Candidate Experience

As competition for top talent heats up among employers, organizations must stand out to the applicants they want to attract. One way to do this is to ensure an excellent candidate experience. Successful techniques like Lean thinking can help human resources and other team members find ways to improve the talent acquisition process and ensure a positive candidate experience.

While the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t the only cause of healthcare labor shortages nationwide, it certainly exacerbated the situation. Now, two years later, healthcare recruitment has transformed into an almost entirely new landscape.

This National Healthcare Recruiter Recognition Day, we review the top challenges healthcare recruiters must overcome in this new hiring environment.

Diversity and inclusion directly impact business outcomes. When diverse employees feel welcome to bring their backgrounds, experiences, and complete identities to their work, they benefit from new ideas and ways of working. But when that’s missing, the business loses opportunities to improve or expand.

It’s always intriguing to find areas that improved during the pandemic. According to applicants, it happened in recruiting. The 2020 North American Candidate Experience Research Report found positive sentiment from candidates shot up (from 25% to 31%), while resentment dropped (from 14% to 8%). This finding leads to the obvious question: Why?

In 1991, Congress declared the first Tuesday in June to be National Healthcare Recruiter Recognition Day.

More than a year since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the workplace has changed forever. As we continue on the road to recovery, the virtual 2021 American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration (ASHHRA) Conference provided an opportunity for healthcare HR professionals to connect, innovate, and transform the future of the industry. “We spent 2020 dealing with the fall out from COVID and moving to telemedicine,” said Jeremy Sadlier, Interim Executive Director at ASHHRA.

There’s been a renewed imperative in human resources to create a culture of safety and belonging at work. Part of delivering on that imperative is conducting background checks on your new hires. A 2020 joint survey between HR.com and the Professional Background Screening Association (formerly the National Association of Professional Background Screeners) revealed that 94% of respondents perform at least one type of employment screening.

The growth of technology has given consumers more choice than ever before. Providers of goods and services are expected to go beyond the bare minimum, offering an overall experience that produces real value for customers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has further raised consumer standards. Companies are expected to offer new, expanded options for consuming their goods and services that acknowledge and accommodate customers’ safety concerns.

Talent recruitment and retention remain among the top challenges facing healthcare organizations in the new decade. According to a SHRM survey, 46% of HR professionals rated highly skilled medical positions as very difficult to fill.

The 2019 American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration (ASHHRA) Conference took place this past week in the Windy City of Chicago, Illinois. This year’s theme was “Connect. Innovate. Transform.” In the midst of constant change in the healthcare field, fostering professional connections is more important than ever before. Sarah Fredrickson, ASHHRA President, discussed how healthcare HR must lead an engaged workforce to innovate.