Hiring for Healthcare in 2017- Part Deux

Last week we talked about the challenges facing the healthcare industry for increasing employment in 2017. The fact is that there is a scarcity of qualified personnel, an abundance of need, and because of the constraints of time and money, a complex scenario.

The American Sentinel recognizes that nursing is becoming a hot profession, pharmacy professionals have increased to the point where supply at least meets (if not exceeds) demand, and healthcare-focused technology solutions are going to become a big part of the solution. Because the very nature of the healthcare profession means that there may often be times when hiring the right person can in fact be a matter of life or death, mistakes in the recruitment process can be significant according to Undercover Recruiter.

So what exactly are the biggest complications facing healthcare recruiting professionals?

• Time to Hire. According to Agile 1, the average time to hire a healthcare professional is a whopping 82 days, an entire month longer than the national average for other positions.
• The cost of recruitment exceeds an astonishing $13.4 Billion and there are a total of over 475,000 job openings in healthcare.
• Healthcare has a remarkably high turnover rate of 17%. Quantifying both the internal and external costs of this turnover problem shows that the cost of turnover in an organization with over 15,000 employees would exceed $275 Billion at roughly $110,000.00 per person.

Given the high costs, needs, and stress for the healthcare hiring professionals who have to find the right people as quickly as possible, what are some ways to streamline the recruiting process?

1. Coordinate and collaborate with local medical schools to be able to pounce on young new graduates. Offer students opportunities while they are still in school so they develop a comfort level with your organization (and vice versa).
2. Use the senior level leaders at the top to train and groom their replacements long before it becomes a necessity.
3. Use the technological tools available to slim down and speed up the hiring process. Digital interviewing tools such as those offered by RIVS allow recruiters (and candidates) to handle interviews at their convenience. This makes for a faster process as well as a more efficient one. Trying to coordinate multiple schedules can be costly and time-consuming. Instead, allow for one-way digital interviewing where the candidate can respond to interview questions at her or his own convenience and the reviewing person or persons can fit their process into their own schedule as well. This removes much of the time drag and can allow for more pointed and direct questions to identify non-verbal cues that may indicate fit or comfort.

Although the future of the healthcare industry is at the moment unclear, what is certain is that good medical care is as needed now as it ever was before. And so the job of healthcare recruiters, while admittedly challenging, is critical.

About The Author

Monique Mahler is the VP, Marketing & Partnerships at interviewstream. She is an avid researcher of facts, a self proclaimed marketing geek, and an equestrian in her spare time.