If the last few years have left you feeling like you’re on a non-stop roller coaster, you’re not alone. Healthcare recruiters and hospital executives across the country are faced with the same scenario: Staff is stretched thin across all disciplines, vacancies are at historic levels, and burnout is on the rise, with an anticipated 6.5 million healthcare professionals leaving the industry over the next five years.
As you work to regain your footing and ensure your organization has the personnel it needs in 2023 and beyond, these are the five healthcare recruitment trends that should be on your radar to help you retain your existing employees and attract new talent.
#1: Employer Brands Will Set Hospitals & Health Systems Apart
Think employer branding doesn’t matter? Think again. A study by Healthcare Recruiters International found that over 90% of candidates say employer branding is an essential recruiting resource, and LinkedIn reports that organizations that invest in their employer brand see 50% more qualified applicants.
Clearly, it’s just as vital to your organization to have an employer brand that speaks to potential employees about your hospital’s workplace culture and environment as it is to have a public-facing brand message that speaks to patients.
Your employer brand should list out the unique benefits of working for your organization and the aspects of your workplace culture that set you apart from your competitors.
- Do you offer any unique perks?
- How do you nurture employees’ personal development?
- What is it like to work for your organization?
Once you have your employer brand established, promote it everywhere: on recruitment materials, on your website, across social media channels, in job postings, and on your employee career site.
#2: Artificial Intelligence Is Entering the Mainstream in Healthcare Recruitment
Artificial Intelligence and machine learning models are already transforming the way recruitment in healthcare is approached — and their role is only going to grow.
To stay competitive, hospital recruiters need to take an innovative approach to finding, recruiting, and hiring doctors and nurses. AI-powered tools can give you the edge you need by streamlining and optimizing the hiring process. You can use AI to:
- Broaden your talent pool by identifying active and passive candidates
- Create stronger job descriptions that eliminate unconscious bias to appeal to a wider pool of potential candidates
- Use predictive analysis to screen candidates and identify applicants who fit your company culture
- Schedule interviews through chatbot programs
- Provide a positive, transparent candidate experience
#3: Data Is Taking Center-Stage in Healthcare Candidate Sourcing
The Great Resignation has touched all industries, and healthcare is no exception. An estimated 333,942 healthcare providers quit their jobs in 2021, according to a report from healthcare data solutions provider Definitive Healthcare.
How can you find a steady stream of candidates to fill all these open positions?
One word: data.
Faced with a worker shortage that’s bad — and is only going to get worse — your best bet for keeping your organization fully staffed is to reach and engage passive candidates. And to do that, you need to take a data-centric approach that lets you find and target qualified candidates at every step of their journey. That may require the help of a healthcare recruiting company.
With over 8 million records in our comprehensive database, Katon Direct reaches 99% of healthcare candidates and can segment them by location, experience, and other filters. It’s a data-driven approach that helps you find better candidates faster and reduce your time to hire.
#4: Healthcare Organizations Are Shifting Away From Their Reliance on Temporary Staffing Agencies
During the height of the pandemic, hospital executives turned to temporary staffing agencies to ease their staffing woes — a solution that contributed to hospitals and healthcare systems across the country spending an eye-popping $24 billion more per year on qualified clinical labor.
But the disadvantages of using contract labor goes beyond the high ticket cost: a constant influx of temporary staff takes a toll on overall staff morale, which doesn’t just feed into the cycle of higher turnover — it can have a negative impact on patient care.
What can healthcare recruiters do instead of hiring travel nurses and locum tenens physicians? Try turning to a partner like Katon Direct to build a robust and reliable talent pipeline so you can fill vacant positions quickly.
#5: Virtual Hiring Events in Healthcare Are Here to Stay
The pandemic ushered in the era of virtual hiring — and it’s clear that this new approach to recruiting isn’t going away. Before the pandemic, only 6% of employers used virtual career platforms regularly, but by November 2020, that number had increased to 90%. While this shift was born out of necessity, it made clear to healthcare recruitment leaders that virtual career fairs are a smart, efficient way to:
- Source better talent
- Provide a better candidate experience
- Reduce time to grow your talent pipeline
Want to learn how virtual hiring events can help you address persistent hiring needs and gain a competitive edge? Read our blog post, Optimize Your Hiring: 10 Benefits of Virtual Career Fairs.
