Current Landscape of Healthcare Recruitment
The healthcare recruitment sector in the UK is under immense pressure. The projected numbers for the coming years don’t look promising. The NHS vacancy rate currently stands at 7.7%, with projections suggesting a shortage of 314,000 healthcare professionals by 2030. We can undoubtedly claim that this crisis is driven by increasing demand for healthcare services primarily due to an ageing population. On the other hand, the sector’s workforce is struggling to keep pace with these demands.
Healthcare positions are uniquely demanding, requiring specialised skilled professionals with the proper education and qualifications. Roles such as mental health nurses, care coordinators, and support workers are difficult to fill due to lacking professionals in these roles, primarily from the UK. At the same time, this sector relies heavily on international recruitment: over 40% of registered nurses in the UK come from abroad.
Moreover, technological innovations are reshaping the recruitment processes with a striking speed. While these advancements offer efficiency gains, they also put pressure on recruiters to adapt quickly to all these new methods the employers are enforcing in their daily work to stay competitive.
Regulatory Changes and Their Implications
The UK government has introduced new laws to reduce migration and visa abuse in the healthcare sector. These reforms restrict healthcare workers from bringing family members dependent on their Skilled Worker visa.
The results are staggering: Health and Care Worker visas dropped by 33%, resulting in significantly fewer international hires and a considerably smaller talent pool.
Healthcare recruiting must navigate these regulations while also managing tight budgets. This leads to implementing “band-aid” solutions: increasing zero-hour and part-time roles. Their lack of stability deters qualified candidates farther away from employment in the healthcare industry.
Common Challenges in Healthcare Recruiting
Balancing the urgent need for skilled professionals while at the same time following regulatory compliance, dealing with talent shortages, minimising the high turnover rates and a lot more. Identifying the most common challenges is the first step towards effectively filling vacant healthcare positions with top talent.
Talent Shortages
Traditional recruitment methods are struggling to keep up the pace of the demand for a qualified healthcare workforce. The skills gap is one of the major issues here: only 46% of social care workers hold relevant qualifications.To add to this challenge, mental health and registered nurses high demand cannot be upheld without the help of international recruitment.
The population is not the only one who is ageing; the healthcare workforce is, too. 27% of social care workers are nearing retirement. At the same time, the domestic talent pool has a slow filling-up rate. One of the biggest motivators to make people change their profession/industry – the paychecks – is far from attractive.
High Turnover Rates
Turnover rates in healthcare, especially frontline healthcare workers, are alarmingly high. In social care alone, nearly a quarter of the employees leave their jobs every year. The most vulnerable group is the under-25, as their lack of experience makes them most likely to resign within their first year on the job.
The work-life balance also plays a major role here, as healthcare professionals struggle with night shifts and long working hours, inevitably leading to burnout. The demanding nature of healthcare roles significantly reduces job satisfaction and urges employees to seek alternative employment. Lastly, we must admit that the paychecks are considerably low compared to what the other industries provide.
High Competition
The need for healthcare professionals is rapidly rising, pushing the industry to become more competitive than ever. All these healthcare organisations are contending for the same limited pool of qualified candidates. Talent shortages are aided by the ageing workforce approaching retirement.
The scarcity intensifies the competition, which tries to find creative solutions elsewhere in other sectors. Retail, hospitality, and customer services are among the most searched-for industries for finding suitable talent alternatives.
Long Hiring Processes
Understanding the reasons behind prolonged hiring processes and implementing practical solutions are essential to overcoming this persistent issue. Firstly, there are complex regulatory requirements, such as Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks and professional registration verifications, like holding a PIN registration number issued by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). Here are also the right-to-work validations for employees from abroad and comprehensive reference checks during recruitment.
On the other hand, we have long manual processes, including organising and holding multiple levels of interviews, CV screenings and document collection. All these tasks consume considerable time and resources, delaying the overall recruitment cycle.
Strategies to Overcome Recruitment Challenges
These 4 common challenges can draw the bigger picture of what the healthcare industry faces on its road to making a significant difference in people’s lives. You can find some actionable proposals and solutions right below.
Improving Employer Branding
Becoming better at employer branding is all about nurturing your unique competitive advantage. There must have been something special that genuinely distinguishes your company from healthcare industry competitors. Look into your company culture, values and commitment to employee well-being as a source of inspiration.
For example, share stories of current employees’ growth within your organisation to demonstrate genuine dedication to professional development. Additionally, if you are a positive implementor of diversity and inclusion policies, promote your actions and deeds and make testimonials showcasing your employees with ethnic minority backgrounds.
Leveraging Technology and Recruitment Tools
Like in any other industry, technology also leaves its mark in the healthcare sector. Every healthcare provider who wants to impact their work should consider using the newest recruitment tools, like the Applicant Tracking System (ATS). It simplifies potential candidates’ experience using AI tools to speed up CV screening and initial assessments.
Tools like Microsoft Teams or Zoom for video conferences, AI voice-to-text interview note-taking apps, and online psychometric tests for evaluating personality traits, cognitive abilities and emotional intelligence are just some of the tools to be implemented. All these innovations save time and improve accuracy during hiring while also assessing the cultural fit and potential for growth before onboarding the candidates.
Building Strong Partnerships
Because of the heavy competition, healthcare recruiters must always be one step ahead. One of the ways to do that is by collaborating with educational institutions. Important to notice here is that the NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan aims to double medical school capacities – a move that opens opportunities for partnerships between healthcare providers and universities. We already have clients who used this innovative community-based proposal, and this is their second year of succesfully implementing the cooperation with the University of the West of England.
The Importance of Innovative Recruitment Strategies
Innovation is a must when working in a highly competitive sector like healthcare. You must lead because traditional methods often fail to attract and retain talent-teams.
At Olive Recruit, we use value-based hiring, prioritising soft skills like empathy and compassion over traditional hard skills. Moreover, we incorporate this method into our values, as we seek passion rather than talent from qualified candidates. Talent can be practised and learned, while passion is innate.
Healthcare Recruitment with Olive Recruit
At Olive Recruit, we specialise in addressing the unique challenges of the healthcare industryand create tailored healthcare recruitment strategies accordingly. Our team combines deep industry knowledge with advanced tools to deliver personalised solutions that meet your company’s needs.
From initial sourcing of qualified healthcare professionals to final placement, we ensure an efficient hiring process that saves time and resources. Our services guarantee to find top talent by accessing one of the biggest healthcare talent pools in the UK, implementing psychometric tests, CV screening packages, and monthly analytics – all designed to ease your healthcare staffing challenges.
You will be assigned a dedicated account manager to work closely with you and understand your goals and challenges first-hand.
Contact Olive Recruit to find out more about this subject, or continue reading our blog posts covering more insights into related topics:
