The Future of the Healthcare Job Market – Candidate Experience & Remote Training

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the entire global healthcare infrastructure and shifted the way that practitioners deliver care and how patients expect care to be delivered. Catalyzed by the need for stay-at-home policies and remote work procedures necessary in response to COVID-19, health care organizations have had to adapt to shifting consumer demands toward virtual visits. Additionally, as healthcare organizations have shifted their staff to a remote working environment as a safety precaution, there has been an increase in demand for adequate training and development of staff in a work-from-home setting.

Encouragingly, health care was already a growing and exciting space to pursue a career, even prior to COVID-19. The shifts and working dynamic in 2020 and 2011, however, mean that for the right kind of position, there could be a dramatic increase in demand - which is good for job prospects. In fact, BLS projects employment in healthcare occupations to grow 15% from 2019 to 2029, much faster than the average for all other occupations, adding about 2.4 million new jobs.

So, what does this mean for healthcare organizations and their hiring procedures going forward? As healthcare organizations confront a dramatic increase in healthcare jobs demand while competing for a shrinking talent pool, we will see an increased reliance on employer branding initiatives and candidate experience enhancements that help organizations attract the best candidates possible. Also, 2021 should bring about new dynamics across on-the-job training and virtual training that capture the benefits of a virtual environment and the positives the technology and innovation can bring to those responsibilities.

Healthcare Organizations Can Showcase More Personality Throughout the Candidate Experience

Hiring in healthcare can often be an intimidating and clinical practice. Because of the demand for resources at a healthcare institution, often times the candidate experience when interviewing or vying for a role in the healthcare institution can be lacking. However, the future of hiring in healthcare is bright because the utilization of virtual communication tools - and their ability to save time and resources – means that those in charge of hiring and talent acquisition at healthcare institutions can showcase a more thoughtful and deliberate candidate experience.

“An interesting trend we’re seeing in hiring because of work-from-home is an increased number of interviews happening with more diverse team members throughout an organization,” says Joseph Puglise, Senior Director of Executive Search and Recruiting at global executive search firm JMJ Phillip Group. “Because you’re not getting the office tour and culture, we’re seeing companies make a bigger effort around getting more people as part of the interview process.”

Between letting interviewees have more conversations with various stakeholders within an organization and allowing for a more controlled and focused interview experience (through AI and virtual tools), hospitals and healthcare institutions will see their employer branding scores grow as team members become more familiar with these tools and start to establish industry best practices across both the employee experience and the internal user experience.

Technology Use Is On The Rise

“There has been a marked increase in demand for preparation services that help job seekers with digital and virtual aspects of the job search process,” said Ryan Miller, Client Success Manager at Employment BOOST. “Job seekers are realizing that interviewing for a work-from-home job is different from a traditional office job, and hiring managers are expecting different things nowadays.”

HR teams within healthcare organizations have leaned into technology more heavily as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Video conferencing tools have allowed for remote interviewing and vetting of candidates in a safe, and arguably, more efficient manner. As a result, this is a trend that's here to stay. The ease of use and convenience of virtual interviewing means that HR departments at healthcare institutions all across the country can better allocate where their resources are going and spend less time working on administrative tasks the takeaway from the candidate experience. The reality is that every minute saved by an HR team member not walking to and from a conference room is a minute that can be applied to a more important task that will help sustain the organization going forward. Implementation of virtual interviewing and virtual conferencing tools means that HR professionals are able to take their time back and allocate it properly.

This dynamic applies to remote onboarding and training, too. A result of the transition to remote work is that healthcare organizations are having to digital tools to maintain the quality of onboarding, such that it is to a level that is similar to that of an in-person experience. The use of technology has positively affected pacing and the level of detail that new hires can dive into because new hires can check on information without the pressure of somebody looking over them.

“Our clients are reporting that new hires showcase their problem-solving skills earlier as a result of virtual on-the-job training,” says Kristen Fowler, Practice Lead at Clarke Caniff Strategic Search – a boutique executive search firm specializing in the hospitality, services, real estate, and luxury sectors. “When we compare the experience of training virtually to in-person training, we can see that new hires are encouraged to be a little bit more curious and click around the different systems they're learning to use. We are seeing more trial and error, and a willingness to figure out what works for them instead of being spoon-fed information, which is a good thing.”

Kane Carpenter is the Director of Marketing for Employment BOOST. In this role, Kane is responsible for driving market awareness across the entire JMJ Phillip Holdings portfolio of companies. Kane also manages Employment BOOST’s Career Services function for and leads hiring and recruitment efforts. Kane is currently pursuing an MBA degree from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University, and is Google Advertising Certified.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes