Category: Talent Acquisition Strategy

How to Use Pre-Employment Assessments and Testing in Healthcare Recruiting

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From resumes to references and cover letters, healthcare organizations have multiple sources of information to learn about the skills and competencies of a potential hire. Even with this information, it can be hard to get to know candidates throughout the hiring process. Healthcare HR professionals can use pre-employment testing to more accurately ascertain the strengths, weaknesses and overall suitability of a candidate. In this post, we cover the basics of pre-employment assessments and ways healthcare recruitment teams can leverage them to make better healthcare hiring decisions.

What is Pre-employment Testing and Assessment?

A pre-employment assessment is a method used by an employer to evaluate a candidate’s skills, intellect, personality and other traits. Recruitment process outsourcing providers, healthcare hiring managers and recruiters are all relying more heavily on data-driven talent management practices. According to a survey conducted by the American Management Association (AMA), the use of pre-employment assessments is growing steadily. The AMA’s study revealed the following:

  • 70% of employers conduct job skill testing at some point during the hiring process
  • 46% of employers conduct personality or psychological assessments of job candidates
  • 41% of employers test candidates for literacy and math aptitude

Assessments can provide valuable information on a candidate’s ability to successfully execute their duties in the workplace. Below we list the three popular types of pre-employment assessments and their functions:

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Pre-employment aptitude tests

According to a study conducted by LinkedIn, the most important traits employers seek in candidates are problem-solving skills and the ability to learn new concepts. These traits are hard to measure based solely on a review of a candidate’s resume or during an interview. An aptitude test is used to measure a candidate’s critical thinking, problem-solving skills and ability to learn and apply new information.

Pre-employment personality tests

A personality test seeks to answer the following questions for organizations: Will the candidate be happy in this position? Does the candidate possess the behavioral traits and attributes needed for success in this role? Dissimilar from an aptitude test, there are no right or wrong answers to the questions on personality tests. Measuring behavioral traits can help healthcare organizations predict job fit by determining if a candidate’s behavioral tendencies line up well with an organization’s culture and the demands of the position.

Pre-employment skills tests

Skills tests are designed to measure job-related skills, including skills from verbal, math and communication abilities, to typing and computer literacy. Many skills tests in healthcare are designed to measure more specific medical-related skills such as medical terminology, patient safety practices or other knowledge unique to the healthcare work environment.

The Value of Pre-Employment Testing and Pre-Employment Screening in Healthcare

Pre-employment assessment tests offer wide-ranging benefits from streamlining the recruiting process to strengthening a healthcare organization’s capabilities by increasing the chance that a new hire will be effective in their role.

A study conducted by Gallup concluded that companies that selected the top 20% of applicants based on talent assessments increased productivity by 10% and decreased turnover by 10%. Below, we list five of the most significant benefits a healthcare organization may experience after implementing pre-employment testing.

1. Lowering employee turnover

Employee turnover is a major issue for many healthcare organizations. The costs of turnover can be significant. Pre-employment assessments can help healthcare recruiters increase employee retention by making sure that new employees possess the basic skills required for the job along with the appropriate personality, or character, to feel comfortable working with a particular healthcare organization or medical environment. These factors may decrease the chances of candidates being let go for poor performance or failure to successfully complete training, as well as the likelihood that employees will quit of their own volition.

2. Reducing time spent on screening candidates

According to Recruiter.com, recruiters spent 63% of their workweek on the phone screening candidates. By requiring that candidates take pre-employment testing earlier in the recruiting process, healthcare organizations can quickly filter out candidates who do not possess the minimum skills or traits desired by hiring managers, which frees up time for recruiters to speak with more qualified candidates.

Moreover, setting minimum cutoff scores for certain assessments can narrow down the number of candidates selected for a phone or in-person interviews. Reducing the time dedicated to the screening process can drastically reduce the overall time to hire candidates.

3. Identifying prospective leaders

According to a survey conducted by the American College of Healthcare Executives, more than half of respondents agreed with the statement: “In general, over the last five years, my firm’s healthcare clients have changed the requirements for skills, knowledge or credentials needed by members of their senior leadership teams.” Respondents most often named emotional intelligence, ability to influence rather than direct, strategic thinking, collaboration and critical thinking as the skills most desired in healthcare leadership.

Pre-employment screening presents an opportunity to identify candidates who possess the potential to ascend to leadership roles by testing candidates on the leadership qualities they value most. Hiring healthcare workers who possess leadership potential can help healthcare organizations source harder-to-fill leadership positions internally in the future.

4. Building successful teams

Quality patient care is at the core of successful clinical hiring. To provide quality care, a healthcare organization’s staff needs to work towards the shared mission of caring for and serving patients with dignity, empathy and respect. This sense of common purpose begins with building effective teams within a healthcare organization.

Pre-employment assessments such as personality tests can be used to measure the behavioral traits not only central to job performance, but also to a candidate’s ability to work within a team structure. On personality tests, there are no right or wrong answers; however, the answers can provide healthcare organizations with insights into whether a candidate will fit in with their team and the organization’s overall culture. Traits such as strong interpersonal skills, good communication skills and high levels of empathy can all indicate that a candidate works well with others and can provide patients with quality care.

5. Recognizing strengths and weaknesses

From soft skills such as bedside manner to hard skills like technical proficiency, a properly administered pre-employment testing can uncover a healthcare applicant’s professional strengths and weaknesses. Identifying strengths and weaknesses using assessments can help HR professionals by:

  • Identifying candidates with high levels of initiative and strong work ethic
  • Screening out candidates who may be unreliable
  • Reducing the potential of hiring the wrong candidates and wasting resources on training
  • Helping HR leaders develop training programs for current employees based on insights gleaned from the strengths and weaknesses of candidates

By utilizing pre-employment screening and assessments, healthcare organizations can better understand where a candidate will excel, which of their skills may need nurturing or training and if they are well-suited for the roles they are applying to.

Conclusion

By utilizing pre-employment assessments tests, healthcare organizations can employ a less biased and more efficient method of hiring candidates. Furthermore, the data provided by pre-employment assessments can better inform hiring managers and recruiters of the skills and traits possessed by applicants and can be used to better position job descriptions and optimize training procedures. If you would like to learn more about pre-employment screening technology, check out PeopleScout’s proprietary recruiting technology platform, Affinix and check out other great strategies for healthcare recruiting including healthcare RPO.

