4 Avoidable Mistakes That Lead to Bad Hires
The landscape of healthcare recruiting continues to grow competitive. Recruiters and HR teams must be aggressive to find the right talent for an increasing number of open positions. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, healthcare support and healthcare practitioners will make up 20% of job openings by 2026. So when it comes to finding the best talent for a position, recruiters don’t have room to make mistakes. Here are some of the most common healthcare recruitment mistakes to avoid.
Recruitment Mistake #1: Overlooking Internal Talent
Searching for healthcare talent outside an organization is more tempting than ever with the help of technology. A job post on LinkedIn, for example, can lead to many potential candidates filling your interview schedule. However, some of the best candidates may be within your very organization.
There are plenty of benefits to recruiting internal hires. For one, an external candidate often demands a starting salary 18-20% higher than an internal hire. But that higher salary doesn’t necessarily mean an external hire will be better than an internal one. It can take an outside hire an average of three years to perform as well as an internal hire in the same job.
Solution: Post the position on internal job boards a short period before opening to external candidates and actively let employees know about the open position. When you check internally and externally for the best candidate, it will ensure you don’t overlook a valuable existing resource.
Recruitment Mistake #2: Being Inflexible
Healthcare is a demanding industry that forces many healthcare professionals to work long hours and at odd times. Research reveals that physicians, for example, work on average 51.4 hours per week, with almost a quarter working between 61-80 hours a week.
These long and demanding hours can make fitting an interview during regular recruitment hours nearly impossible. This extends hiring time and can lead to missed opportunities to find the best person for the position.
Solution: Be sure to give adequate lead time to schedule interviews so candidates can arrange their schedules accordingly. Also, be willing to meet outside of the traditional 9-to-5 workday to accommodate their erratic schedule. This flexibility will ensure that you get the widest candidate pool possible.
Recruitment Mistake #3: Running a Slow Hiring Process
Hiring can sometimes take time to properly vet the right candidate while communicating with all stakeholders during the process. But this can hurt your ability to get top talent. According to a 2019 PricewaterhouseCoopers survey, a hiring process that took longer than a month discouraged applicants from accepting a job offer. In fact, top candidates are usually only available for about ten days before getting hired. Moving too slow could mean having to settle for a less suitable candidate.
Solution: Frequent communication is a critical way to help overcome this mistake. Routinely check in with shortlisted candidates to let them know they’re still being considered. Be persistent with internal stakeholders to ensure a swift exchange of information. And leverage technology to scale your communications to your candidate pool.
Recruitment Mistake #4: Experiencing Tunnel Vision
Once candidates are shortlisted, recruiters can become anxious to select a candidate, which might lead to an impulsive, tunnel-vision hire. This tunnel vision ignores potential red flags about soft skills related to the job – personality traits that may not have been revealed through initial interview rounds.
In one recent survey, 89% of hiring executives stated that bad hires lacked soft skills. That means a potential bad hire can look suitable during recruitment but reveal a lack of soft skills after the contract is signed.
Solution: Identify soft-skill red flags by evaluating your interview questions to determine if there are enough that will expose a lack of soft skills. Also, guide interviewers to look for potential warning signs during their exchanges with candidates.
Recruit the Top Talent in Healthcare
Recruiting for a highly competitive field like healthcare can be challenging. By avoiding common mistakes, though, organizations can make sure they find the right people to fill the roles they need.
