As the world of work transforms, the healthcare industry is at the epicenter of change. The industry is growing rapidly and facing a healthcare talent shortage and skills gaps. At the same time, the accelerating pace of medical and technological advancements means medical professionals must constantly adapt to new breakthroughs and changing expectations. Talent acquisition and HR professionals need to be ready to meet the growing challenge. To do so, they must understand the full picture of the healthcare talent landscape.
Is a Generational Change Creating a Healthcare Talent Shortage?
The industry is facing challenges in both supply and demand. Hospitals and Health Networks magazine calls the generational change “the most powerful force operating in our health system right now.”
On the supply side, the baby boomer generation is reaching retirement age, and according to Becker’s Hospital Review, one-third of practicing physicians are more than 55-years old and nearing retirement. Replacing doctors and surgeons who have decades of experience is challenging, as those earlier in their careers lack the years of training, education and on-the-job hours. The next generation in the workforce, Generation X, is relatively small. While the millennial generation is the largest generation in the workforce, the oldest millennials are nearly 40 years old, and some of Gen Z are too young even to start medical school. As baby boomers retire, these generations will have to fill that gap.
Dig Deeper
How RPO Can Solve The Top Challenges In Healthcare Talent Acquisition
On the other side of this equation, the overall population is aging, with 10,000 Americans turn 65-years-old every day. Caring for an aging population will require even more healthcare professionals.
As baby boomers age, the demand for healthcare is increasing, including home health services, long-term and aged care. Chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes, cancer are becoming more common with nearly half of the American population suffering from a chronic illness. According to a study JAMA Internal Medicine, , baby boomers have a longer lifespan but higher rates of hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes and obesity. This means the largest generation to reach retirement age will likely also need more healthcare than any previous generation
The Healthcare Talent Shortage
The aging baby boomer generation is fueling industry growth. The healthcare industry is predicted to be the largest driver of growth in the U.S. economy through most of the next decade. Yet, most healthcare organizations continue to experience strains as the healthcare talent shortage increases. This is a multi-pronged issue driven by increased demand, retirement, burnout and a lack of new healthcare professional entering the field complicating healthcare recruitment.
And experts predict the healthcare talent shortage will only get worse. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that the country will face a shortage of 195,400 nurses by the year 2031. While doctors and nurses are the most visible employees in the healthcare industry, growth in the industry will impact positions throughout the sector. An increase in patients, hospital visits and appointments will call for more support staff, like clinic support, medical technicians, billing and coding professionals and even non-clinical hospital staff like janitorial and food service.
Laboratory technicians are facing many of the same labor challenges as physicians and nurses. Many are reaching retirement age, and retirements are expected to accelerate. Replacing them will tough, as the number of students graduating from laboratory technician programs is declining.
Plus, due to a shift towards home-based care, home health aide shortages are projected to grow significantly. The BLS predicts that the number of openings for home health and personal health roles will increase 37% by 2028.
Less visible roles are also impacted by healthcare talent shortages. The medical coding profession has been plagued for years by a shortage of coders. Job growth for the position accelerated after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, and experts expect that growth to continue along with the rest of the industry.
A Transforming Workplace
In addition to the healthcare staffing challenges, the healthcare industry is not immune to the changes impacting organizations across the country—like the digitization of services and the growing gig economy. The healthcare industry is always experiencing change due to technological advancement, medical research and new regulations. However, to adapt to these trends, organizations will need to seek out talent in different ways and find people with new skill sets.
Use of telemedicine and virtual care expanded during COVID-19 and are continuing to rise as a way to improve access. Jobs in these types of workplaces require different technology and communication skills than more traditional hospital and clinic jobs.
While many think of the gig economy as a place for creatives or rideshare drivers, the contingent workforce is taking on a greater role in healthcare. SIA reports that hospitals are turning to contract physicians and traveling nurses to deal with the talent shortage. Some practitioners are turning to this freelance work to boost their earning potential, and the system helps increase staffing at rural healthcare facilities that struggle with healthcare recruiting.
Large hospitals are also bringing in a greater share of doctors due to consolidation within the industry. Since 2019, over 100,000 private practice doctors have transitioned into employees of larger corporate healthcare organizations. Nearly three-quarters of physicians are part of larger healthcare systems in the U.S., a record high.
A Necessary Response
To remain competitive in this challenging talent landscape, healthcare organizations must take a proactive approach to planning their workforces, sourcing and recruiting talent, retaining workers and appealing to millennials and Generation Z workers who will fill the roles of retiring baby boomers.
Healthcare organizations face a number of unique recruitment challenges compared to other industries. Finding and attracting candidates with the specific clinical, medical, and administrative skills required is an ongoing battle, especially for critical roles like nurses, physicians and specialist practitioners. With a large portion of the healthcare workforce reaching retirement age, an older population demanding more healthcare services, and new technology shifting the skills needed in the healthcare workforce, a skills shortage in healthcare is growing rapidly.
Healthcare organizations must plan now for the future by undertaking comprehensive workforce planning, establishing a robust talent pipeline, focusing on retaining their current workers and appealing to the younger generations to step into those roles.