Leveraging Recruitment Marketing to Attract Healthcare Talent

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Recruitment marketing has evolved from being an emerging trend in talent acquisition to a necessary strategy to attract top candidates, especially in competitive talent markets. Given the shortage of healthcare talent in both clinical and non-clinical roles, organizations looking to attract and hire the best candidates need to leverage recruitment marketing strategies to stay competitive. In this post, we outline key strategies to help healthcare organizations build a robust healthcare recruitment marketing program.

Clearly Communicate the Employer Brand and Value to Healthcare Talent

Healthcare hiring managers spend a lot of time crafting the persona of their ideal candidate. However, some hiring managers neglect to address the value their healthcare organization presents to potential candidates. Building a strong employer brand can have a positive impact on recruiting. In fact, according to a LinkedIn survey, 75 percent of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before applying for a position. This means candidates are as concerned with the reputation of a potential employer as the employer is concerned with a candidate’s experience and work history.

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To present value to candidates, healthcare hiring managers and recruiters need to look through a marketing lens and carefully reflect upon how their employer brand will be interpreted by healthcare talent. Good employer branding not only communicates an organization’s mission and values, but also the experiences and triumphs of an organization’s current workforce. Effective employer branding highlights employee engagement within an organization and the community it serves and will attract like-minded candidates eager to help an organization achieve its goals and objectives. Below we outline a few ways healthcare organizations can better communicate their employer brand to candidates:

  • Hire a film crew or photographer to take candid shots of the facility and employees. Candidates are savvy enough to tell the difference between stock photography and real employee photos and will appreciate a real look inside of an organization.
  • Tell the stories of real employees progressing and excelling within the organization. These stories serve as an inspiration and show candidates that there is a clear path to advancement and success if they join the team.
  • Review the organization’s social media accounts to see if it reflects the culture of the organization and whether it is used to full effect to highlight employee success stories, internal commitments to staff and fun work-related activities.

Update the Career Page

Providing an excellent candidate experience is a vital component of an effective recruitment marketing strategy and building a well-designed and easy to navigate career site can help positively impact candidate experience. What’s more, Talent Board found that 64 percent of candidates listed career sites as a top resource for researching new opportunities. When candidates visit a career page, it is often the first experience they have with an organization. From the moment a candidate lands on a career page, he or she begins to sketch out a mental image about an organization, its facilities and employees, so it is vital to provide applicants with the information they want most. According to a Glassdoor survey, the top five pieces of information job seekers want employers to provide on a career site are:

  • Salary and compensation information
  • Employee benefits and perks
  • Basic company information
  • What makes an organization an attractive place to work
  • The organization’s mission, vision, values and culture

Beyond providing applicants with the information they want, healthcare organizations also need to make applying for open positions simple. Sometimes replying to a job posting can be a frustrating experience. Many career sites have a burdensome online application process that bogs down applicants with long forms and multiple hoops to jump through before they can submit their resume. This leads to lots of qualified healthcare talent leaving applications half-complete or worse, applying with a competitor.

To prevent applicant frustration and abandonment, healthcare organizations should build career pages that have an easy interface with no separate URLs or pop-up screens. According to a study from Appcast, recruiters can boost application conversion rates up to 365 percent by reducing the length of the application process to five minutes or less.

A well-designed career site can also help filter out unqualified candidates. Healthcare staffing teams should structure applications to include screener questions to filter out unqualified job candidates so talent acquisition resources can be dedicated to engaging the most qualified applicants.

Invest in Content Marketing to Recruit Healthcare Talent

The objective of content marketing is simple: create relevant and engaging content aimed at current and potential customers in an attempt to educate them on products, services or topics of interest. While the majority of content marketing efforts are targeted at obtaining clients, content marketing can also be leveraged as a recruiting tactic to attract and engage healthcare talent.

Healthcare recruiters looking to deploy content as another tool in their talent acquisition arsenal should work with their organization’s marketing team to create compelling content. Compelling content can come in many forms such as blogs, ebooks, podcasts and videos. The only prerequisite to great content is that it should tell a story can add value for readers and in turn, improve the candidate experience.

Beyond the above-mentioned content vehicles, interactive content can also make a significant impact on job seekers. According to a report by the Content Marketing Institute, 81 percent of content marketers agree that interactive content grabs attention more effectively than static content, and 79 percent agree that interactive content enhances retention of brand messaging. Interactive content provides candidates with a two-way conversation and is more personal than other pieces of content. A simple yet fun quiz that tests how well a candidate aligns with an organization’s brand values or video tours of the facility allow candidates to research a potential employer and helps them feel more in control of the recruiting process.

SEO and Healthcare Talent Acquisition Strategy

The best recruitment marketing strategy is only as effective as an organization’s presence on search engines. What’s more, 30 percent of Google searches—around 300 million a month—are employment related. In the highly competitive healthcare talent market, ranking well on search engines and job boards can mean the difference between attracting a steady stream of healthcare talent and losing talent opportunities to competitors. Below we list recruitment marketing SEO basics:

  • Create a distinct, index-able job page for each open position and at each location if applicable
  • Ensure jobs pages are marked up with the proper schema and metadata structured data
  • Send regular XML sitemap updates to Google

In addition to SEO basics, properly optimized job postings provide additional job data Google finds valuable. This data can be added to a job post to help Google index and rank the page better. Remember, Google values “completeness of data” so the more information placed in a job posting, the more likely it is to turn up in the top results of a job candidates search. For better optimization, job postings should include:

  • Employment type (full-time, part-time, temp-to-hire)
  • Salary or hourly pay rate
  • Minimum education requirements
  • Minimum experience requirements
  • “Valid through” date
  • Work hours and schedule type
  • Industry sector: i.e., biomedical, hospital food service, laboratory work, etc.
  • Required skills such as “ability to lift more than 20 pounds” and “MS office proficiency”
  • Qualifications, certifications and experience
  • Responsibilities and job duties that are clearly defined

Job titles are also an extremely important SEO factor for ranking in search engines and on job boards. When drafting job postings, make sure common titles are used for open positions. For example, a healthcare provider looking to boost nursing recruiting might refer to nurses as “medical ninjas” instead of their traditional title. While quirky and unique, job seekers will never search for “medical ninja” openings when looking for a job. It is best practice to use common titles and standard terminology as keywords that job candidates are likely to use in their search.

Conclusion

As the skills shortage in healthcare remains a factor in recruiting healthcare talent, organizations need to continue to find ways to attract candidates. By implementing a strong recruitment marketing program, healthcare organizations will ensure they stay ahead of the talent curve. A healthcare RPO partner can guide you through creating effective campaigns that will make an impact.

PeopleScout U.S. Jobs Report Analysis — March 2018

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The Labor Department released its March jobs report with slower than expected job growth, but the 103,000 jobs added to the U.S. economy extended the longest stretch of expansion to 90 months.

