Hunting for jobs is often a stressful and time-consuming affair, and in the healthcare field it is no different. Between searching for job postings, tweaking their resume, crafting the perfect cover letter, and agonizing over whether the prospective employer will call them back, hopeful applicants spend days, weeks, even months searching for that perfect job, the one that is a blend of meaningful work, livable wages, and manageable work/life balance.
However, the search for that perfect employee can be just as strenuous and drawn out for potential owners of a healthcare facility. Sifting through resumes, setting up interviews, and negotiating contracts with new doctor and nurses all while trying to find someone who aligns with their company culture and values can also take months to achieve, only for the perfect candidate to slip through their fingers at the last moment and go to work for a competitor.
So how does the perfect healthcare company find that perfect employee for that perfect job? One easy solution is employment branding. In this age of modern technology, a company’s online presence can attract qualified candidates or it can send them running to the company’s rivals. By implementing employment branding, your company can curate an image that is sure to draw in highly qualified professionals who you can be assured will be an asset to you.
What is Employment Branding and Why is It Necessary?
An employment brand is simply the image that past, current, and prospective employees have of what it is like to work for your company. This image includes job growth potential, management’s behavior, and the company culture as a whole, such as what the values of the company are (and if their employees are one of them) and how stressful the work environment is. Healthcare professionals want to work for a hospital or clinic that treats them well, and an employment brand goes a long way in assuring potential candidates of your company’s good intentions.
Employment branding has become more important in the past few years due to the decrease in job seekers. A study released in 2020 reveals that the overall number of job openings exceeds the number of new hires. This suggests that the number of qualified individuals for these job openings has decreased or is, at the very least, not growing with their respective industries. Because of this trend, your company is more likely to find itself competing with others for those few perfect candidates.
Creating the right employment brand for your company can give you an edge over your competitors in the recruitment process, allowing you to woo the potential employee more successfully.
How Does Your Company Create an Employment Brand?
Before you can create the perfect employment brand, your company and hiring professionals will first need to understand how candidates are looking for jobs. While some still look for the career tab on prospective employers’ websites, many now look to social media and jobs boards, such as the jobs tab on LinkedIn. While most healthcare companies have adapted to this change, they must still find a way to stand out on these job boards and media platforms in order to catch the interest of a prospective employee.
In order to stand out, you as a hospital or clinic must uncover what your particular employment brand is and what you want it to be. This can be achieved either by setting up a team yourself or hiring a recruitment marketing team to study your company and find out what your past and current employees think about the company and its benefits.
This can be achieved through company surveys, reading reviews online, and post-interview surveys of prospective employees, all of which might be able to give you a pretty good idea of where improvements to your employment brand can be made; however, while you could do this internally, having an unbiased group come in to create your perfect employment brand may prove more successful in the long run.
After you have established what your current employment brand is and what you want it to be, your company must implement the necessary changes to its online presence, hiring and interviewing processes, and employee treatment and benefits. These changes must then be brought to prospective employees’ attention through social media posts, updated job descriptions, and well-written documents that lay out exactly what the benefits and expectations of working for your company are to your employees and interviewees.
By taking the time to curate the right kind of employment brand, you and your company can ensure that, when the time comes to fill a job opening, you will be able to find qualified candidates who will fit in with your company values and, more importantly, want to work for and be an asset to you and the company.
Conclusion
Seeking a job and seeking an employee for a job can be a stressful and taxing process. However, if your company puts in the work to create the perfect employment brand by demonstrating a strong company culture, fair treatment of workers, and a good work/life balance, you will be able to find the perfect candidate that is the perfect fit for your perfect job.