5 Healthcare recruiting tips for the competitive Australian market
Healthcare is an occupation that employs a significant percent of the Australian workforce, over 1 million people are employed in the healthcare sector.
Despite this large pool of workers in the country, there is still a massive demand for qualified and experienced healthcare professionals nationwide because of Australia’s ageing population.
The strong demand has meant there is a shortage of healthcare professionals. A relatively large number of desired occupations appearing on the Department of Home Affair’s skilled occupations list are health related.
In especially high demand are nurses, Health Workforce Australia have predicted that by 2025 there won’t be enough nurses to meet demand.
Given this environment, recruiters are strained to find the best candidates.
Sourcing top quality applicants requires having an effective strategy. Below are some ways for hiring in healthcare given the current situation.
1. Jump the Queue with Campus Scouting
Given that a large number of health industry jobs require higher level degrees, it is a good idea to identify prospects at the earliest possible moment.
The role of any HR teams at this level of the hiring funnel is to foster positive relationships with students. Development of a long-term strategy of recruitment makes hiring easier given enough time.
Recruiting staff can act as mentors for these emerging healthcare talents whilst they are students, to help them make decisions about their career opportunities.
A recruiter should take up opportunities to give presentations in front of these students, as well as to offer internships to these emerging talents. Internships assist these students by preparing them for professional healthcare workplaces which will be a significant part of their future careers. It is a mutually beneficial arrangement since healthcare institutions can lure the loyalty of these hopefuls by showcasing their workplace in a positive way.
2. Use Efficient Hiring Technology
With competition high in healthcare employment it serves recruiters and employer’s interests to make the recruiting process as easy and streamlined as possible to keep that prospect engaged with your organisation.
Utilise software or cloud-based systems when hiring to enable efficient processes, they should also be mobile-responsive. Glassdoor reported that 58% of its users are looking for jobs from mobile phones, so presenting a mobile-friendly hiring portal equates to a positive first impression with regard to this audience.
Assessing applicant’s skill level is important to evaluating their ability to do a role, assessments to test that must be integrated in way to make the recruitment process appear succinct. Ultimately it makes sense to use such tests that are integrated within a predictive hiring platform or an applicant tracking system, allowing for a quick and simple hiring process from both the employer and applicant’s perspectives.
3. Be Aware of the Best Job Boards
Healthcare recruiters have always been able to utilise job boards, however they are not all as good as each other for certain professions and can be costly for the volume of candidates that they endeavour to attract.
Concentrating efforts on healthcare job boards that are known to attract a good volume of candidates will assist HR teams to enhance their ability to source top quality job applicants.
A common question asked during this current health emergency is whether Expr3ss! has healthcare customers that are looking for staff. In an effort to help find more essential workers during COVID-19 it established healthcareers.expr3ss.com to help people that are now looking for work in both the city, surrounding suburbs and regions with roles less than 45 days old. And roles can also be found on the government jobs portal under the name Expr3ss!
4. Use Internal Hiring Methods
Job roles advertised internally within a healthcare organisation are a proven way to source top candidates.
Establish an employee referral system and reward employees for helping find suitable people to become part of the team.
Use your hiring platform to facilitate the promotion of your internal roles and track and reward any employee referrals.
Promoting trusted talent that is already working at a company is an obvious way to fill a role, whilst also creating a positive community for employees. Seeing people promoted does a lot for the employment brand as candidates like to know the organisation is accepting of development and advancement.
5. Using an Applicant Tracking System (ATS)
Software such as an ATS should have a solid screening stage that not only ensures a positive applicant experience, but also one that allows for an applicant’s ease of use.
Predictive Hiring Technology integrated ATS can further add to a health care recruiter’s ability to thrive in an environment of competition for talent by lowering turnover of staff. An assessment in regard to a candidate’s ability to have the agility and temperament to fit in and stay in an organisation is paramount. Such predictive analysis will result in finding staff that will actually be much more likely to stay in the job, and fit in with the culture of the organisation, this is a trait that a healthcare recruiter must be seeking out at a time when the cost and effort of rehiring quality healthcare staff is high.