Healthcare staffing is one of the most challenging recruiting fields out there right now. Demand is incredibly high, giving the best candidates their pick of jobs. At the same time, shortages of healthcare professionals make the process even more difficult for organizations to fill open positions, let alone plan for the future. If you’re stuck in the middle of this rocky place right now, don’t despair—there are steps you can take to make your organization more appealing to top healthcare talent this year.

Be Fast And Nimble

This field moves fast. If your time-to-hire is on the slow side, it’s a guarantee that you’re missing out on the recruiting front. That means your efforts need to be focused on reaching candidates fast to get them in the door for interviews and processing and make fast offers.

Programmatic tools really boost your speed and effectiveness, automating many of the steps of the process. Algorithms can help you make decisions about effective job postings in real-time, as well as doing initial vetting of candidates and resumes. This frees up your staff resources to do more expertise-based tasks instead of getting bogged down by paperwork and rote tasks.

Working closely with your hiring managers to review, choose, and interview candidates can help expedite the process.

Be Proactive

One of the key loss points for top talent is candidates who don’t feel engaged by the process and end up seeking other opportunities. Being proactive about following up with candidates, letting them know where things stand, and keeping them involved in the process helps limit some of the frustrations that can cause great applicants to drop out before an offer is made.

Build A Great Pipeline

One of the best things you can do for your organization is to build a solid talent pipeline. Often, the highest priority is hiring right now for immediate needs. That’s not likely to change, with the constant demand for talent in healthcare. But you also need to develop tools and trackers to ensure that when you have future openings you’re got a readymade pool of talent to start.

For many healthcare organizations, that means collecting data on candidates who didn’t get offers but who might be qualified for other opportunities in the future, developing a strong social media game, and making sure that you’re using the most effective outreach methods to get to talent quickly when you need them.

Get Your Employer Branding In Tip-Top Shape

Never forget that when you’re vetting an applicant they’re also vetting you. That means it’s time to make sure that your employer brand is keeping you competitive in a crowded field. On a basic level, you should be making sure that any candidate-facing materials (company website, applicant portals, or other branded platforms) have clear messaging about your organization, your priorities, and your mission. Your social media accounts should be up to date and full of engaging content about your company so that anyone searching online for info finds a vibrant, appealing organization.

Review sites like Glassdoor are also a key part of employer brand these days. You can’t shut down bad word-of-mouth entirely, but you can absolutely keep a close eye on what people are saying about you online and troubleshoot via online messaging or social media.

While healthcare recruiting isn’t likely to get any slower or easier any time soon, you can make scalable, workable changes to your own approach to ensure that you’re reaching and engaging top healthcare talent.