Strategies for Recruiting Nurses
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Nurses are the backbone of the American healthcare system. They perform the bulk of the day-to-day patient care and make sure hospitals, clinics, and long-term care facilities can operate efficiently. Unfortunately, nursing is a profession in turmoil. Prior to 2020 the U.S. was already set to face a severe shortage of registered nurses, but of course COVID-19 put that shortage into overdrive. In December 2021, the State of Iowa was even budgeting $9.2 million to recruit traveling nurses to the state. Nurses are burnt out and leaving the profession, nursing school enrollment is leveling off, and yet more nursing positions are being created every year. The outlook seems dire.
There are some tried and true methods to help ease the strain of recruiting RNs but recruiting tips alone won’t solve the problem; you need an entire RN recruitment strategy to really make progress. Read on to learn how to start the process, with some tips to increase the likelihood of hiring these key healthcare workers.
Developing a talent acquisition strategy for RNs specifically is much like developing any talent acquisition strategy; the main difference is you’ll be customizing your messaging and placement to prioritize attracting nurses. Remember that recruiting in any competitive industry requires excellent employer branding. If potential candidates research your organization and find a plethora of negative reviews, a poorly functioning website, or a complete lack of social media presence, they will immediately see red flags.
Your strategy should take into consideration candidate experience, employer brand, competitive compensation and benefits, and passive candidate recruitment.
Candidate Experience
A positive, prompt candidate experience that respects a candidate’s time and effort should be a priority. A lengthy application or a long delay in response from the hiring team is only going to push candidates towards accepting other offers, causing you to lose out on talent your organization needs. Keep applications short and require only the necessary information. Respond promptly to candidates, preferably within 24 hours, and keep them updated throughout the process, even if you don’t have an immediate answer or update. This lets the candidate know that you are engaged, respectful of their time, and not ignoring or ghosting them, while keeping your organization top-of-mind.
Competitive Compensation & Benefits
Be prepared to offer top-tier compensation and benefits to nursing candidates, anything less than highly competitive wages won’t get your open RN and LPN positions filled. It’s definitely worth considering other highly sought-after benefits, such as tuition reimbursement. If you aren’t sure what a competitive wage is in your industry or location, consider a compensation study. Skywalk Group provides this service for precisely this scenario, and comp studies can keep you competitive in a tight labor market.
Employee Referrals
Using your current staff to help you recruit isn’t just convenient, it can actually lower your cost per hire and reduce time to hire as well. If you don’t yet have an employee referral program, you can get a general outline of the process from our past blog post.
Passive Candidate Outreach
Don’t just wait for RN and LPN candidates to come to you! Your competitors are actively reaching out to passive candidates and getting in front of them long before they consider applying to your open positions.
Passive candidates are potential candidates that are not actively applying to new positions, but are open to the idea of changing jobs if the right position or organization came knocking. This is a key part of a successful recruitment strategy that you don’t want to skip. You can read more about the benefits of recruiting passive candidates here, and how to go about getting started.
Prioritize a Healthy Workplace
It’s important that a workplace is never a toxic or abusive place to be. Healthcare organizations have gotten a bad rap for this sort of behavior in the past. Hospitals and care facilities can be high stress places to work, and with the nursing and caregiver shortage there is always more work than available hands.
It’s up to management to model a healthy workplace and make employee wellness a priority. This includes addressing burnout and providing a physically and mentally safe and supportive environment in which to work. If your organization has a few bad apples that are making it a negative or unhealthy place to work, your good employees are going to find employment elsewhere, and fast.
The healthcare industry as a whole is struggling to find enough qualified professionals to fill open roles and this is doubly true for nursing positions. The keys to recruiting these limited RNs and LPNs are reaching out to them before your competition does, making the application and onboarding process as streamlined as possible, all while providing a workplace that people are happy to work at each day. If you would like advice or assistance on any of the steps involved in creating or improving your recruiting strategy, don’t hesitate to reach out to us today!
By Jessica Palmer