Nursing shortages and high rates of nurse turnover are forcing nursing recruiters to think more strategically. The old methods of medical recruiting aren’t working and it’s clear that something new must be done to fill the 1.1 million nursing jobs needed by 2025. To ramp things up, it helps to understand what today’s current batch of nursing candidates want from the employers who hire them.
Tuition Remission or Reimbursement
Nurses are more likely to accept a position when they know it comes with opportunities for career growth. Offering tuition remission or reimbursement let’s the nurse expand his or her knowledge and obtain new skills. You can add a stipulation that the nursing professional must work at your facility for a certain period of time to pay off the tuition costs if you’re worried about nurses jumping ship. By encouraging continued learning, your facility benefits from higher levels of skills while you gain a greater reputation for helping the nurses you hire.
More Staff Would Lead to Less Burnout
Nurses want the healthcare facilities they work for to hire enough staff to distribute workloads evenly. Studies show that nurses that have to care for more than four patients at a time are at greater risk of burnout. More staff to even out the nurse-to-patient ratio would alleviate this problem.
Career Advancement
In addition to greater knowledge, nurses want to know that they can move up in the organization with enough hard work. This doesn’t necessarily have to involve nurses moving up to leadership or managerial positions. It could also mean nurses moving to different departments, allowing them to pursue new interests while giving their potentially stagnant career a necessary jolt.
Safe and Comfortable Working Conditions
Everyone likes to feel comfortable at work, nurses especially. With the high-stress environment, they’re forced to work in, it helps nurses to know that their co-workers are there for them and management can lend a supportive hand (or a friendly ear) when necessary. The alternative is to provide a hostile environment, which can lead to burnout and turnover.
To keep your workplace comfortable, put focus on rewarding your nurses for their good work. Offer employee incentives to make them want to keep their jobs and focus on building a facility culture that is inclusive and accepting to all.
Easy to Understand Schedule
Nurses want to know that they’ll have enough hours on their paychecks to enable them to pay the bills. Some nurses want overtime so they can earn higher levels of compensation. Work with your nurses to give them the schedules they want most, if possible. Schedules should also be predictable so that nurses can plan around their shifts and attain some semblance of a work-life balance.
Incentive Programs
Your nursing staff will be more willing to come to work when they are supported and paid well. Incentives like medical and retirement packages also help to retain top nursing talent. Find out what benefits your nursing staff is most interested and surprise them with the incentives they want. Once you’ve made your facility a joy to work at, with plenty of rewards, you can further entice your nurses to spread the word about working there by offering a referral bonus. Having your nurses do the medical recruiting for you is a great idea, as friends always like to work with friends.
Family Support Such as Child Care
Nurses want to focus on their jobs and patients while at work. This is difficult when they constantly have to worry about hiring and relieving the babysitter or being to the daycare on time to pick up their little one before it closes.
A good incentive you can offer to your nurses is to offer child and family care support. When torn between two facilities, one that offers family care and one that doesn’t, a nurse with kids might always choose the former. Family care can also provide home care for adults or nursing home services, depending on the terms of the program.
Mental Health Resources
Your nurses may appreciate programs that help with mental health issues. With nursing being such a high-pressure job, nurses may want access to mental health professionals and services. Be aware that some nurses may be hesitant to use on-site mental health services. They may feel being labeled with a stigma that could be detrimental to their long-term careers. If this is the case, you can also consider a program that offers reimbursement for mental health visits the nurses attend on their own time.
Attract Top-Tier Nurses by Giving Them What They Want
As a nursing recruiter, you have likely faced quite a few hiring challenges. Low-quality talent, not enough applicants, and high turnover rates are the most common issues facing many healthcare recruiters today. You can combat these problems by partnering with a healthcare staffing agency like Prolink.
At Prolink, we get to know your organization inside and out. We can help you identify areas where nurses would love to work at your facility, and areas where changes might help to attract higher-quality talent. We can pair you with matches from around the country, helping you find nurses that qualify for the positions you have open. Ready to get started? Call (866)777-3704.
