Healthcare recruiters face unique obstacles that talent acquisition teams in other industries don’t encounter. The number of open jobs in the healthcare sector far outpaces the number of available professionals, making candidate experience, speed-to-hire, and overall recruiter efficiency critical for success.
However, a comprehensive study from RogueHire, a leader in talent acquisition benchmarking, reveals that many recruiting teams require significant support in these areas.
A staggering one-third of healthcare candidates report negative hiring experiences, with two-thirds expressing dissatisfaction or neutrality with their experience. These figures highlight a clear need to improve candidate engagement and satisfaction throughout the recruiting process.
When it comes to time-to-hire, nearly half of candidates encounter lengthy delays exceeding 20 days within the hiring process. This extended timeframe contributes to their poor experience and ultimately results in qualified candidates being hired by faster-moving competitors.
And then there a healthcare recruiters themselves, who are struggling to work efficiently. As many as 16 hours are dedicated to screening applicants for a single open position.
All of these combined issues significantly contribute to candidate drop-off in healthcare recruiting. Time and resources are wasted when a qualified candidate suffers a poor experience or lengthy process and shifts their focus to one of the many other available opportunities. The result? Critical positions remain vacant, leading to poor patient care, staff burnout, and financial strain for healthcare providers.
The healthcare recruiting process is a multi-stage journey, with each step presenting unique risk factors that contribute to candidate drop-off. To optimize your hiring strategy, it's important to first understand where and why candidate attrition commonly occurs.
A candidate’s perception of your organization can make or break whether they ever apply in the first place. Here's how unclear communication and poor employer branding can lead to a missed opportunity to get a qualified candidate’s attention:
A lengthy and complex process leads to application abandonment—one of the most common forms of candidate drop-off. Here's how unnecessary hurdles can prevent you from sourcing the talent you need:
Clear and timely communication is a must throughout the recruiting process, especially during the screening and interview scheduling stage. Here's how a lack of communication contributes to candidate drop-off:
The interview stage offers the opportunity for both you and the candidate to learn if there is a match. However, a poorly managed interview process can drive talented individuals away. Here’s how common interview pitfalls lead to candidate drop-off:
After a candidate accepts an offer there is still a chance they lose interest and drop-off before day one. Here's how a lapse in communication can lead to anxiety and doubts for new hires:
We’ve covered where candidate drop-off occurs and what typically causes it. Now let’s explore how you can identify drop-off points in your specific recruiting process.
A comprehensive review of data within your Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and broader recruiting technology stack will reveal where drop-off tends to occur. Compile data from every source you have available to identify the stages in your hiring process where candidates exit the most.
Think about where candidates seem to drop-off in your own experience as a recruiter. Put yourself in their shoes and consider what’s causing them to lose interest.
For example, you might already have a sense that your application process is clunky or you conduct too many interviews. You can start with that hypothesis and use data to determine if it’s valid.
Continuously refine your recruiting approach by testing different job descriptions, application questions, and communication channels to see what performs the best. This data-driven approach allows you to identify what resonates (and doesn't resonate) with candidates.
Try removing unnecessary application questions to assess the impact on abandonment rates. If you feel like these questions are necessary, you can ask them during screening calls when candidates are more invested in the opportunity.
Similarly, test alternative communication channels like text messaging to see if they elicit better response rates compared to phone calls or emails. If you already utilize text messaging, experiment with different messaging content to determine which versions drive the best results.
Identifying drop-off points within your recruiting process is only half the battle. The next step is to diagnose the underlying reasons for candidate disengagement and attrition. Let’s explore some proven tactics that will help you determine what is driving candidate drop-off.
Gather valuable feedback directly from candidates by implementing surveys throughout the recruiting process. Tailor your questions to their specific stage in the process so you can really dig into their experience and identify potential areas for improvement.
For example, if data reveals a high drop-off rate during the interview stage, use surveys to determine if the issue is the number of interviews being conducted, the interview format, or the specific questions asked by the hiring team.
Analyzing a large volume of survey responses can be a daunting task. The good news is artificial intelligence (AI) can do the heavy lifting. It will identify recurring themes and surface the most prevalent concerns among candidates.
Glassdoor reviews are a valuable source of unfiltered candidate feedback. Pay close attention to these reviews, as candidates often express their frustrations and candidly describe negative experiences with your recruiting process. These insights can provide direct reasons candidates opt to drop-off.
The "Five Whys" exercise is a problem-solving method that helps identify root causes by asking a series of "why" questions. Each answer leads to the next question until a final answer is identified. Applying this approach to determine reasons for drop-off is highly effective.
