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ATD Blog

Tech Advancements Influence Modern Healthcare Recruiting

Friday, April 17, 2015
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A new study by Health eCareers found that nearly one-third of healthcare recruiters in the United States rank employee turnover as their greatest staffing concern in 2015. The finding is part of Health eCareers’ 2015 Healthcare Recruiting Trends Survey, which profiles the results of 565 healthcare employer respondents. 

The report explains that demand for healthcare services is predicted to swell in the next 10 years, driven by increased access to healthcare for all Americans through the Affordable Care Act. In fact, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that he healthcare industry will produce one in three of the new jobs in the U.S. over the next decade, and is projected to add about five million jobs overall by 2022.  With more positions to fill, employers will face obstacles in finding appropriate candidates. Almost half of those surveyed agree that the most difficult part of their recruiting process is finding qualified candidates. 

However, the supply of qualified physicians and nurses will simultaneously decrease—due in part to the Silver Tsunami that is affecting nearly all industries. According to the study, “This gap between supply and demand will create intense hiring challenges for healthcare employers and recruiters.” 

Health eCareers connected with healthcare employers in late 2014 and early January2015 to explore how they plan to address their hiring challenges in 2015. Survey respondents were recruiters, hiring managers, and human resource professionals from a wide spectrum of healthcare settings, including hospitals and hospital systems, single- and multi-practices, and search firms of all sizes. 

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The results show some important shifts in the way employers are finding and connecting with job candidates: 

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  • Job Boards. Historically, respondents ranked corporate websites as the most effective recruiting solution for most job categories. But in the latest study, online job boards were ranked more effective in filling the vast majority of their positions across the board—in 20 of 26 job categories.  Employers are not only posting job ads, but also using the candidate resume search services. In addition, email marketing on job boards is rising in popularity for physician recruiting. One-third respondents who use physician-specific job boards made use of email blast services, as compared to 4.4 percent within the general healthcare or non-healthcare specific sites.
     
  • Social Media. Social professional networks are the fastest-growing source of quality hires globally, increasing 73 percent over the past four years according to a 2015 Recruiting Trends Report published by LinkedIn. The Health eCareers study concurs. Almost half (48 percent) of employers surveyed for this report used LinkedIn as part of their recruiting strategy, while 28 percent used Facebook and 12 percent used Twitter.
     
  • Applicant Tracking Systems. An applicant tracking system (ATS) is a software application solution that employers use to electronically manage their recruitment activities. Health eCareers reports that llmost all recruiting firms and most corporations with an in-house recruitment function use some form of ATS to handle their job postings, applicants, resumes, and interviews. Unfortunately, while 86 percent of employers in this survey report that they either have an ATS or will be implementing one in 2015, less than a third (27 percent) believe that their ATS is very accurate in its ability to correctly track applicant sources.

Clearly, new technological advancements are starting to influence the recruiting process, with digital marketing, social media, candidate data tracking, and mobile strategies making it possible for recruiting professionals to access, segment, and target job seekers in new and innovative ways. 

2015 Healthcare Recruiting Trends Survey , a complete study summary, is available for download at http://news.healthecareers.com/2015/02/2015-recruiting-trends-survey

About the Author

Ryann K. Ellis is an editor for the Association of Talent Development (ATD). She has been covering workplace learning and performance for ATD (formerly the American Society for Training & Development) since 1995. She currently sources and authors content for TD Magazine and CTDO, as well as manages ATD's Community of Practice blogs. Contact her at [email protected]

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