In today’s world of highly competitive talent acquisition, HR teams are the most important Brand Advocates for hospitals and health systems.

Recruitment marketing can be sexy and provocative to entice the right people to join an organization, but not unlike customer service, employee service must be a constant incredible experience.  When we put our own people first, we build a positive workplace culture. Building a positive workplace culture, leads to increased employee engagement. Increased employee engagement, leads to significantly better outcomes for talent acquisition.

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Creating content allows you to add value, build trust, and engage candidates.

Talent acquisition for many hospitals was a major challenge before the coronavirus outbreak, now it’s nearly an impossible task for some facilities. In today’s highly competitive labor market, particularly in healthcare, talent acquisition teams need to be more proactive when it comes to targeting, engaging and hiring top talent.

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For healthcare recruiters, conducting a SWOT analysis can be the driver and framework for all of their recruitment marketing activities including the messages they use, the media they select, and the tone, personality and voice in how they communicate with perspective candidates.

SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis) is a framework for identifying and analyzing the internal and external factors that can have an impact on the viability of a project, product, place or person.

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Healthcare organizations and hospitals can go from being an also-ran to recruiting Super Bowl Champion by following a few simple but important guidelines:

Healthcare organizations large and small are all striving for the top experienced candidates in a very tight and competitive job market. Now more than ever, experienced doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and others have the leverage over hospitals and health systems. There are simply not enough skilled workers to go around.

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A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Media Plan for Healthcare Recruitment

Developing an annual media plan to fill your open positions can help you lower your cost per hire, give you a clear picture of where your recruitment marketing dollars are going and provide a cohesive blueprint to all of your recruiting activities.

As opposed to just reacting to the newest greatest need, a well-thought out media plan allows your healthcare organization to be proactive in its pursuit of top talent to fill their most critical needs.

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Content Marketing is a proven way to create awareness for your Employer Brand.

Most healthcare recruiters are already stretched for time, and little of that time is devoted to developing and executing a marketing plan to attract top talent. For many healthcare organizations, the “plan” devolves into a series of spray and pray tactics –Facebook ads, random job postings, resume mining… all done on the fly in the hopes of generating a few quick candidates.

What’s needed instead, is a well thought out content recruitment marketing program.

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Developing a robust talent pipeline addresses your hiring needs for both the present and the future.

A talent pipeline is defined as a ready-made pool of applicants that can be quickly tapped into whenever a resignation, retirement or new position opens up.

However, many organizations do not nurture, grow or invest in their talent community thus creating an endless cycle of dealing with short term emergency hiring needs.

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By using advanced digital marketing techniques traditionally employed in consumer marketing, recruiters can stand a better chance at bringing in more qualified candidates.

The modern recruitment marketing plan must be more like a consumer marketing plan and less like an old school recruitment plan. The reasoning behind this is simple: Today’s most sought after candidates consider new job opportunities and new employers the same way that they might consider buying a car, a home or any other consumer driven purchase.

Include the following elements in your recruitment marketing plan to ensure you’re speaking to your candidate:

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Honest and open two-way communication are critical to Employee Retention.

Nearly every healthcare organization has a plan to attract and hire top talent but how many have a program designed to keep their rising stars happy and nurture their growth?

Many healthcare organizations are reluctant to discuss underlying organizational issues let alone address them head on with employees. But that can ultimately be a recipe for disaster. The following are a few ways you can head employee issues off at the pass and keep the staff you’ve worked so hard to obtain in the first place.

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 Your postings should promote your employer brand and give candidates their first opportunity to learn about your healthcare organization.

 A hospital job posting serves an important purpose: Broadcast your open positions to a lot of candidates, across a broad spectrum of industry niche sites, general job boards and professional associations.

However job postings can also be an effective and valuable recruitment marketing tool if crafted the right way. There are opportunities to tell your healthcare organization’s story and get job seekers excited about your opportunities.

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In today’s challenging healthcare labor market, referral programs are still one the best uses of healthcare marketing dollars to get high quality employees with a positive ROI.

There’s no doubt that a successful employee referral program can make the difference between achieving organizational hiring objectives and having to pay thousands of dollars in agency fees to plug the talent gaps.

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The key to getting a candidate’s attention is to tell them a compelling story about your organization. 

Strategically smart healthcare organizations looking for top talent have figured out that the secret to getting a passive candidate’s attention is to tell a great story about their company – and there’s hardly a better social media channel to do that than Instagram.

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Developing and communicating your unique brand is the only way to attract top talent.