The Numbers

 103,000: The economy added 103,000 jobs in March.

4.1%: The unemployment rate remained steady at 4.1 percent.
2.7%: Wages increased 2.7 percent over the last year.

The Good

After February’s strong jobs numbers, the 103,000 jobs added to the economy seems disappointing. However, according to MarketWatch, the U.S. still added an average of 202,000 jobs each month in the first quarter of 2017. This is still strong growth.
Additionally, the unemployment rate remained at 4.1 percent. Though economists had expected that to fall to 4.0 percent in March, the current rate is still the lowest since 2000.
The 2.7 percent wage growth is largely a positive. It is still moderate – slightly higher than the 2.5 percent seen through most of 2017, but low enough to prevent fears of inflation, according to the Wall Street Journal. However, many workers would like to see this number increase.

The Bad

This is the weakest job growth the economy has seen in six months. In September 2017 after the destruction of hurricanes Harvey and Irma, the economy only added 14,000 jobs, though it was initially reported as a loss. The previous low was March 2017, when the economy added what was revised to only 73,000 jobs. Additionally, retail saw job losses in March after significant gains in February.

The Unknown

According to the New York Times, it still unclear what impact escalating trade tensions with China will have on the U.S. economy, particularly the manufacturing sector. Manufacturing has seen strong job gains over the past year, including 22,000 jobs in March. However, a trade war with China could impact that growth.

PeopleScout Jobs Report Analysis – February 2018

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The Labor Department released the February jobs report with higher than expected job gains but slowing wage growth.

The Numbers

313,000: The U.S. added 313,000 jobs in February.

4.1%: The unemployment rate remained steady at 4.1 percent.

2.6%: Wages rose 2.6 percent over the past year.

The Good

February’s jobs report has a lot of good news. The 313,000 jobs added to the economy beat economists’ expectations. The number also marks the fastest pace of job growth in a year and a half according to the Wall Street Journal. Hiring was also spread across industries. Retail, which struggled at the end of 2017, gained 50,000 jobs in February. Professional and business services and manufacturing also saw strong job growth.
The 4.1 percent unemployment has remained steady for the past four months, and it’s the lowest unemployment rate in 17 years. The labor market participation rate ticked up to 63 percent in February, which is its largest jump in three years according to CNN. This shows that economy is still strong enough to pull in sidelined workers, without increasing the unemployment rate.

The Bad

The 2.6 percent wage growth in February can either be good or bad news depending on who you’re asking. Wage growth did slow from January, which is disappointing for workers and more in line with the sluggish wage growth that’s remained consistent throughout the recovery from the Great Recession. However, according to the New York Times, the lower wage growth quiets concerns about inflation.

The Unknown

The biggest question right now is how much room for growth is left in the economy. Despite the strong numbers in January’s jobs report, investors were concerned about inflation, which resulted in large stock market losses. However, February’s report indicates that there is still plenty of room to grow.
“Over the last 2 months, the job market has absorbed 1.3 million new entrants into the labor force, allowing the unemployment rate to stay at 4.1% – a remarkable testament to the underlying strength in this economy,” David Donabedian, chief investment officer of CIBC Atlantic Trust told the Wall Street Journal.

Hospitality Staffing: RPO and Hospitality, a Perfect Blend

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The hospitality industry continues to see strong performance. According to U.S. Online Travel Overview Sixteenth Edition, the industry is projected to see 5 to 6 percent growth throughout 2018. As a result of sustained growth, the demand for hospitality talent continues to rise. In fact, The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the hospitality industry is currently on pace to add more than 100,000 jobs over the next decade as this sector continues to expand.

With strong growth numbers, hospitality organizations need to ensure their hospitality staffing and recruiting plan is prepared to meet the challenges and demands of a tight talent market and growing competition for candidates. Below, we outline the challenges, trends and strategies in hospitality staffing and how engaging an RPO solutions provider can help an organization optimize talent acquisition.

Hospitality Staffing Challenges

hospitality staffing solutions

Despite the hospitality industry’s favorable outlook, organizations are facing some significant challenges to hospitality staffing. With the U.S. nearing full-employment and increased demand for talent, hospitality organizations are finding it more difficult to find and attract quality candidates for open positions. Below, we list some of the biggest challenges facing hospitality staffing.

Talent shortage

The hospitality industry is labor-intensive and as such, the current labor shortage is impacting business operations and impeding investment and growth for many organizations. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there were over 847,000 job openings in the leisure and hospitality industry in 2017. The talent shortage and high numbers of job vacancies weigh heavily on an industry that cannot automate vital positions and needs skilled staff in-house for food service, housekeeping and facilities maintenance.

Employee turnover

Employee turnover is a critical issue in hospitality staffing. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there is an annualized employee turnover rate of 73.8 percent in the hospitality industry. That is more than 6 percent of staff resigning their positions every month. The loss of an employee costs time and money, and every time someone leaves, their replacement must be hired and trained, further draining vital resources in man-hours and budget.

Mass retirement

A study conducted by ADP Research Institute found that approximately 9 percent of the hospitality workforce is approaching retirement age. As the Baby Boomer generation continues to retire at a high rate, hospitality organizations are faced with losing their most experienced and skilled staff. Baby Boomers will be replaced by millennials so hospitality organizations will need to adjust their hospitality staffing strategies to source, attract and hire these workers and keep them engaged.

Skills gap

The hospitality industry has a diverse range of jobs from housekeepers and desk staff to specialized positions like lifeguards and massage therapists. Because of the various skill sets needed by hospitality organizations, it can be difficult to fill open positions with experienced staff. Likewise, to provide good customer service and to understand safety requirements, employees must be able to communicate clearly with other staff members as well as patrons. This makes soft-skills such as customer care and multi-lingual workers highly in-demand by hospitality organizations.

Candidates who possess the right mixture of hard and soft-skills to excel in the hospitality industry also have the skills to succeed in other vocations. This means that hospitality organizations not only have to compete with each other for top talent, but also with organizations in other industries.

How RPO Providers Can Improve Hospitality Staffing

staffing agency hospitality

Internal HR and recruiting teams may not be equipped with the skills, resources, experience and know-how to effectively navigate the challenges in hospitality staffing. An RPO provider is well-versed in the most up-to-date recruitment tactics and strategies in addition to having a deep understanding of the current labor market. Below, we outline how hospitality organizations can benefit from engaging an RPO provider.

