Recruitment Challenges in the Healthcare Industry

We've put together a complete list of the recruitment challenges in the healthcare industry so human resource administrators know what to be on the lookout for.

Are you currently facing a hiring slump? Recruitment and hiring in healthcare involve more than filling positions. They include enhancing patient care and safety while adhering to strict compliance requirements. HR leaders face challenges: talent shortages, burnout, and ever-evolving technology needs. These are not issues to take lightly but ones that demand immediate attention and action.

Below, we’ll explore the most significant barriers to healthcare recruitment and how HR teams can stay ahead.

What Are the Biggest Recruitment Challenges in Healthcare?

Healthcare hiring is uniquely complex due to high demand, strict compliance requirements, and ongoing workforce shortages. Healthcare jobs directly affect patient health. Therefore, finding skilled workers quickly while also following the rules is crucial.

Some of the biggest challenges include:

Talent Shortages: The aging workforce and increasing patient needs create gaps in critical roles.
Lengthy Hiring Timelines: Background checks, credential verification, and regulatory requirements extend the hiring process.
Burnout & Retention Issues: High-stress environments lead to turnover, making it harder to maintain a stable workforce.

Overcoming these challenges is not a distant dream but a reality that can be achieved with the right approach. It requires proactive recruitment strategies and technology-driven hiring processes. By taking the reins and implementing these strategies, HR leaders can steer their organizations towards a brighter future and overcome the current healthcare recruitment hurdles.

The Rising Demand for Healthcare Workers

Healthcare is one of the fastest-growing industries. The BLS expects a 13% increase in healthcare jobs from 2021 to 2031, adding almost 2 million new jobs.

Why Is Demand So High?

Aging Population: By 2030, one in five Americans will be 65 or older. This aging population requires more long-term care and specialized treatment.
Retiring Workforce: Many experienced nurses and doctors are retiring, creating critical gaps.
Chronic Illnesses on the Rise: Heart disease, diabetes, and respiratory disorders require ongoing treatment. These types of treatment increase the demand for specialists and caregivers.

HR Strategy: Expanding Workforce Pipelines

Partner with universities and recruiting experts to secure early career hires
Offer tuition reimbursement to attract students into healthcare careers
Implement remote roles to expand hiring beyond geographic limits
Provide competitive wages and explore overtime opportunities, such as shift differential pay

There are tactics healthcare HR professionals can utilize to help with the talent shortage burden. The World Health Organization encourages individuals and organizations alike to put preventative healthcare at the top of their priority list. Companies can incorporate health and wellness initiatives into their HR strategies. These initiatives help decrease hospitalizations and increase workforce longevity. Some of these initiatives include:

Telehealth Visits

Insurance plans with telehealth visits open up time for physicians and decrease congestion in waiting rooms.

Employee Wellness Programs

Employee wellness programs that encourage exercise by rewarding workers who meet activity goals.

Free Mental Health Checkups

Free mental health checkups to all employee health plan participants, reducing workforce stress levels.

Mandatory Vacation Policies

Policies that mandate senior leaders and lower-level workers to take vacation time, motivating employees to rejuvenate.

Lower Deductibles

Lower deductibles for health plan participants making preventative screenings more affordable and minimizing chronic illness diagnoses.

HR software solutions with benefits administration features can help streamline all of these ideas into actionable results. Physicians, nurses, and other healthcare workers can access their benefits information 24/7 from any device for better communication. They can also view different coverage types, enroll in benefit plans, and manage their wellness offerings all from one place.

The Best New Talent is Hired Quickly

In addition to talent shortages, recruiting fresh, top talent is also a staffing problem in hospitals. Healthcare organizations benefit from the cost-effectiveness of new hires and their up-to-date training. However, new candidates typically prefer to accept positions with their healthcare internship providers. This gap creates geographical pockets in up-to-date training methods and experience levels.

The lack of available new talent makes it competitive for employers to recruit medical staff, as they have to look attractive without offering the highest salaries. Fortunately, recruiting software simplifies the hiring process and increases candidate pools so that you can fill your talent pipeline with the best candidates for the job.

HR recruitment software aids managers in creating compelling career pages and postings across job sites. Leaders can promote jobs internally and externally and encourage prospects to apply from any electronic device. Meanwhile, employees can share career postings across social media or other sources.

The flexibility of mobile application capabilities, combined with the positive brand image employees have created across the web, builds your company’s reputation. The reputation of being a desirable employer to work for and onboard with makes it much easier to attract new talent in the healthcare industry.