The Healthcare Talent Landscape
The healthcare industry faces an uphill battle when it comes to recruitment and staffing. A perfect storm of factors, including an aging population, workforce shortages across multiple disciplines, and a global pandemic that has stretched resources to the breaking point, has created immense challenges. Healthcare organizations must navigate a highly competitive recruitment landscape to attract and retain top talent. Additionally, new healthcare roles are emerging that require specialized skill sets, further complicating hiring efforts. In this constantly evolving climate, understanding the current healthcare recruitment landscape is crucial for organizations looking to build a strong, sustainable workforce.
Dig Deeper
How RPO Can Solve The Top Challenges In Healthcare Talent Acquisition
People are living longer, and as Baby Boomers age, the demand for health services, including home health services, long-term and aged care, is increasing. Chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes, cancer are becoming more common with nearly half of the American population suffering from a chronic illness.
An older and sicker population is putting pressure on healthcare workers, especially those in clinical roles like nurses, physicians, health aides and therapists. Plus, demand is high for cardiovascular technologists, clinical lab technicians and other allied healthcare professionals who operate specialized equipment to diagnose and treat chronic conditions. Attracting and retaining top healthcare talent has never been more competitive, with demand 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.
Talent Supply Can’t Keep Up with Demand
The increase in demand seems to coincide with a healthcare talent shortage. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that the country will face a shortage of 195,400 nurses by the 2031. Plus, a shift towards home-based care means the shortage of home health aides is projected to grow significantly. The BLS predicts that the number of openings for home health and personal health roles will increase 37% by 2028.
With home-based and long-term care growing, the U.S. healthcare system is also experiencing shortages for occupations like physical therapists and occupational therapists. Plus, these facilities find recruiting and retaining nursing assistants, care aides and direct care workers increasingly difficult due to low wages, demanding work and limited career advancement opportunities.
Retirement and Burnout Create Retention Issues
The challenges surrounding the skills shortage in healthcare are exacerbated by healthcare professionals exiting the workforce in droves. Experienced nurses, doctors and other clinicians are retiring and leaving patient care roles, resulting in the loss of crucial knowledge and experience for healthcare systems.
According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing the median age of a Registered Nurse (RN) is 46 years old. Plus, more than a quarter of RNs report they plan to retire or leave nursing over the next five years. The rates of RN turnover in the United States have ticked up over recent years, growing from 17% in 2017 to 26% by 2021.
Driven by the strain of the pandemic and a shrinking workforce, many healthcare workers are experiencing burnout. According to the Medscape National Physician Burnout and Suicide Report, the average burnout rates for nurses and physicians in the US is 40%.
Burnout also has an impact on patient care. According to Nursing Times, about half of midwives say they’re afraid of making a mistake because they’re exhausted.
Innovation is Shifting the Skills Shortage in Healthcare
As care delivery models have shifted, there is a growing need for nurses and staff with specialized skills and experience. Use of telemedicine and virtual care expanded during COVID-19 and is continuing to rise as a way to improve access to healthcare. Digital disruptor Amazon recently completed an acquisition of One Medical and is now offering a new model of digital “concierge” or “membership” healthcare.
In addition, new innovations in digital health (think personal health tracking apps or wearables), med-tech, genomics, precision medicine, AI and more are transforming healthcare and shifting the necessary skills in the healthcare workforce.
Rising Labor Costs are Adding to the Strain on Healthcare Organizations
With nationwide labor shortages and inflation, healthcare organizations face rising costs for salaries, benefits and contract staffing. In all industries, workers are requiring more competitive compensation, benefits and perks to be enticed. This puts a particular strain on healthcare organizations where staffing is literally a matter of life and death.
High turnover among certified nursing assistants drives up costs for long-term care facilities and impacts quality of care. In order to keep high patient care standards and staff shortages, the U.S. healthcare system relies heavily on costly contract and travel nurses and other providers which further drives up labor costs for hospitals. In fact, contract labor expenses have risen more than 250% over the past three years.
Addressing the Skills Shortage in Healthcare
Addressing the skills shortage in healthcare requires a multi-pronged approach—improving workforce planning, enhancing recruitment and retention efforts, and elevating the perception of healthcare careers for the next generation.
Workforce Planning
To effectively respond to the changing healthcare talent landscape, organizations must take proactive steps to plan for their future needs. The future will look different for every organization. Healthcare organizations in Florida and the Southwest, where there are large numbers of retirees, will have different staffing needs than organizations in trendy urban areas in the Pacific Northwest or East Coast where the population tends to be younger and healthier. Region also makes a difference in attracting candidates, as rural health systems are already struggling to fill positions. Healthcare organizations should know what their needs will be in the coming years and what challenges they’ll face attracting workers.
Data analytics is a valuable tool for workforce planning. The American Hospital Association recommends that organizations analyze data including current workforce demographics, potential future workforce requirements, and factors impacting the data, like the increasing popularity of walk-in clinics, telehealth services and digital healthcare models. Predictive and prescriptive analytics tools can help healthcare organizations plan for future needs and evaluate how different decisions will impact those hiring needs. According to SHRM, this type of workforce planning can save money by eliminating issues with understaffing and overstaffing. Predictions can provide organizations with a clearer view of how and when different talent gaps will impact them. Armed with that information, healthcare organizations can make informed decisions when it comes to forming partnerships, increasing retention and reaching out to younger workers.
