Recruiting top talent is a challenge in any industry. Attracting the type of candidate you need in your workplace takes a lot of strategizing and careful planning. Even then, many of the best potential new hires are already employed elsewhere.
In healthcare, attracting the top RN talent to your organization is extremely difficult, especially today. With the current shortage of qualified candidates, your quest is beyond challenging and becomes even more complex. According to current statistics, the shortage of available and qualified RNs is expected to become even more critical in coming years. So what can you do?
Why Target the Passive Nursing Candidate?
Experts in recruiting strongly suggest targeting passive candidates to bring top RN talent to your healthcare organization. And recruiting them is often easier than you might imagine. Also, more often than not, the passive RN candidate is a higher-quality employee who brings with them a wealth of knowledge and skills, experience, and a desire to work.
Targeting the passive nursing candidate is a bold move that has a big payoff in today’s market. Through well-planned strategies like relationship-building, stronger employer branding, peer referrals, personalized outreach, and candidate sourcing via social media platforms, you take the competitive edge and earn the top prize in the way of excellence in RN talent. Here’s a deeper dive into how you can target passive RN candidates for your healthcare organization’s success.
What Are the Benefits of Targeting Passive Nursing Candidates?
There are several key benefits to targeting passive nursing candidates for your healthcare organization. These RN candidates are already employed and likely performing very well in their current jobs. Depending on the similarities between workplaces and the experiences they bring with them, these candidates usually are a good fit with your workplace culture. Some other key benefits of going after passive candidates:
- Reduced Competition: Job fairs, crowded job boards, and even job platforms place you toe-to-toe with other employers. This often prevents you from showcasing your organization and the many perks you have to offer. Your competition may catch a candidate’s eye, and since they are actively looking for a job, the RN talent you seek may jump at the first offer. When you approach a passive candidate, the competition isn’t there to muddy the waters. You have a unique opportunity for one-on-one engagement and, very likely, a better end result.
- Access to Top Talent: By virtue of the fact that they are currently working with you, a passive candidate is likely successful in their job, has the experience, and proven expertise that makes them top RN talent, and brings the specialized skills your healthcare organization desires.
- Better Retention: Because the passive candidate is not actively looking, you can assume they are content in their present role. Of course, depending on the length of time they’ve been at their current job, you could also infer they may offer a higher chance for retention. That adds to the desirability of the passive candidate.
- Better Cultural Fit: As we mentioned above, when you recruit a passive candidate from a like-cultured workplace, you can pretty much count on them being a good cultural fit. That makes it easy and seamless when onboarding.
- Fill Specialized Positions Promptly: When you need to fill a specialized position, it isn’t always expedient to actively recruit for that niche role. You may end up in a bind as you wait for qualified and credentialed RN talent to apply. But when you proactively source the passive candidates who possess the skills, experience, and certifications you need, filling that role is much quicker.
- Build Positive Employer Branding: The more you seek out passive candidates, engaging in ways that build on your organization’s reputation, the stronger your employer branding becomes. When you approach a passive candidate who isn’t quite ready to move on to the position you offer, the more likely it is that they will pass your information on to a peer. By virtue of your name and elution spreading through nurse networking, your brand grows and sparks an interest. That means you’ll have a much easier time attracting top RN talent as your reputation builds.
- Less Drain on Recruitment Budget: There are fewer competing compensation offers when you go after the passive candidate, and the probability of retaining your new hire is higher than hiring from a job board or similar resource. That means your recruitment costs go down, and the need for costly recruitment cycles diminishes.
- Introduce Diverse Knowledge and Skills: When your passive candidate joins your staff, they bring with them a new perspective, fresh ideas, and skills and knowledge they can share with their team members. Strategies for operations and patient care evolve and grow into better and more efficient protocols.
- Adds to Your Leadership Pool: By targeting top RN talent, you grow your pool of potential leaders and staff members who can take on managerial roles as they become available. Leadership, however, shouldn’t just be those nurses interested in professional development. A great team often has a leader among them to whom they can turn for help, expertise, and support. Passive candidates exhibit these skills and more.
The Best Approach for Targeting Passive Nursing Candidates
As we mentioned above, successfully targeting passive nursing candidates requires careful planning and a well-thought-out strategy. Winning strategies include shifting from active and immediate recruiting to building long-term relationships that underscore your employer brand as positive.
Incentivizing flexibility, career growth, and development, and other intangible but high-value benefits, goes far in building your brand and creating a buzz within the passive nursing candidate network. Here is a more in-depth look at key strategies for successfully targeting passive nursing candidates.
Work on Building a Strong Brand
In today’s competitive market for quality nurses, it’s not enough to simply offer a job. You need to sell your workplace well, and that means highlighting your healthcare organization’s exceptional culture, dedication to your mission, and authentic core values. Utilize social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, for example) to post highlight reels that include testimonials from staff, a view into a typical day at your facility, and your mission statement. This provides potential candidates a look into your brand in earnest.