Hard-to-Fill Positions in Healthcare

Specific roles are consistently challenging to fill, creating higher workloads for existing staff.

1. Nurse Practitioners (NPs)

Demand is projected to grow 46% by 2031 due to physician shortages.

2. Mental Health Professionals

There is a shortage of psychiatrists and therapists due to the rising demand for mental health services.

3. Home Health Aides

Aging populations require more in-home care, but low wages and high burnout deter workers.

4. Medical Laboratory Technologists

Pandemic testing increased demand, but fewer students entered the field.

5. Primary Care Physicians

Rural areas struggle the most with physician shortages.

Need Help with Healthcare Payroll and HR needs?

Learn how we can help by downloading our overview on how APS helps healthcare organizations.

Healthcare Jobs have a Cumbersome Screening Process

Cumbersome screening processes are another recruitment selection challenge to HR in healthcare. While some screenings involve social security tracing and criminal history information, other background checks in the healthcare industry involve unique processes that don’t usually apply to non-healthcare organizations. Here are a few additional screenings HR has to administer before filling hospital staffing requests.

Verifications and Credential Screenings: These check degree validity, previous employment and verify professional credentials and licensures.
General Services Administration (GSA) Search: This searches for an exclusion list for federal funding. Providers who appear on an exclusion list are not eligible for payments or reimbursements, and any payments made to these providers put the organization at risk.
Fraud and Abuse Control Information System (FACIS) Checks: This involves searching healthcare-specific records for any disciplinary actions or reprimand letters the person has received related to the healthcare field.
Controlled Substance Screenings: This ensures candidate employment complies with company-wide policies on illicit substances.

In addition to these background-styled checks, a healthcare employer might have you take a tuberculosis test and verify you have received other necessary vaccinations relevant to the job. These screenings and health checks can take a lot longer if you don’t have a system to properly manage prospect documentation.

HR recruiting software grants you access to the specific screening tools and document management capabilities you need for your healthcare organization. Some HR vendors handle background checks and screening procedures themselves. Others partner with third-party vendors to provide verifications and criminal searches.

HR software also offers the ability to pre-populate previously entered candidate data into background screening requests. Automating this process eliminates duplicate data entry. As a result, HR recruiting software reduces errors associated with candidate screening, improves accuracy, and speeds up the entire hiring process.

The Role of Technology in Healthcare Hiring

Technology integration is modernizing healthcare recruitment by enhancing efficiency and precision in hiring processes. Automation is pivotal in this transformation, offering tools that streamline various aspects of recruitment:

Automated Interview Scheduling: Implementing automated systems tailored for healthcare industries allows candidates to self-schedule interviews. This innovative process can minimize delays and administrative burdens, leading to a more efficient hiring timeline.
Data-Driven Decision Making: Advanced analytics enable HR teams to monitor hiring trends and assess candidate experiences.

Additionally, the expansion of telehealth services has broadened the recruitment landscape. Healthcare organizations can now source professionals for remote roles. Facilities can recruit healthcare positions such as virtual nurses and telemedicine specialists.

A Successful Recruitment in the Making

Healthcare organizations can overcome traditional hiring challenges by embracing technology. Attracting the talent necessary to meet evolving patient care needs becomes a streamlined experience for everyone involved. HR teams that embrace technology and streamlined processes will thrive.

Key Takeaways

Move quickly – Automate recruiting processes to secure top talent faster.
Expand talent pipelines – Partner with universities and training programs.
Reduce burnout and turnover – Invest in flexible schedules and leadership training.
Leverage HR technology – AI and automation cut hiring time and improve efficiency.

How APS Makes Healthcare Recruitment and Onboarding Easy

APS is a unified payroll and HR platform designed to help hospital administrators attract quality applicants, build a better hiring process, and develop a successful onboarding program to grow their industry. Our workforce solution is designed to manage recruiting and onboarding, shift differential time tracking, labor distribution reporting, and regulatory compliance, so you focus on providing quality patient care.

Whether you’re looking to automate your recruitment, manage payroll processing, or you need a platform that can handle your entire employee lifecycle, it’s easier to control those processes in a unified system. APS’ payroll and HR solution is built as a single solution, giving you the ultimate flexibility to use what you need and expand as your healthcare organization continues to grow.

Interested in learning more about an HR solution tailored to the healthcare industry?

Download our Healthcare Buyer’s Guide to explore eliminating manual processes and saving valuable time.