Building Talent Pipelines
A key strategy for combating the the skills shortage in healthcare will be convincing more people to enter the healthcare industry. Too often, HR leaders at organizations only think of potential candidates through a narrow lens. They focus on the people who already work in the industry and who already have the education and skills to be a nurse, medical technician or phlebotomist. There aren’t enough people already in those pipelines to fill the talent gap. Healthcare organizations need to think broad and start focusing on the young people who are considering a career in healthcare. They need to start marketing to these candidates earlier than ever before.
The American Hospital Association recommends that healthcare organizations establish community pipelines by partnering with high schools, colleges and other academic institutions. Through these partnerships, healthcare organizations can start engaging with future candidates earlier than ever and help drive young people to the healthcare industry. Partnerships can also create more candidates in a geographical region with a specific set of skills. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, a partnership in Minnesota between the University of Minnesota and the VA Healthcare system helped expand enrollment in the university’s nursing program and increased the program’s focus on veteran care. The program ensures more graduates in Minnesota with the skills necessary to care for veterans. Healthcare organizations should form these partnerships strategically, using their workforce planning predictions to understand which types of positions will have the greatest demand and where these partnerships can have the biggest impact.
Focusing on Retention
HR leaders at healthcare organizations are grappling with the stresses the skills shortage in healthcare is creating for their current employees . Understaffing creates larger workloads and longer hours. According to CareerBuilder, 70% of nurses say they feel burnt out in their current job and more than half rate their stress level as “high.” According to Medscape, only 56% of nurses would choose their career if they had a chance to start over again. If current health care workers are stressed, burned out and regretting their career choice, that could harm the talent pipeline. Healthcare organizations cannot afford to lose younger nurses due to stress or burnout.
Healthcare organizations will have to face the challenges of burnout head on to retain their workers. Healthcare Dive offers tips for ways HR professionals can help, including making your staff aware of the signs of burnout and teaching self-care strategies. Wellness among the healthcare workforce must be a priority. Some healthcare organizations have created quiet rooms stocked with yoga mats and massage chairs where nurses can go during their shifts to take a break. CareerBuilder recommends offering a flexible work environment, encouraging exercise, establishing an open-door policy, offering mental health tools and focusing on continued education.
While an expensive option, contract healthcare providers can also help ease the burden on understaff facilities. PRN, or “pro re nata,” positions are growing in popularity throughout the entire healthcare industry. The positions are typically part-time, as needed, and many healthcare workers are turning to these roles for the flexibility, rather than taking full-time positions. Healthcare organizations can use PRN workers to cover understaffed shifts, which can lift some of the burden on permanent employees.
Appealing to Younger Workers
Healthcare organizations are competing for the best of the limited talent pool. To succeed in attracting candidates, healthcare organizations must build a strong employer brand and meet the needs of millennial and Generation Z workers.
What do millennials want? Countless writers have tried to answer that question, but Harvard Business Review reports millennials aren’t necessarily all that different from older generations. They want good managers, interesting work and the opportunity to learn and grow. Like many other generations, they want to make a positive impact and help solve social and environmental challenges. By its nature, a career in healthcare can provide that. One thing that does set millennials apart from earlier generations is an increased debt burden due to higher education costs. Some financial experts recommend that organizations consider new benefits packages that offer student debt repayment to lure millennial workers.
As for Generation Z, the oldest members are just starting to enter the workforce, but experts say to be prepared for a cohort of workers well versed in technology. According to Forbes, in addition to being technologically savvy, members of Gen Z are also entrepreneurial and serious-minded after watching the impact of the Great Recession, so organizations should expect creativity and offer continuing educational opportunities. Harvard Business Review recommends reaching Gen Z candidates where they are—on mobile devices. Authenticity and personalization are also important to this segment of the workforce, as they’ve grown up bombarded with personalized advertisements online.
Engaging an Expert to Tackle the Skills Shortage in Healthcare
As they work to manage the growing skills shortage in healthcare, healthcare organizations are turning to experts in healthcare RPO, MSP and Total Workforce Solutions for healthcare staffing support. As you plan for the future, a talent partner can help provide a view of the whole talent spectrum, finding the right mix of both full-time and contingent workers. As the gig economy grows in popularity and more healthcare workers turn to contingent work, a talent acquisition partner can also ensure compliance on legal issues. Healthcare organizations should seek out partners with the right experience to tackle the specific needs of the industry.
A partner with a depth of data analytics experience can help develop a unique plan that addresses the needs, region and demographics of your individual healthcare organization. Data expertise can also help organizations determine why current employees leave and predict which changes could make the biggest differences in employee retention.
Healthcare organizations should also look for a partner with strong experience in building candidate-centered application processes and employer branding. As healthcare organizations compete for talent, a candidate-centered process and strong employer brand will help bring in the millennial and Gen Z workers.
Conquering Top Challenges in Healthcare Talent Acquisition
In the past 5 years, the average hospital turnover has been 105% of its workforce yet the total median HR funding for healthcare organizations is around 1% of operating costs. There are serious consequences of inadequate staffing and declining investment in talent acquisition such as degradation of patient care, potential “failure to rescue,” as well as internal job stress and higher attrition rates that could be detrimental to the organization’s brand and bottom line.