Ask any Talent Acquisition professional and they’ll tell you that the war for top healthcare talent is in full swing. It’s no longer enough for healthcare systems to simply market their programs and services to consumers. The reality is that these organizations must now market their attributes by applying the same focus and consistency to their employer branding as they apply to their corporate and consumer branding.

As a result, promotion of the talent brand is now front and center as a marketing initiative. There are many factors that have dictated this shift in focus over the past few years including the following: Read more

A clear call to action drives candidates towards your ultimate goal – more conversions.

I am always amazed how many healthcare organizations spend countless hours and recruitment dollars looking to attract candidates to their website – only to fail to tell those candidates what to do when they get there.

A clear call-to-action or CTA, tells candidates very clearly and succinctly what the next steps are and what they can expect when they take them and utilizing CTA’s is essential to adding top healthcare talent to your recruitment pipeline.

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Equal parts Recruitment and Retention tactics are the key

Nearly every healthcare organization struggles with recruitment and retention of experienced nurses. The challenges are multifactorial and can include everything from retirement of existing nurses, mergers and acquisitions of hospitals and health systems, poor morale, leadership issues and unsafe nurse-to-patient ratios.

The need for experienced nurses is only going to intensify in he coming years. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the need for 525,000 replacements nurses in the workforce, bringing the total number of job openings for nurses due to growth and replacements to 1.05 million by 2022.

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There is no more powerful tool when recruiting employees to your healthcare organization than the employee testimonial.　

When you utilize employee testimonials to promote your healthcare organization you create a unique opportunity to showcase your employer brand and culture to potential new hires via the words of your own employees.

Employee testimonials are effective because job applicants prefer the input of other people (who are similar to them) and it gives your healthcare organization a human persona.

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Use Pinterest to present images and content that represent who you are as a healthcare employer and why a candidate would be interested in working for you.

Many Healthcare recruitment organizations have developed and executed strategies for social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Pinterest? Not so much.

However before you blow off the online pinboard, realize that Pinterest is a highly popular social curation platform that presents healthcare recruiters with a vast and growing audience that may be interested in your facility, your openings and your employer brand.

According to DMR, a popular clearinghouse for original and curated digital marketing tips, news and stats, Pinterest now boasts over 100 million active users.

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When marketed effectively, company values can mean the difference between winning or losing out on the right employee for your healthcare organization.

Company values are the organizational “glue” that connects your hospital or healthcare system and your employees and to the reasons why they work for you. In fact, according to the recruitment blog talentsmoothie, the effective communication of a company’s values can improve the commitment of new hires by up to 29%.

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A workplace that engages and retains this emerging generation of workers is key to healthcare recruitment success.

If you’re wondering whether or not you need to be targeting and recruiting Millennials, the statistics are pretty clear that you should be.

Born between 1977 and 2000, Millennials now make up 25% of the U.S. population and according to recent studies, they are now the largest generation in the U.S. workforce.

Also, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, by 2050, the U.S. Census predicts that 19.6 million American workers will be 65 years or older, roughly 19 percent of the total U.S. workforce. In fact, the number of individuals in the labor force who are 65 years or older is expected to grow by 75 percent while the number of individuals in the workforce who are 25 to 54 is only expected to grow by 2 percent.

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For most healthcare organizations, the key to success lies in its ability to recruit and retain top doctors.

No matter the size or scope, a healthcare system or hospital is only as good as the care it provides and the credentials of its physician population.Yet, physician recruitment remains one of the most daunting challenges for healthcare recruiters. According to the Association of Staff Physician Recruiters, 45 percent of searches were to replace a departing physician provider; 33 percent of which were still unfilled at the end of a year. According to same survey, 131 days was the typical time period to fill a primary care position, the most sought-after of all physician roles.

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When it comes to recruiting top talent, the use of video has become a key difference maker for healthcare organizations.

There’s no question that video, in all its multi-media glory, increases employer brand awareness and online engagement and most importantly helps convert candidates into new hires. In fact, according to Hubspot, 78% of people watch videos online every week.

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Harness the power of social media to source, engage and hire new talent.

Healthcare as an industry had been slow to adopt social marketing, but recruiters are ow realizing that it is critical to get up to speed, in order to remain competitive.

Use of social media across the healthcare industry is currently at an all time high. Naturally, recruiters are following these professionals, and a new generation of recruiting specialists has been spawned: the “Social Recruiter”, seen as some as a hybrid of both HR and marketing.

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How to use Facebook for Healthcare Recruitment

Create and share great content to reach and attract candidates to your healthcare organization

There’s little doubt that in this day and age of healthcare recruiting, Facebook must be an integral part of any successful ad campaign. In fact, according to the recruitment blog The Undercover Recruiter, 67% of all job seekers using social media, use Facebook.

