As talent acquisition leaders increasingly report difficulties attracting qualified candidates, the healthcare providers that suffer the least will be those who make data-driven decisions. The era of newspaper want ads is gone. HR technology — job boards, applicant tracking systems, and customer relationship management systems — has taken over much of the job recruiting process in the digital age.
HR technology has the ability to more efficiently, more effectively, and more predictively close the gap between job openings and people looking for new opportunities. As the nursing crisis mounts, employers who leverage data to attract qualified talent will avoid overpaying to fill vacant positions and they will also know exactly how much it will cost to hire and retain that talent.
A perfect storm is forming in the nursing profession. An increased demand for nurses, an overall shortage of nurses — and too few being trained to close the gap — is creating fierce competition that will leave clear winners and losers in the battle for healthcare talent in 2018 and beyond. Many healthcare providers will pay too much or too little to fill vacant nursing positions, meaning staffing budgets will explode or nursing positions will remain vacant.
Consider the following for nursing:
• About 27 percent of registered nurses plan to retire in the coming year and 73 percent of baby boomers plan to do so within three years, according to a recent survey by AMA Healthcare.
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts 1 million registered nurse job openings by 2024.
• Hospitals alone are spending billions to recruit and retain nursing talent, according to a Reuters report.
• The lack of faculty and budget constraints meant about 64,000 qualified applicants were turned away from nursing programs in 2016.
• The cost of travel nurses has doubled over the past three years to $4.8 billion in 2017, according to Staffing Industry Analysts.
Healthcare recruiters use a variety of tools to find and land qualified nurses including email lists, job boards, job search engines, niche job sites, and associations. But few healthcare providers know how much to spend to fill vacant positions.
When you leverage data that already exists through HR technology you can be more predictive and avoid overspending or underspending for scarce talent.
HR technology makes it possible to segment data on specific jobs, locations or recruiters, which gives you more control of your recruiting budgets. Health providers can save a tremendous amount of money in recruiting nurses if they can predict how much it costs to get a certain number of qualified applicants for a vacant position or know where to set salaries to hire and keep top talent.
Consider these three tips for recruiting scarce talent such as nurses:
• Use data to set the rate your organization is willing to pay to attract applicants.
• Programmatically place your recruitment message so it reaches your applicants at the right time and appeals to the right candidates.
• Optimize your digital talent attraction strategies in real time, adjusting your talent acquisition spend to avoid overspending or underspending.
The healthcare providers who will win the battle for nursing talent will be those who can make real-time, data-driven decisions with targeted and segmented talent acquisition strategies. The nursing shortage may not be fully solved by HR technology, but those with the best digital strategies will come out on top.
Thad Price is chief operating officer at Jobs2Careers, where he sets the company’s strategy and oversees new product development. With more than 15 years of experience in online recruitment and the job search vertical, Price uses his cross-functional experience to turn client feedback into innovative products that help companies hire better. Under Price’s leadership, Jobs2Careers continues its mission of disruption in the industry.
The views, opinions and positions expressed within these guest posts are those of the author alone and do not represent those of Becker’s Hospital Review/Becker’s Healthcare. The accuracy, completeness and validity of any statements made within this article are not guaranteed. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions or representations. The copyright of this content belongs to the author and any liability with regards to infringement of intellectual property rights remains with them.
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