The workforce shortage is changing the way healthcare organizations attract, engage, and retain talent. The race to recruit is on.
ScottMadden has found that the most successful organizations are tackling the challenge by refocusing on the fundamentals—and rethinking their approach to the candidate experience. ScottMadden has worked extensively with leading national healthcare clients in addressing human resources and talent acquisition opportunities.
Refocus on the Fundamentals
By recommitting to the basics of talent acquisition, healthcare organizations are better able to quickly respond in a market that revolves around the candidate, not the employer. Successful talent acquisition teams operate on this fundamental principle and enable processes with efficient systems and digital tools to engage candidates and help the team maintain focus from first contact to offer.
Four foundational pillars are key factors in our clients’ transformations:
 |
1. Clarify key roles, responsibilities, and processes. All talent acquisition roles and supporting processes should be reviewed and optimized, from promoting the organization’s brand proposition and pipelining talent to extending offers and onboarding employees. This effort includes considering how the talent acquisition team is structured and aligned with the organization to ensure effective interaction. |
| ScottMadden organizes talent acquisition functions through a centralized reporting structure to maximize efficiency. This framework typically includes a standalone center of expertise and dedicated staff addressing sourcing, recruitment, and administrative activities. Recruitment is best built around service lines, and results are enhanced when recruiters are co-located with hiring managers.
|
|
 |
2. Leverage a full suite of digital recruiting tools. These include an integrated technology suite with applicant tracking system, candidate relationship management, HRIS, social networking sites and resources, video chat applications, engaging onboarding solutions, and analytics tools. |
TAKING TOOLS A STEP FURTHER: Our leading clients are further optimizing their talent acquisition capabilities by integrating Intelligent Automation (IA) tools to improve efficiency and capability in identifying, sourcing, screening, interview scheduling, and engaging candidates. ScottMadden assists healthcare organizations with IA opportunity assessment, business case development, vendor selection, strategies to pilot, and implementation support.
By fulfilling organization-side IA requirements, developing customer experience manager profiles, building reporting and analytics, revising roles and responsibilities, and executing change management, talent acquisition teams can combine recruiting fundamentals with innovative technology to produce powerful results.
 |
3. Create your base by tapping into skilled talent pools. Healthcare organizations can access robust pools of talent through referrals, internships, co-op programs, and other partnerships, including STEM high school initiatives, technical schools, colleges, universities, and professional associations. |
| These alliances help advance two key objectives: (1) candidates develop specialized clinical and non-clinical skill sets that are applicable to healthcare jobs, and (2) candidates are introduced to the organization’s culture early on, ensuring stronger fit, engagement, and retention.
|
|
 |
4. Know how to easily identify your critical jobs. A successful and responsive talent acquisition program requires a data-driven, systemic approach that quickly identifies critical openings within the organization and feeds these into the recruitment engine. An analysis of open positions, business strategy, operational needs, and historical recruiting data can provide insight into how recruiting should apply limited resources. |
| By facilitating a better understanding of their workforce and talent acquisition data, ScottMadden helps our clients build partnerships between talent acquisition teams and business leaders to drive joint talent acquisition success.
|
|
 |
Rethink the Candidate Experience
Today’s candidates interact with many prospective employers at one time. The smallest shortfall in their recruiting experience can dramatically influence which offer they accept.
Successful organizations are re-envisioning the recruitment lifecycle—capturing candidates’ attention and keeping it all the way to their first day on the job. As we consider the needs of today’s talent market, our most successful clients have created recruiting cultures in which talent acquisition teams strive to:
 |
1. Think like a recruiter, act like a marketer.
Successful talent acquisition teams are operating more like consumer product marketers—always talking about the value of their employer’s brand—through video, social media, text messaging, and micro-targeted advertising. |
| This “touchpoint” approach can be particularly helpful in healthcare, where candidates are constantly on the move and prefer short, to-the-point interactions as they look for organizations that embrace their passion for the work. In the era of personalized digital interaction, there is a clear divide between organizations that truly understand their candidates and those that do not.
|
|
 |
2. Ensure positive impressions from start to finish.
Successful marketing and outreach will only get the talent acquisition team so far. Candidates expect regular communication throughout the entire process. Teams should focus on shepherding candidates through the recruitment sequence quickly and painlessly, providing regular communication and updates along the way. |
| The new norm—a modern, simplified process—involves mobile applications, chat, and moving the main application post-offer. By fully leveraging their technology suites, teams can ensure consistent messaging and a steady cadence to candidate interactions, all without losing the warmth of the personal connection. |
