Tips to find your ideal healthcare candidates

The challenge of recruiting good healthcare candidates is no secret.

Roles based in the caring sector, including nurses, aged care and disability workers are in short supply these days – especially post-pandemic, as many frontline workers have either left the industry due to workload demands, or are suffering professional burnout.

Worse, the Department of Health has predicted that by 2025, there’ll be a shortage of 85,000 nurses, and those numbers are set to rise to 123,000 by 2030.

The stats are sobering – and the talent pool is much smaller than it should be. So what is a recruiter or healthcare HR manager to do when trying to get skilled healthcare candidates in the door? Here are our top tips.

1. Recruit on the right jobs boards.

Yes, it’s easy to slap your job ad on every jobs board in the hope of attracting the right talent, but you’re better off using bespoke industry experts (like Frontline Recruitment Group) that specialise in recruiting for industries such as healthcare.

That kind of targeted outreach can help you find the right healthcare candidates more quickly. You could also post in Facebook groups where healthcare workers congregate, or set up a referral / rewards program for existing employees so they’re motivated to reach out to their networks to help you find the right candidates.

2. Think about your company branding.

Can you invest in better branding to stand out in the healthcare landscape, and to better identify why candidates would want to work for your company? Do you need more effective website copy to showcase what you offer employees as a company to help drive conversions?

Could you also look at enriching your careers page with positive workplace images or create engaging video testimonials from current employees?

All of these tactics can help ‘sell’ your company and pique the interest of targeted candidates.

3. Offer the right benefits.

It’s no secret that you’re recruiting in a very competitive market, so what can you do to make your job ads as enticing as possible to skilled healthcare candidates?

A good benefits package is essential – so you’ll want to be paying good money, offering access to wellness and health programs and including flexible working hours and sick leave, especially if the role you’re recruiting for requires working long shifts.

Offering relocation benefits that offset the cost of moving to a new city or town is also becoming the norm, and is something you should definitely include to widen the pool of candidates available to you.

4. Sell the job as a career.

Despite the challenges you’re facing with finding healthcare candidates, nursing and other healthcare roles are still a hugely rewarding career. So you’ll want to emphasise that in your job ads, highlighting the opportunities on offer for advancement and promotion.

Make this front and centre in your job ad to entice ambitious, highly-educated healthcare candidates who are invested in building their career.

5. Streamline your recruiting and onboarding process

So many candidates report feeling like ‘just a number’ or being ghosted as part of the recruitment process if they’re not selected over another candidate. It’s important to know that job-seekers talk – and share their experiences. So make sure your recruitment process and your onboarding process for new employees has a personal touch, and shows that you care as a company about the people you hire.

That might mean touching base with interviewees after the interview via email or phone and keeping them abreast of where they are in the hiring process. Remembering personal details about candidates also gives a good impression.

You have you’re healthcare candidates, how do you keep them?

Creating happier workplaces to maintain high productivity and staff retention is something many employers are invested in right now. Join them by finding out what makes your staff tick – the data’s available to download in our 2o22 Frontline Feel Good Index Report.