In this ebook, we explore the top challenges in healthcare recruiting, including:
Talent shortages
Advancements in talent technology
Evolving candidate expectations
Plus, you will learn how an RPO partner can help your organization overcome recruiting challenges in healthcare by applying expertise, experience, technology and innovative solutions to your talent acquisition program.
Hiring the right talent is critical for any healthcare employer looking to stay ahead of the challenges facing today’s healthcare industry.
Download this fact sheet to learn how a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) from PeopleScout can help your healthcare organization stay ahead of talent scarcity challenges.
The terminology and processes involved in the world of RPO may seem unfamiliar. To gain a better understanding of how RPO can help improve your healthcare recruiting program, we answer some of the most frequently asked questions in healthcare RPO.
Q: What Does RPO Stand For?
A: Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) is a type of business process outsourcing (BPO) where an external organization (RPO provider) supports an employer’s talent acquisition function by assuming responsibility for portions or all facets of talent acquisition for some or all of an employer’s hiring needs.
Q: What are RPO Companies?
A: Recruitment process outsourcing companies provide outsourced talent acquisition services for professional and non-professional positions to solve compliance, scalability, cost, quality, or other recruiting challenges. By assuming all or some portions of an organization’s recruitment functions, RPO companies improve recruiting effectiveness, reduce turnover and enable strategic growth.
Q: What is an RPO Provider’s Role During an Engagement?
A: During an RPO engagement, an RPO provider’s team works closely with their client’s talent acquisition and HR department to learn the organization’s long-term talent acquisition strategy, hiring challenges and objectives. The RPO provider then designs a customized recruiting program to support the client’s specific needs.
Q: RPO vs Staffing Agency, What’s the Difference?
A: RPO providers manage a client’s end-to-end recruitment cycle, operating as a trusted partner and advisor. An RPO provider’s primary goal is to deploy a recruitment strategy that attracts, sources and hires high-quality permanent employees. Staffing agencies operate on a more reactive recruitment model, often hiring temporary or temp-to-perm talent on a requisition-to-requisition basis.
Q: What is the Difference Between MSP and RPO?
A: An RPO solution traditionally supports all responsibilities associated with permanent hiring within an organization, such as candidate sourcing, screening, candidate assessments, interviewing, and building talent pipelines. A Managed Service Provider’s (MSP) services are focused on contingent workforce management practices such as payroll management, staffing vendor management, procurement, and contingent workforce compliance expertise.
Q: What Are the Benefits of the RPO Recruitment Model?
A:
Scalable Recruiting Resources: RPO solutions provide greater recruitment flexibility through an RPO provider’s ability to scale recruitment resources to match a client’s workforce objectives. Scalable recruiting resources are ideal for organizations experiencing fluctuations in hiring volume, rapid growth, or who may need additional support to meet hiring demand.
A More Consistent and Standardized Recruitment Process: RPO providers can help an organization better organize and execute its recruitment program leading to a more seamless recruit-to-hire process and consistent and predictable results for job seekers and hiring managers.
Improved Candidate Quality: RPO providers have experience sourcing and hiring talent across all industries and skill types. An RPO provider will home in on more than a candidate’s experience and education to find candidates who best match the client’s company culture and business objectives.
Q: What is Full-Cycle Recruiting and Why is it Best Managed Through An RPO?
A: Full-cycle recruiting or “end-to-end recruitment” is a holistic approach to talent acquisition where an RPO provider is involved in each step of the hiring process. From talent pipelining and delivering talent assessments to interviewing, sourcing, screening, and candidate selection, an RPO provider can support a client’s strategic talent acquisition goals through the entire recruitment lifecycle.
Q: What is Project-Based RPO?
A: Project-based RPO is a type of RPO solution where a client outsources its recruitment needs on a project-by-project basis. Project-based RPO is ideal for organizations looking to meet short-term talent acquisition needs without committing to long-term engagements. Project-based RPO can also help support one-off hiring projects where niche expertise is needed.
The healthcare industry is facing a severe shortage of nurses and other frontline clinical staff, creating unprecedented challenges for medical facilities across the nation. This crisis, exacerbated by an aging population and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, threatens the quality, accessibility and continuity of patient care. Whether healthcare organizations require the recruitment of…
With an aging population pushing demand for healthcare ever higher, allied healthcare professionals—physical and occupational therapists, medical laboratory scientists, dietitians and nutritionists, dental hygienists, optometrists, phlebotomists and many more—play crucial roles in the care, diagnosis and treatment of patients. However, healthcare organizations worldwide face significant challenges in recruiting and retaining these vital providers, potentially compromising…
Candidate Screening Solutions for High-Volume Hiring in Healthcare
A leading pediatric hospital in America received a high number of applicants and engaged PeopleScout for screening and presenting quality candidates for open positions.
Increased Candidate Screening Volume
Worked Closely with Client to Create Valued Partnerhip
Sourced Candidates for Cultural Fit
Situation
This not-for-profit pediatric hospital needed to improve candidate screening processes. This included a focus on quality as it was important to the client to hire for the right cultural fit. Skills and positions in scope included clinical housekeepers, admissions and customer service staff.
