaving all the time? Currently, the average turnover rate for healthcare workers is over 19%. So, even as you fill one talent gap, another one is sure to emerge imminently.

How can healthcare organizations face these challenges and overcome them successfully? Keep reading for our tops tips and ideas for healthcare recruitment strategies.

Healthcare Recruitment: Tips and Ideas for a Successful Strategy

Go Digital

There are more and more talent acquisition platforms being created every day. These can be highly beneficial in streamlining the healthcare recruitment process. These technological advances can make recruiting less time consuming but even better, make it more cost-effective as well. Ideally, you will be able to spend less time filling each role, meaning that you can fill positions faster, and pay less to do it.

One advantage of using technology in healthcare recruitment is that it can make your application process mobile. Today, the vast majority of job applicants use their mobiles while looking for work. If you can allow people to apply on their phones, imagine how many more applications you could get! Update your processes for the digital age and reap the rewards.

Offer Unbeatable Benefits

With healthcare recruitment, one of the many issues you face is the competition for top talent. Even if you find a fantastic candidate, they are likely also wanted by another employer. One way to effectively compete with other healthcare providers for candidates is by offering better benefits. 

By providing benefits such as flexitime, telecommuting, and health insurance, you can give yourself an edge over other companies. Some applicants might prefer to get paid more, while others will value a better work/life balance over extra salary. By targeting the latter, you can save yourself money while still appealing to talented job applicants.

Promote Your Employer Brand

Your employer brand refers to how the public views you as an employer. Word gets around about any large employer out there, and if you don’t currently know what’s being said about you, then you’re not in control of it. Get on top of the perceptions of working your brand by developing on your employer branding. You can promote your company on social media, reinvigorate the careers page, and start publishing articles about your company vision and values. This network of promotional efforts can, over time, work to make you an employer of choice.

Hire Internally

You don’t always need to look outside your organization in order to fill a role. Sometimes the best candidates are already right under your nose. Promoting from within rather than hiring a new person can reduce the time it takes to train someone, and the recruit can become productive much faster in the new role as they are already familiar with your business. This can save you money, improve employee satisfaction, and help to improve retention. The only consideration is the training for the person as they move roles, but that would be cheaper and easier than undergoing a full healthcare recruitment process.

Invest in Diversity

If you’re looking to hire a more diverse range of people in your company, you need to have more diversity at the higher up levels. If potential applicants see that you aren’t a particularly diverse organization at the top level, then that can deter people from applying for lower-level roles in your company. In short, it’s bad for optics; but a lack of diversity has more far-reaching effects. Companies that lack diversity are often far less innovative, prosperous, and productive than other companies.

Seek Soft Skills

While soft skills are essential in any career or business, they are even more valuable in the healthcare industry. As your staff work with patients and the public day in and day out, you need to search for job applicants that are good with people when you undergo a healthcare recruitment process. Finding a staff member who has the right soft skills for the position can be even more beneficial than finding someone with the right technical skills. Many people find it far easier to learn technical skills for a new job as opposed to improving their soft skills.

Diversify Healthcare Recruitment Methods

The more avenues you have to find excellent candidates, the better. Just because one method worked for you previously, doesn’t mean that you should only use that recruiting technique. For example, posting on a job board may have got you a fantastic new recruit before. That doesn’t mean that next time, you shouldn’t also use social media recruiting, personal networking, and email marketing. The more avenues you’re using to find great candidates, the more chance you will have of tracking one down as each approach will appeal to different people.

Healthcare recruitment may present a challenge for hiring managers and recruiters. But, by using the right techniques, you can still find some worthy candidates to put forward for your vacant positions. Find excellent job candidates and reduce turnover by trying out some of the above ideas to use in your healthcare recruitment strategy.