Use A Personal Approach
Find out what you can about the individual passive candidate who holds your interest (but not in a talker way!) and approach them in a way that speaks to them. Avoid generic messaging as it is often ignored. Instead, personalize your message in a way that lets the passive candidate understand how the specific opportunity you offer aligns with their professional goals. Let them know you’re open to discussing the opportunity with them whenever they are available. Keep in mind, the schedule of a top RN can be unpredictable, so make sure you’re available.
Offer Incentives They Want and Need
You’ll really spark their interest when you offer incentives that nurses want right now. If a passive candidate is satisfied in their current role, show them how much more they will gain by working for your organization. Provide strong and compelling reasons for them to consider a move. In other words, an offer they really can’t refuse. Competitive salaries are enticing, but nurses are speaking out, and we’re listening. Here’s what nurses want from a healthcare organization:
- Adequate Staffing: Nurses need to know they won’t be spread too thin or asked to work longer hours than scheduled due to short-staffing. Highlight your nurse-to-patient ratios.
- Necessary Resources: Mobile documentation and other modern technology are important to today’s top RN talent. Also, ensure there are always enough supplies. Don’t cut corners.
- Flexible Scheduling: Flexible scheduling in the form of 8/10/12 hour shifts supports work-life balance. This is an essential perk for everyone in the workforce, but particularly necessary for nurses to avoid burning out.
- Professional Growth and Development: Your top RN talent wants to move forward. Provide opportunities for professional growth and development through workshops, certifications, continuing education, and mentorship programs. When you invest in your nurses, the payoff serves your organization as well as your patients in a positive way.
- A Positive Workplace Culture: Things like supportive leadership, transparency, open communication, diversity, and a dedication to the well-being of all staff members foster a positive workplace culture. Work on building your culture if you aren’t quite there yet.
- Respect Through Autonomy: When you allow your nurses to practice their profession through things like letting them weigh in on patient care decisions, listening to and hearing their workplace concerns and suggestions, you empower them and make your nurses feel respected.
- Safety and Support: Does your culture support the safety and well-being of your nurses? Do they feel free to report harassment and other concerns without fear? Work to protect your nurses and all employees from threats of violence or harassment. Provide resources that support their emotional wellness, mental health, and avoid burnout.
- Compensation and Benefits: While these incentives make your workplace a desirable one, the bottom line is still the bottom line. Offer competitive pay that reflects the work your nurses do, and offer a strong benefits package, including health, retirement, and PTO.
Foster Relationships
Maintain a pipeline that lets you stay in touch with the top RN talent. Stay in touch with these passive candidates through relevant messages offering health-focused insight, updates, and press about your healthcare organization, and include them in any networking events in which your organization takes part.
Host Networking Events
Instead of promoting a job fair or large-scale in-person event, invite passive candidates to a low-key virtual Q&A networking event. Get your current nurses to participate and allow candidates to ask them any questions they want. You may be surprised by the positive response you get when you leverage happy and content employees.
Employee Referrals
Speaking of leveraging current employees, the overall statistics for employee referral programs show very positive results. For example, staff from employee referrals move much faster through the onboarding program, and retention rates are around 50%. Employees hired through active recruiting and the like have a retention rate of 33%.
Utilize your employees as ambassadors for your organization’s brand. And be sure to create a robust incentive program for employee referrals. Your nurses have the unique opportunity to find qualified passive candidates who are likely to show an interest in moving to your workplace. The investment in enticing incentives has a proven ROI.
Make the Process Easy
When you have a passive candidate who shows interest, streamline your interview and application process. Make sure the entire course of action is efficient and seamless. Be available when they are, according to their schedule. Eliminate unnecessary paperwork and do all you can to accommodate your passive candidate. You’ve come this far, don’t lose them in the hiring process.
Use Social Media
Today’s nurses follow the platforms and subs according to their location, specialty, and professional interests. Use these platforms to target nurses who are actively looking, as well as passive nursing candidates. We all scroll during downtime. Why not use the opportunity to capture the interest of top RN talent?
Attract Top RN Talent, Save Time, Save Money
Targeting passive nursing candidates effectively takes time and strategy. Let us help in your search for top RN talent. BOS Medical Staffing streamlines your process by tapping into top talent networks, screening, credentialing, and vetting candidates, and filling gaps in staff quickly and efficiently.
It’s a fiercely competitive market for healthcare organizations that need to hire nurses. Why not make it easier to find top RN talent? Save time and money, and avoid the stress when you work with BOS Medical Staffing. Reach out to us today and find the nursing candidate your healthcare organization needs now.
