[On-Demand] AI in Recruiting: Hype, Ethics & Best Practices
AI in recruitment has been the buzzword on everyone’s lips lately. But while others were just talking, we were taking action helping our clients gain a competitive edge by leveraging AI to recruit smarter and more efficiently. At the same time, we didn’t just jump on the hype train. We dug deep to help employers grapple with crucial ethical questions around AI bias, privacy risks, and lack of human oversight when not implemented responsibly.
Join PeopleScout Director of Technical Solutions Architecture & Tech Implementation Chad Getchell and Sr. Implementation Training Manager Patti Woods in conversation as they separate fact from fiction for AI in recruitment and discuss the ethical implications for talent acquisition leaders. Whether you’re just starting to explore AI or already using it, this is a bite-sized 30-minute webinar to help you wade through the hype of responsible AI adoption.
In this webinar, Chad and Patti tackle:
The Real State of AI in Recruiting: Cutting through the hype to understand AI’s current and future capabilities in talent acquisition
Ethical Implications: Exploring the risks of AI bias, privacy concerns, and lack of human agency if not implemented carefully
Getting Started with AI: Practical tip to help you evaluate and implement AI recruiting tools successfully in your organization
By watching this webinar, you’ll gain a 360-degree perspective on the benefits, risks, and ethical considerations surrounding AI, equipping you with a clear roadmap to navigate the world of AI in recruiting responsibly.
The information provided in this webinar does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal or other professional advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available in this webinar are for general information purposes only. Viewers of this webinar should contact their attorney or legal advisor to obtain advice with respect to any particular legal matter. No viewer of this webinar should act or refrain from acting on the basis of information in this article without first seeking legal advice from counsel in the relevant jurisdiction. All liability with respect to actions taken or not taken based on the contents of this webinar are expressly disclaimed by PeopleScout, Inc.. The content in this article is provided “as-is”, and no representations are made by PeopleScout that the content is error-free.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has captured attention across nearly every industry for its seemingly boundless potential to transform how work gets done—including AI in recruiting. Yet for many talent acquisition (TA) leaders, AI remains shrouded in hype, myths and even fear that “robot recruiters” are taking over.
This handbook sets out to demystify AI tools for recruitment with facts about real-world applications across talent acquisition capabilities and provide guidance on how talent teams can start planning to use AI effectively and ethically. We’ll cut through the hype to bring AI down to earth—focusing on what works, not what’s flashy.
The message we want to reinforce upfront is that AI should not be seen as a replacement for the talent acquisition strategy you’ve already built, but rather a set of tools to make your teams better at tasks both mundane and meaningful.
📌 Before we go any further, here’s a note from our legal team:
The information provided in this article does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal or other professional advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available in this article are for general information purposes only. Readers of this article should contact their attorney or legal advisor to obtain advice with respect to any particular legal matter. No reader of this article should act or refrain from acting on the basis of information in this article without first seeking legal advice from counsel in the relevant jurisdiction. All liability with respect to actions taken or not taken based on the contents of this article are expressly disclaimed by PeopleScout, Inc.. The content in this article is provided “as-is”, and no representations are made by PeopleScout that the content is error-free.
What is AI?
The term artificial intelligence or AI was coined by Stanford Professor John McCarthy, who defined it as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs.” AI is technology with the ability to perform tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence. Data and algorithms enable AI to “learn” how to accomplish complex tasks without being explicitly programmed to do them. It also includes the sub-fields of machine learning, speech and natural language processing and robotic process automation.
Over the last decade, AI capabilities have advanced tremendously due to increases in computing power, the abundance of digital data and improvements in machine learning algorithms. As a result, AI solutions can now match or even outperform humans in certain tasks related to object recognition, language processing, prediction modelling and more.
The disruption delivered by generative AI in particular arrived like a bullet train. In just a few short months, AI went from an abstract concept to a tangible force radically impacting businesses—and jobs—worldwide. With Generative AI (GAI) tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini (formerly Bard) and Microsoft Copilot, AI has gone from expensive and exclusive to an everyday tool accessible by the masses.
The State of AI in Recruiting
Top talent has become increasingly scarce and competitive, while recruiting resources and budgets remain strained. This situation demands that talent acquisition teams work smarter, and AI and automation could represent an opportunity for organizations to enhance human capabilities in recruitment.
According to Gartner, a massive 81% of HR leaders have explored or implemented AI solutions to improve process efficiency within their organization. HR leaders aim to use generative AI (GAI) for improving efficiency in HR processes (63%), enhancing the employee experience (52%) and bolstering learning and development programs. Plus, 76% of HR leaders believe that if their organization does not adopt AI solutions in the next year or two, they will lag behind those that do.
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What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of AI in Recruitment?
While AI holds tremendous promise, it also comes with some real concerns which talent acquisition and HR leaders must thoughtfully address. AI is largely unregulated and has received criticism for negative impacts on things like privacy, security, bias, and transparency in its decision-making processes. However, with care and diligence, you can establish sensible guidelines at your organization, so this technology enhances your talent acquisition capabilities while respecting human values.
Benefits of AI for Recruiting
AI can help the humans behind your talent program work more efficiently and effectively when used correctly. Applying AI across the various recruiting stages introduces a host of benefits, including:
Efficiency AI-powered tools can shoulder time-consuming tasks like communications and initial screening, allowing recruiters to reach more candidates at scale. AI systems help recruiters to focus their efforts on the most promising prospects, including helping identify passive candidates. This wider reach improves quality by putting recruiters in front of more qualified candidates.
