How to Hire: 6 tips to succeed in healthcare recruiting (2024)

If you’re a medical recruiter or hiring manager, you can easily point out the challenges of healthcare recruiting. Lack of readily available or suitable talent, high turnover rates, and long time-to-fill are probably at the top of your list. With an increasing demand of qualified specialists in the healthcare sector, it becomes an increasingly competitive space.

If you’re ramping up your hiring efforts, it’s wise to brush up your medical recruitment strategies. Here is a list of tips you can follow to stay ahead of the latest healthcare recruiting challenges:

6 healthcare recruiting tips to fill those essential roles

1. Post your job ads on niche job boards

  • Is healthcare recruitment in high demand?

After posting your ads to mainstream job boards like Indeed.com and Careerjet.com, it’s time for more targeted outreach. Source your candidates through healthcare job boards, such as Health eCareers, CareerVitals, Healthcare Source or Healthcare Jobsite. This will help you reach out to healthcare specialists directly and find appropriate candidates more quickly.

2. Invest in a recruiting software

A good applicant tracking system will help you deal with recruiting pains, such as a high cost per hire or time-to-hire, or a limited access to diverse candidates. For example, with Workable, you can set up a referral system, through which you can involve your current employees in your hiring efforts, or you can search passive candidates more effectively. Workable also tracks these and other processes for you, delivering useful analytics and reports. Read the story of how Houston Behavioral Healthcare Hospital sourced qualified clinicians, while improving their recruiting processes with Workable.

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3. Boost your employer branding

With healthcare jobs in high demand, it’s important to stand out in order to bring candidates to your clinic’s threshold. Rethink your employer brand and how you’ll efficiently communicate your vision and values with prospective candidates. For example, you can enrich your careers page with photos that portray daily work life or you can upload videos with current employees sharing their experiences.

4. Assess candidate’s soft skills

To really shine in their work, health professionals must have a people-centered approach and place a high value on helping others. Effective communication and listening skills are crucial, and so is the ability to work well under pressure. Before the interview, prepare appropriate interview questions to make sure candidates have these traits. You could also use psychometric assessment tools, before inviting a candidate for an in-person meeting.

5. Offer smart benefits

What do you need if you’re recruiting for a competitive market? The answer is competitive benefits. Create an attractive benefit package that will not only bring candidates to you but also motivate them to stay. Flexible working hours should be included, especially for roles that occasionally have long shifts. Access to wellness and health programs are a must, too.

6. Be aware of skills gap

A damaging gap has emerged between the industry’s standard rates of pay and job seekers’ perceptions of the awards on offer, leading to the so-called “hiring hangup”. On the employers’ side, candidates are perceived to be lacking in education and failing to stay current with medical and technological shifts. On the job seekers’ side, strict job requirements deter them from applying for positions above the entry level.

To address these issues employers are being called on to deploy these hiring tactics:

  • Raise the minimum wage
  • Increase access to on-the-job training
  • Drive recruitment among recent college graduates
  • Drive a return-to-work among recent retirees

You can also take into consideration the average salary of healthcare jobs in your country. Here’s a list of healthcare job positions and the average salary paid in the U.S.:

  • Healthcare administrators – $69,550
  • Registered nurses – $65,130
  • Licensed practical nurse — $45,157
  • Licensed vocational nurses – $49,273
  • Dental assistants – $34,318
  • Medical secretaries – $38,873
  • Medical assistants – $34,201
  • Pharmacy technicians – $35,569
  • Nursing assistants – $35,247
  • Home health aides – $29,261
  • Personal caregiver – $30,521

If you follow these tips, your healthcare recruiting process can become more efficient, and you may even boost retention rates. A positive candidate experience will have an added benefit in your recruitment process.

Check out how Houston Behavioral Healthcare Hospital finds more clinicians using Workable here.

How to Hire: 6 tips to succeed in healthcare recruiting (2024)

FAQs

How to Hire: 6 tips to succeed in healthcare recruiting? ›

Full cycle recruiting can be broken down into six steps: preparing, sourcing, screening, selecting, hiring, and onboarding. Each step requires careful consideration to ensure you execute it in a manner that best fits your organization.

What is the 6 step hiring process? ›

Full cycle recruiting can be broken down into six steps: preparing, sourcing, screening, selecting, hiring, and onboarding. Each step requires careful consideration to ensure you execute it in a manner that best fits your organization.

How can I be a better healthcare recruiter? ›

5 Healthcare Recruiting Tips for Success
  1. Write and Post Stronger Job Descriptions. ...
  2. Invest in Automated Recruiting Solutions. ...
  3. Offer Competitive Compensation and Benefits. ...
  4. Implement Interviewing Best Practices. ...
  5. Improve Your Healthcare Recruiting Outreach and Employer Brand.