Data-based hiring

Big data is changing the way organizations make decisions and how they quantify success and failure. As the world of recruiting evolves to become more technology and data-driven, RPO providers have become adept at utilizing the latest trends in big data to optimize talent acquisition. An RPO provider can utilize a client’s ATS to compile and analyze data to help predict successful candidates and eliminate some hiring biases by putting the focus on quantifiable metrics. Benefits of data-based hiring are numerous, below we list a few of the major advantages of the practice for hospitality staffing:

  • Data can help in workforce planning and establishing a strong talent pipeline by anticipating how many candidates need to be sourced, screened and interviewed to reach hiring goals.
  • Data can help RPO providers better identify bottlenecks in the recruitment process so additional resources can be applied to trouble stages in the recruiting funnel for more streamlined candidate management.
  • Data provides better information for a more in-depth analysis of a recruiting program from A/B testing of job postings to monitoring offer-to-accept ratios for tough-to-fill positions.

Hospitality Staffing Solutions: Referral program management 

Referral programs are one of the oldest and most effective methods of recruiting, and in the tight hospitality talent landscape, having a well-run referral program is crucial to winning the battle for talent.  RPO providers who specialize in hospitality staffing have the experience and expertise to source quality candidates from current employees. An RPO provider can create a referral program that emphasizes the importance of referring candidates who would fit well into an organization to current employees, not just friends in need of a job. Referrals can also be an effective way of mitigating the effects of a retiring workforce by asking soon-to-retire employees for referrals.

  • An RPO provider can help assist a hospitality organization’s referral program by suggesting optimized job descriptions to assist employees who refer quality candidates during recruiting campaigns.
  • RPO providers have a good understanding of which incentives work best for referrals in hospitality staffing. They may award a standard prize for each successful referral, or vary the award depending on the difficulty of filling a position.
  • RPO providers are adept at simplifying the referral process and can make it easy for employees to spread the word about job openings by posting job descriptions in the breakroom or on a company intranet for easy distribution and referencing.
hospitality staffing

Improved candidate experience

With a tight hospitality labor pool, it is now more important than ever for hospitality organizations to improve the experience for candidates applying to open positions. The best candidates have plenty of positions and organizations to choose from, and they evaluate potential employers carefully. An RPO provider can improve the candidate experience by providing an easy-to-apply, streamlined hiring process. Below we outline a few of the ways an RPO provider can improve candidate experience.

  • With thousands of postings being added to job boards daily, it is vital that a job post jumps off the screen and grabs a candidate’s attention. PeopleScout’s proprietary total talent suite Affinix® can optimize job descriptions to make positions more attractive to candidates and sell the opportunity to them. With the right job descriptions, hospitality staffing becomes more efficient, only attracting candidates with the right mix of skills and experience to apply.
  • RPO providers can help a hospitality organization utilize video interviewing and screening to make the hiring process more efficient. Video interviews let a candidate record answers to pre-determined questions. Recruiters can then watch responses on their own time, allowing both recruiters and candidates to adapt the screening process to their schedule.
  • Onboarding is a crucial part of the hiring process and affords an organization a significant opportunity to provide an unforgettable experience to new hires. An RPO provider can set up several touch points between a new hire and an organization’s hiring manager to ensure clear communication and seamless onboarding.

PeopleScout’s RPO Programs are the Perfect Hospitality Staffing Solution

PeopleScout’s RPO teams can provide solutions tailored to meet the challenges of hospitality staffing. PeopleScout’s expert recruiters have years of experience in selecting the right candidates best suited for the culture of a hospitality establishment, can advise organizations on the most competitive pay and benefits packages and improve the quality of candidates for clients. If you are in need of an RPO solution for your hospitality staffing needs contact PeopleScout today.

How To: Sourcing Healthcare Workers

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Sourcing healthcare workers is increasingly challenging for leaders in the medical industry. With demographic shifts and burnout leading to turnover, healthcare talent shortages are affecting the ability of health systems to deliver high-quality care. According to McKinsey, an additional one million nursing care jobs will be added by 2031, primarily for certified nurse assistants. Yet, across the United States, colleges and universities are failing to close the gap as vacancies continue to outpace the number of graduates from relevant degree programs. 

In order to boost resilience amongst this challenging talent landscape, healthcare organizations must establish an efficient method of sourcing talent. In this post, we outline how healthcare organizations can better source quality healthcare workers to avoid understaffing issues now and in the coming years.

Preparing to Source Healthcare Workers

Before a healthcare organization can adequately source healthcare workers, it must first evaluate its needs, what it can offer prospective workers and if it is prepared to make competitive offers to candidates.

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What qualities are you looking for in a healthcare worker?

A healthcare worker who is willing and able to perform the necessary duties associated with their position is essential, but what particular hard or soft-skills and credentials does an organization’s ideal candidate possess? Are candidates with roots in the community or region of an organization preferred? Are candidates with leadership experience or skills the best fit for a role? If an organization has a clear vision of the type of healthcare worker they want to employ, sourcing the right candidates becomes easier and less subjective.

What does your organization have to offer healthcare workers?

Healthcare organizations must also evaluate what they have to offer potential employees. An honest exploration of your employer value proposition can provide insights and help in the creation of a realistic and attractive compensation package, increase the odds that offers will be accepted and help retain candidates once they are hired.

Is your employer brand in order?

A study conducted by Healthcare Recruiters International found that over 90% of candidates think employer branding is an essential recruiting resource. Evaluation your employer brand strategy will help make a healthcare worker’s offer acceptance easier and provide assurance that they have chosen the right employer.

Sourcing the Ideal Healthcare Worker

The role of an RPO solution or internal recruiter is to source and hire top talent. However, the success of a candidate depends on whether a healthcare organization has thoroughly outlined the traits, experience and competencies of an ideal candidate for both clinical and non-clinical healthcare workers. Below, we list a few ways healthcare organizations can narrow down their ideal candidate.

Must-Have Traits & Key Responsibilities

The healthcare industry can place varied demands on workers. To ensure new hires can meet the unique challenges presented by a healthcare organization, it is essential to specify the must-have skills and traits candidates should possess. HR, management and employees currently in the same or an adjacent role should work together to compile a list of must-haves.

Traits should be a good mixture of hard and soft-skills such as a passion for work, technology proficiency, proper certifications, discipline, positive attitude and ambition. Must-haves should also cover cultural fit like traits including communication skills and shared values.

Responsibilities will vary depending on role and could include management of a team, project management, food preparation, dispensing medication and other tasks critical to the position. By outlining key tasks, a healthcare organization will not only increase the chances of making the right hire, but they will also be able to write more accurate job descriptions that attract the right talent.