Improved Candidate Experience Tools like AI chatbots and self-scheduling create a seamless 24/7 candidate experience. By fielding frequently asked questions and coordinating interviews, they dramatically reduce time-to-hire. Candidates get quick responses instead of waiting for recruiters to come online, making the hiring process faster and frictionless.
Improved Matching Advanced AI algorithms surface qualified prospects that may have been overlooked. By analyzing candidates’ skills, experience, and other attributes and matching them to open roles, AI systems ensure better candidate-job fit. This improves quality-of-hire and unlocks hidden talent pools recruiters may have missed.
Enhanced Diversity and Inclusion With the right data to learn from, AI reduces unconscious bias from hiring by focusing decisions on data rather than gut instinct. By objectively evaluating candidates’ skills without prejudice, AI-assisted recruiting enhances diversity and creates a more equitable hiring process.
Cost Reduction AI can reduce the cost-per-applicant in some cases. Recruiters can outsource low-impact, repetitive tasks to AI, and spend more time interacting with candidates and hiring managers. This optimization of talent acquisition teams enables resources to be allocated more efficiently, reducing vacancy rates and lowering costs.
Risks of AI in Recruiting
While there are benefits, talent leaders must thoughtfully address common concerns around AI transparency, interpretation of outputs, data privacy and ethics.
PeopleScout POV
PeopleScout is committed to striking the right balance between next-generation technology and maintaining the trust we’ve built with candidates and clients. As our clients’ trusted talent advisors, we do our due diligence and work touphold our standards for quality and compliance when helping clients adopt new technologies like GenAI.
As organizations prepare to capitalize on the efficiencies of AI, they must be particularly discerning about AI when it comes to supporting people decisions. Effectively deploying and scaling AI across talent acquisition functions introduces some common challenges, including:
Biased Algorithms Despite its ability to reduce bias, if AI models are trained on biased or incomplete data sets, they can unintentionally perpetuate inequality. In many countries there are laws prohibiting discrimination in the recruitment process, and the use of AI must align with these laws. Leaders need oversight into data inputs and must remain vigilant when considering recommendations made by AI. That being said, bias in AI can be corrected much easier than bias amongst humans. Proactively monitoring and mitigating possible areas of bias is essential for driving more inclusive, equitable hiring—regardless of whether AI is involved.
Disproportionate Impact Certain demographic groups face higher exposure to the potential harms of AI in recruitment. For instance, if an AI screening system relies heavily on standardized test scores that have racial biases, it could automatically filter out qualified minority candidates. Similarly, lower income communities may lack access to the digital tools and internet connectivity required for AI screening. This digital divide could automatically exclude qualified candidates from disadvantaged backgrounds. Without proactive measures to address these systemic issues, AI recruitment tools risk amplifying real-world inequality. Organizations must consider disproportionate impact with their use of AI in order to improve diversity and reinforce equity.
Lack of Transparency Organizations may experience resistance amongst candidates and employees when there is a lack of understanding of how AI is being used in the hiring process and how AI arrives at certain outputs or recommendations. You can nurture trust through training and effective communication to help recruiters, hiring managers and applicants understand the reasons behind AI-generated outcomes and their role in the hiring decision-making process. Use clear and understandable language to describe the factors influencing decisions and put mechanisms in place to capture feedback and reporting of potential issues. Transparency promotes ethical AI use in recruitment and also reinforces organizational values and establishes a positive reputation in the industry.
Data from Pew Research Center shows that 61% of Americans are unaware that employers are currently using AI in the hiring process. A majority (71%) oppose AI making a final hiring decision, while 41% oppose AI being used to review applications. However, the more people understand about AI, the more they’re in favor of its use in the recruitment process. For example, 43% of those who’ve heard a lot about using AI in the hiring process support its use for reviewing applications, compared with 37% who’ve heard a little and 21% who’ve heard nothing at all.
Lack of Accuracy GAI is prone to making up statistics, sources and even case law—known as hallucinating. There are no safeguards in place to validate the generated content or to check the accuracy or appropriateness of the outcome. Organizations leveraging tools like ChatGPT for recruiting open themselves up to risks. Recruiters must be aware of the importance of the human touch and using their judgement when using GAI tools for creating content and communications.
Over-Automation Heavy reliance on AI also poses risks if the recruitment process becomes overly automated and fails to incorporate sound human judgment as a check. Too much automated communication can feel depersonalized to a candidate. AI should never replace the human touch—rather it should enhance human capabilities. Plus, companies using AI for recruitment must ensure compliance with all relevant regulations. For example, under GDPR, there are strict guidelines around automated decision-making, and individuals have the right to obtain human intervention and contest automated decisions that significantly affect them.
Data Privacy Issues Collecting and analyzing extensive candidate information required by AI systems can raise concerns around consent, data protection, and ethical usage. Any talent data feeding the AI systems must be compliant with regulations, like GDPR and CCPA, that are relevant to your locations. Organizations should create a framework around the usage of AI recruitment tools to provide transparency around what data you’re collecting, gain consent where applicable, and put access controls and encryption in place to protect sensitive candidate information. Your data security team should vet any AI usage to ensure candidate data is not being scraped for other uses.
