There is no denying the Pandemic took a toll on assisted living recruitment. According to the American Healthcare Association, at the current rate of growth, employment in assisted living facilities will not reach pre-pandemic levels until 2027.
This statistic is frightening, and if you’re in the position of needing to hire new talent, it can be downright disheartening. This is why you should consider working with an assisted living recruitment agency to fill the empty positions on your team.
How Assisted Living Recruitment Can Help Build Your Team
Without the right strategies and recruitment partnerships in place, hiring the best talent for vacant positions in your assisted living facilities can be difficult. There is hope, though. Working with an assisted living recruitment firm can help you build a skilled team of workers who are ready and eager to care for your patients.
Here’s how.
Increase Your Online Presence
It is no secret that most people rely heavily on internet reviews before making a purchase. And, just like with online shopping, most job seekers will look for reviews of your facility before deciding to apply for your open positions. This is why it’s essential to have an active online presence.
How can a recruitment agency help boost your visibility?
Working with an assisted living recruiter can help you get found by active job seekers by advertising your job postings to a targeted audience and enhancing your social media strategy. Rather than posting online and hoping for the right candidates to find you, they’ll design a social media recruitment strategy that shows your followers how great it is to work in your assisted care facility and how they can easily apply to join your team.
Improve the Application Process
Assisted living recruitment shouldn’t be a tedious or lengthy process, but oftentimes it is. One way to shorten the hiring process is to streamline how you review and accept applications.
Often times job applications are too lengthy and confusing, leading applicants to drop off before submitting a resume. An assisted living recruitment agency can help you determine which parts of your application are necessary and which part is fluff— leaving your application as straightforward as possible. Your recruitment firm can also help with putting your application online. That way, it can easily be advertised to qualified candidates.
Recruit from Related Sectors
You know that your employees’ skills are often related to skills employees in other healthcare settings need. With the right offer and benefit package, the chances are high that employees in related fields will consider making the switch to assisted living care and apply for your positions. This makes other similar healthcare fields the perfect place to recruit new employees and promote your open positions.
Healthcare recruiting ideas include:
- Hold job fairs at local universities with medical programs.
- Partner with local colleges and universities that offer medical degrees and professional degrees in the healthcare industry.
- Create job shadowing programs with local medical schools to help students become skilled in assisted living care.
Improve Onboarding and Training
Unfortunately, in understaffed situations, patient care declines, veteran employees quit from the strain of not having enough help, and patients are left in critical need. And as veteran employees walk out the door, it can be tough to find other skilled employees who can help train the new hires on the job.
How can you bring on new talent while also accommodating the needs of your current staff? A major benefit of working with a recruiter is that they can suggest new ways to improve your new hires’ onboarding and training processes. This will help you get qualified talent into your facilities and at patient bedsides much sooner rather than later.
Create an Employee Referral Program
An employee referral program can lead to significant cost savings in your recruitment plan. In fact, current data shows that the cost-per-hire of employee referrals is around a thousand dollars less than other hiring sources. So, how can you find referral candidates? Look to your team.
Your current employees are likely connected to a pool of potential applicants – either from previous workplaces, professional circles, or education programs– who have the skills you need for your assisted living facilities. Getting your current employees involved in the recruitment process is a great way to spread the word to their colleagues about your vacancies.
Work with your senior living recruiting team to build a strong candidate pipeline through an employee referral program. An employee referral program will give your employees an incentive to talk about their work environment with new recruits and convince them to apply.
Partner With an Experienced Assisted Living Recruitment Firm
Although these are just a few reasons to consider working with an assisted living recruitment agency, there are plenty more benefits that’ll help you find and hire top talent for your team.
At Hire Velocity, we understand the critical need for hiring qualified talent for your assisted living facilities. Whether you need floor nurses or phlebotomists, we partner with you to enhance your talent acquisition strategy.
Contact us today to learn more about our assisted living recruitment strategies.
