6 Best Sourcing Tools for Healthcare Recruitment Leaders

Hiring in healthcare has never been more challenging.

As we emerge from the shadow of the pandemic, healthcare organizations are working hard to return to a “new normal” — but that “normal” is unlike anything that hospitals and health systems have ever seen before.

The American Hospital Association projects there will be a nationwide shortage of up to 124,000 physicians by 2033, and at least 200,000 nurses per year will need to be hired to meet increased demand and replace nurses who are either retiring or leaving the industry for other opportunities. Add to this shrinking pool of professionals an aging population and higher employee turnover, and it’s clear that new medical recruitment strategies in healthcare are needed to reach, attract, and recruit clinical talent.

Healthcare organizations looking to compete for the top candidates will have to be nimble and creative as they seek new ways to attract, engage, convert, and retain talented physicians, nurses, and allied health workers.

If you’re struggling with hiring (and who isn’t these days?), here are six healthcare recruitment strategies you can tap to quickly fill open positions and ensure a steady pipeline of qualified healthcare candidates.

#1: Utilize Referral Software

You already have one of the best tools to recruit new candidates at your fingertips: your current employees.

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) says that employee-referred new hires tend to be better performers and they stay with their organizations longer. Add to this that employee referral programs reduce the time to hire with lower overall recruiting costs and it’s clear that your current employees are the best advocates for your organization, making referral programs a win-win for your organization.

You can set up your own referral program or you can automate the process by partnering with an existing platform, such as employeereferrals.com, Boon, or Erin.

#2: Unlock the Power of Social Media

Social media has revolutionized all aspects of business—but Forbes reports that many HR teams continue to overlook the value of social media for recruitment. In today’s ultra-competitive job market, social media can help you to not just identify and hire the best talent, but also to develop brand awareness, cultivate relationships online, and become a trusted resource in the healthcare industry.

While any social media platform can be leveraged for recruitment efforts, LinkedIn has become popular for hospital sourcing and recruiting. Use it for keyword searches that match you with candidates who meet the criteria of the position you’re hiring for or to join industry groups that help you monitor the state of the industry and establish a presence for your employer brand.

Need help recruiting more effectively and efficiently on LinkedIn and other social channels? Katon Direct has proven expertise in creating and placing social media ads that target the right healthcare candidates and build awareness for opportunities within your organization.

#3: The Early Bird Gets the Worm

Colleges and universities are an obvious resource for healthcare recruitment, but are you using this tactic to its full potential? It’s time to go beyond just advertising open positions on traditional school job networks and attending university career fairs.

Consider establishing internships that provide local students with hands-on experience and college credit (and give you the opportunity to assess and extend job offers to future potential candidates). Additionally, establish relationships with professors and ask them to recommend their best nursing and medical students.

When it comes to hiring physicians in particular, the key is to recruit them before they graduate. Katon Direct’s candidate database includes 78,600+ Medical Residents from all specialties nationwide, making it easy for you to reach and engage Residents with laser precision.

#4: Significantly Expand Your Reach to Active & Passive Healthcare Candidates

While the healthcare talent pool isn’t small, it’s overwhelmingly passive. After all, the unemployment rate among physicians and nurses is extremely low.

However, by expanding your reach to the entire talent pool—both active and passive candidates—you can build your talent pipeline faster and reach your hiring goals.

That’s where Katon Direct comes in.

How do we do it?

We combine the most complete database of healthcare professionals in the industry with traditional hospital recruitment methodologies and savvy marketing techniques that reduce costs, enhance efficiencies, and increase agility.

For more than 20 years, Katon Direct has been helping healthcare recruiters attract, engage, and hire qualified clinical professionals. We are continuously evolving our strategies to offer a wide range of talent solutions that will help you hire passionate and qualified healthcare talent in a faster, smarter, and more affordable way.

Whether you need a continuous marketing strategy that targets qualified candidates at every step of the journey—from search to social, events to emails—or a la carte solutions you can tap at scale, a partnership with Katon Direct can help you quickly attract and source the talent you need to:

• Increase profits and revenues
• Improve quality of patient care
• Reduce hiring costs
• Hire people faster
• Improve staff morale
• Make your healthcare system a destination brand for both professionals and consumers

#5: Improve Your Job Board Strategy

Job board listings continue to be a reliable—and inexpensive—way to reach active healthcare job seekers (a small but motivated talent pool) at scale, especially if you focus your listings on niche job posting sites like ANA Enterprise and Health eCareers. Alternatively, you can partner with Katon Direct for a programmatic ad buy that blankets your job listing across the top-performing healthcare job boards.

#6: Engage Candidates With Smart Email Marketing

Are you using email as part of your hospital recruiting and sourcing efforts? If not, it’s a tool you need to add to your toolbox: A 2020 study of healthcare recruitment professionals found that email is the most preferred and efficient way to reach healthcare candidates.

To create a successful email campaign, start by building (or renting) a database of potential candidates and then create and deploy your email creative on an established platform like ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, or Constant Contact. Hint: this strategy will only work if you have the right data.

If you don’t have the resources or bandwidth to create an email campaign in-house, Katon Direct provides a 100% turnkey a la carte solution: a streamlined email program that eliminates the need to work with multiple providers—we’ll build a targeted candidate list based on your audience criteria (using our database of 8M+ healthcare professionals), produce creative materials, and deliver email drips right to the inbox of the prospective candidates you want to reach.

Putting These Healthcare Recruitment Strategies to Work for Your Organization

Need more recruitment strategies to help your hospital or healthcare system attract, engage, and hire the best clinical talent? Contact Katon Direct to ramp up your hiring and gain access to the qualified candidates you want to hire.