Workflow Integration Implementing AI recruiting tools requires integrating them into existing systems and processes. Too often, companies adopt AI in isolation, without considering its impact on surrounding workflows. Instead, organizations should evaluate how AI technologies will interface with current infrastructure. For example, your applicant tracking system (ATS) may need API connections to import AI-screened candidates. With careful integration planning, AI can be a seamless augmentation to talent acquisition rather than an isolated add-on.
Proactively addressing these concerns through governance, oversight and continuous improvement of AI systems and processes is key to managing the risks responsibly. Overall, the use of AI in recruitment is permitted but becoming more and more tightly regulated. Systems cannot make final hiring decisions and must be transparent, fair and accountable. Adhering to data protection laws and anti-discrimination regulations is crucial for the ethical use of AI in hiring. Undergoing regular audits to assess for unintended bias and maintaining the human touch to review, override or contest automated recommendations is crucial.
📌 We recommend you consult your legal team before implementing any AI technologies at your organization.
Use Cases for AI in Recruitment
As recruiting grows more competitive, organizations are turning to smart technologies to gain an edge in attracting and engaging candidates. From chatbots to video interviews and skills assessments, AI-powered solutions are streamlining efficiencies while enabling deeper insights across the hiring funnel. Here are some examples demonstrating AI’s immense potential to boost recruiting outcomes while improving the candidate experience.
How to Use AI for Candidate Attraction and Sourcing
Identifying, contacting and engaging prospective candidates is ripe for AI augmentation. Building a robust pipeline of talent typically involves highly manual, repetitive tasks that can divert focus away from higher-value tasks. Here are some of the ways AI can support you in filling your recruitment funnel.
Building Candidate Personas
AI can pull from the profiles of existing employees and historical hiring data for a given role to surface patterns and common characteristics. These patterns, combined with qualitative data gathered from interviews, can help you to define a persona profile of the ideal candidate for the role.
A persona is a fictional character profile that represents the different types of candidates who would be successful in a role. Personas focus on individual characteristics, behaviors, interests, goals, motivators and challenges. With these in place, you can create alignment across your recruitment and sourcing strategies. Your persona profiles should provide specific guidance about how to find candidates who fit the profile, including targeted messages that will resonate.
Since launching in late 2022, ChatGPT and other GAI chatbots, like Bing Chat, Gemini (formerly Bard) and more, quickly permeated the workplace. These tools mimic human communication and can help with everything from content creation and market analysis to simply writing emails. They can also be used to write job descriptions.
By feeding them with relevant prompts that detail the job tasks and required skills as well as employer brand elements like tone of voice, the GAI chatbot can produce a first draft job description in seconds. The hiring manager and recruiter can then massage this text to create the final posting.
For existing job descriptions, AI can be used to measure sentiment and detect biased language. There are a variety of AI-powered online tools that can highlight biased language—like “ambitious” or “expert,” which are stereotypically masculine—to ensure you’re not turning off a portion of your talent audience.
Previously a manual process, AI can sift through a huge number of online profiles to find candidates with the skills you’re looking for. For example, the AI-powered Affinix CRM tool in PeopleScout’s talent acquisition suite Affinix searches millions of online profiles to find passive candidates with the skills and competencies that match the role. The AI also assesses the likelihood of a candidate being open to a new opportunity by combining the average tenure of each job listed on their profile with the average aggregate tenure of all other candidates in that same role.
Manually identifying passive candidates who have similar titles but may not be actively searching for a job can take hours of dedicated time. AI can reduce manual efforts and massively speed up the recruitment process. Plus, it helps you concentrate on skills, rather than experience, to expand your candidate pool.
Predictive Analytics
Machine learning models can also provide predictive and prescriptive hiring recommendations based on a candidate’s profile. AI can assess genuine interest, candidate motivations, likelihood to accept an offer and even predicted tenure. This empowers recruiters to be more informed for interview prep and can help them personalize outreach messages to appeal specifically to what matters most for each candidate.
Over time as engagement data is captured, AI models continue to improve, learning what messages and channels persuade candidates with various profiles and career trajectories. This creates a positive feedback loop, compounding efficiencies over each recruiting cycle.
How to Use AI for Candidate Screening & Interview Support
Manual candidate screening based on résumés and CVs alone can be an imperfect, biased exercise. With AI lending a “second pair of eyes,” you can ensure quality candidates are not being overlooked. Here are some elements of the process that AI can enhance.
First Sift
Natural language processing tools can ingest thousands of résumés and CVs, and analyze the content, context, and trends across the talent pool within seconds. AI tools can be trained to recognize specific skills, experiences and competencies that are required for open roles and then score and rank applicants automatically against your ideal candidate profile.
Look for tools with a dashboard that highlights the “cream of the crop” candidates that demonstrate the closest alignment, enabling you to reach out or pass the most promising applicants to hiring managers quickly.
Real-Time Screening
Intelligent chatbots, like text and SMS screening tools, create a conversational experience for candidates using natural language processing. These mobile-friendly, text interview tools automatically screen candidates using predetermined questions that gauge their interest and qualifications. Based on the responses, the chatbot can instantly determine the next step for each specific candidate.
AI is also leveraged for pre-employment assessments. New tech platforms can test and measure candidates for skills mastery, personality traits, and cognitive abilities to ensure qualified candidates are advancing through the recruitment process. All results should be reviewed by a human to ensure compliance with relevant regulations around automated decision-making. Leveraging AI in skills assessment helps ensure recruiters and hiring managers can focus on priority candidates most likely to succeed in the role, increasing equity along the way.
