Pressure on the Health Care Sector - Recruitment needs, hygienic standards and more

The healthcare sector has been known, for quite some time now, to have a high need for qualified personnel. This is due to many factors like the rising average age of the general population but also a lack of professionals who want to work as nurses or doctors. With the Corona pandemic, these shortcomings have been made painfully obvious.

Too little qualified talent along with missing medical equipment and general uncertainties about how to deal with COVID19 didn’t make it easier for companies and their recruitment teams. Now more than ever, it is crucial for companies to recruit qualified personnel to face the market’s high demand and maintain elementary healthcare. With competitors looking for new employees all at the same time, this is by no means an easy task to conduct. 

We want to shed some light on how can our hospitals and nursing services can attract more employees in a short amount of time – under the given circumstances. 

It is a fact that the image of the health care sector has to change fundamentally. This does not only imply monetary benefits, it includes leisure compensation, social offers and more. It should be quite clear that these fundamental changes cannot be implemented overnight. It is indeed a long-term strategy that needs to be conducted and it will take effort and time to make this work. However, recruiting teams need to make an impact on a short timescale to fulfil their companies need for personnel. Therefore, ad hoc recruiting measures and campaigns need to be as effective as possible.

A way to do this is to call for the common sense of responsibility as well as promoting quickly feasible benefits. For example, organisations can take advantage of buzzing hashtags such as #staystrong #togetheragainstcorona #westayforyou and increase the feeling of responsibility for the community as well as their reach among their target audience. This has a positive effect on the employer brand and shows that companies care about their patients and their own employees. When using those hashtags to promote your content, make sure you link to your jobs ads and career site for maximum effect.

Another important way to create short-term effects is to promote existing job ads on the online channels potential candidates use in their day-to-day life. Especially in scarce markets, like the healthcare sector, this is extremely important. The most emotional and convincing job ad will only convert successfully if the interest of the right talent is caught. We are talking about recruitment marketing: Summarizing different working locations in one job ad or target for multiple candidates at the same time. 

Social media is key to make such strategies effective, as it offers direct access to active and, more importantly, passive candidates. It’s essential to actively promote open vacancies in social networks in order to attract as many potential candidates as possible. 

Another component is the job ad itself: It’s the first impression of your company a candidate gets. You want to sell your job to your target audience in the best possible way. Be as clear as possible: Who are you really looking for? What does this target audience want? It’s quite common to give a lot of information about your company as an introduction to the role – it’s not the best way to do it though. Instead, think about additional attributes and benefits that make you employer of choice. It’s all about driving the candidate from Attention to Action. It can be compensation, health and family benefits, you name it. Furthermore, with Corona being a thing, it seems beneficial to reference measures your company conducts to deal with the situation, e.g. extra hygienic standards to make the work environment safe. Experience shows that transparency and openness during a crisis result in a more positive perception of your company.

Routines are key – but they need to be adjusted to the current situation (or maybe to overall 21st century requirements, one could argue). This means an extensive application process has to be reduced to the most necessary. Time is always crucial. Applications have to be as simple as possible. Get rid of all “nice to have” steps in your online application form and focus on the relevant information. This could also imply providing the option to apply via Whatsapp or using 1-click application forms. Your main focus should be to avoid any applicant dropping off at one point. Make data comparable and ensure you capture the important contact details of every applicant. 

Recruiting teams work under high pressure – creating job ads, speaking to candidates and publishing vacancies on various channels. This raises questions: Did the team really take all relevant channels into consideration? Which ones are best? And how much time do recruiters spend to get a job ad live on different job boards? The right tooling – like VONQs Job Marketing from VONQ – speeds up your process, increases efficiency and enables your team to quickly distribute the vacancies on several channels – making your life a lot easier. Check it out here! 

After all, the most important thing is to be and to stay positive! Only together we are able to fight COVID-19 and change the working world for the better! #together