Recruiting Tips for All Positions

Spring 2016

Page 9

Recruiting Tips for All Positions Terry Bennett, CHCR Northeast Regional Chair

Recruiters in healthcare industry are kept busy with both newly created positions and old posts that either seem to pop up over and over again, or are very difficult to fill. These types of positions exist in nursing and allied health and arise at both the entry- and upper-levels. Filling these positions take persistence and multiple recruitment strategies to be successful.

One of the best strategies a recruiter can use is their existing or past pool of candidates. If you use an applicant data base, search the candidate files for those who were interested in a position at your organization when you did not have one to offer them. Many applicant databases and Web services have the option of Emailing candidates who view your openings when a new position opens for which they applied or viewed in the past. If you don’t have an applicant database, try to code your files for easy review. Other recruiters say they keep a “stars list” of those they might re-call when a new opening occurs.

Another great source of new candidates is the people already working for you. Employee referral programs, no matter what form they take, are a rich source of good candidates. Gina Falco, from Potomac Hospital in Woodbridge, Va., says that their employee referral program has been a “tremendous asset” for them. It is also a way to retain the new employee and the referring employee. By having someone they referred working with them, they have a friend at work—and so does the new hire. Employee referral programs can be simple and inexpensive, with prizes such as mugs and umbrellas or more expensive programs that include referral bonuses or drawings for BIG prizes like lap tops, vacations or plasma screen TVs. There is an employee referral program for every budget.

Recruitment of new grads from any program; nursing, pharmacy, radiology, PT/OT or respiratory, can be recruited while they do their clinical rotations at your institution. If your hospital has students doing clinical rotations, you have an opportunity to recruit them to your organization. Most importantly, you make an impression on them while they are with you by the way they are welcomed on the unit where they are doing their rotation. Is your staff friendly and welcoming? If not, or not enough, by coaching your employees you can make a good first impression. You can also recruit good students through their clinical instructor. The instructors know their students and know who would work well in your organization. Many hospitals also provide “treats” to the students while onsite for clinical rotations. This can include recruitment brochures and/ or simple giveaways, thank you lunches or good-bye cake and cookies. Again, there is a wide variety of budget options and many ways to make a lasting impression.

Another way to recruit this new grad group is to offer them PT jobs with your organization while they are still finishing their degree. Krista Sauvageau, from Women and Infants Hospital in Rhode Island, says they hire students. She says that way, when “they graduate, they stay.” This is a great tool because they know your organization and your staff knows them.

She says they get to bid first on positions before the outside applicants do, which is another advantage to them especially if there is a tight job market.

Falco starts retaining as soon a she finishes recruiting. Her hospital provides New Hire Support and On-boarding Programs to help new hires feel welcome at her organization.

Like others, they have found the turnover rate has been reduced by these extra efforts.

Many hospitals have enhanced their “new grad” programs as a way of improving the recruitment and retention of their new grads. Many new grads are looking for organizations that help ease their way to into practice by providing a substantial orientation. They are all afraid they will be thrown to the wolves before they feel prepared. Extended orientation with seasoned preceptors and mentors are a very positive way to impress the new healthcare professional. Many organizations report improved recruitment results with these extended programs and significant improvement in retention as well.

As is always the case, recruiters are trying many tactics to identify the broadest possible pool of candidates to fill their vacancies. Some of the other strategies are the tried and true and still work. Many organizations continue to rely on (and have good success with) targeted print media sources for advertising. Many organizations have limited the print ads in favor of increased presence on the Web with job postings, Ecards and banners. Most experts say there will continue to be a need for both strategies to maintain visibility.

Most of the recruiters here in the northeast have continued to attend college career days, job fairs and professional conferences too. Even though these events take you out of the office, it is another way to be visible and recruit candidates that you might otherwise not have access to. These events do provide you access to a targeted audience, and even if you don’t hire them right now, they might refer someone who is looking now or they may apply later when they are ready for a career change or ready to move to a new part of the country.

Another commonly used event is the on-site open house.

These give you a chance to bring candidates to you and show off your organization. This strategy also provides you a chance to do interviews during the event and make continued on Page 10

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Spring 2016 Recruiting Tips for All Positions continued from Page 9

on-the-spot offers. Open houses can be very elaborate with full dinners and keynote speakers or simple events with cookies and friendly people to talk to.

As you can see by the many examples listed above, the successful recruiter must have many tools in their toolbox. As you learn of new programs or test new ideas, please share your stories with your colleagues at NAHCR. We are always looking for new ideas and appreciate your willingness to share.

Success in recruitment is a combination of good programs, timely responses and detailed follow through. n

Lydia Ostermeier, MSN, RN, CHCR North Central Region Chair losterme@clarian.org When you think of best practice recruitment tips for healthcare, several things immediately come to mind: rapid followup with candidates; top-notch service, excellent skills and the ability to sell the organization to the candidate. But many times we hear the horror stories of the HR “black hole:” recruiters who don’t follow-up with candidates and when they did, they were either rude or not very helpful. Is it truly time to get back to the basics of recruitment? Indeed, it is nice that we all attend the national conferences to get name recognition for our organization and that we conduct extravagant open houses for potential candidates. But, when it comes down to candidates deciding on an employer, the literature consistently tells us that the front-line recruitment process plays a very large factor in the recruit’s decision-making process.

