World Health Day: How to Succeed in Recruiting Healthcare Professionals

The American Health Association expects that by 2026, there will be a shortage of 3.2  million health care workers.

With the COVID-19 pandemic and the Great Resignation, the healthcare industry is struggling to retain and recruit talent, and companies are struggling to keep up with the demand. You may need to revisit your recruiting process and adjust your strategies to new recruiting trends to hire the best talent.

Keep reading to discover some solutions that your company can use when recruiting healthcare professionals.

Spend Money on Recruiting Software

One of the most critical healthcare recruitment strategies is making sure that you invest in recruiting software. According to some research , 98% of companies use recruiting software, and if you’re not, you may fall behind in the race for talent.

You’ll first need a solid applicant tracking system (ATS). This will help you reduce your hiring time, organize your candidates, and automate part of the recruitment process.

However, you can also use software to schedule interviews with candidates automatically. You can also set up a program where internal employees can refer people in their network.

If you have trouble sourcing candidates, you could also leverage the power of artificial intelligence with Recruiter.com’s powerful sourcing tool. This tool will source qualified candidates for your open positions. Once the tool identifies top candidates, you can start sending out automated and optimized emails to recruit the best candidates.

Tap Into the Right Healthcare Networks

When it comes to healthcare recruiting, you need to tap into the right networks to streamline your hiring process. Find niche job boards that are specific to the healthcare industry.

There should be job boards out there where healthcare workers look for jobs related to their field. That way, they don’t have to sift through other inapplicable jobs that might be on a general job board. When you meet candidates where they are, you’re more likely to target the right audience and have more applicants. Plus, other companies may only post job descriptions on generalized job boards, so you’ll have the advantage of finding the best talent.

However, you should still network in person as well. Find in-person networking events geared towards the healthcare workforce.

You may even want to ask your current employees to refer anyone from their professional network, making your employees a great source of sourcing possibilities. When you have a good employee referral program, you can easily tap into this network and have a mutual connection to make it easier to recruit candidates.

The referred applicants are likely highly qualified as well as most employees won’t want to work with someone they don’t think would do a good job. These referred candidates also don’t cost as much to source and hire as other candidates. Because they also connect with someone in your business, they’re also more likely to stay at the company.

Offer High Compensation Packages

Right now, we’re in a job seeker’s market, and candidates can go somewhere else to find a job that suits their needs. A recent survey  found that 63% of healthcare hiring managers had to raise their compensation packages to stay competitive and attract healthcare talent.

If you can afford to pay your employees more, you should do so. When employees are fairly compensated from the beginning of their employment, they’re less likely to start looking around at other jobs and then find that they could be making more.

If you can’t afford to pay more, you may want to offer other perks that might attract more employees. This could include perks like:

• Family leave
• Free health insurance
• Tuition assistance
• More PTO
• Sign-on bonuses
• Monthly allowances
• Remote work or flexible schedules

Expand Your Healthcare Knowledge

If candidates realize that the company or recruiter doesn’t know much about the healthcare industry, they may not want to work there. That’s why it’s essential to do your research and understand what you’re talking about.

If you’re hiring nurses, you should know what important questions to ask them. You’ll need to have a general understanding of their roles and responsibilities to accurately gauge if they’re qualified for the position or not.

You’ll also want to stay on top of healthcare industry trends. If you can understand your candidates better, you’ll be able to select the right ones.

You may even want to market your recruiter or company as an expert in the field. You can do this by sharing informative articles on social media and writing great content that shows that you’re an expert in the industry.

Focus on Your Candidate Pipelines

One of the most effective ways to recruit healthcare candidates is to maintain your candidate pipeline. When you don’t nurture your pipeline, they likely won’t want to accept a job proposition when the right one comes up.

Even if a current candidate isn’t the right fit for a current job, keep their resume on file if they’re the perfect fit for the next job. When you help keep these candidates engaged, it’ll be easier to recruit them when the new position does open up.

However, it would be best if you also focused on always adding candidates to your pipeline. Start creating relationships with students who just graduated with a degree related to healthcare. Keep in touch with previous employees who may want to come back. Maintain relationships with connections on social media.

You never know which one may be an excellent fit for a new role later on.

Improve Your Employer Branding

While almost every hospital was overworked during COVID-19, some stories came out about overworked and underpaid healthcare staff. This hurt the healthcare organizations’ employer branding, and many healthcare providers decided they didn’t want to work for that company based on those stories alone.

That’s why it’s vital that your employer branding is positive. This will make it easier to attract job seekers, especially in a candidate’s market. What makes your healthcare organization so great to work at? Do people like working there, and will they post positive reviews on sites like Glassdoor?

Another way to promote your brand is by telling stories about your employees and your workplace. Social media is a great place to share these stories, and you can also highlight your company’s culture and benefits.

Social media is a powerful tool that will help convince new hires to work for you or not. If they like your posts and are familiar with your content, they may be more willing to work at your company since they’re already familiar with your brand. You can use this as a tool for candidates to get to know your healthcare company and decide if they even want to apply.

If you want to improve your employer branding, you could even advertise your pay ranges in your job postings.

Hire Healthcare Professionals Today

These are only a few medical recruitment strategies that will help you find more talent, but another strategy you can use is by partnering with a recruiting agency.

That’s where Recruiter.com comes in! We have all the tools you’ll need to find top talent, including niche healthcare job boards, an extensive network of specialized recruiters, and a powerful AI sourcing tool to identify and engage quality candidates.

With these tools and expertise, you’ll be finding healthcare professionals in no time. If you’re interested in learning more, contact us today  so that we can enhance your recruitment processes.