Job Descriptions

An optimized job description is one of the most potent weapons in a healthcare recruiter’s arsenal. Great job descriptions tell potential hires the exact requirements of a position and decrease the number of unqualified applicants. Job descriptions should draw from must-have traits and key responsibilities to form an accurate representation of the job and who would best fit the role. Before drafting a job description, it can be helpful to gather a team of current employees who represent the best qualities of the people who currently hold the same or a similar position and ask them how they would describe their job and what it takes to be successful in their role.

Source Healthcare Workers by Referral

One of the best ways to source top-quality healthcare workers is by tapping into the professional networks of healthcare professionals. The tight healthcare labor market means more competition for talent. Demand is increasing in both acute care and community settings, including large health systems, public health organizations, tech companies moving into healthcare, travel nursing firms, long-term care facilities, the military, healthcare research, mental health agencies, insurance and managed care companies, and even other industries.

To get an edge over the competition, look to one of the unique and trustworthy sources of expertise, your employees.

An employee referral program helps a healthcare organization expand its network and gives them a ready-made talent pool. Employees have contacts with former classmates and co-workers, and their referrals are more likely to be qualified and the right cultural fits.

Post open positions in common areas, announce openings at company meetings and share growth plans with staff members, so they keep referrals top of mind. Also, make employees aware of the rewards for references such as financial compensation or other perks. If an employee referral candidate is not a good fit for the position, consider that candidate for other roles, and add it to your talent pipeline.

Source Healthcare Workers Where They Are

Meeting candidates where they are is not only an efficient way to source talent; it is also a way to improve the candidate experience. When sourcing healthcare workers, organizations should look to identify candidates’ preferred news sources, professional forums, discussion groups and social networking sites. For example, participating in and networking at industry groups, conferences and trade shows is a great way to meet healthcare professionals who may be interested in new opportunities. Healthcare organizations can also post on professional association webpages, industry journals and in local organization’s newsletters.

Plus, engage candidates on social media via recruitment marketing campaigns is a great way to sell the vision and the advantages of your organization. Effective engagement with candidates will portray an organization as an exciting and rewarding place to work and make healthcare workers want to apply to open positions whether they are passive or active candidates.

If social media is a focus ensure your application process is mobile-friendly. Many healthcare organizations have not invested in recruiting technology to help them become more mobile-friendly. Yet, 80 percent of job seekers expect to be able to conduct their job search easily on a smartphone. Optimizing the mobile experience should be a top priority for healthcare organizations to get an edge over the competition.

Engage a Healthcare RPO Provider

For some healthcare organizations, the time and resources it takes to source quality talent are prohibitive. What’s more, a healthcare company may not be able to source candidates in certain hard-to-fill positions. Vacancies in open jobs can be very costly for healthcare organizations, but more importantly, they can affect the ability to provide quality care to their patients.

RPO solution providers who specialize in healthcare recruiting can help source quality talent and develop a healthy candidate pool. A healthcare RPO provider’s networks, contacts, know-how and dedication to sourcing talent will not only help find candidates, but it will also free up time and resources for internal HR teams, allowing them to focus on other important matters.

If your organization is looking for additional ideas about sourcing healthcare workers, contact PeopleScout and ask how we can help you source and hire the best healthcare talent quickly.

Healthcare Recruiting Lexicon

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Hiring the right candidates is critical for any healthcare organization looking to stay ahead of the challenges facing the healthcare industry. However, the terminology and processes involved in the world of healthcare recruiting and talent acquisition can seem daunting. Below, we provide a healthcare recruiting reference glossary to help you decipher healthcare recruiting terminology.

Common Healthcare Recruiting Terms

Allied Health Personnel: Trained and licensed healthcare workers other than physicians, dentists, optometrists, chiropractors, podiatrists, and nurses. The term is sometimes used synonymously with paramedical personnel, all healthcare workers who perform tasks that must otherwise be performed by a physician, or health workers who do not usually engage in independent practice.

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Applicant Tracking System (ATS): An ATS is a software application that enables the electronic management of recruitment functions. An ATS stores candidate data to allow recruiters or hiring managers to search, filter and route applications. ATS software can also be known as Talent Management Software (TMS), Candidate Management System (CMS) or Recruitment Management System (RMS), with some ATS platforms being tailored or designed specifically for healthcare recruiting. ATS solutions are often used in conjunction with an RPO program for more efficient hiring.

Assignment: An assignment is a temporary task, project or job performed by a contingent worker. Assignments may also refer to the length of time a temporary employee, such as a traveling nurse, will be working for a healthcare organization.

Blended Workforce: A blended healthcare workforce uses both full-time and contingent, or temporary, workers. Blended healthcare workforce planning uses both RPO and MSP programs to fill positions and manage talent and vendor services.

Business Intelligence (BI): BI tools provide a powerful analysis of program-specific data and metrics. BI tools are used with RPO, MSP and Total Workforce Solutions programs and provide transparency between a healthcare organization and healthcare staffing providers.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO): BPO uses third-party business service providers to perform business activities and functions vital for running an efficient healthcare organization. BPO services may include payroll, medical coders, insurance specialists, healthcare IT, HR, accounting or customer service.

Candidate: A candidate is a person who has applied for a job and is qualified for temporary or full-time consideration by a healthcare organization. Candidates can apply to positions that are managed by an internal healthcare HR team or a Healthcare RPO provider.

Consultant: A consultant is another term used for temporary employees or contingent workers. Consultants often perform professional work for healthcare departments such as IT, medical billing, revenue cycle management, policy, project management and clinical roles.

Contingent Worker: Contingent is an overarching term that covers freelancers, independent contractors, consultants or any other outsourced, non-employee workers. They are generally hired on a per-project or temporary basis.

Clinical Staff: Clinical roles often have face-to-face contact with patients for the purpose of diagnosis, treatment and ongoing care. Some clinical professions are behind-the-scenes, such as laboratory professionals whose work supports diagnosis and treatment. Clinical roles often require certification or licensing by the state and local government.

Contingent Workforce Management (CWM): CWM is the strategic approach to managing an organization’s contingent workforce.

Contract Worker: A contract worker is also known as a 1099 or independent contractor. There are very specific guidelines for classifying workers as independent contractors, including whether the worker controls when and where work is to be completed if the worker provides their own work equipment and supplies, and how the workers are compensated.

Customer (or Contact) Relationship Management (CRM): CRM systems manage a company’s interaction with current and prospective customers or contacts – including employees.

Direct Hire: Direct hire positions are permanent, usually full-time with benefits.

Diversity Supplier: Diversity suppliers refer to minority, woman, disabled or veteran healthcare recruiting and staffing suppliers.

