Healthcare recruitment and employee retention come with their fair share of challenges. These include a shortage of qualified healthcare workers, a high turnover rate, and burnout. Despite this, you still need to ramp up your medical recruitment strategies to attract the best candidates and maintain them. Below are six tips to help you succeed in your recruitment and employee retention process.
Dust Off Your Hiring Practices
A Pew Research center survey shows that online job searching has seen an increase since 2005. Most job seekers are now turning to social media and other digital platforms for career opportunities. Emphasizing mobile-first processes and making it easy for most people to apply to positions online would give you a competitive edge during the recruitment process.
Leverage a Recruitment Agency
It can be complicated to recruit healthcare professionals in the current climate. This is why most companies turn to advertising and recruiting firms to deliver their job posting by using job posting platform to the ideal candidates. A healthcare staffing company like Protouch staffing knows the best way to reach healthcare workers and uses a comprehensive approach to recruit your targeted professionals.
Upgrade and Offer Competitive Benefits
In a survey conducted by Mayo Clinic on thousands of physicians in 2014, more than 50% of the health workers had at least a symptom of burnout. The survey further revealed a decrease in work-life balance in physicians from the previous three years. Healthcare professionals are now looking for companies offering a good compensation package, including:
- Sign-on bonuses
- Travel and relocation allowances
- Free insurance
- Retention bonuses
- Tuition assistance
- Increased remote work, maternity/paternity leave, or flextime
- Referral benefits for those who bring in new hires.
Utilize Multiple Platforms
Use the Australian healthcare recruitment platform to recruit ideal candidates successfully. Try social media, job boards, website landing pages, targeted ads, and passive recruiting methods. The more healthcare professionals see your posts and ads, the more they develop an interest in your company, follow what you do, and send applications when vacancies arise.
Focus On the Candidate’s Soft Skills
In addition to the required technical skills and experience, focus on a candidate’s soft skills. These are essential for every healthcare professional since they will be working with patients, families, and other staff members on a daily basis. Some of the most important soft skills to look for include:
- Empathy
- Flexibility
- Patience
- Problem-solving skills
- Strong communication
- The ability to stay calm under pressure
If you’re not sure where to start, consider using pre-employment assessments to help screen candidates for the most important soft skills.
Focus On Onboarding Processes
Invest in training and development to support your employees and keep them happy. The process will boost the employee’s technical and people’s skills, equipping them with tools to perform their roles effectively. You can also embrace technology by automating some labor-intensive onboarding processes, like scheduling meetings and filing paperwork.
By being strategic in your healthcare recruiting and transitioning process, you will attract and keep well-motivated and productive professionals who will deliver the best experience to patients. Adequate training and development will also go a long way in enhancing their skills.
