Recruiting quality staff can be difficult for any facility. This is especially true for healthcare organizations, which face unique challenges when sourcing candidates with specific training and credentials.
Staffing agencies can help to fill this gap by providing vetted healthcare workers. However, how do these recruiting firms source top talent?
Experience
Medical staffing agencies are responsible for finding candidates for temporary or permanent positions at hospitals, private practices, and other healthcare organizations. This is a highly specialized field, and staffing companies must be well-versed in federal and state laws to ensure employees are classified correctly and appropriately paid. There can be severe consequences for employers not complying with state and federal regulations.
A top healthcare recruitment agency will have a robust network of candidates, many already working in the field. Staffing firms are also skilled in weeding out unsuitable applicants through extensive interviewing and assessment processes.
Finding the perfect match when hiring for a healthcare position is essential. Recruiting agencies can help you with that process by ensuring the candidate is qualified for the job, has the right personality and cultural fit for your organization, and can be trained to handle the role’s responsibilities. Ultimately, this saves time and money, as your hiring team can spend more time on patients. Some healthcare staffing agencies also specialize in sourcing talent for hard-to-fill roles, such as nursing and physician jobs.
Reputation
Most people will respond when asked what they want in a partner, “I want to find my perfect match.” While finding your “perfect match” might sound cliche, a person’s reputation acts like a magnet — good or bad. People who have a positive reputation attract others to them, making it easy for them to do business and build relationships. Bad reputations, on the other hand, repel people. They may be seen as dishonorable or dangerous and often avoided by friends, family members, and the general public.
Healthcare organizations can build their reputation as a great workplace by encouraging employee referrals. In addition to posting open positions in common areas, healthcare organizations should discuss the need for referrals at staff meetings and training sessions. Hence, employees keep this option top of mind. It’s also helpful to incorporate referral incentives into hiring practices, such as financial compensation or other perks, so employees are more willing to recommend candidates for a position. A robust network of employee referrals can help a healthcare organization grow its talent pool and ensure that all jobs are filled with quality workers.
Skills
Recruiters will be interested in your subject-specific skills but also look at your transferable ones. These include how well you communicate and interact with others. You can highlight these skills on your application or CV by giving examples of when you’ve demonstrated them. These might include your public speaking and writing skills or how you’ve worked in a team or managed a project.
Moreover, a staffing agency for medical office can offer healthcare facilities the opportunity to see prospective employees on the job before they commit to hiring them. This helps reduce the likelihood of costly mistakes new staffers make that could affect patient care.
Since staffing agency candidates undergo extensive questioning and assessment, healthcare organizations can feel confident that they’re seeing only the best applicants with a high potential for success. This saves them time and resources, especially with limited hiring budgets. In addition, healthcare workers who work with an agency can find a better lifework balance that allows them to focus on their career goals without compromising their quality of life.
Personality
Personality is a broad term encompassing a person’s unique traits, which influence their thoughts and actions. It’s also why some staffing agencies can connect healthcare employers with candidates who are the perfect fit for their organization.
Whether it’s a temporary or permanent placement, medical staffing agencies work hard to find candidates that align well with an employer’s culture and values. They often vet these candidates thoroughly through background checks, reference interviews, and drug screening tests. Staffing agencies also understand that the nuances of specialized healthcare roles like oncology nurses, cardiology technicians, and nephrology nurses are different from generalist positions in other industries.
Using their industry knowledge, staffing agencies can match healthcare workers with positions that best fit them based on their innate personality traits. This saves healthcare organizations the time they would spend searching through resumes, conducting interviews, and training new employees. Ultimately, this makes hiring more efficient and effective for all involved.
Flexibility
When it comes to hiring staff, your facility needs flexibility. Staffing agencies are a great solution during high-demand times, pandemics, and other medical emergencies. They can quickly help you find the right talent to focus on patient care and your hospital campaigns.
You can’t afford to waste time posting on job boards and weeding through resumes during these times. The vetting process alone can take up to 15% of a manager’s time.
Agencies have a pool of vetted healthcare professionals ready to go, so they can fill your temporary openings faster than you could on your own. They’re experienced and quick learners, so you don’t have to worry about training your new medical assistants from scratch.
Healthcare facilities often hire agency employees temporarily because they don’t have the budget for permanent hires. But staffing agencies can also help you find the perfect permanent placement for specialized roles like an emergency room nurse or medical coder. They’ll find candidates with the skills and experience you need who fit your culture well.
