The stakes are higher in healthcare recruiting than other industries. Plagued by high turnover rates and staffing shortages, it’s becoming harder and harder to fill positions with qualified candidates who want to stick around for the long haul. Therefore, it’s important to understand the distinct healthcare hiring challenges in order to come up with viable solutions. Partnering with a healthcare recruiter in Philadelphia PA is the first step. Here are the top seven challenges you may encounter in healthcare hiring, along with their solutions.

1. Decrease Time-to-Hire

The average time-to-hire in the healthcare field is much longer than other industries. According to recent findings, filling a healthcare provider position takes almost two months, or 59.5 days to be exact – higher than any other surveyed industry.

Why? Due to the candidate shortage, healthcare organizations are forced to compete for a smaller pool of qualified applicants. On top of that, it takes a lot of time for hiring managers to sift through all the logistics of hiring a new person. It can be helpful to adopt automated systems to decrease the time to hire. For instance, such systems can automatically send application receipts, schedule interviews, and help new employees get through the onboarding process faster.

2. Address Staffing Shortages

Certain healthcare sectors, such as skilled nursing facilities, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities, have been especially hard hit by staffing shortages in recent years. According to recent reports, almost every nursing home (99%) and assisted living facility (96%) in the United States is currently facing a staffing shortage. Severe shortages are also being seen in high-demand positions such as home health aides – an industry which is estimated to grow 33 percent by the year 2030 despite those shortages.

Here are a few ways to solve this problem:

  • Use one platform for all hiring. Streamline the hiring process by using just one platform instead of multiple.
  • Invest in employee referrals. An investment in an intuitive employee referral system is a great way to quickly snag pre-vetted candidates.
  • Support different career paths. To reduce turnover and enhance workplace culture, invest in mentorship and continuing education programs.

3. Reduce Pressures

Nurse shortages impact quality of care in addition to your bottom line. According to Bradley University, there’s a direct correlation between risk of death (patient mortality) and shortage of nurses: an increase of one full-time RN for every 1,000 inpatient days could lead to a 4.3 percent decline in patient deaths. On the other side of the coin, hospitals who had fewer nurses had up to a seven percent increase in mortality.

With lives at stake, it’s important to tighten up your onboarding process with software that standardizes materials across all departments. Keep communication open among new nurses so you can better understand what will help them stay and what reasons they would have for leaving. With a focus on retention, staff consistency can be assured.

4. Address Burnout

Burnout isn’t just limited to the healthcare industry, but this industry does have higher levels than others. Usually caused by unmanaged, chronic workplace stress, burnout can manifest itself in anything from mental and physical exhaustion to cynicism and reduced workplace efficacy. One recent survey reported that nearly two-thirds of nurses experience burnout, and it’s more common in new and younger nurses.

There are a couple of solutions to this. You can provide more flexible benefits to improve mental health while reducing caregiver burden. You can also host workshops and offer resources for employees to reduce the stigma of mental health challenges in the workplace.

5. Sync Up Hiring

If you have multiple locations to manage, it’s important to sync up your locations and open up the lines of communication. The hiring process can stall out fast when all HR teams are not on the same page. Standardize all processes, such as candidate communications, onboarding packets, training, and more.

6. Get Compliant

Healthcare organizations in the United States spend a staggering $39 billion per year to stay compliant, according to the American Hospital Association. Being compliant can get quite expensive but it’s a vital component of your business. Be smart about how you spend your compliance budget so you don’t get hit with fines and fees.

7. Examine Payroll Practices

Nothing dings your reputation more than consistent payroll errors. If you become known as an unreliable employer, no one will want to work for you. According to Glassdoor, half of candidates said that they would not work for a company that had a bad reputation — even with a pay increase.

On the other side of the coin, 92 percent of candidates said they would switch jobs for a company that had a great reputation. Choosing reliable and proven payroll software that integrates with your other functionalities is key in managing candidates and employees.

Partner With Grace Care Consulting

Grace Care Consulting can ensure you get matched with vetted candidates for your critical healthcare roles. Let us do all the work so you can concentrate on growing your team! Please contact us today or complete our online form.