Employee: An employee works directly for an organization in a job with no specific end date. Employees may be full-time or part-time.

Employer Branding: A talent acquisition strategy designed to make a healthcare organization an appealing place to work. This targeted marketing effort attempts to shape the perceptions of potential candidates and current employees.

Employer Value Proposition (EVP): A unique set of offerings, associations and values to positively influence target candidates and employees. EVP benefits recruiting, healthcare employee engagement and retention and can reduce the need to pay a wage premium for top talent.

Exempt Workers: An exempt worker must be paid at least $23,600 per year on a salary basis and perform exempt job duties Exempt workers are not entitled to overtime pay for hours worked outside of normal 40-hour work week.

Healthcare Locum Tenens Staffing: Staffing of physicians, advanced practitioners, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nurse anesthetists and dentists who take temporary assignments which involves temporary relocation and staffing firm coverage of housing expenses. Locum tenens workers are typically paid as independent contractors rather than employees.

Healthcare Skills Gap: The healthcare skills gap is the difference between the skills required for a healthcare job and the actual skills possessed by a candidate or employee tasked with the job.

Healthcare Staffing Services: Provide temporary hires that include supplemental staffing to medical facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes and outpatient clinics as well as the provision of licensed nursing personnel RNs, trained medical technologists, and unlicensed staff home health aides, homemakers, personal assistants, etc.

Healthcare Workforce Planning: The process a healthcare organization takes to develop a holistic, long-term and proactive approach to strategically assessing and accessing all forms of talent. Specifically, healthcare workforce planning links strategic objectives and their associated workforce implications with multiple avenues of talent engagement and resourcing such as direct hire, contingent, SOW and temporary staffing.

Non-Exempt Workers: Non-exempt workers are entitled to overtime pay for work done outside of a standard 40-hour work week.

Independent Contractor (1099): The general rule, according to the IRS, is that an individual is an independent contractor if the employer has the right to control or direct only the result of the work and not what will be done and how it will be done. Independent contractors are also known as contractors or freelancers or gig workers.

Job Board: Job boards are internet-based talent acquisition websites that aggregate either local, national or international job offerings.

Job Requisitions: Refers to a request to a staffing firm or employment agency to supply applicants for a specific position. A job order is the specific set of requirements set forth by an employer for an actual open position.

Per Diem Nurse Staffing: Staffing of registered nurses, licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses and nursing assistant on assignments of less than four weeks, which typically does not involve relocation for the worker.

Permanent Physician Staffing: Staffing an open physician position with a permanent hire.

Predictive Analytics: In an HR and healthcare recruiting context, this refers to the ability for a healthcare organization to use information and analytics to determine future outcomes for better workforce management. For example, predictive analytics may be used to analyze data from resumes, job descriptions, ATS and HRIS systems to predict various talent management outcomes.

Pre-employment screening: Pre-employment screening services are critical to healthcare staffing, ensuring candidates are certified and include background verification, drug screening, skills assessment and behavioral assessment tools. A thorough background screen verifies important factual information about a prospective employee (i.e. identity, employment history, education credentials). It also helps gain critical information about an applicant’s character and past history that isn’t always apparent in an interview or application, such as criminal history, credit history, driving record, etc.

Key Performance Indicator (KPI): A KPI is a measurable goal that demonstrates how effectively a company is achieving key business objectives. Organizations use KPIs to evaluate their success related to specific business metrics.

Machine Learning: Machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that provides computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed. In an HR setting, an example of machine learning is the ability for a computer program to identify patterns and relationships in data to predict a specific outcome such likelihood of a candidate changing jobs within a certain period of time.

Managed Service Provider (MSP): MSP programs provide end-to-end workforce and vendor management for users of contingent labor.

Non-Clinical Healthcare Staffing: Non-clinical staffing encompasses positions in a healthcare setting such as front and back-office roles across a variety of departments and patient care settings.

Non-Traditional versus Traditional Employee Benefits: Traditional benefits include life, retirement, health and disability benefits. Non-traditional benefits include various types of perks such as child and elder care options, work-from-home days, casual dress code, lunch allowances, etc.

Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO): RPO programs provide direct-hire talent acquisition services for professional and non-professional positions that solve compliance, scalability, cost, quality or other recruiting challenges.

Service Level Agreement (SLA):  An SLA is a commitment between a service provider and customer. Aspects of the partnership – quality, availability, responsibilities – are agreed upon between the service provider and the service user.

Social Media Healthcare Recruiting: Social media recruiting is a technique that sources or recruits candidates through the use of social media platforms as promotional and/or advertising channels.

Statement of Work (SOW): An SOW is a document that captures the work activities and deliverables to be supplied as part of a contract or project timeline. SOW arrangements are used in contingent workforce programs.

Supplemental Staffing: The provision of temporary workers to a company to supplement the current workforce for peak loads, special projects, or planned and unplanned worker absences. Also describes the regular practice of using contract healthcare staff in hospitals and other medical institution settings.

Temporary Workers: Temporary workers are generally hired to fill short-term positions or to complete specific projects with a set time frame. Temporary workers also fill positions that have irregular or seasonal work schedules.

Temp-to-Hire Workers: A temp-to-hire worker is hired as a temporary worker with the knowledge that the short-term position may transition to a full-time job. Temp-to-hire workers can be managed by an MSP program and then transitioned to the employer once they become permanent employees.

Total Workforce Solutions: Total Workforce Solutions blend Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) and Managed Service Provider (MSP) capabilities in one integrated program.

Travel Nurse Staffing: Staffing of primarily registered nurses (RNs) on assignments of four weeks or more. A traveling nurse assignment can involve temporary relocation and housing expenses are paid for by an employer, but not always. Despite the use of the word “travel,” local nurses are sometimes used for travel assignments. The most common assignment length is 13 weeks, which may be renewed.

Vendor Management System (VMS): VMS platforms help businesses manage and procure staffing services – temporary, and, in some cases, permanent placement services – as well as outside contract or contingent labor. VMS platforms are generally used with MSP programs.

Workplace Diversity: Workplace diversity refers to a collective mixture of differences and similarities that may include: individual and organizational characteristics, values, beliefs, experiences, backgrounds, preferences and behaviors.

Regardless of the size of a healthcare organization, recruiting the right candidates is an integral part of growth and sustainability. By understanding some of the most commonly used terms in healthcare recruiting, you will be better equipped to meet with healthcare recruiting service providers and more efficient in sourcing, screening and hiring top healthcare talent.

PeopleScout Jobs Report Analysis – January 2018

Posted on by epadmin

The Labor Department released the January jobs report with higher than expected job gains and accelerating wage gains.