Why are recruitment strategies important in healthcare? ›

Proper recruitment practices help organisations maintain appropriate nurse-to-patient ratios, ensure sufficient physician coverage, and staff various departments and specialities effectively. Quality Patient Care: Healthcare recruitment directly impacts the quality of patient care.

What is the key to a successful recruiting process? ›

Recruiting is increasingly a collaborative and team-oriented process. Whether it is about screening applicants, scheduling interviews or simply exchanging notes with other team members, successful recruitment requires teams to communicate with each other on a regular basis.

What are the 7 stages of hiring? ›

The 7 steps of the recruiting process
  • Planning. During the planning phase, you determine what the company needs are and develop the job description and specification for each open position. ...
  • Strategy development. ...
  • Search. ...
  • Screening. ...
  • Interviews and selection. ...
  • Job offer and onboarding. ...
  • Evaluation of the recruitment process.
Jul 27, 2023

What are the 5 stages of the hiring process? ›

By incorporating these five steps into your talent acquisition process, you will find, screen and hire exceptional people in record time.
  • Step 1: Planning and strategy development. A good plan makes for good hires. ...
  • Step 2: Sourcing and recruitment. ...
  • Step 3: Screening. ...
  • Step 4: Interviewing. ...
  • Step 5: Selection and offer.
May 9, 2023

How do healthcare recruiters find candidates? ›

Source Healthcare Workers by Referral

One of the best ways to source top-quality healthcare workers is by tapping into the professional networks of current employees. The tight healthcare labor market means more competition for talent, with healthcare organizations all vying for talent from similar pools and sources.

Can you make a lot of money in healthcare recruiting? ›

Healthcare Recruiter Salary in California. $41,400 is the 25th percentile. Salaries below this are outliers. $59,200 is the 75th percentile.

Is healthcare recruiting hard? ›

Becoming a healthcare recruiter can be challenging, but it is ultimately a rewarding and lucrative career. You're going to learn how to be a good salesperson, develop relationships with candidates, and learn the medical terminology that is tossed around the office. You'll do all of this with the support of your team.

How do you retain staff in healthcare? ›

Retention Strategies in Hospitals
  1. Planning. Anticipate fluctuations in volume and capacity. Establish staffing strategies and plans. ...
  2. Scheduling. Optimize scheduling practices. Expand technology solutions. ...
  3. Follow-up. Continuously address staff scheduling. ...
  4. Employee Engagement. Focus on manager leadership.

Why do I want to be a healthcare recruiter? ›

Make a Real Impact

Others might have become caregivers by having to care for their loved ones. Either way, there's an opportunity to help these health professionals throughout every step of their career. You can take pride in knowing by helping these professionals, you are potentially saving lives.

What does recruiting mean in healthcare? ›

What is a Healthcare Recruiter? A healthcare recruiter is a professional who works to fill open positions in a variety of healthcare organizations. Recruiters will work from a bank of resumes or qualified candidates, or by actively searching for individuals qualified for the positions they are trying to fill.

What are the five recruitment strategies or methods? ›

5 essential recruitment strategies to meet hiring goals
  • AdTech. ...
  • Employee referrals. ...
  • Internal mobility. ...
  • Recruitment events. ...
  • Career sites and recruitment campaigns.
Oct 11, 2023

What is the first step in effective recruiting? ›

The first step in the recruitment and selection process is typically the identification of a hiring need or a vacant position within an organization. This step involves identifying the need for a new employee or replacing an existing employee who has left or is being promoted or transferred to another role.

What is a successful hire? ›

Hiring Success is defined as the ability to attract, select, and hire the best candidates, on time and on budget. It encompasses three core principles: a compelling candidate experience, engaged hiring managers, and productive recruiters.

How many steps are in the hiring process? ›

Each company is unique and has its own hiring process. However, there are 15 common steps that each hiring process goes through, segmented into three stages: planning, recruitment, and employee selection.

What are the steps of hiring someone? ›

Table of Contents
  • Prepare the Business Legally.
  • Write a Clear Job Description.
  • Consider Company Culture.
  • Get in Front of Candidates.
  • Review Applications.
  • Interview and Screen Candidates.
  • Extend an Offer.
  • Onboarding Your New Employee.
Feb 12, 2024

What is the 360 recruitment cycle? ›

In 360 recruitment, the recruiter or talent acquisition specialist takes responsibility for the entire recruitment lifecycle, including sourcing candidates, screening and assessing them, coordinating interviews, conducting background checks, negotiating job offers, and facilitating the onboarding process.

What are the 4 steps in the employment process? ›

The Four Stages of an Effective Hiring Process
  • Step 1: Search and Screening. Harness the power of the Internet to expand your search and simply the screening process. ...
  • Step 2: Interview and Evaluation. Why is a manhole cover round? ...
  • Step 3: Hiring and Onboarding. ...
  • Step 4: Retention and Development.
Dec 22, 2021

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