New Year, New Tactics: How Hospitals are Adapting to Recruit Talent in 2023

Since 2020, the odds against any particular hospital’s ability to hire or retain talent have been stacking up. While filling registered nursing positions has always been a challenge, now the talent shortage has permeated across virtually every hospital department.

The combination of overwhelming attrition from the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing retirement rates, and losing staff to higher-paying traveling jobs makes new, effective recruiting strategies paramount to the success of healthcare organizations as we head into 2023.

Here are some of the key areas we’re seeing hospitals focus on in their talent acquisition and retention efforts:

Valuing & Celebrating Employees

Concurrent with revamping external hiring efforts, many hospitals are now taking a closer look at how they take care of the talent they already have in-house.

Janet Tomcavage, chief nursing officer at Geisinger, explained in an interview with Healthcare Dive that “one of the first categories that we paid attention to was compensation and making sure that we really are rewarding nurses for the work that they do.” A retention bonus program to encourage staff to stay on board was another part of ensuring that their nurses felt valued and appreciated.

Physicians also feel the strain of the last few years: nearly 50% of physicians indicate that they don’t feel they’re paid enough.

While it may feel painfully obvious to spotlight, ensuring that the people who work for you feel compensated enough is a simple step to take to keep your best people on staff.

To accomplish this, we’ve seen many healthcare organizations conduct “stay interviews.” As its name suggests, these interviews are conducted with current employees and cover a range of job satisfaction topics, all to ensure that everyone is heard, considered, and supported.

Beyond just compensation concerns, taking the time to celebrate the achievements and commitment of your employees is more important now than ever. Make sure you have processes in place that celebrate the people that work so hard day in and day out.

In such a taxed labor market, simple steps like these can radically improve your ability to keep the top performers that matter so much to your operations.

Optimize The Candidate Experience

Another key area that we’re seeing hospitals pay more attention to is the candidate experience.

Optimizing the hiring process, eliminating redundancies, and decreasing the overall time-to-hire, is a huge boon for both candidates and hiring managers. And during a time when so many candidates are looking to make moves, we can’t stress enough the importance of a well-oiled candidate experience.

Many organizations are investing more in technology that allows the entire hiring process to run smoother and faster.

Kaiser Permanente, with 21 hospitals in Northern California, has adopted a few innovative modifications to do just that, including:

  1. Allowing candidates to pre-record answers to standard interview questions so they can be reviewed on-demand
  2. Changing the application process so candidates can apply to a desired facility as a whole rather than applying multiple times for different positions at the same facility

Just these few adaptations decreased the average time to hire by a whopping 30%.

While the changes you make to your candidate experience will depend on a wide range of variables, committing time and resources to optimize the hiring process should be top of mind for all organizations.

Employer Branding

Employer branding has always been important, yes, but today, it’s more crucial than ever. In a time when candidates are spoiled for choice and typically fielding multiple offers at a time, the brands that stick out, that resonate, that compel are the ones that win talent.

Job seekers, especially in the healthcare industry, want to work for a company that aligns with their values, mission, and culture.

Do you have a brand that embodies the values of its communities?

Great, that’s step one.

How often do you communicate this? Is your brand showcased in the hiring process?

Building a great brand is one thing, but ensuring it’s injected into the interactions that candidates have with you is another. Make sure you’re one of the organizations that does.

Healthcare Recruiters International (HCRI) Can Help

The healthcare industry changes rapidly, and, at HCRI, it’s our job to understand and anticipate those changes to better deliver our specialized hiring solutions. Today, we know your teams can’t afford to miss out on leading talent. Our team of expert recruiters has forged key relationships within the industry over the years by connecting the top talent in healthcare with great organizations.

If you’re looking for your next high-impact hire, contact our team at HCRI today.