How good are you at showcasing your organization and getting the word out about all it offers, how good your staff is and how great a place it is to work?
The role you play is often defined in just two words — recruit and retain — but it goes much deeper than that.
Along with all your talent acquisition and recruitment work of branding, marketing, advertising, interviewing and selecting, you are responsible for retention, which includes everything from onboarding to long-term career advice.
Matching the right nurse with the right job is at the heart of what you do. To do it well, you need to be an informed, savvy spokesperson for your facility, with sales and public relations skills and current knowledge of recruitment software, job boards, market trends and social media.
Do you often ask yourself questions such as:
- Do the nurses in our marketplace really know who we are as an organization?
- How can I show nurses this is a really great place to work?
Most importantly, how do you answer those questions?
Marketing and advertising to get nurses to apply for and accept positions are vital to your organization’s success. Right now, there are nurses considering a job change, and you need to do all you can to attract them.
According to our newly released 2018 Nurse.com Nursing Salary Research Report, 16% of RNs are actively looking to change employers. Plus, an additional 49% of nurses stated they are not actively looking but are open to new job opportunities.
Those percentages go even higher when looking at the workforce overall. According to a hiring insights blog article, “84% of employees would consider leaving their current jobs if offered another position in a company with an excellent corporate reputation.”
This demonstrates how important it is to build your company brand presence and show off your open positions to attract top nursing talent.
You know your organization is great, and you need to make every nurse job seeker know that too. Each day you should ask yourself, “What else can I do to show off my facility and gain a bigger presence?”
Share the good news and don’t forget to brag a little
The marketplace has active and passive job seekers and you need to reach both segments. Our research report broke this down by generation.
Generation Y and Generation X tied with 17% of each generation looking for a new job. Those generations also tied at 51% for not actively looking but open to new opportunities. More than half of nurses are passive job seekers!
Whether it’s an advertisement for an opening to fill right away, or a marketing campaign plan for next year, everything you do should include your facility’s good news. To recruit and retain the smartest and best talent, you need the smartest and best ways of finding them — and that may include a little bragging.
Applicants know the hiring handshake was just the beginning of their career journey with you. They want career advancement and upward mobility for job satisfaction.
Here are some ideas to help you demonstrate your facility is a good place to work:
- Tout those successful retention strategies.
- If you have long staff tenure, highlight that.
- Good promotion histories among staff? Tell their stories.
- If your employee satisfaction scores are high, include them in your advertisements.
- Has your facility won awards? Share that news.
You worked hard to recruit the employees you have and you are continuing to work hard to retain them. Say that in your marketing and advertising!
Fill your advertisements with information about your great nurses, how you value them and how your facility is helping them advance their careers.
Brag a little about your tuition reimbursement, paid continuing education and conferences and recognition programs. Advertise statistics on nurses’ degrees and certifications.
And don’t neglect to highlight your company culture, something that many nurse job seekers care about, including facility awards.
Nurses want to work at a facility they love, and that’s related to the organizational culture. A recent Fast Company article says you need to know “how to accurately communicate the aspects of your culture that matter.”
Referrals can boost your talent pool
In good organizations, staff can help you with referrals, whether or not you have an incentive program for them to do so.
A nurse who loves his or her job tells a friend from a neighboring hospital to apply. Another nurse sends in a colleague from his professional organization to interview. Then a nurse taking courses for an advanced degree brings in a classmate because of your facility’s good education benefits.
Referrals like these are proof positive your organization is a great place to work, and more good news you can market. You’re happy because you’ve gotten them in the door and your nurses are happy to have helped their friends. It’s a win-win situation.
According to Recruiterflow, “the biggest motivator for your team members to refer employees is not the recognition or reward, but the joy of helping out a friend.”
Referrals also can come from your colleagues in academia. Ask them about senior students they think would be good hires. If your facility is a great place to work, they’ll want their grads to work there, too — another win-win.
What’s being called “the next shortage” may not have hit your facility yet. It may or may not ever hit — the messages are mixed. But be ready just in case.
Along with sharing all the good news about your facility, start thinking about the perks and money incentives you had to offer during past shortages:
- Signing and retention bonuses
- Loan forgiveness plans
- Tuition reimbursement improvements
- Paid continuing education, professional conferences and more
But even then, remember this — nurses want good salaries and benefits, but more than that they want good jobs at great places. Continue to be one of them.