Want to learn more about how AI can boost your recruitment processes?
AI-powered candidate engagement tools help you create seamless, personalized experiences at scale—boosting candidate satisfaction, accelerating the hiring process and freeing up recruiters to focus on relationship building—where they add the most value.
Personalized Candidate Communications
For several years now, organizations have been leveraging candidate relationship management (CRM) technology to automate communications with candidates throughout the hiring journey. Automated email drip campaigns deliver the right information at the right stage in the journey to keep candidates informed of next steps and engaged with content that is relevant to them. This helps you build personalized engagement at scale.
More recently, recruiters are using GAI platforms like ChatGPT to help them with drafting one-off emails to candidates. Leveraging the appropriate prompts, a recruiter can get a first draft from ChatGPT which they can then review and edit to fit for specific candidates. This has the potential to save hours’ worth of work each week for your talent acquisition team.
Chatbots
Chatbots leverage natural language processing to manage various high-volume, repetitive inquiries from candidates. Whether answering frequently asked questions (FAQs) about application status, the interview process, the company or the job role, chatbots provide consistent, accurate responses 24/7—especially relevant when recruiters aren’t working. This improves candidate satisfaction while enabling recruiters to focus on higher-value activities.
Intelligent messaging platforms can initiate one-way communications at scale to nurture candidates. Using data on the prospect, role, process stage and more, AI writing assistants dynamically generate personalized, thoughtful messages. This level of personalization improves candidate engagement, advances candidates quicker through the funnel and strengthens employment brand affinity.
Calendar management bots can take over the time-consuming back-and-forth of scheduling interviews, assessments, site visits and more. By integrating with hiring manager calendars, only convenient time slots are shown to candidates. Candidates automatically receive confirmations and reminders, eliminating this task for recruiters and increasing the likelihood of candidates attending interviews.
How to Get Started with AI in Recruiting
Your steps into AI should focus on exploration rather than big integrations. AI in recruitment is fast-moving and receiving more and more scrutiny from law makers, and an RPO (recruitment process outsourcing) partner can act as a strategic advisor on your AI recruiting journey. RPOs have experience implementing recruitment tech like AI software for clients and can advise on the best options for your needs, integration requirements, data needs, ethical usage, and workflow design.
By leveraging RPO expertise, companies can effectively implement AI-enhanced hiring with less disruption and a faster return on investment. Look for a partner that is moving at your speed when it comes to AI in recruiting. They’ll help you identify areas for quick wins, and help you expand this success through experimentation and testing.
Here are some ways an RPO partner can help your explore AI for recruitment:
Change Management: RPOs can ease the transition to automated processes and drive adoption through training and ongoing support. They can also develop training programs to upskill your in-house recruiters on using AI tools effectively and ethically in accordance with your internal AI policies.
Process Design: RPOs can redesign recruitment workflows to integrate AI tools. For example, PeopleScout’s Talent Diagnostic examines your talent lifecycle, evaluating your employer brand and your attraction strategy, as well as looking for ways to optimize the candidate experience through technology usage.
Ongoing Optimization: RPOs can continuously monitor and evaluate AI outputs and fine-tune processes. These insights will help you improve outcomes over time.
Compliance Monitoring: RPOs stay current on regulations affecting AI in recruiting to advise on lawful and ethical usage in conjunction with your internal legal team.
AI in Recruiting: Potential and Responsibility
AI has demonstrated tremendous potential to transform talent acquisition. As this handbook outlines, it’s no longer just hype, rather it’s delivering real impact across sourcing, screening, interviewing and candidate engagement.
The results you’ll experience from AI depend heavily on factors like data quality, transparency, integration with existing systems and processes, and governance to ensure responsible usage. AI solutions are meant to augment—not replace—the human touch in recruitment. Recruiters are invaluable when it comes to relationship building, coaching and negotiation, and AI can’t replicate what makes them uniquely human.
Looking ahead, the use of AI recruiting technology to connect people to purpose will only continue expanding. Cultivating an ethical, inclusive and values-based recruiting culture remains key when it comes to attracting employees who align with your organization’s mission. With human stewardship over AI in recruiting, the future of talent acquisition looks bright.
So, what is recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), and why should companies use it? RPO can boost your talent acquisition by optimizing processes amid fierce competition. Whether you’re exploring RPO or want to learn more about maximizing it, this guide will provide valuable insights. Understand how partnering with an RPO can boost your talent acquisition outcomes.
This overview explains RPO, answering common questions, including:
Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is a type of business process outsourcing (BPO) in which an external organization (RPO provider) supports an employer’s talent acquisition function by assuming responsibility for some or all facets of the talent acquisition function to support some or all of an employer’s hiring needs.
For example, an RPO engagement may only cover sourcing and screening candidates (partial-cycle RPO) or it may cover the entire recruitment lifecycle from receiving hiring manager’s requisitions all the way to presenting and negotiating job offers to candidates (full-cycle RPO). An RPO provider works closely with an organization’s internal talent acquisition team, either remotely or on-site.