In addition to the sheer volume of users, healthcare recruiters can also benefit from Facebook’s laser-like targeting as well as its versatile ability to serve content to your audience in a variety of ways.

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Finding the right talent starts with how that talent views your company.

If you’re looking a highly valuable and yet relatively inexpensive platform to promote your employer brand, you should consider adding Public Relations to your recruitment marketing mix.

PR helps develop a stronger and yet unbiased image of your healthcare organization and studies have shown that PR has seven times the credibility of advertising.

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Develop and execute an effective plan of action to bring in top nursing talent.

Healthcare organizations large and small struggle with the never-ending battle of recruiting and retaining experienced nurses. In addition to the fervent competition for top talent, there are less available experienced nurses in the pool.

The U.S. is projected to experience a shortage of RN’s as Baby Boomers retire and the need for health care grows. In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 525,000 replacements nurses will be needed in the workforce bringing the total number of job openings for nurses due to growth and replacements to 1.05 million by 2022.

The bottom line is that every healthcare organization is trying to attract top nursing talent so you need to know where to look and how to make a splash.

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Consistent blogging will give you a competitive advantage in the war for top talent.

Ask most healthcare recruiters about their marketing tactics and you’ll the usual litany about job boards, career fairs and email blasts. But one of most effective strategies is often the one most overlooked and that is having an active blog on your career website. In fact, the blog should not only be a tactic, but it can act as one of the central pieces in your overall marketing plan.

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Knowing the new etiquette can make the difference in hiring the candidate you want.

“According to Statista Facebook has already reached 1.49 billion active users as well as 304 million Twittter users and over 107 million Americans registered on LinkedIn.”

It’s a noisy social media world out there and the rules are changing every day. However, when used effectively, social media can give you an unparalleled advantage in attracting top healthcare talent.

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In today’s ultra-competitive job market, recruitment and social media marketing strategies must be intertwined to attract top talent.

I’m often surprised by how many healthcare human resources departments are operating in the Stone Age as it relates to attracting top talent.

Organizations that are simply posting jobs that list generic qualifications, job responsibilities and clichés (“looking for a self-motivated team player”) are behind the times and losing the war for qualified candidates.

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Follow these basics to achieve SEO nirvana for your healthcare organization

One of the most misunderstood, yet most important, aspects of healthcare recruitment is SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. Ask healthcare recruiters about email marketing, display ads and Facebook? You’ll get a litany of case studies and results. SEO? Not so much.

But while unknown, SEO doesn’t have to induce an HR-sized brain cramp. When looking to get started, consider the following: Read more

The key to recruiting success is creating a marketing plan and sticking to it.

A question that I am asked all the time by healthcare human resources clients is how to best allocate the limited resources that they have and create a marketing plan that reaches and attracts the best talent while giving them the best bang for their buck.

While the answer to this is multi-factorial, it’s important to realize that having some type of plan is a lot better than having no plan at all, which is how many healthcare organizations operate.

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An SEO blueprint on how to drive qualified candidates to your job postings.

It’s no longer good enough to post jobs on external job boards and wait for the resumes to pour in. Top talent has numerous employment options, and you are one of many vying for a candidate’s attention.

The simple truth is that most job searches start on search engines, not job boards. And Google has become the preeminent job seekers search tool of choice.

In fact, in a typical month, there are over 360,000,000 long tail job-related searches (e.g. highly targeted searches such as pediatric registered nurse Brooklyn ny) on Google. https://www.recruiter.com/i/4-search-engine-tips-to-attract-top-talent/ Thus, It is crucial to adhere to basic Google best practices in order for them to show you as a result in relevant job searches.

When someone starts their job search by asking Google, Yahoo or Bing to show them nursing jobs in a specific location, you want your careers page to be optimized in order to be front and center as an answer to their question.

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Creating an Employer Brand is the key to recruitment advertising success.

One of the great truths about healthcare recruitment is that there is a growing demand for experienced talent and a dwindling supply. Yes, people are living longer and that’s a good thing (for all of us) but that doesn’t mean that it has increased the number of people responsible for taking care of them.

The demand for physicians, not to mention registered nurses, medical administrators and the bevy of other roles that are just as critical for healthcare as the MDs these jobs support, provides recruiters today with a significant set of challenges.

A major key to any healthcare organization’s success is the ability to identify and promote its employer brand. A Healthcare organization’s Employer Brand can be defined as to position one’s organization as an employer of choice within a given marketplace.

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