In the fast-paced environment of recruiting, even simple or seemingly small mistakes can cost you valuable candidates. Avoid these five common recruiting mistakes to attract more candidates, get them hired and take your healthcare recruiting to the next level.
Not Utilizing Mobile Tactics
Recruiters must be highly adaptable to attract top clinicians. Utilizing mobile tactics and advanced technology like mobile apps, texting and chatbots offers a quicker, more interactive way to communicate with candidates and collect data throughout the process.
We have found that texting has response rates that are 50 times better than email, improving turnaround times and shortening the recruitment process. Mobile tactics like texting enable recruiters to get to know potential future employees and also give candidates room for flexibility by better accommodating busy schedules and allowing clinicians to respond to recruiter messages at their own convenience.
Not Leveraging Social Media
Social media platforms attract massive numbers of users who rely on these platforms for job hunting, making them great places for healthcare recruitment to attract clinicians to open job notices. Most major social media platforms have built-in advanced targeting capabilities that help recruiters reach the right candidates and drive more clinicians to the job listings. Social media is nearly unequaled for targeting specific audiences, yet only 13% of health systems report using it as part of their recruitment efforts.
Facebook groups and LinkedIn are especially popular for building professional networks and sharing healthcare staff openings. These platforms complement traditional recruitment tactics while growing a network of active and passive job seekers.
Leveraging social media is important because it allows recruiters to reach those passive candidates, who aren’t on job boards but might consider a new job if they see the right opportunity. Additionally, passive candidates not looking for new employment often forward interesting job notices to friends who are looking. These instant referrals help recoup paid social media marketing expenses and carry more weight than paid engagements because they come from trusted sources.
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Avoiding Pay Transparency
Hiding pay is one of the most common ways recruiters lose the trust of job candidates.
Being transparent about pay and other job perks like benefits and ancillary support services significantly increases ability to attract top talent. Clear salary ranges inform clinicians if a role meets their expectations before they even apply, saving both employers and job seekers time. Pay transparency also helps in recruiting advanced practice professionals by eliminating compensation confusion from the start. Ongoing pay transparency helps retain these essential and highly sought clinicians by building stronger, more trusting and longer-term relationships between employers and employees.
Particularly now, as states ratify pay transparency laws, proactive health systems that embrace pay transparency in their recruitment process will stand out to candidates as organizations who look out for their employees.
Solely Relying on Generic Job Boards to Source Candidates
Traditional job boards like Monster and Indeed have long been the primary platforms to post general job openings. But they aren’t ideal for sourcing healthcare candidates, especially for specialty roles. In addition, many candidates have turned away from these platforms, which can inundate them with poorly matched job offers.
The best way to source healthcare candidates is through healthcare-focused marketplaces. Niche sourcing tools attract active job seekers, uncover passive candidates and streamline the healthcare recruitment process. Some platforms, such as ours at Vivian Health, directly connect recruiters to healthcare specialists to find quality candidates even faster.
Being Unresponsive
Failing to respond quickly to candidates is an easy way to lose them to a competitor. Consistent communication, even just quick check-ins, creates a more personal and positive experience for candidates and lets them know they are a priority.
Transparency, setting reasonable expectations and avoiding making promises that can’t be kept are key. If you say you’ll get back to them on a certain day or at a specific time, always follow through. A little extra effort, and you’ll stand out as a recruiter who’s honest and genuinely cares, which helps you attract a greater number of highly qualified candidates.