Let’s explore an example. Say you’re experiencing a high abandonment rate during the application stage. Here's how the "Five Whys" methodology could be used to help you identify the cause:
1. Why are candidates abandoning the application?
(Possible answer) Because there are too many screening questions
2. Why are we asking so many questions?
(Possible answer) To gather sufficient information for evaluation purposes
3. Why do we need to gather so much information?
(Possible answer) Because we don’t want to waste time on unqualified candidates
4. Why don't we want to waste time on qualified candidates?
(Possible answer) Because the recruiting process is already slow and inefficient, leading to extended time-to-hire
5. Why is the recruiting process slow and inefficient?
This fifth and final question forces you to think and likely review your data to identify where bottlenecks are occurring. In this case, you find it’s at the interview stage.
Through conversations with your colleagues and your own experiences, you know that communication and coordination among the different teams involved in interviewing has been a problem.
Root cause
By working through the "Five Whys" exercise, you might discover that the root cause of application abandonment stems from inefficiencies within the interview stage, not necessarily the screening questions themselves.
Solutions
Based on this analysis, the focus should shift to improving communication and coordination among interview teams, resulting in a streamlined interview stage and a better overall recruiting process.
From there, you could consider removing screening activities from the application stage. Some initial screening questions can still be included within the application, but you could delve deeper into candidate qualifications after they’ve applied and are more invested in the opportunity.
You’ve identified the drop-off points in your healthcare recruiting process and the underlying causes. Now it’s time to craft a detailed strategy for addressing these bottlenecks and enhancing the candidate experience. We’ll conclude by highlighting ways to resolve drop-offs and keep healthcare candidates better engaged throughout their journey.
Start by collecting insights from the various stakeholders invested in the recruiting process. This includes your recruiting team members, hiring managers, and ideally, recent hires and applicants. Conduct separate meetings with each group to gather unbiased feedback on what it will take to improve the hiring experience for everyone involved.
The next step entails meticulously outlining the entire candidate journey. This goes beyond simply identifying stages; it involves comprehensively detailing what occurs at each stage. Document the application flow, typical timelines, and communication channels utilized to truly understand what candidates are experiencing.
Connect with hiring managers to understand their interview style and structure, and identify areas for improvement. The objective here is to provide each candidate with a consistent interview experience that focuses solely on evaluating their qualifications.
Most importantly, you should strive to gather candidate perspectives during this exercise. Are there any extra steps within the recruiting process they experience that you haven’t identified? Do they have any thoughts or recommendations for how you can improve communication and make an offer faster? Schedule interviews with a few recent hires or past applicants and have a conversation about their experience.
After you gather information and map out the candidate journey, compare your documented processes against the actual candidate experience. Aim to pinpoint inconsistencies that may be contributing to disengagement and drive drop-off. Look for recurring pain points such as frequent delays in communication, a lack of transparency, or extra steps within a hiring process stage.
Focus on achieving early wins by implementing simple, straightforward solutions. This could involve standardizing communication methods or establishing clear timelines for candidates throughout the recruiting process. However, don’t stop here. Begin outlining more ambitious goals such as restructuring interview formats or transitioning to a new online application platform.
The final step is to develop a comprehensive improvement plan. Clearly define action items and assign ownership to specific individuals or teams. Establish review dates and schedule follow-up meetings to assess the effectiveness of the implemented changes and measure progress toward your long-term goals.
To recap, preventing drop-off in healthcare recruiting is all about speed-to-hire, delivering an outstanding candidate experience, and driving recruiter efficiency. That’s where AI-powered recruiting automation comes in. Innovative healthcare recruiting teams leverage this technology to seamlessly accomplish recurring tasks and to personalize the hiring experience to every candidate. Let’s take a closer look at what it can do:
By systematically addressing candidate drop-off and taking advantage of innovative technology, you can significantly enhance your recruiting efforts and attract top talent within the healthcare industry.
Healthcare recruiting is highly competitive and organizations have little room for error when vying for qualified talent. But RougeHire’s research clearly shows that many teams are falling short when it comes to preventing drop-off.
A multifaceted approach is required to pinpoint drop-off points, diagnose root causes, and resolve the issues that are negatively impacting your hiring efforts. But with the right strategy, you can better attract and engage healthcare professionals and fill critical roles with the right talent.
Want to learn how Sense has helped leading healthcare organizations decrease their drop-off rate by as much as 74%? Get in touch with us today.
