As 2023 approaches, hospitals and health systems continue to consider hiring initiatives and efforts to address workforce challenges. These initiatives go beyond pay and range from video interview submissions to virtual "walk-in Wednesdays" hiring events.
Becker's asked human resources leaders at organizations to share the unique hiring initiatives they are planning for 2023. Below are their responses.
Deanna Dudley. Chief Human Resources Officer for El Camino Health (Mountain View, Calif.): Our goal for 2023 is to modernize and optimize our hiring process. When it comes to modernizing, one thing we are considering, as more people get comfortable with video technology, is having candidates submit video interviews during earlier phases of the recruiting process. Video submissions are great because candidates can record their responses on their own time, and hiring managers can review and replay them. From there, they can decide which candidates should come in for a final interview. We can spend less time trying to make schedules work, and more time focusing on who would be the best fit.
As we work to optimize our hiring process, we are prioritizing finding positions that are a solid fit for silver medalist candidates, or the candidates who might have been the second choice for another position. When you find great talent you should get them in, mold them and move them within the organization. We are also focusing on renewing relationships with potential boomerangs — people who left the organization in good standing and may be interested in returning. Having that personal connection matters, especially during uncertain economic times.
Ryan Hamel. Chief People Officer at Northwestern Medical Center (Saint Albans, Vt.): Northwestern Medical Center is launching a new training program aimed at supporting people through the process of becoming a licensed nursing assistant and strengthening our pipeline of nursing staff. The program will consist of a 10-week class taught by an NMC instructor. NMC will pay students for the training hours and also offer additional work hours to trainees at NMC as a patient sitter. Classes start in January and at the program’s completion, the trainees will be offered full-time LNA positions at NMC.
NMC also provides a bridge program in partnership with Vermont state colleges to make it easy and affordable for LNAs to earn their LPN and further connect them with scholarship funds to support the development of new nurses.
Danielle Lombard-Sims, PhD. Vice Chancellor and Chief People and Culture Officer for University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (Little Rock): As with most academic medical centers, our top priorities include staffing, compensation, well-being and growth. The shortages of healthcare workers nationwide has created a need to focus on innovative ways of partnering and hiring that healthcare hasn't experienced in the past. In the new year we plan to continue several initiatives we began this year and incorporate others into our plans.
We are partnering with nonprofit and academic undergraduate and technical schools that enable us to train and develop a pipeline of workers for the future through training and immediate job placement upon successfully completing the program. We will be incorporating more flexible work policies that allow for 100 percent remote workers in some areas, and a hybrid model where possible for others. Contract workers are being included in our orientation and onboarding programs. In the past temporary workers were treated as such, but with more than 25 percent of our staff being managed through contracts, it's important that we engage them in our culture as well to provide a seamless experience for our patients. Retention of our current workers continues to be key, so we will be focusing on retention as a recruitment strategy, with action plans around engagement that are not "check the box" exercises but where we demonstrate that you said it, and we did it.
We also are incorporating a fair and just culture, a focus on employee well-being beyond our clinical workers, and developing our talent so that they see a career path either vertically or horizontally within UAMS. Technology is important in our industry, and in the new year we will continue to look for ways in which we can leverage technology to enable our employees to work at the top of their license. We are evaluating whether our current organizational design and structure allow for the success of the organization. Doing so will enable UAMS to be agile, flexible and able to scale should the need arise. Last, we are improving our employee orientation, onboarding of new hires, as well as our branding, with a focus on the employee value proposition.
Ekta Vyas, PhD. Chief Human Resources Officer of Keck Medicine of USC (Los Angeles): Virtual walk-in Wednesdays — Qualified clinical candidates will be contacted by text and email drip campaign to register for one of our monthly open hiring events where they can sign-up to be virtually interviewed by hiring managers and may receive offers within 48 hours (or even same day in some situations).
Recruitment marketing wellness check — Will involve revisiting and refreshing our employment marketing and candidate outreach strategy coupled with the development of a formal employee value proposition to help us realign with the changing demands of the healthcare talent market and create more awareness of the Keck Medicine employer brand.