Solution
PeopleScout’s team learned the client’s niche healthcare HR technology platform and utilized it to efficiently screen and track candidates.
PeopleScout worked closely with the client’s internal HR team to screen and present candidates who possessed the right mixture of hard and soft skills to ensure each potential hire was the right cultural fit for the organization.
At the client’s facility, everyone from clinical staff to housekeepers interact with children suffering from illnesses and their families. PeopleScout’s RPO team screened candidates carefully, looking for compassion, empathy and the ability to work well with children.
Results
Increased Candidate Screening PeopleScout screened and hired 400 candidates annually for the client.
Valued Partnership The client highly valued the relationship with PeopleScout; many of the client’s hiring managers had it written into their contract that PeopleScout was the only RPO provider they would work with.
Provided Attentive Care & Compassion for Others This engagement was about more than sourcing great candidates for open positions. The program was supported by mutual values of service to one’s community and compassion for others.
At a Glance
COMPANY Not-for-Profit Pediatric Hospital
INDUSTRY Healthcare
PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS Recruitment Process Outsourcing
ANNUAL HIRES 400
ABOUT THE CLIENT This U.S.-based not-for-profit healthcare client system has engaged PeopleScout for healthcare RPO since 2015.
Delivering Cost Savings and a Healthy Return on Investment for a Rural Healthcare System
A major rural healthcare system turned to PeopleScout for technology-powered healthcare RPO enhanced by a recruitment marketing campaign, resulting in a $4+ million cost savings.
77%reduction in nursing recruitment spend, totaling $4+ million in savings to date
97%new hire retention
98%hiring leader satisfaction score
Situation
This healthcare provider was having trouble sourcing and hiring for nursing roles in North Dakota, a rural state heavily impacted by ongoing nursing shortages, forcing the client to rely on travel nurse staffing providers to deliver talent to support rural healthcare recruitment. The reliance on these staffing providers proved expensive, with the client paying an average of $73 an hour per locum nurse in contrast to paying $34 an hour on average per full-time nurse. Traveling nurses also work on 13-week contracts, meaning that the client receives temporary talent and less value for their recruitment spend.
To improve talent acquisition costs and attract hard-to-hire candidates, the client needed a full-cycle healthcare RPO partner that could streamline the hiring process and build a strong recruitment marketing program. PeopleScout’s RPO program started with nursing hires and now spans 90% of the client’s clinical and non-clinical hiring, including aides, clerical workers, interns, leadership positions, RNs, LPNs, professional services, technical roles and therapists.
Solution
Build a Local Recruiting Team
PeopleScout built a local recruiting team balanced with virtual support. This enables PeopleScout to work directly with the client on-site with the increased efficiency of a virtual team.
Develop Improved Employer Branding and Location Branding
PeopleScout partnered with the client to understand their employer value proposition and employer brand and then built out recruitment marketing materials to showcase the strong culture and cutting-edge medical facility. The recruitment marketing campaign also included messaging on the benefits of working in the rural area, like the strong university presence, short commute, low crime and sense of community.
Target Recent Graduates
The client partnered with PeopleScout to focus their efforts on hiring recent graduates from local universities. This helped the client get ahead of the competition and train new employees in their RN Residency Program.
Implementing Hiring Bonuses
PeopleScout advised the client to implement a $10,000 hiring bonus for new nurses to ensure their employment offers were competitive based on industry data and research.
Implementation of Affinix and Streamlining Recruiting Processes
PeopleScout implemented our proprietary technology Affinix™ which helped the client streamline recruiting processes through tools that supported management of direct sourcing, panel interviewing and an expedited offer process—decreasing time-to-fill rates.
Results
Cost Savings
After implementing PeopleScout’s full-cycle healthcare talent acquisition solution, the client reduced its nursing recruitment spend by 77%, totaling $4+ million in savings to date.
Lowest Nurse Vacancy Rate
PeopleScout helped the client achieve their lowest nurse vacancy rate ever — 1.3%. The client also achieved a 136% increase in hiring new graduate registered nurses. The client reduced its use of traveling nurses by 68%, and for the first time, was able to hire nurses willing to relocate for the position.
Process Improvement
With PeopleScout’s expertise, the client achieved 97% new hire retention and 98% hiring leader satisfaction scores for exceptional performance. The client was so impressed with PeopleScout’s results hiring nurses that the client now outsources 90% of their hiring to PeopleScout.
Enhanced Employer Branding
PeopleScout leveraged the client’s strong employer value proposition and was able to partner with the healthcare provider to create an enhanced suite of employer branding materials that feature real employees. PeopleScout also used a comprehensive approach to reach candidates, including social media, campus recruiting and paid search ads.
Client Feedback
“We are so impressed with this partnership, and it’s a significant improvement from our past recruitment practices. We feel so confident working with a partner who ‘gets it,’ and we are excited about the quality of our candidate pool.”
Client Feedback
“Out of the three nursing jobs I have obtained in the past, this was by far the most professional and friendly hiring process that I have been through. It was a pleasant change.”
New Hire Feedback
At a Glance
COMPANY Rural healthcare system
INDUSTRY Healthcare
PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Talent Advisory, Affinix
ABOUT THE CLIENT This American nonprofit healthcare system has served portions of the Midwest for more than 130 years. It employs over 3,500 health professionals and support staff.
