5 Fresh Healthcare Recruitment Strategies

Recruiting in healthcare has never been more competitive than in the past few years. Faced with an aging workforce and a mass industry exodus during the pandemic, recruitment in healthcare presents organizations with substantial challenges – and tremendous opportunity.

Built on Oneupweb’s deep experience in healthcare recruitment marketing, we’ve compiled a handy resource for in-house recruiters and human resource professionals to improve their efficiency and deliver results for their organization. Put all your marketing channels to work for a comprehensive recruitment strategy that generates quality applicants.

Recruitment in Healthcare: Time for a Reset

It should be easy; recruiters know their audience, the required skills and certifications for open positions, and proprietary data from websites and recruiting platforms upon which to make decisions. Having all the information doesn’t make recruitment in healthcare one iota easier without a strategy.

In healthcare or any industry, marketing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Healthcare professionals hold in-demand skills that easily transport anywhere in the country. Since 2020, employment mobility, burnout and a historic rise in childcare costs have combined to reshape the healthcare labor market.

• Roughly 1 in 5 healthcare professionals left medicine in 2021 due to burnout or other employment opportunities. Those who stayed didn’t enjoy the expected job security, with roughly 12% laid off by the first quarter of 2022.
• Healthcare workers had an eye on the door in 2022, with 47% planning to find a new job within 2-3 years, according to an industry survey.
• Even through 2023, low staffing, low pay and lingering pricing pressures contributed to increased strikes and walkouts, especially in parts of the country with higher living costs.

These challenges have led to consistent growth in the healthcare recruiting market size and value. Measured at $23.6 billion in 2022, the healthcare recruitment market is forecast to grow at 8.93% CAGR through 2032 for a valuation of $62.8 billion. If the cost of recruiting seems high now, give it a decade.

The Long-anticipated Recovery Might Be Here

After two years of exodus, healthcare hiring enjoyed a historic recovery in 2023. The industry added 650,000 jobs during the calendar year, led by ambulatory care and in-house hospital jobs. Subsectors of the market, particularly nursing and residential care, have improved substantially, though they remain well below 2019 levels.

For healthcare workers, there are signs that labor conditions are improving. Still, with unemployment under 4%, workers have many employment opportunities outside of healthcare that have introduced a new angle to the recruiting pitch. One of the emergent challenges in healthcare recruiting advertising is reigniting workers’ passion and connection that attracted them to the industry in the first place. This includes both retaining current industry employees and proactively engaging former healthcare professionals who have sought opportunities in different sectors of the economy.

How to Recruit Healthcare Professionals

Instead of chasing every new trend in healthcare recruitment, what’s new is old; get back to basics. These healthcare recruitment tips are focused on leveraging tried and true marketing channels to get more out of your recruiting campaigns.

1. Invest in your brand.

Healthcare branding is one of the most undervalued elements of effective recruiting. Defining, growing and communicating your brand to prospective employees creates a degree of familiarity and eases any misconceptions they may have. Like Apple’s brand lends prestige to phones and computers, your brand makes your organization more exciting and attractive.

2. Be approachable (and be social).

Like any marketing campaign, play the long game. Don’t wait until potential candidates are looking for a new role; introduce your brand as a valuable resource to industry professionals on social media. Focus on platforms that match your demographics and priorities with unique messaging, relatable content and an open comment section. You don’t have to reply to every post but keep the conversation going to develop a connection with your followers. When they are ready to make a change, your brand will be top of mind.

3. Put transparency first.

What sets you apart? While remote work options and flexible schedules are a big draw, candidates often make employment decisions based on the bottom line. Communicate salary and employment benefits clearly and consistently in your messaging, and don’t be afraid to see which messaging is more impactful. We use A/B testing in paid recruiting campaigns to improve results and gather insights into which benefits matter most to prospective employees.

4. Show up and stand out at events.

In-person networking and career fairs provide an opportunity to make a personal connection with candidates. Go beyond free pens and lanyards by investing in a stunning display booth and other branded assets. Create a space where attendees want to spend time; make it bright and comfortable and (here’s a pro tip) bring chairs or couches.

5. Make data-driven decisions.

Smart marketers never guess, and when you have clean, reliable data, you don’t have to. Support your healthcare recruiting marketing efforts with data from tools like Google Analytics 4 and advertising pixels across social media. These insights define your audience and demographics, illustrate what’s working and what isn’t, and help you determine the ROI of each marketing channel. The most effective recruitment strategies for healthcare organizations are built on numbers, not instinct.

What About Healthcare Recruiting Websites?

While several industry-specific healthcare recruiting websites exist, including Nurse Recruiter and Healtcarejobs.org, most healthcare professionals stick to the bigger platforms. Conventional job sites/platforms like Indeed and LinkedIn are ripe for the picking, with 83% of all healthcare workers active on the two platforms; Google’s job listings represent roughly 9% of active healthcare workers.

Third-party sites like these are valuable, but come a cost. Much of the data and contact information stays on-platform, forcing recruiters to pay-to-play without compiling proprietary data. Make sure your healthcare recruiting team has the data and analytics chops to deliver useful data to optimize campaigns over time.

This Is Your Bonus Tip: Work with Oneupweb

Supplement your recruiting campaigns with the digital marketing professionals at Oneupweb. For over two decades, we’ve partnered with industry leaders and up-and-comers in healthcare, finance, ecommerce and more.

Our fully integrated teams develop, deploy and deliver campaigns backed by exceptional, responsive customer service. See what Oneupweb can do for you; contact us or call (231) 922-9977 to get started.