Below, we highlight a few high-level reasons why organizations seek RPO providers, and conversely, when RPO may not be a good fit:
REASONS TO ENGAGE AN RPO PROVIDER:
If your organization is looking for more speed, agility and flexibility in your recruiting processes
If you are looking to improve the quality of candidates applying to your positions or struggle to attract the right talent
If your organization is looking for a more cost-effective and standardized recruiting process
If your organization’s current use of recruitment technology isn’t up to par and you are seeking a variety of digital upgrades specific to your organization’s recruiting objectives
If your organization is looking to increase diversity hiring, RPO providers can help you uncover new diverse talent recruitment sources and strategies
REASONS NOT TO ENGAGE AN RPO PROVIDER:
If your company culture is not ready for outsourcing talent recruitment
If you just need a vendor to fill a quick requisition or two as opposed to a partner to support your talent acquisition strategy
If your organization isn’t open to optimizing your recruiting processes and tech stack
Remember, these reasons are not set in stone. Only you and your organization can assess if you are in need of an RPO partner’s services. An RPO partner should customize their solution to match your needs and offer flexible options to support for peak hiring, hard-to-fill positions, compressed time frames and more—however it works best for you.
During an RPO engagement, the RPO provider’s team works closely with their client’s talent acquisition team and hiring managers to learn the organization’s long-term talent acquisition strategy, hiring challenges and goals.
The RPO provider then designs a customized recruiting program tailored to support the client’s specific needs. RPO is not a one-size-fits-all solution. A leading RPO partner will customize its service to match your requirements, which could include any or all of the following talent acquisition activities:
What is the Difference Between an RPO Provider and a Staffing Agency?
An RPO provider is distinct from a staffing agency or headhunter. Staffing agencies identify candidates, obtain their résumés or CVs and submit them to the client.
An RPO partnership brings a higher level of engagement. Your RPO provider will do a deep dive into your talent acquisition goals and challenges and then create and execute a customized recruitment program—and report back on the results. An RPO partner is a trusted advisor who can help you gain agility and future-proof your business.
Designed for flexibility, RPO can be customized to meet your needs. Fully outsourcing recruitment may not make sense for all organizations. But that doesn’t mean RPO won’t provide value if you’re not ready to go all in. RPO teams are often used alongside existing in-house recruitment teams. The RPO can complement your current recruitment program by handling recruiting for specific job groups, locations or business units.
Here are various types of RPO that are commonly available:
Full-Cycle RPO
The RPO partner owns the entire recruitment cycle from opening requisitions all the way to presenting and negotiating the job offer—and all activities in between. This solution offers the client the full benefit of the RPO partner’s expertise which most organizations don’t have in-house, including value-added services like market insights, recruitment technology and employer brand consulting.
Partial Cycle RPO
The RPO partner covers certain parts of the recruitment process to boost internal recruitment resources. For example, the RPO partner might source and screen candidates and then hand them over to the in-house recruitment team to schedule interviews and manage offers.
Recruiter On-Demand
Recruiter On-Demand engagements are typically fixed-term contracts meant to address specific recruitment challenges such as seasonal hiring peaks, hard-to-fill positions, compressed timeframes and more. The RPO is there to augment the in-house team, often due to rapid growth. These engagements kick off quickly, and the required positions are filled within a few months.
Modular RPO, or variable RPO, is a strategic approach to managing the recruitment process in an ultra-focused manner. It involves outsourcing specific components of the recruitment process to an RPO provider, or as a supplement to an existing outsourced recruitment engagement, providing quick access to targeted and customized recruitment support. With a modular or à la carte approach, you choose from a range of services based on your requirements.
High-volume RPO involves sourcing, screening, interviewing and hiring large numbers of applicants for similar openings or job types. It requires a tricky balance of keeping substantial quantities of job applicants moving through the recruitment process at speed. Plus, throughout the year it requires talent acquisition teams to scale up quickly to meet seasonal demand, like for holiday shopping periods or during peak travel times.
Now that you can answer the question, “What is recruitment process outsourcing?”, you may be wondering why organizations engage an RPO provider. Partnering with an experienced RPO gives you access to extensive recruitment knowledge across industries, roles and regions. RPOs have managed every type of hiring campaign imaginable. Whether you need help with one function or end-to-end recruiting, RPO offers advantages including:
Minimize Costs
Every day a role goes unfilled, your organization loses productivity, which can lead to losses in revenue and profits. Plus, inefficiencies in your organization’s hiring processes can result in lost revenue and more hours spent recruiting. And, if your organization hires the wrong person, you’ll spend even more time and money recruiting and training a replacement for the bad hire. By streamlining and optimizing recruitment processes, improving the time-to-hire and retention rates, RPO providers can increase your recruiting return on investment and deliver real cost savings to your bottom line. In fact, Everest Group states that organizations can expect a 45% to 55% annual savings with RPO compared to in-house recruitment.
A leading RPO provider should flex to meet your requirements. Your organization can scale the amount of work your RPO provider performs to better manage your recruitment cost-per-hire goals and recruiting budget. When you have an increased demand for talent, an RPO provider can promptly scale up your team of dedicated recruiters to keep on top of your increased demands. This works the other way around as well: when there is less demand, we can scale down, saving you recruitment spend, and you avoid layoffs in your talent acquisition team during low demand periods.
Enhanced Candidate Experience
You want your recruitment process to leave every applicant, regardless of whether they get the job, with a positive experience. Your RPO partner can advise on ways to improve the candidate experience including career site audits, job application recommendations and how to leverage technology to speed up the process and reduce friction.
