Healthcare recruiting uses similar approaches to recruiting as every other industry with specialized skill requirements. You start with job postings on your career page then qualify applicants that best meet the expectations of the job.
However, if worker demand rises as expected over the next ten years – with baby boomers exiting the workforce and more access to healthcare through the ACA – the supply of workers will decrease, making it harder to fill those jobs.
This rise in competition will require healthcare organizations to step up their recruiting efforts so they stand out from the status quo.
Healthcare added 408,000 jobs over the last year, 47,000 last month alone, according to the June Employment Situation Summary released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Despite the enormous growth in jobs from the previous year’s 312,000, most employers agree that the problem filling those jobs lies in finding quality candidates; this is followed closely by time to fill jobs.
Where does the short supply fall? Mainly under nursing professionals and physicians.
The nursing shortage is the result of contracting enrollment in nursing programs, as reported by the AACN on nursing program enrollment. But this drop in enrollment is not from failing interest. More than 78,000 students were turned away due to lack of faculty, clinical sites, classrooms, and among other reasons, budget constraints.
It’s a similar result with physicians, with a shortfall of nearly 100,000 by 2025, due largely to a growing but aging population.
From these stats you can see how it’s important to your recruiting that you remain viable and competitive in your market.
With so many opportunities in healthcare, it’s a job seeker’s market to be sure, so what you are doing to attract them?
Healthcare recruiters and hiring managers agree that your employer brand plays a huge role in attracting candidates.
And your employer brand is best translated right at the source of recruiting: your career site.
Here are four things you can do to position your employer brand for increased engagement on your career page.
1. Add Big Content
You career site is where you sell you. A highly developed landing page has content about career development, benefits and, of course, the culture of your organization.
But don’t just add a wall of text to your page. You need imagery that supports the content. Add images, video, audio of the workplace, of employees, the community. Really sell your organization on the landing page.
And don’t be afraid to have a long page of content. People are more attuned to scrolling than clicking through several pages of content.
Take a look at career pages like Spotify, Google or Apple for insight on how to rock a career site. They may not be healthcare oriented, but you can still see how these sites are compelling to job seekers and engaging candidates, and you can put such practices in place on your own site.
2. Add a Big Red Button
Certainly, all of your company culture should be accessible on your career site, but more important is making your jobs accessible.
Whether that’s via a link to your job search or posting open position directly on the homepage, you want candidates who are interested in your organization to be able to find your jobs easily.
Make your job search or job postings easy to find, top of the page or clearly marked in the navigation. Anywhere that stands out. Don’t bury it in a drop down navigation or in a link at the bottom of the page in the footer like an afterthought.
3. Remove Clicks to Jobs
Providing immediate access to your jobs is what the ultimate goal of a career site is all about.
It’s best to put job seekers in front of your jobs within three clicks. No more. Less is optimal, but no more than three.
If you go to your career site right now and can’t find your jobs or it takes more than three clicks, you need to fix that pronto.
Three clicks includes from the time it takes to find your open jobs to finding one that interest your job seeker.
4. Be Responsive
As an industry known for using the latest technology for patient care, you want to convey that same up-to-date message to potential employees with your employer brand.
Having a career site that responds appropriately to the device being viewed from is the current standard by which modern websites are measured.
That means someone looking at your jobs on a smartphone shouldn’t have to pinch and zoom to read it. Your content should adjust to the size of the smartphone screen without losing readability.
Be Better Than Your Competition
Just these few things can set you on the right path to attracting the right talent. With a coming shortage of quality healthcare professionals, demand necessitates stronger competition among employers.
If you are going to remain relevant in such a highly competitive market, you have to up your recruiting strategy. Start with assessing your career page and do what others in your market are not doing. Do it better than they are doing.
If you don’t have an IT team that can implement your ideas, hire a third party like HealthComm to assist you.
Leave a Reply