We’re all aware of the recruitment challenges facing NHS Trusts across the UK with 40,000 registered nursing vacancies across the NHS in England alone. This is compounded by a sharp rise in people leaving the profession. According to the Nursing & Midwifery Council, 14,000 people left the register last year—up 27% on previous year.
And whilst sharper marketing and investment in building a more distinctive employer brand will certainly help increase the pipeline of quality healthcare job candidates, Trusts can look closer to home for some quick wins.
Optimising Your Healthcare Recruitment Strategy
Talking to HR leaders in Trusts across the UK, it’s clear that for many, recruitment is still a linear, administrative model, designed to move applicants through a process.
Compare that to a more commercial model where recruitment business partners work closely with stakeholders to understand current and future needs. These recruiters provide an agile, high-touch approach, which keeps candidates engaged throughout the process.
At PeopleScout we are working with one Trust to understand where high impact interventions can be made which improve candidate experience and ensure a higher number of permanent hires. This has been carefully balanced against a reduction in spend to ensure zero additional cost.
Healthcare Candidate Experience Diagnostic
My final piece of advice? ‘Mystery shop’ your own recruitment process through the eyes of a candidate by applying for a job. I guarantee it’ll be an illuminating experience.
Employee Engagement at King’s College Hospital: Saying a Big “Thank You” to Nurses
As one of the busiest NHS trusts in the UK, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust turned to PeopleScout for help with attracting nurses and other clinical professionals. Learn how we helped the Trust say a big “thank you” to their staff with a larger-than-life employee engagement campaign.
300Pieces of Artwork
18Installations Across 3 Sites
13,159Thank-yous Sent to Staff
King’s College National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust is one of the busiest trusts in the UK, providing healthcare services for a population of over 1 million people. It supports numerous clinics and hospitals, including King’s College Hospital, a leading teaching hospital and trauma center serving several boroughs in southeast London. Their vision is to hire brilliant, diverse staff who provide outstanding care for their patients and continue to educate and innovate for the future of medicine.
The Challenge
King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust came to PeopleScout with a challenge. They were, like many other healthcare organizations, struggling to recruit for clinical roles such as nursing.
To address this, our initial objective was to develop a “Why King’s” message for an employer brand campaign. But after conducting focus groups with employees, it became clear that, to fix the attraction issue, we needed to start with employee engagement.
Retention of staff wasn’t an issue—King’s was overarchingly seen as a place where, with the right motivation, employees could grow in their career. The problem was an overall feeling among staff that there was a lack of recognition and appreciation from senior leadership. While there was a great deal of pride and loyalty within teams, there was no strong sense of unity across the five sites within the Trust.
Before we could go out with an authentic employer brand message, we needed to show employees that they are valued, encourage staff recognition and galvanize the organization.
And we needed to do this on a big, Trust-wide scale.
The Strategy
We designed an employee engagement campaign that would not only recognize employees, but would also be a big, bold, morale-boosting showcase of Kings’ values:
Always aiming higher
Working together
Inspiring confidence in our care
Little did we know just how important this message would become as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world. As the UK began clapping for the NHS in March 2020, we were designing a campaign that would greet the King’s staff on the frontlines and serve as a constant reminder of their incredible work, both before and throughout the pandemic.
This was so much more than an attraction campaign. It was our ‘Big Thank You’ to those who had sacrificed so much to keep us all safe.
Bringing It to Life
Six Days. 166 Participants.
As soon as lockdown restrictions lifted, we safely photographed and filmed people from across a range of clinical and non-clinical roles from all of King’s sites. Staff gave up valuable break time to take part in something that honored their colleagues as well as recognized their own contributions.
350 Thank-Yous
Using comments made about participating staff members by their colleagues, we created 350 thank-yous—for both individual participants and general messages to all staff.
300 Pieces of Artwork. 18 Installations Across Three Main Sites.
We used the secondary color palette from the NHS brand to create something that would stand out from the usual NHS blue to celebrate our King’s stars. With 300 pieces of eye-catching collateral in tow, we plastered our larger-than-life installations across three main sites, including a huge projection onto the outside of the hospital at their central location. Images went up on walls; inside and outside of buildings; on fence railings, stairs and windows.
Imagine the feeling: Arriving for another exhausting shift on the COVID frontlines to see an over 300-square-foot personalized message of gratitude to you, from your employer, projected on the outside of your workplace for all your colleagues and the local community to see.
That’s recognition on a big scale.
Not only did the installations delight staff, they also expressed the appreciation of King’s leadership and echoed the community’s warmth and gratitude for the Trust and the wider NHS.
Results
In times of unprecedented turmoil, unimaginable pressure and unbelievable sadness, this uplifting campaign created a feeling of belonging, camaraderie and engagement among staff. As COVID-19 raged, what had started as an idea to recognize and celebrate those who brought the King’s values to life, evolved to become a wider message for all, “Thank you to all of you, for everything—and whatever comes next, we’re all in this together.”
The campaign has been instrumental in building a sense of pride not just in individual teams, but in the Trust as a whole. We’ve helped create positive advocates who are proud to be Team King’s and who contribute to a culture of recognition and gratitude. As a result of this campaign:
There was a 50% increase in the number of recognitions made by staff to their colleagues following the campaign.