The Numbers

200,000: The U.S. added 200,000 jobs in January
4.1%: The unemployment remained at 4.1 percent
2.9%: Wages increased 2.9 percent over the past year

The Good

The 200,000 jobs added to the economy beat economists’ expectations for the first month of 2018. January marks the 88th consecutive month of growth for the economy. The unemployment rate has remained at the low of 4.1 percent since October 2017.
The biggest highlight in this report is the wage growth. Throughout 2017 many economists questioned what held back wages as the unemployment rate fell. Toward the end of the year, we noted that there were signals that wage growth could accelerate in 2018. January’s jobs report shows hourly wage growth of 2.9 percent, which is the highest since 2009, according to CNN. However, the New York Times warns not too read too strongly into January’s numbers because there have been short spikes at other points in the recovery from the Great Recession.

The Bad

The bad news in this jobs report isn’t immediately obvious, however the markets did fall Friday morning. The New York Times reports that this may be because January’s jobs report gives signs that future U.S. growth could be slower than expected.

The Unknown

Heading into 2018, there are still questions about how the tax cut will impact the U.S. economy. Some employers have offered one-time bonuses to employees, citing the tax cut. Those bonuses are not counted in the hourly wage numbers in this report. According to the Wall Street Journal, that means that consumers have more purchasing power than the wage gain number reflects. Additionally, the increased tax savings could lead some employers to increase wages.

The Global Unemployment Report – Q3 2017

PeopleScout partnered with HRO Today to produce a quarterly summary of international unemployment metrics for key countries in North America, Latin America, EMEA and APAC, including highlighting the countries with the most highly skilled workers. This issue of the report focuses on Q3 2017.
Click below to access the eBook.

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2017 Jobs Report in Review

Posted on by epadmin
2017 Jobs Report in Review

The Numbers:

2.1 million: The economy added 2.1 million jobs in 2017
4.1%: The unemployment rate fell from 4.8 percent to 4.1 percent in 2017
2.5%: Hourly wages increased 2.5 percent in 2017

The Good

The U.S. economy saw continued growth in 2017, marking 87 straight months of growth, according to the New York Times. The 2.1 million jobs added in 2017 brought the unemployment rate down to a low that the U.S. hasn’t seen in 17 years.


The Washington Post reports that there is now nearly one job opening for every unemployed person in the U.S., with 6 million vacancies and 6.6 million unemployed people. While this is good news for anyone who is looking for a job, employers are struggling to fill open positions. Economists expect the job growth to continue into 2018, causing the unemployment rate to continue to fall.

The Bad

While the economy is still growing, that growth is slowing. According to CNN, the economy added nearly 3 million jobs in 2014, 2.7 million in 2015 and 2.2 million in 2016. The two weakest months for hiring in 2017 were March and September. However, economists attribute that to weather. March was cold and snowy, and hurricanes Harvey and Irma impacted hiring in September.


Retail hiring was another weak point in 2017. The retail industry shed 67,000 jobs. More than 20,000 were lost in December alone. The rise of e-commerce hit retails stores particularly hard in 2017.


Additionally, despite the continued job growth and falling unemployment, wage growth has remained sluggish. Economists have offered a variety of explanations; however, many expect increased wage growth to start soon. Some industries, particularly the finance and leisure and hospitality sectors are already seeing wage growth that is significantly higher than the national average.

Looking Toward 2018

Looking forward to 2018, economists expect more good news. According to the Wall Street Journal Economic Forecasting Survey, economists expect the unemployment rate to fall to 3.9 percent in June and 3.8 percent by December. They also expect the economy to add slightly fewer jobs than 2017.


As far as any impact from the tax bill, economists are skeptical it will have any immediate effect on either job or wage growth, according to Business Insider. However, according to the New York Times, 2018 could see more wage growth, as industries where they labor supply is tighter are seeing wages rise.


Review the monthly 2017 jobs reports to see how things changed month to month, and check back each month for our analysis of the 2018 jobs reports.


March 2017 Jobs Report
April 2017 Jobs Report
May 2017 Jobs Report
June 2017 Jobs Report
July 2017 Jobs Report
August 2017 Jobs Report
September 2017 Jobs Report
October 2017 Jobs Report
November 2017 Jobs Report
December 2017 Jobs Report

The Global Unemployment Report – Q3 2017

PeopleScout partnered with HRO Today to produce a quarterly summary of international unemployment metrics for key countries in North America, Latin America, EMEA and APAC, including highlighting the countries with the most highly skilled workers. This issue of the report focuses on Q3 2017.

Medical Staffing: How to Engage and Retain Healthcare Workers

Posted on by epadmin

Retaining healthcare staff and medical staffing are more important than ever. The lifeblood of a healthy healthcare organization is a happy and well-engaged staff, from food service and facility maintenance employees to clinical professionals like physicians and nurses. To ensure a happy healthcare workforce, medical staffing, employee engagement and retention need to be top priorities of healthcare HR professionals.

Unfortunately, many healthcare organizations lack concrete plans or programs for healthcare talent management, or the programs they have in place are antiquated and in need of updating. In this post, we educate healthcare HR professionals on ways to improve medical staffing by better engaging and retaining employees.

Why Engagement and Retention is Important for Medical Staffing

medical staffing

Healthcare employee turnover is high, according to a Leaders for Today (LPT) survey report, which included 852 participants of both clinical and non-clinical healthcare workers. The survey found that 43 percent of respondents reported they have been with their current organization for fewer than two years and 65.7 percent reported they have been with their hospital for fewer than five years. More than one-third of LPT survey respondents plan to leave their current organization within two years, and 68.6 percent plan to leave in five years.

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What’s more, the financial costs of high turnover can be significant for healthcare organizations. The turnover of a physician represents a $200,000 loss for a healthcare organization, according to a 2016 report from B.E. Smith, while the loss of a bedside nurse can cost up to $56,300 annually according to NSI Nursing Solution’s report. By better engaging employees, healthcare organizations will not only raise morale and lower employee turnover, but they will also improve their bottom line.

Four Key Areas of Medical Staffing and Employee Engagement

Developing an effective medical staffing strategy is a challenge, especially with the healthcare industry experiencing a shortage of medical professionals. Healthcare workforce planning can help resolve some medical staffing issues. However, organizations also need to factor in the following areas to ensure strong employee engagement and retention:

  • Onboarding new employees: Involves training, educating and getting new employees comfortably situated in their new position.
  • Engaging employees: Involves managing and developing employees to become more engaged with the organization.
  • Retaining employees: Involves expanding responsibilities of employees as well as offering incentives to stay with an organization.