RPO providers can help you implement technology solutions that balance human expertise with automation. RPO partners have expertise with platforms across the HR and talent acquisition tech stack and can make recommendations to help you attract and engage talent more effectively. PeopleScout’s talent acquisition platform, Affinix™ is a mobile-first, cloud-based platform that creates a consumer-like candidate experience and streamlines the sourcing process.
Access More Expertise
Partnering with an RPO means you gain important talent acquisition expertise without having to invest in internal resources. RPO partners have developed a depth and breadth of experience from working across many clients, industries, job types and regions. While they offer recruitment sourcing best practices, they also offer value-added services that will optimize and streamline each phase of the recruiting process like employer branding, recruitment marketing, skills assessment, market insights, specialist sourcing solutions and more.
Improve Diversity
Through experience collected over many client engagements, RPO teams are knowledgeable about different talent attraction options and can help you expand to new job boards, social media groups, online forums and events to engage a more diverse workforce. Plus, RPOs understand the regional nuances of DE&I issues. For example, in some countries like Poland, it is not legal to ask candidates their ethnicity, gender, etc.
Workforce Planning Strategy
Leading RPO providers can provide labor market insights, talent intelligence and benchmarking data. With access to these insights, you have the data you need to support your workforce strategy as well as tactical business decisions. You can capitalize on the latest market analysis, thought leadership and competitive intelligence to inform your talent strategy. Your RPO partner can provide analytics to help you understand what’s working so you can maximize your ROI.
Global Reach
Leading organizations are taking a much more holistic view of the talent landscape and are looking for ways to standardize across regions. Working with a single partner for multi-country RPO eliminates the need for multiple relationships and saves time and money—while raising the quality of your hires. An RPO provider can be your most valuable partner in global expansion, because they bring a wealth of knowledge and experience gained through working with clients in different industries around the world.
Seamless Compliance
A significant aspect of recruiting is dealing with the multitude of compliance requirements that vary by jurisdiction. Your partner should help you navigate the labor laws and compliance issues that accompany any sourcing program. An RPO provider’s rigorous processes ensure a legally compliant hiring process and streamlined responses to audits. Additionally, a partner can help you anticipate any communication and training issues so that you can tackle them head-on.
What Should I Look for in an RPO Company?
If you’ve decided that RPO will be a good fit for your organization, you may be wondering how you go about choosing the best provider. Here are just three things to consider in order to make RPO a truly transformational model for your business.
Partnership
The best RPO partners understand that each company has unique needs. Look for an RPO partner that is collaborative, that will listen to your ideas and take the time to truly understand your business and pain points. Avoid providers with a one-size-fits-all approach. The right partner balances consistency with customization.
At PeopleScout, for 30 years we’ve built our services on integrity. We won’t say one thing during the sales pitch only to reset expectations after the ink is dry. We won’t make you comply with a cookie-cutter recruitment process. If we mess up, we’ll make it right. That’s why we have some of the longest running client relationships in the RPO space.
Talent Advisory Solutions
A strong employer brand is key to recruitment success. The right RPO partner offers talent advisory solutions to develop your employer brand, EVP, recruitment marketing approaches, candidate assessments and more.
Companies often use separate agencies for recruitment marketing and RPO. This siloed approach means less accountability. The agency is less likely to be held accountable for their campaigns leading to high quality candidates entering later candidate journey stages. On the other side, the RPO partner has limited means to provide feedback on the campaigns and the impact the ads have on recruitment outcomes.
Look for an RPO with in-house expertise (not one who outsources to an external agency) to consult on your entire talent program, not just filling roles. A holistic approach attracts and hires quality candidates.
Technology Acquisition Technology
HR tech is rapidly evolving, and RPO partners are well positioned to advise on tools like AI and analytics to improve recruiting. Your RPO partner should offer expertise on talent tech. Others have their own proprietary talent acquisition platforms. Look for an RPO partner who will support a modular approach, so you can continue to benefit from existing investments and grow your recruitment tech stack as your needs change.
What is Recruitment Process Outsourcing? The Keys to RPO Success
The most important key to successfully engaging an RPO provider for services is to have a clear understanding of what your organization is trying to achieve. Then, you can choose an RPO provider that best meets your needs.
One thing to keep in mind on your RPO journey: RPO engagements are not only about outsourcing your recruiting, they are also about finding the best partner to help manage the people, process, technology and strategy of your talent acquisition function.
There is no single best option, only the option that best aligns with your organizational needs. To determine if RPO is right for your organization, take an audit of what your organization’s specific recruitment and sourcing challenges are and if you have the internal capabilities to overcome your challenges.
An Australian aged care provider needed to source critical healthcare roles in their most hard-to-fill locations. PeopleScout’s sourcing expertise and EVP insights helped them exceed their targets in one of the tightest candidate markets in memory.
600+candidates screened
0drop outs occured across the entire recruitment process
4months to fill critical vacancies
Challenge
The client is one of Australia’s largest aged care operators, with 72 residential aged care homes in South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, Australia. The aged care sector in Australia is suffering from a major skills shortage as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, international border closures and a large number of workers leaving the sector.
The aged care provider turned to PeopleScout for project recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) to support the recruitment of registered nurses and support staff across a number of critical locations where they were getting little to no response to their vacancies.