There are many things that I feel are vital to this process and are essentially the “grass roots” of recruitment. What is the candidate’s first impression of the facility? Is your Web site, job line and job listing up to date? Is the Web site easy to navigate? Is the telephone contact, if any, helpful? Does the after-hours voice mail provide adequate information? How easy is it to find parking once the candidate arrived to the facility? What does the HR office look like? Is it clean and organized? Is the receptionist friendly and helpful? Is the candidate allowed access to a recruiter while on site at the facility? Is the recruiter knowledgeable, enthusiastic and able to sell the organization? After applying online, how long does it take for initial follow-up? If you don’t know how your front-line recruitment process sizes up to other organizations, it is time to find out. Otherwise, you may loose top talent to your competitors. Does your HR office conduct customer satisfaction

Page 10 surveys with the new hires? Do you routinely conduct secret shopping on your recruitment process? There are several consulting firms that can assist you in this process. They will provide very crucial feedback on your employment process and provide quality improvement suggestions that you can’t afford to neglect. If you need a suggestion on a vendor to use, I would be glad to refer someone to you.

Mary Warnock from ProHealth Care in Waukesha, Wis., said that she and her SEWHCR colleagues suggest the following recruitment tips: Re-energize the employee referral program. Re-do the look and feel and start offering a “hot job of the month” where a pop-up would show up on every computer on your network with an alert that if they referred someone who was hired to the featured role they got double the referral bonus. Pay 1/4 of the referral up front and the remainder of the amount on the referred employee’s sixmonth anniversary.

Offer a benefits/wellness fair. A lot of jobs are filled by internal candidates and this allows an opportunity for your staff to learn about all of the benefits you offer. Invite vendors from companies to come, but also showcase information about the employee referral program and offer a drawing to make it fun so people would want to attend.

You can also set aside a portion of the event to focus on wellness. Ask employee health to offer flu shots, info about Weight Watchers at work, smoking cessation, etc. ... This is a great retention tool but also gets the word out about your referral program and helps you generate more quality candidates.

Focus your advertising to niche sites/publications—these draw candidates who are truly invested in their profession.

Get management more involved in their professional groups. This initiative came around for leaders at our facility as part of their leadership development training. They have become some of the best recruiters for their own staff. This has helped to generate excitement and many hires!

One organization purchased a mailing list of therapists that included phone numbers. They were able to hire two therapists based on cold calling. They used a script and scheduled an interview with the hiring manager right away Thanks to Mary and her colleagues for these wonderful tips!

What are your key recruitment strategies? Are they working?

Is your vacancy at or below benchmark for mission critical positions? Is it time to for your recruitment team to get back to the basic? Examine your roots – maybe it is a good time for some de-weeding. Hope to see you all at Image! n continued on Page 11

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Spring 2016

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Recruiting Tips for All Positions continued from Page 10

Sharron Hadick, RN, BSN, MPA Western Regional Chair Pharmacy is and will continue to be a great challenge for us in recruitment in the west. Two of our members have developed innovative outreach programs to become more proactive in recruiting pharmacists, especially considering the additional difficulty in attracting pediatric pharmacists.

Julie Murchinson from Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, Cailf., has been growing their program for the past four years. She formed a close partnership with the chief pharmacist and began sponsoring dinners at the pharmacy schools with panel presentations and question-and-answer sessions. Through her efforts, the pharmacy residency program has been greatly enlarged and they now hire a couple of pharmacy interns every year who later become residents.

Pharmacists assist her in the exhibit booths at all conferences, which she has found to be highly effective. Pharmacy school is very expensive and a big drain on the newly graduated student. A financial retention program was started that returns the new pharmacists an increasing bonus at the end of year 2, 3 and 4 of employment.

Dennis Yee from Children’s Hospital of the Central Valley, Fresno, Calif., took the sponsorship of dinners a step further.

Recently, Yee learned that one of his staff pharmacists was a part-time, adjunct professor at the University of Pacific School of Pharmacy who teaches a pediatric pharmacology class to second-year pharmacy students. Yee inquired as to the size of the class and how often the class met. There

were 30 students that met every Monday afternoon for two hours of lecture. The class was generally taught on the UO P campus in Stockton, Calif., whish is about two hours north of his hospital. Yee asked the pharmacist/professor if he would allow the hospital to host a class on site, the students could attend the lecture and then rotate through the main pharmacy and two satellite pharmacies with pharmacists serving as tour guides. A quick tour of the hospital, greeting by the pharmacy director and dinner was provided before the students were transported back to their campus. The professor/pharmacist and students were very interested because they never had the opportunity to go on a field trip.

Yee was able to obtain approval from the HR vice president to pay for a charter bus, he arranged dinner provided by the hospital’s catering service, conference room space and tour guides. The total cost of the event was $1,100. Twenty-four students attended, resulting in at least five who were planning on doing their clinical rotations with the hospital next year (three-year program). Currently, there are two third-year students doing their clinical rotations at the hospital and they have applied for full-time staff pharmacist positions. Due to the positive feedback from the students and their professor, the event will be held again next year.

Yee also noted that approximately 40 percent of his pharmacist staff are UOP alumni, with UOP being their closest pharmacy program.

These programs do require extra dedication and energy on the part of the recruiters but have produced very positive outcomes.

Great work Julie and Dennis! n Reprinted from 2008 June/July Issue Vol. XVX No. 34

Call for Authors NAHCR Directions newsletter needs YOU! The NAHCR Communications Committee is issuing a Call for Authors!

NAHCR members are our best resource for information on current events, innovations and concerns that affect health care recruitment. We need your help keeping fellow members up to date.

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