Finding talent in this modern world can present many challenges for employers. Especially for those in the healthcare industry, like staffing agencies and healthcare facilities. While the U.S. continues to face a shortage in healthcare professionals—nurses, lab workers, therapy workers, and more—healthcare recruiting is becoming more and more difficult and costly for employers to keep up with.
Marketplace is a one-stop-shop for healthcare travelers to connect with staffing companies like yours. By partnering with Marketplace, your agency can gain more visibility, flexibility, and candidate variety, all at reduced recruiting costs.
The coronavirus pandemic threw many employers for a loop. During the height of the pandemic, some employers were forced to perform layoffs. The biggest job losses happened in April 2020 when the nation’s unemployment rate reached 14.7 percent, with more than 20.5 million Americans suddenly out of work, according to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). During the same time, healthcare employment dropped by 9.3 percent from March 2020, which is an unprecedented drop, according to Health System Tracker.
And now, as the country makes its way back to pre-pandemic hiring rates, many companies across multiple industries face an abundance of recruiting challenges. These are the top three recruiting obstacles, plus solutions, to help you better attract the talent you’re looking for.
Sure, it feels great to have several professionals apply for your job listing, but at the end of the day, you want to find the right person for the job, not just the first person who checks off most of your boxes. Although multiple applications are flattering, the best way to hire the right people is from a smaller pool of more qualified candidates.
To attract the talent you want, join the traveler-driven job board, Marketplace. When you upload job postings, be as clear and concise as you can. Add specific job requirements and qualifications, include competitive pay package rates, and emphasize your company’s brand. In other words, to get the candidates you’re looking for, give them the information they want to know.
While it may seem like these minor details don’t make a major difference in recruiting, they matter. According to a 2018 survey by Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), more than 70 percent of professionals want to hear about salary in the first conversation with a recruiter. Further, a Glassdoor.com study found that money is the no. 1 motivator for 67 percent of job seekers.
“While some companies may say they don’t list salaries because they don’t want the competition to know, that sounds like a losing strategy,” said Hannah Morgan, professional job search strategist, to Forbes Magazine. “When every company lists salary ranges, we’ll be closer to salary equality.”
But why does my company brand matter if most people are motivated by money? Great question. As it turns out, further Glassdoor.com studies shows that organizations that invest in and establish unique brands are three times more likely to make a quality hire. And data by LinkedIn can back it up.
“A strong employer brand—as indicated by an individual having a positive impression of your company as a place to work—is twice as likely to be linked to job considerations as a strong company brand,” according to LinkedIn. “A strong employer brand is especially critical for attracting more junior employees, candidates from the younger demographics, and those outside the U.S.”
Marketplace makes it easy for you to advertise your job openings with total transparency into the hot job details. That way, you can not only attract more candidates, but the right ones.
Sure, the applicant is the one who needs a job, but you’re the one searching for applicants. The truth is you both need each other.
Not only is candidate experience important to your overall brand, but it also plays a vital role when job seekers evaluate your offer. At the end of the day, candidate experience can make or break your chances of acquiring talent. The way you treat a candidate is a direct inside scoop into how they’ll be treated after accepting the job. So, if they had a bad experience, they’re less likely to accept, according to research by Workable. On the flip side, positive candidate experiences can take your employer brand, enhance it, and encourage other quality job seekers to apply.
In fact, according to Lever statistics, 83 percent of talent said a negative interview experience can make candidates second-guess a role or company they were once interested in. Conversely, 87 percent of job seekers said a positive interview can make them rethink a company they previously doubted.
Usually, a candidate experience comes down to three major facets:
To ensure your candidates have the best experience possible, make sure you’re transparent and honest about the screening process and set clear expectations as soon as possible. During the interview, make the candidate feel like they’re the most important part of the interview—because they are. Then, once the interview has concluded, no matter how it went, follow-up with open feedback to the applicant. A positive candidate experience will not just encourage job seekers to refer their friends to your company, but it will also empower them to apply for future job openings from your agency.