Medical Staffing Basics: Onboarding New Healthcare Employees

Making sure new hires are comfortable, connected and productive as soon as possible is essential for the success of a comprehensive medical staffing program. New hires need to know how they fit into an organization and understand how their roles support the healthcare organization’s goals. When a healthcare organization takes the time to cultivate relationships with new hires, those employees feel like part of the team from day one and are more likely to stay in their positions.

Having a strong support structure is vital for new hires, managers should work to create a support network for their new hires in their departments to help them get up to speed as soon as possible. Managers should also be as available as possible to answer questions and provide feedback to new hires.

Instead of waiting for new hires to introduce themselves to their new co-workers, healthcare HR professionals should actively introduce new hires to their teams before their start date. This can be done with email notifications or a brief in-person meeting. Veteran employees should also conduct regular follow-ups with new hires once they have started to make sure they are acclimating well to their new environment.

Additional on-boarding suggestions:

  • Appoint point persons and mentors to welcome and orient new hires for the first 90-days of employment.
  • Before a new hire’s start date, send him/her a card or letter welcoming them to the organization and include important paperwork, employee handbook and benefits package along with an agenda letting them know what to expect on their first day.
  • Make sure the employee’s work area is ready.
  • Create lunch plans for new hire’s first few days, helping her/him feel at ease and welcome. This can also can serve as a way to introduce them to the team.
  • Promptly educate new hires on the healthcare organization’s culture and unwritten rules. For example, what is the preferred method of communication – email, phone, chat programs or in-person meetings?

Successfully onboarding employees can be one of the most effective weapons in a healthcare organization’s arsenal. Studies have illustrated that well-designed onboarding programs can quickly transform new hires into dedicated employees, reducing the costs associated with turnover and improving overall employee morale.

Engaging Healthcare Employees

Employee engagement is one of the most important elements of successful medical staffing. Highly engaged employees often have persistent feelings of work fulfillment. This work fulfillment can often translate into increased enthusiasm and passion in employees, resulting in higher than average levels of focus and energy put into their jobs.

Employee engagement has become more important to healthcare HR professionals because there is growing evidence that employee engagement correlates to positive outcomes for individual, group and organizational performance in the areas of productivity, retention, turnover, patient care and loyalty. Here are a few practices healthcare organizations can do to better engage employees.

Professional development: For healthcare professionals—especially clinical employees—the opportunity to learn and grow professionally is very important. To better engage employees, healthcare organizations should look to create a positive learning environment for employees who seek additional skills and professional experiences. Learning opportunities can pay long-term dividends, the skills and new experiences gained by employees through education and training can be utilized to improve performance in their current position, or they can transition into vacant positions, lessening the need for hiring new personnel.

Offer better work-life balance

Healthcare workers experience the same challenges in their personal lives as employees in other industries, they are trying to balance childcare, school schedules and needing time away from work. Adding some freedom to an employee’s daily, weekly or monthly schedule is often seen as a big plus for employees and can be more important than compensation in some cases.

Working relationships and mentorship

Strong bonds and relationships between team members are important for professional growth. Veteran employees who have been with an organization for years have a lot of experience, knowledge and advice to impart to younger and less experienced employees looking for career guidance. To build better employee engagement, healthcare organizations should create a formal mentoring program. Healthcare organizations can ask seasoned employees to guide younger ones in their careers to help engage both the mentor and mentee, giving a sense of purpose and direction to both parties.

Additional employee engagement suggestions:

  • Make staff meetings a time to celebrate successes and highlight individual achievements.
  • Have managers involve employees in determining their career path goals and development plan.
  • Promote values such as integrity, empowerment, perseverance, equality, discipline and accountability into the organization.
  • Let employees know they matter and make a difference within the organization.
  • Give employees responsibilities and new challenges.
  • Give employees thank you cards for going the extra mile.
  • Implement employee suggestions and ideas to show you care and value their input.
  • Create opportunities for employees to become a “leader” in something they are interested in and knowledgeable about.
  • Ask employees work-appropriate questions about their family life, hobbies and interests.
  • Always provide staff the care, tools and resources needed to be successful in their position.

By better engaging employees, medical staffing efforts will see reduced turnover and higher levels of job satisfaction among employees. Remember, managers are key in engaging employees and must pay attention to staff needs to help create a positive working environment.

Medical Staffing Retaining Healthcare Employees

Employee retention is certainly one of the most important ingredients for success for healthcare organizations. Improving employee retention allows organizations to avoid the high cost associated with replacing employees, improves patient care and enhancing the overall quality of service to the communities served. Below are a few ways healthcare organizations can improve their employee retention efforts.

Offer flexible scheduling: Scheduling can be a rather difficult part of medical staffing. A healthcare workers’ schedule can be exhausting, as they often have to work long and unpredictable hours. To better retain employees, healthcare organizations should consider offering a wide array of scheduling options. Employees will appreciate an organization’s attempts to accommodate their personal lives and needs, and in turn, become more loyal to an organization as a result. Employees who have more control of their schedules tend to feel more job satisfaction and often stay with an organization longer.

Remove frustrating obstacles: Many employees may truly love their jobs, but due to obstacles and unnecessary challenges associated with performing their duties, they become burned out. For instance, nurses might get inundated with never-ending paperwork. This may result in nurses feeling unsatisfied with their work. A solution to this challenge could be to implement a new technology to streamline the paperwork process. Without an overload, nurses will most likely feel greater satisfaction because their workload is more balanced between administrative and clinical work.

Conduct stay interviews: Interviewing employees is often reserved for before hiring or after an employee resigns their position. Stay interviews should be conducted at least once a year with employees on a one-on-one basis in a neutral setting. Employees should be asked questions about their frustrations and issues and about ideas on how improvements can be made for them.

Questions to include in stay interviews:

  • What about your job makes you eager to get to work?
  • What makes you want to hit the snooze button instead of coming to work?
  • If you were to leave the organization, what would you miss the most?
  • What would be the one thing, if it changed in your current position, would make you consider leaving?
  • What would be the one thing you would change about your department if you could?

Employees who are treated well will often feel a sense of obligation or duty to their organization. As a healthcare employer, each action an organization takes to improve employee job satisfaction, morale and productivity is a step towards improving retention and improving medical staffing outcomes.

Conclusion

For healthcare organizations, medical staffing is only as successful as their ability to engage and retain the best healthcare professionals. To achieve this end, organizations must be consistently vigilant of their employees’ needs and must develop talent carefully to keep employees engaged and committed to their job.