Recruiting for Healthcare

It takes top talent to provide the best care

NAS can help attract the best candidates for your healthcare opportunities.

Overall employment in healthcare occupations is

projected to grow 13 percent from 2021 to 2031,

much faster than the average for all occupations.

This increase is expected to result in about

2 million new jobs over the decade.

Demand for healthcare workers will outpace supply by 2025. Projected shortages by 2025 include:

Home Health aides: 446,300
Nursing Assistants: 95,000
Med and Lab Techs: 98,700
Nurse Practitioners: 29,400

Health systems are incurring large losses due to the high cost of contract labor,

which grew to 11% of total labor expenses in 2022 from 2% in 2019.

A doctor smiling with nurses and doctors in the background.

Challenges in Healthcare Recruiting

Talent Acquisition in the healthcare industry offers more challenges than most fields. Healthcare systems have high expectations of their talent to provide the best care possible to all patients. We've seen increases in burnout and turnover rates, as well as an increase in healthcare employment needs. This creates an unbalanced staffing ratio that unfortunately becomes a cycle leading to more disruption. This puts a lot of pressure on the Talent Acquisition team to attract the best candidates who fit the values and mission of your organization

Some of the areas of concern include:

Lack of experienced talent for the number of positions available, leading to talent gaps across the healthcare spectrum
An aging population, with the Baby Boomers generation entering the age of increased need for health services
An aging workforce, particularly among nurses, where one-third of the workforce could be at retirement age in the next 15 years
Burnout, particularly given the challenges of the pandemic and the staffing issues it created
A renewed focus on career and family, causing many healthcare professionals to opt out or move to a new job

Strategies That Succeed

In the recruiting world, it's sometimes hard to see how you stand out from your competitors. Most healthcare companies are offering sign-on bonuses, competitive benefits packages and even flexible schedules to bring nurses, techs, LPNs and MAs to their teams.

So how can you make your job opportunities stand out? Approximately 60% of our clients are in the healthcare industry, so we've had some experience finding the right game plan that works for your organization. Here are some strategies that have helped our clients:

Developing a strong, consistent employment brand with messaging that resonates with candidates
Focusing on more than just money, with an emphasis on training, growth potential and work/life balance as advantage
Including testimonials and videos to let your people serve as ambassadors, and emphasize your diversity and inclusion efforts
Utilizing a wide variety of recruiting channels that reach your target audience
Maximizing the use of traditional strategies, such as career fairs and referral programs
Implementing digital, social and programmatic campaigns for both targeted needs and general awareness
Aligning and taking better advantage of your presence on platforms like Glassdoor, LinkedIn and Indeed
Ensuring that you have an easy apply process that does not serve as a barrier for candidates
Tracking and analyzing your recruiting performance to learn which strategies are most effective

Case Study:

How to Hire 90 Nurses in 90 Days

Halifax Health, a large hospital system close to Daytona Beach, FL, needed to hire a significant number of RNs in less than 90 days. Our first step was to build a landing page with a quick apply form that talked about the multitude of programs that help RNs thrive and succeed at Halifax Health. That made it easier for RNs to indicate interest and for recruiters to respond.

To drive traffic to the landing page, we created a campaign with multiple components:

Google Ads, email campaign and Facebook/Instagram-sponsored posts that included AI chatbots to target active applicants
Additional marketing targeting passive candidates on websites that nurses visit
Geographic advertising by region
An on-the-ground signing day for new graduates at local nursing schools

In less than 60 days, we delivered:

8,651,794 impressions
29,798 page views
473% increase in resumes
90 nursing hires
30+ assists in new hires for nursing graduates

Read the full case study

View of the Halifax Health careers page.

Case Study:

The Power of an Engaging Career Site

A leading healthcare system in Northern Kentucky, St. Elizabeth, recognized a need to improve its candidate experience and career site. Working together, we developed a site with general content (about, benefits, growth and development), as well as career family pages (nursing, clinical and non-clinical). The site also includes pages for diversity and the local area. St. Elizabeth's site is built on the NAS ACTIVATE platform, which streamlines the job search experience, enhances SEO and offers key analytics.

With just an organic presence, the new career site has achieved some exceptional results. Simply by adding the content pages that candidates want and improving the job search experience, we were able to significantly increase traffic, engagement and results.

44% increase in visits
18% decline in bounce rate
28% increase in site searches
37% increase in job views
18% increase in apply starts

Read the full case study

Laptop with the St. Elizabeth careers site.

Case Study:

Major Success at a Hiring Event

Phoebe Putney Health System is one of southwest Georgia's leading healthcare providers. Faced with a challenging hiring environment and a need to fill positions in various areas across the system, Phoebe tasked NAS to help attract applicants to a one-day hiring event. Our goal was to bring candidates for all types of positions, from RNs and physicians to environmental services, at a three-hour job fair at their Albany site.

We proposed a comprehensive marketing strategy that targeted the job candidates and generated an engaging buzz about the job fair. We used the following:

Social Media, including a 2-week sponsored Facebook post
Search Campaign targeting candidates in North Florida, Georgia and Alabama
Local Media, including an interview with a local TV station
Event Details Page as a destination for all campaign traffic

Results included 70 interviews and 29 accepted offers at the event.

Read the full case study