The healthcare workforce shortage has been looming over us for years, and the pandemic has made a bad situation even worse. A recent poll from the American Nurses Foundation found that 18% of respondents intended to leave their jobs in the next six months. Retirement only accounted for 16% of that number. The top two reasons for quitting were work’s negative effect on health and well-being (47%) and insufficient staffing (45%).

The talent shortage is a brutal cycle. When healthcare organizations are understaffed, employee experience tends to drop, creating further risk for turnover. “We have to look at all of our practices and see if they're limiting us in hiring talent,” says Mary Alida Brisk, interim Chief Human Resources Officer at Lurie Children’s Hospital. With some innovative sourcing and talent attraction solutions, we can break the cycle.

Here’s how PreCheck is empowering healthcare organizations to find solutions aimed at addressing today's ongoing talent shortage.

Leverage Up-and-Coming Talent

With nurses and other clinical staff retiring or dropping out of the field at high rates, healthcare systems are looking to recent graduates as a critical source of talent. But identifying new talent that wants to work in your region and setting is challenging and occupies time and resources.

Students who are in the PreCheck system for background screening before beginning their clinical rotations can now opt into StudentCheck Connect. This innovative program allows students to add their names and other essential information, such as their desired location or area of medicine, to a database that clients can access. This helps students find work right after graduation and gives healthcare systems a head start in the war for talent.

“We're screening between 70,000 and 100,000 students a year with our StudentCheck program,” says Zach Daigle, President at PreCheck. And of that number, as many as 90% have opted into the StudentConnect program since it launched in February, he says. Using the program opens a massive pool of up-and-coming talent to augment your healthcare talent funnel.

Strengthen Your Employee Value Proposition

If you want to attract talent, you can’t afford to leave candidates guessing about what you offer, Brisk says. Be clear about benefits, especially new offerings like child care or mental health services. Tap into vendors such as PreCheck to improve your employer brand via an excellent candidate experience. When candidates can see where they’d be working and what you stand for, they’re more likely to envision themselves there.

Cultivate a sense of purpose, which is vital to healthcare employees today. Demonstrate how your organization supports the larger community, Brisk says, as well as where candidates who aren’t ready to work in a fast-paced acute care environment can fit in. Lurie Children’s Hospital, for example, recently founded the Patrick M. Magoon Institute for Healthy Communities, which focuses on preventative care and other outreach to the community.

Tap Into Contingent Labor Streams

Even factoring in new graduates, the healthcare talent shortage is widening, especially among nurses. “Healthcare systems in the U.S. average a 15% vacancy rate,” Daigle says. To overcome that gap, healthcare organizations need to find creative ways to source talent, Brisk says. Traditionally, contingent labor streams have been routed through a third-party staffing agency, but new technology is enabling nurses to manage their own careers as freelancers.

PreCheck recently partnered with Nurseify, a platform allowing nurses to create profiles (similar to Upwork) and set their own parameters on gigs, including their desired hourly rate. PreCheck verifies the licensing and credentials of nurses on the platform, ensuring that they all meet Joint Commission regulatory standards. Platforms like Nurseify allow you to tap into nontraditional or even retired talent who might prefer to control the type and pace of work rather than remain in a traditional full-time role.

PreCheck offers services beyond traditional background screenings. We’re constantly evolving to provide full-service employment solutions to our healthcare clients. Explore the ways our partnership can amplify your healthcare talent funnel.