13,159 thank-you letters and badges were sent out to all staff.
Their Chief Nurse is beyond thrilled with the results. Not only with the execution (which has also, on a practical level, brightened up some of the older hospital buildings), but with the impact she directly attributes to this campaign—renewed feelings of inclusion, recognition and engagement across the King’s staff.
“You’ve captured the people and heart of King’s and brought our values to life. The staff response to these images has been extraordinary and has created a real buy-in and the internal buzz that we were after.”
Nicola Ranger, Chief Nurse & Executive Director of Midwifery, King’s College Hospital
In addition to the employee engagement benefits, the Trust is leveraging the content in their on-going talent attraction and recruitment efforts via a custom careers portal and targeted recruitment marketing campaigns. We created a video for each person we interviewed to showcase King’s employer value proposition (EVP) and communicate the opportunities they offer.
This feel-good, reputation-healing employee engagement project will have an impact on the King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust workforce for years to come.
At a Glance
COMPANY King’s College NHS Foundation Trust
INDUSTRY Healthcare
PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS Talent Advisory
ABOUT KINGS: King’s College NHS Foundation Trust provides healthcare services through numerous clinics and hospitals, including King’s College Hospital, a leading teaching hospital and trauma centre serving several boroughs in southeast London.
Fuelled by an aging population and the growth of chronic conditions, jobs in healthcare are expected to grow 13% by 2031, much faster than the average for all occupations. In fact, nurse practitioners are predicted to grow by 46%. So, finding the right recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) provider is critical for healthcare organizations looking to hire top healthcare talent. Whether a healthcare organization is looking to improve its recruiting processes, improve healthcare staff retention or enhance its employer brand, developing a strong relationship with a trusted RPO provider begins with the selection process. In this post, we review the best practices when it comes to selecting the right RPO provider for your healthcare staffing needs.
What is Recruitment Process Outsourcing for Healthcare?
To understand RPO solutions, it’s important to understand what they are not. RPO providers are not healthcare staffing companies or head-hunters. Rather, RPO providers implement solutions designed to streamline and improve the hiring process, and as a result, fulfill your healthcare hiring needs.
From employer branding to employee engagement, hiring, onboarding and much more, a well-executed RPO program can make a huge impact on a healthcare organization. RPO solutions are not one-size-fits-all plans. Each RPO solution must be tailored to meet an individual company’s needs and take industry specific concerns into consideration.
Healthcare Staffing and RPO: Getting Started
Before contacting an RPO provider, a healthcare organization must first assess both its hiring and business needs. The following is a list of common healthcare staffing needs fulfilled by RPO solutions:
Recruit a small number of employees for niche positions, like NICU nurses.
Provide scalable engagements to fill a large number of open positions quickly with high-quality candidates.
Help healthcare organizations increase employee retention and improve employee turnover rate.
Help healthcare organizations staff positions that require specific technical experience or certifications.
Provide transparency by tracking metrics and milestones outlined in SLAs.
Once you have considered your own needs, you need to research to see what your prospective RPO partner brings to the table. When consulting with a prospective RPO provider ask yourself the following questions:
Does the prospective RPO have expertise in fulfilling the specific staffing needs of healthcare organizations?
Do they have multiple healthcare organizations as current clients?
Where do they source healthcare professionals to build their talent pipeline?
How Does an RPO Provider Support Healthcare Staffing?
If you are looking to streamline your healthcare organization’s talent acquisition processes and procedures as a means to become more cost-effective, then engaging an RPO provider can help you reduce spend with healthcare employment agencies, yield lower turnover and create a higher quality pipeline of candidates for your open positions. The work of a good RPO provider will save your organization money throughout the new employee’s tenure at your organization, beyond when they’re hired.
RPO Providers Can Secure Specialized Healthcare Talent
The right healthcare RPO provider understands the unique challenges presented by the healthcare industry and has experience sourcing quality candidates for niche/technical healthcare positions.
RPO providers with expertise in the healthcare industry will quickly target and assess both passive and active candidates for hard-to-fill positions rather than placing an ad and waiting for job seekers to answer it. By understanding your healthcare hiring needs, an RPO provider reduces the need for training internal personnel or hiring those with healthcare-specific experience.
RPO Providers Can Provide Scalable Solutions to Accommodate Growth
As the U.S. population ages, the need for healthcare services is on the rise. As a result, many healthcare organizations are growing rapidly to meet the demand. If your organization is experiencing growth, an experienced RPO partner can source the right talent quickly to make sure your organization is staffed adequately to meet growth demands.
RPO providers can handle background checks, drug screens and other onboarding tasks as needed. They will make sure that all the applicants presented to you for interviews have the specific skills required for your open positions.
RPO Providers Can Improve Your Employer Brand to Attract Better Talent
Whether your healthcare organization is an established medical provider or a new player in the industry, building strong employer brand appeal can attract the best talent to your job postings. An RPO provider can help build your brand and your reputation as a good place to work. An RPO engagement can provide solutions to help you maintain healthy relationships with both prospective candidates—including ones that are not hired for open positions—former and current employees, which improves your employer brand in the healthcare industry.