Solution
Two senior recruitment business partners supported the client across five locations who drove passive and active recruitment for registered nurses and aged care workers. PeopleScout researched the client’s target market to understand what motivates workers in the healthcare sector to accept a role. Following this, our team provided recommendations on the lifestyle bonuses they could offer as incentives for workers to travel to their locations. We also coached the client on how to boost their employer brand to raise awareness of their opportunities, which has delivered a long-term impact within a challenging market.
Results
PeopleScout worked within the aged care provider’s existing ATS system and screened over 600 candidates. We were able to speed up the process for successful candidates and in a number of locations achieved zero dropouts throughout the screening and background check process.
Over a 4-month period, our team placed 14 permanent positions across:
Registered Nurses
Personal Care Workers
Hospitality Support
With a large worker exodus across the sector, recruitment in the aged care sector in Australia is still an ongoing challenge. However, PeopleScout has proven our ability to make a significant impact in a short period of time.
At a Glance
COMPANY: Aged care provider
INDUSTRY: Healthcare
PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS: Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Talent Advisory
ABOUT THE CLIENT: This healthcare provider manages 72 residential aged care homes across Australia, supporting over 8,000 residents and their families at an important time in their lives.
For most healthcare organizations, staffing is a major operational challenge. During the COVID-19 pandemic, over 100,000 registered nurses left the field, and even several years laters, almost 800,000 nurses intend to leave the workforce by 2027 because of stress, burnout or retirement. These healthcare talent shortages and increased competition necessitate a more robust talent acquisition strategy. To overcome recruiting roadblocks, healthcare organizations can partner with a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) partner to supplement internal recruiting teams and create sustainable talent acquisition strategies. When implemented correctly, a healthcare RPO program enhances recruiting effectiveness, attracts top talent and reduces cost, providing healthcare organizations with a competitive advantage.
In this post, we highlight six things healthcare organizations should expect from an RPO partnership.
What to Expect From Your Healthcare RPO Partnership
When you enter into an RPO partnership, you will find that a successful relationship is based on collaboration between your RPO provider and internal team, who need to work together to make the engagement a success.
Dig Deeper
How RPO Can Solve The Top Challenges In Healthcare Talent Acquisition
Expect Seamless Integration Between Your Healthcare RPO & Internal Recruiting Teams
An ideal RPO partner should have a well-developed practice for integrating into a client’s organization and working with a client’s recruiters, hiring managers and leadership teams. During the implementation process, your healthcare RPO partner should conduct a needs assessment to understand your healthcare recruiting requirements. They will then develop a custom solution that meets the needs of your organization and business model.
Engaging an RPO partner is an opportunity to create change in the way you recruit talent across your organization. Changes in the recruiting process can include training hiring managers to be better interviewers, implementing new recruiting technology tools and establishing a unified message and employer brand.
This is the time to take the recruiting process seriously and bring attention to it internally. Your RPO partner will work with you to be an agent of change in your organization in order to successfully implement new tools and processes.
Expect Value-Added Recruiting Functions
As talent acquisition becomes more sophisticated, organizations are looking for additional services from an RPO partner such as employer branding capabilities, advanced analytics and new technology. When considering healthcare RPO partners, look for capabilities that will add value while improving your recruiting processes.
For instance, if your organization is anticipating a merger and requires a solution to swiftly ramp up your current healthcare workforce, talent acquisition services such as social media sourcing, video interviewing and recruitment marketing provide additional value by improving the candidate experience and your position in the talent market.
To determine which value-added services would most benefit you, audit your current recruiting processes and performance to identify where your in-house teams excel and where outside expertise can make a positive impact.
Expect In-Depth Program Analysis and Reporting
You should expect that your RPO partner will provide you with a complete analysis of your healthcare recruitment processes’ strengths, weaknesses and challenges.
This assessment should include:
Detailed process mapping before, during, and after implementation
Understanding gaps and opportunities within your program
Visibility into real-time workforce data and analytics
From this deep-dive, your RPO partner should develop customized solutions for your immediate and long-term talent needs and consult with stakeholders on ways to improve your program.
Recruiting metrics and analytics are powerful tools. When an RPO partner dives into the data, they can provide guidance on big and small recruitment changes that will lead to improved hiring metrics.
Expect Accountability and Transparency
Accountability and transparency are key factors in a successful RPO partnership. As the client, you should be able to ask your RPO partner any question you can conceive of, and in turn, your RPO partner should be able to provide you with satisfactory answers.
To ensure accountability, your RPO provider should work with you to establish mutually agreed upon Service Level Agreements (SLAs). SLAs should be established during the partner selection process, and their governance should be clearly outlined during contract negotiations.
SLAs establish how you and your RPO provider will work together and can cover items like terms, liability, billing and payment, confidentiality, solicitation, insurance, warranties and employment relationships.
Before you draft SLAs, you need to assess your recruitment performance prior to working with your RPO partner. This can prove challenging, especially if your internal recruitment processes do not track and benchmark data. If you do not have benchmarks, your healthcare RPO provider should be able to provide benchmarking data based on their work with other clients in the healthcare space.
When setting up SLAs, make sure they are realistic, achievable and meet your organization’s recruiting needs. RPO SLAs often include the following metrics:
Time-to-fill: Time-to-fill measures how long it takes recruiters to fill an open role.
Hiring manager satisfaction: You can measure hiring manager satisfaction through a survey, for example.
Candidate experience and satisfaction: You can conduct surveys with every candidate, not just ones who are hired, to better understand the impact of your candidate experience.
