The worldwide pandemic continues to affect the United States (U.S.) workforce. The healthcare industry is no exception. In reference to a U.S. News article, the healthcare worker shortage is a top patient concern. Despite the return of healthcare jobs to pre-COVID levels, the number of workers remains below this level.
Before the COVID outbreak, there was already a burnout problem among healthcare workers — COVID just exacerbated the issue, worsening staffing shortages in the healthcare industry. 20% of physicians intend to leave medicine in a couple of years, and another 30% want to decrease their work hours within a year.
There is also a nursing shortage estimated to reach over 1 million by the end of 2022. In addition to physicians and nurses, there's also a short supply of other healthcare talent, such as paramedics and medical lab workers.
How Healthcare Consultants Can Boost Talent Acquisition
Fortunately, there is a healthcare talent acquisition solution — like using healthcare talent consulting services or partnering with healthcare RPO companies at your health system or healthcare organization. This post will discuss four ways healthcare talent consultants may help address your healthcare staffing and talent acquisition concerns.
1. Reduce Costs by Improving Marketing ROI
Healthcare talent continues to be in short supply as a significant number of workers leave the healthcare industry. For example, travel nurses are quitting instead of looking for staff positions — even though there is a declining demand for travel nurses. And while new nurses are graduating, the number of nurse graduates isn’t enough. As a result, the health system's internal recruiters continue struggling to find and vet potential full-time nurses.
The good news is your healthcare talent acquisition solution is a fine-tuned recruiting strategy. But the internal recruiters of your healthcare organization may have limited resources — like time — to develop an effective recruiting strategy. This may lead to overspending on marketing efforts and a poor return on investment (ROI). To prevent this, consider healthcare talent consulting services.
Healthcare talent consultants are dedicated and knowledgeable recruiters who are specialized in your job market. They may help you develop a proactive recruiting strategy that reduces costs by improving your recruitment marketing efficiency.
2. Transform Brand Messaging
Talent acquisition is challenging, especially when it comes to recruiting nurses. With a high demand for healthcare talent in nursing, candidates have more options. So, the healthcare talent acquisition solution is to stand out from competing health systems. Your healthcare talent consultant may help you with this!
As previously mentioned, healthcare talent consultants, often working in tandem with specialized staffing agencies, are experts in your job market. This means they understand what the best nursing candidates desire or value from potential employers. Your healthcare talent consultants will help transform your brand messaging by tapping into this knowledge.
Afterward, healthcare talent consultants may also help with your new employment brand promotion. Once nursing candidates find value in your healthcare organization, this will also result in positive talent acquisition results.
3. Save Time & Resources While Creating Improved Hiring Processes
Healthcare talent acquisition is a time-intensive process. Fortunately, with health talent consulting services, including recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), you’ll save time with access to great automation tools and resources.
Expand Your Talent Network
With health talent consulting services, your organization may quickly expand its talent network with a database of potential candidates. Moreover, you may use an assessment platform to evaluate candidates in various areas, such as cognitive skills. And this information may help you ensure that candidates will be a good fit.
Detail-Oriented and Efficient Quality Control Process
Great attention to detail also comes with healthcare talent consulting services. Your healthcare recruiter or consultant will act as your quality control, assisting with pre-screening activities to ensure that candidates meet the job description details and possess the specific skills required. This way, you’ll only review and interview the most qualified candidates.
Moreover, they’ll also ensure that this whole process is quick and efficient. If the process is too slow or inefficient, there’s a high chance of losing candidates’ interests.
Make the Best Hiring Decisions
After interviews are completed, another tool gives a breakdown of each candidate. This may make it easier to compare candidates objectively so that you may make the best hiring decisions.
Give Candidates a Fantastic Experience
Once candidates are at the pre-hiring stage, there’s still a chance of “fall-off.” Fall-off is the rate of losing candidates. Thankfully, there is a healthcare talent acquisition solution for this. And it’s to keep candidates engaged — while ensuring a professional and fantastic experience. So, your healthcare talent consultants will prevent large communication gaps and follow up with candidates in between several pre-employment activities, such as background checks and drug screenings.
4. Decrease Turnover Rates
With health talent consulting services, your candidates just had a fantastic experience. Your onboarding process was also fast and painless. So, your healthcare organization just recruited and retained the right people faster than other health systems. Congratulations!
At this stage, you’ll likely want to continue retaining these employees. With healthcare talent consulting services, you may invest in your employees to decrease turnover rates. Your healthcare talent consultant will be able to provide you with more information on resources that focus on leadership, career, and team development.
5. Enhancing Recruitment Through Digital Transformation
Luckily, with the help of healthcare talent consulting services, your organization can make the most of these digital advances. This means you can find and hire the right people more efficiently and keep up with the latest in recruitment technology.
Use of Advanced Digital Tools
Healthcare talent consulting services can introduce your organization to advanced digital tools. These tools can help sort through many applications quickly, make it easy to keep track of all the steps in the hiring process, and even let you interview candidates no matter where they are. By using these technologies, you can make the recruitment process smoother for everyone involved.
Improving How You Connect with Candidates
Digital transformation also means you can improve how you connect with potential hires. Consultants can show you how to use digital platforms to talk about what makes your organization a great place to work. This could include sharing stories about your team, the benefits of working with you, and why your mission matters. Doing this can attract people who fit well with your organization.
Making Decisions Based on Data
Another benefit of digital tools is that they can help you make better decisions. By looking at data, you can see what's working and what's not in your recruitment efforts. Consultants can help you understand this data and use it to find more efficient ways to attract the right candidates.
Building Your Presence on Social Media
Consultants can also help you use social media to make your organization more appealing to potential hires. They can offer tips on what to post, how to show off your workplace culture, and how to engage with people who might want to work for you. This can help you stand out and draw in more interested candidates.
Getting Ready for Remote Roles
As more healthcare jobs can be done remotely, consultants can guide you in preparing for this shift. They can help you set up policies for remote work, choose the right digital tools for your team, and make sure everyone stays connected and productive. This preparation can make your organization more attractive to people looking for flexibility.
Work With Healthcare Talent Acquisition Specialists
With a severe shortage of healthcare talent, it’s important to have a recruiting strategy. However, a recruiting strategy can be a double-edged sword. A strategy without a clear plan may result in overspending. So, to be a successful healthcare talent acquisition solution, the recruiting strategy must be fine-tuned. But it’s resource-intensive to have an effective and proactive recruiting strategy.
If you want help with this, consider partnering with a healthcare talent consulting group or exploring RPO healthcare solutions, such as those offered by Kinetix, for specialized services that meet your needs. Kinetix will give you access to the industry's best automation tools and services. Kinetix can match you with knowledgeable and specialized healthcare talent consultants.
They’re dedicated to addressing your healthcare talent acquisition concerns by helping create brand value for your health system — while also reducing costs, saving time, and decreasing turnover rates. Their recruiting efficiency is guaranteed. And they’ll make sure you stand out from the competition. Let’s have a conversation.