Through recruiter ratings and reviews, Marketplace gives travelers the ability to share their experiences with other healthcare workers. Wondering how your staffing agency compares to others? Supercharge your recruiter ratings and reviews!
In a tight market and fickle economy, many recruiters are trying to hire as quickly and efficiently as possible. And in the healthcare industry where there’s already a shortage in professionals, staffing agencies and health facilities are left scrambling to find qualified candidates wherever they can.
“The incredible physical and emotional toll that hospital workers have endured in caring for patients during the whole pandemic has, among other issues, exacerbated the shortage of hospital workers,” said the American Hospital Association (AHA). “This shortage has become so critical that some states and the federal government have deployed military and National Guard resources to help mitigate staffing challenges at some hospitals.”
Marketplace allows you to streamline the application review and hiring processes, so you can find who you’re looking for even faster. Of course, compliance is a major component of contracting healthcare workers. And thanks to Marketplace, vetting potential healthcare workers is a piece of cake.
No, seriously. All you need to know about the applicant—credentials, experience, education, referrals, and then some—are all saved within each traveler profile and sent to you for review with their job application. That way, you can spend more time searching for the right candidate, and less time sorting through robust resumes.
Marketplace makes it easier for travelers to find you and your job postings, too. When 60 percent of job seekers quit an application because of its length or complexity, Marketplace aims to simplify the overall process for both applicants and agencies, and does so with an emphasis on total transparency.
It’s not easy or cheap to recruit top talent. In fact, recruiting costs catapulted in 2021 alone. According to the 2022 Recruitment Marketing Benchmark Report, since Q4 in 2020, there was a 43 percent increase in the median cost per application (CPA) and a 54 percent growth in cost per click (CPC).
But why has it climbed so dramatically in such a short amount of time? Well, as evidenced in the Recruitment Marketing Benchmark Report, the rise was due to a disparity between the number of job openings and the labor supply in the U.S. At the end of 2021, job openings outnumbered those who were unemployed by 3.8 million, which is the largest difference the nation has seen in 20 years.
When it comes to the healthcare industry, healthcare unemployment has fallen and is now the second lowest of all sectors, creating a significant gap in labor supply and demand. Even more, the turnover rate for healthcare and related fields is 20 percent, according to data from Contract Recruiter, making it even more difficult to retain staff after hire.
“The complexity of healthcare has always made staffing a challenge, but the pandemic is now making adequate staffing an impossibility,” said Malinka Walaliyadde, co-founder and CEO of AKASA, a healthcare AI-tech company. “Health systems simply can’t get the staff they need to get all the work done.”
As if the previous shortage in healthcare workers wasn’t bad enough, the pandemic only intensified it and its consequences. Instead of funneling tens of thousands of dollars into recruitment efforts, partner with Marketplace, and let the candidates come to you.
Did you know that more than 60 percent of job seekers turn to job boards like Marketplace to find work? According to data from LinkedIn, job boards are the most popular way candidates find available jobs.
So, make your staffing agency and job postings more visible and partner with Marketplace. Not only can you tap into Marketplace’s candidate flow, but in doing so, you can also reduce rising acquisition costs, build brand exposure, and capitalize on Marketplace’s lead generation. It’s a win-win-win for everybody involved.
When you join Marketplace as an agency partner, you have the unique opportunity to get your business seen by travelers who may not have otherwise been aware of your job listings. Through a branded agency page and additional recruiter profiles, Marketplace helps build your brand through strategic SEO efforts, driving more traffic to your Marketplace profile, recruiter ratings and reviews, and open job postings. In short, Marketplace helps you drive more leads that help you match with qualified job candidates without the hassle or headache of added recruitment costs.
The first step towards lowering acquisition costs and allowing supplies more control is by leveraging our best resource—travelers. Together, as agency partners, we can provide the best possible experience and give travelers more choices than they’ve ever had before. More choices and a better experience will result in more travelers in the healthcare industry, and most importantly, more patients will receive the care they need.