The following is a guest article by Suzanne Arroyo, Senior Content Strategist, and Christopher Ryan, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer at Avionté.
With large-scale nursing strikes happening across the nation, one thing is for certain: nurses feel overworked. The global pandemic has only amplified a growing problem – there aren’t enough RNs to care for a continuous rise in patients.
And the situation is intensifying. By 2030, one million nurses are expected to retire. The healthcare system will continue to be put under pressure by an aging nursing workforce, increased turnover, and a maturing baby boomer population that needs more complex care. The rising nurse-to-patient ratio is quickly leading to a nationwide crisis as more than 80% of bedside nurses cite extreme burn-out levels, resulting in lower patient care quality and higher morbidity rates.
With nursing shortages looming, rapid onboarding has become a major focus for the healthcare industry to help hire and retain nurses. So how can hiring managers solve this problem? Though they may not think about how their technology makes them attractive to potential employees, they should – especially when faced with critical talent shortages.
Why Medical HR is in Dire Need of a Technological Reboot
Despite the desperate need to attract and retain more nurses, hospitals and medical staffing agencies still make it difficult for people to get employed. Healthcare HR is vastly behind the curve in technology and still relies heavily on old-school, paper-based transactions. But with more challenging workplace expectations, medical providers have less patience for a tedious employment process and are increasingly frustrated by hiring and onboarding procedures that waste time and make it harder to quickly place.
If you’re involved in healthcare staffing, try this exercise. Put yourself in the shoes of a potential candidate at your organization and imagine what it’s like to go through the experience of getting hired. Are the steps clear or confusing? Is your candidate’s time being valued? What does the technology you’re using (or not using) say about your organization? If you’re not providing a good hiring experience, then it may be an early sign that you’re not a good place to work for. So, what can you do?
With all the stress that nurses face, hospitals and medical staffing agencies need to look to mobile technology to make application, credentialing, onboarding, and placement as seamless as possible.
Remember, when it comes to attracting a potential hire, time is not your friend. You have a limited period to engage the candidate, get their information, move them through all employment steps, and close the deal before they go elsewhere. Anything that elongates this process lowers the chances that they’ll join you, even after you extend an offer. But anything that simplifies and removes unnecessary stress from the experience will make your company an employer of choice.
This is why mobile technology is key in helping hospitals increase and retain staff, lower nurse-to-patient ratios, and create better working conditions for RNs.
What Should You Look for in Adopting a Mobile Employment Strategy?
Luckily, there are tools that give employers the ability to execute an effective mobile strategy for their employees. The right technology supports your hiring managers and candidates through the entire talent journey – from application to onboarding, job placement, and redeployment.
Research consistently shows that applicants value speed, transparency, and personal control over their schedules. Imagine if your nurses could apply, get certified and placed, select their most desired shifts, manage their own timekeeping, and access their pay information all in one place – from the convenience of their mobile device?
Hospitals and medical facilities desperately need to retain good nurses, and the best way to earn employee loyalty is by creating an efficient talent enablement process that keeps your nurses engaged throughout their entire employment journey.
Remember Your Hiring Managers – Their Time is Valuable too
Hospitals and medical staffing agencies should also consider how mobile apps can help create a more satisfying and valuable experience for hiring managers and recruiters.
A modern, mobile application allows hiring managers to direct each step of the employment journey with a simple click of a button. This can save them time often wasted on repetitive communications or having to use multiple systems to manage the end-to-end employment process.
By eliminating administrative stress, your hiring managers can focus on building personal relationships with potential candidates to provide them with a better employment experience – rather than wasting valuable time managing clerical tasks.
And for healthcare recruiters who manage a contingent workforce, having your providers’ information archived for future employment purposes can lead to speedier redeployment, greatly increasing time-to-fill.
But, most importantly, by compressing the time frame between initial contact with an applicant and first day at work, hiring managers and recruiters can double the yield in your talent funnel. All of this goes a long way in helping hospitals certify and place nurses with greater speed. This is especially crucial when hospitals must quickly staff to maintain a suitable nurse-to-patient ratio to ensure proper medical care.
Mobile Employment Apps are Essential in Solving the Nursing Shortage
The healthcare industry is critically behind in technology – contributing to the already stressful work conditions nurses face. Many job candidates are lost between application and onboarding. If you make it harder for providers to apply, get placed, and control their schedules, they won’t be loyal to your company or agency, leading to further turnover and increased shortages.
Consumer expectations are being reset by mobile technology in all other aspects of people’s lives. Why should employment be any different? It’s hard to attract good candidates to your institution when your processes say you’re overly bureaucratic and don’t value employees’ time.
Healthcare employers who use mobile technology to effectively manage the entire employment lifecycle from application to placement and beyond have a significant leg up on medical institutions that don’t. Nothing provides a better signal for what it’s like to work for a company than the process it takes to join them. And this is where a well-designed mobile app can really help.
Having the right mobile employment technology at your fingertips will not only speed time-to-fill, but it will also positively enhance your brand by demonstrating that you’re up to speed with new technology and are easy to work with.
Given the dire situation caused by growing nursing shortages, the use of technology to build a better hiring process and work environment is no longer just a nice to have – it’s absolutely essential for the proper functioning of the healthcare industry moving forward.
About Suzanne Arroyo
Suzanne Arroyo is a seasoned content strategist with over 15 years of experience in multi-channel, award-winning digital marketing with a history of driving brand awareness and customer engagement through various online marketing channels. Prior to Avionté, Suzanne spent 10 years as a Senior Marketing Executive and Digital Content Producer at The Conference Board (TCB), a leading, non-partisan business management think tank.
About Christopher Ryan
Christopher Ryan is a senior executive with more than three decades of experience in consulting, thought leadership, and corporate leadership in human capital, health benefits, and population health. Prior to Avionté, Chris held the position of Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer for SHPS|Carewise Health and joined ADP through an acquisition in 2012.
