How to Source & Grow Healthcare Talent Pools

How Do You Source and Grow Your Talent Pools, Now and Before the Pandemic?

As we continued speaking with the healthcare recruiters at Pierpoint, we are reminded that the pandemic we all face is far from over. While hot spots shift, the Pierpoint team is focused globally on making sure healthcare recruitment needs are met.

While many countries have weathered the first wave of the pandemic and are in the process of phased economic re-openings, officials caution against second waves of illness spreading. Healthcare recruiters must continue to be deliberate in their planning and engagement with healthcare candidates to ensure that patients will still receive care and that increased recruiting can be placed in the blink of an eye.

Gustavo Morales, Talent Acquisition Specialist at Univar Solutions

We have to constantly be replenishing our talent pools so that we are always ready with the best candidates. Referrals are a big part of it. A good referral program is crucial to pooling quality talent for immediate and future needs.

Martin Espejo, Senior Talent Partner / Open Networker

We, like most recruiters, also access the various career sites out there for uploaded resumes and profiles from healthcare workers. Sites like Indeed, CareerBuilder, and healthcare-specific boards are useful. LinkedIn for the most part was used for non-healthcare professional sourcing – it wasn’t always a go-to spot for doctors and nurses to upload their profiles and work experience, but that is still changing.

Kira Soria, Sr. Recruiter at Bali Staffing

I still have good results with Indeed resume searches and Facebook, but more specifically the Groups area of Facebook. You can often find Facebook Groups categorized by jobs and specialties according to location. I often join those groups, then post a job request and will receive post responses or messages to my in-box rather quickly.

Rommy Romero, Sr. Recruiter at Quest Diagnostics 

We are using social media to find candidates, but often it’s very specific. I’ve used Twitter to post for hard-to-fill jobs with success. LinkedIn Groups, like Facebook, are helpful, again because they are targeted to the interest of the workers you are searching for.

In addition to the aforementioned social platforms, over the past couple of years, the use of Instagram has become a viable source of healthcare worker information. Particularly in the travel nursing industry, its pictorial documentation quality lends itself well to the life of a travel nurse who wants to share their experiences and treats their assignments like new adventures.

Professional websites that provide doctor profiles and directories, along with patient reviews, can also be a good source for passive candidates, especially when targeting by specialty and experience level.

Alyssa Thach, President & CEO at Pierpoint International

Passive candidate sourcing for healthcare workers can be a bit more complex during crisis time because of the increase in furloughed employment right now. It’s a bit of a misconception that furloughed workers may be viable recruits; they are still contracted and for all intents and purposes will have a position to return to at a later date. The tricky part, however, is how long will the furlough last, and can the worker sustain the unknown timeframe? This is where healthcare workers have to make a choice based on the opportunities on the table.

One caveat may be short-term contracts. In the instance of the current crisis, let’s say for example you are furloughed from a position because you mainly perform elective surgeries, which are on hold right now. However, you have emergency room experience that could be of value at a facility seeking immediate assistance. Could you receive consent or permission from your employer to help somewhere else in the interim? These are all questions that would need to be addressed during recruiting procedures.

When we are sourcing for candidates, with our job postings, inquiries, and messages, we can’t forget to showcase all the positives and good work that the healthcare essential workers are doing. That’s attractive, that’s purposeful. And we also have to look for candidates with transferrable skills that can potentially fill a need.