Interview-to-offer ratio: This metric is the ratio of the number of interviews to the number of candidates that are given an offer and can help determine the quality of candidates.
Diversity of candidate: This is the percentage of candidates considered or self-identified as “diverse,” and can be used to track different groups of candidates like women or veterans.
The right mix of service-level controls can help ensure a successful partnership.
Expect to Be Supplied with References
You would not hire a doctor or nurse without checking their references, and the same applies when partnering with an RPO provider. An RPO partner can always tell you about their solutions, skills and expertise. However, to get a real sense of an RPO partner’s true capabilities, you need to speak to their clients and hear success stories directly.
You should receive references from organizations that the RPO partner has worked with, ideally in the healthcare space, that have dealt with similar challenges as you, so you can really understand how the RPO has delivered effective solutions in the past. For example, if your organization is having a difficult time sourcing healthcare talent in a rural community, your RPO partner should provide you with a reference that illustrates their ability to source candidates in lean talent markets.
Expect Effective Recruiting Technology
Your RPO partner should be deploying the most current and best-in-class recruiting technologies to access and leverage data, attract and source candidates, automate recruiting processes, and screen and shortlist candidates. For instance, an RPO partner equipped with an experienced team of recruiters trained in using advanced tools and resources can use AI and predictive analytics to quickly find candidates with the skills and qualifications you’re looking for.
AI-enabled sourcing tools help recruiters find the best candidates faster.
A streamlined application process can allow candidates apply with just one click.
Personalized recruitment marketing tools like chatbots, SMS messages, email campaigns and individualized landing pages provide candidates with the consumer-like experience they have come to expect online.
Healthcare RPO partners should also be able to help you quickly implement the best recruiting technologies into your talent acquisition program that can save both time and money.
Healthcare RPO from PeopleScout
Selecting the right RPO partner is a big decision for any healthcare organization and outsourcing recruitment processes can have a tremendous business impact. Your healthcare RPO partner should possess the ability to understand the capabilities and reach of the latest emerging talent tools can provide both significant costs savings and a competitive advantage and provide you access to talent, quality of hires, process efficiencies and workforce management support.
Securing Software Engineers for a Healthcare Tech Pioneer
A global healthcare technology company turned to PeopleScout to find much-needed tech talent to grow their healthcare data and analytics services.
97%Offer Acceptance Rate
Implemented SMS Text Screening
20%Exceeded Submittal-to-Interview Ratio Goal by 20%
Situation
A healthcare technology company approached PeopleScout to help with their hard-to-fill software engineering and niche technology positions. With demand for tech and digital skills on the rise across all industries, the client was struggling to fuel their business growth.
Solution
PeopleScout implemented a partial-cycle recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) program for the client. Our dedicated delivery team consisted of tenured recruiters who had at least five years of software engineering recruitment experience. We established a multi-channel sourcing process, screening, scheduling interviews and completing the hiring process for the client.
The PeopleScout RPO team partnered closely with hiring managers to brainstorm creative solutions to particularly hard-to-fill roles and to provide talent intelligence and detailed compensation information that they could take back to their leadership.
We also implemented new technology that allowed us to screen candidates via two-way SMS texting to speed up screening time, improve candidate engagement and reduce fallout. Hiring manager surveys were also rolled out to gain more feedback, and reporting and analytics were set up to measure SLAs.
Results
PeopleScout effectively hired candidates for the organization’s niche technology roles, while exceeding time to fill expectations. Our recruiters thoroughly sourced against the role requirements, assuring candidates met the client’s standards. As a result, 77% of hires made were externally sourced candidates, and we increased the submittal to interview ratio to 54%, exceeding our target by over 20%. The offer-acceptance rate grew to 97%, well above the industry average of 70%.
Following this success, the RPO program expanded from roles within the U.S. to also cover recruiting tech roles in the UK and Ireland.
At a Glance
COMPANY: Healthcare technology company
INDUSTRY: Technology
PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS: Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Affinix
ANNUAL HIRES: 250
LOCATIONS: U.S., expanding to UK and Ireland
ABOUT THE CLIENT: This healthcare technology company provides data, analytics and software for healthcare and government social services. The organization works with healthcare providers, health plans, governments and life sciences companies to get more from their health data, using artificial intelligence, data analytics, cloud computing and other advanced information technology.
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.
Not sure recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is for you? Think your organization is too small for RPO? Think outsourcing doesn’t fit your company culture?
Think again.
Our complete six-piece toolkit gives talent acquisition leaders the essential information on how RPO can boost their recruitment outcomes.
In this toolkit, you’ll get:
Our comprehensive buyer’s guide for RPO—everything you need to know
A guide for building a business case for RPO (including a free template!)
Conversation starters to help you create buy-in for RPO at your organization
Learn how RPO can unlock the full potential of your talent strategy. Download your kit now.
Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) Buyer’s Guide
In this challenging landscape, talent acquisition leaders are increasingly turning to recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) to gain the flexibility, scalability and agility they need to hire the best talent.
So, how do you know if outsourcing to an RPO partner is right for you? Our RPO Buyer’s Guide provides an in-depth exploration of RPO and how it can help you achieve your recruitment goals.
In this ebook, you’ll learn:
What RPO is and the benefits it can bring to your business
Whether RPO is right for you and the benefits of selecting an RPO partner
What to expect at each stage of your RPO partnership