Which RPO Provider is Right for Your Healthcare Staffing Needs?
Choosing the right RPO partner for your healthcare staffing needs is a carefully thought out process with many factors to take into consideration. You are not only selecting a company to help you with your recruiting processes, but you are also choosing a partner that will help you improve multiple business functions for your organization. Just like when choosing other products or services, you need to identify your specific business needs and what you want an RPO provider to handle or assist you with. This primarily means identifying your weaknesses/pain points and your organizational objectives, such as staffing cost reduction, organization expansion or reconfiguring your recruiting structure.
The Right RPO Provider Values Accountability
When hiring for healthcare, accountability is one of the most important factors in the relationship between an organization and an RPO provider. When you select the right healthcare RPO provider, they will deliver a high level of transparency and will encourage you to hold them accountable for how well the hires they make work out for your organization. A good RPO provider will also want to be judged on how quickly they can fill open positions and on how cost-efficient their service is for you.
The Right RPO Provider Understands Healthcare Staffing
The right RPO provider knows healthcare staffing top to bottom. They have strong connections with healthcare professional organizations, they understand the technology used to source top healthcare talent, they know how to screen candidates effectively and they understand the compliance requirements for each healthcare position.
An RPO provider who is knowledgeable about healthcare hiring can easily fill any position in your organization and will help you find the best candidate both in terms of cultural fit and fitness for the position.
They Understand Your Needs
Each healthcare organization is unique, so a cookie-cutter approach to your healthcare staffing needs may not work to your advantage. The right RPO provider will take the time to form an in-depth understanding of your staffing needs and preferences, and will work to tailor a seamless RPO plan for you.
No matter how many positions you need to fill, the right RPO provider will take that into consideration and make sure your new 10 or 1,000 employees all hit the ground running and seamlessly integrate into your organization.
They Employ Best-Fit Technology and AI-Powered Sourcing Methods
In a tight healthcare labor market, sourcing and attracting the best talent can be difficult. The right RPO provider understands this, and will employ cutting-edge recruiting technology and sourcing methods to meet a client’s healthcare staffing needs.
Healthcare recruiting technology that utilizes AI and machine learning to source and screen candidates give healthcare organizations a distinct advantage in finding the right candidates quickly. What’s more, recruiting technology can reduce the cost-per-hire and streamline the often disjointed healthcare staffing process by merging multiple recruiting functions into one easy-to-use interface.
They Understand Your Talent Market
Whether your healthcare organization has one location or multiple locations across many regions, the right RPO provider understands the laws, regulations, customs and structures in your regions of operation. Your RPO provider should possess the know-how and have experience in sourcing candidates in your talent market(s) to make sure you hire the best talent available. The right RPO provider will take as little time and money as possible sourcing your new workforce, and get them hired as quickly as possible.
Healthcare staffing can be complicated, that’s why partnering with the right RPO provider is crucial for success. Once you have found the right RPO provider for your staffing needs, it can take time to build a strong relationship. Once the relationship is established, you will see all of the benefits the right RPO provider can bring to the table, and you will see how much easier the healthcare staffing process can be.
After administering more than 30 million vaccines across the U.S., a healthcare company announced a company-wide vaccination policy requiring employees in clinical and corporate positions to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of October 2021. The move was driven by health and safety concerns for employees, patients and customers, but the client knew it wouldn’t come to fruition without impact to their workforce.
Flexing our Process for the New Policy
Because the new policy stipulated that all new hires in impacted roles be vaccinated, the PeopleScout client engaged with us prior to the announcement to discuss their plans and get ahead of any impact to recruitment efforts. As their long-term RPO partner, we were uniquely positioned to help the healthcare company create a multi-faceted plan to communicate the vaccine mandate to candidates and adjust recruitment activities to ensure new hires are in compliance with the mandate.
Leveraging copy and communications from the company’s HR and legal teams, we updated all relevant job descriptions with a section on the vaccine mandate and deadlines. To provide an additional screening step, we added vaccine status questions to application forms for the relevant positions. If candidates indicated that they were not vaccinated or not willing to be vaccinated, they were automatically disqualified in most states.
Taking a Hands-on Approach to Reduce Candidate Drop Off
To mitigate the impact on the dropout rate at the top of the funnel, we followed up with every candidate who said “no” to ensure they had understood the questions and hadn’t answered in error. As a result of this extra effort, several candidates were requalified and put back into the running for employment with the healthcare company. Disposition codes were also used to indicate when candidates left the funnel due reasons related to the vaccine requirements. This helped the company gather data on how the policy was impacting recruitment outcomes.
Supporting the Accommodation Process
COVID-19 vaccine mandate information was added to the candidate communication sequence in the organization’s CRM, directing them to a website complete with FAQs. Throughout the screening and interview process, the PeopleScout team also fielded questions from candidates. Common queries were about how to apply for a reasonable accommodation for those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical or religious reasons. While the internal legal team handled the review of all accommodation applications, the PeopleScout team did field questions about the accommodation process, freeing up the organization’s internal teams to focus on more strategic initiatives while boosting the candidate experience.
For successful candidates, we ensured all offer letters contained language about the vaccination requirement and followed up with candidates to address any final questions.
