Imagine there are two hospitals: Hospital A and Hospital B. Both are hiring for multiple positions, and both are located in the center of culturally similar, mid-sized cities located in the same geographical region. Both are fairly new research institutions offering cutting-edge medical practices and technology. On paper, these hospitals seem identical. However, while Hospital A often struggles to locate qualified candidates, Hospital B is bursting with top talent on every floor and department.
So, what’s the difference between the two?
Both institutions allocate the same size budget to marketing. The difference is while Hospital A relies solely on traditional marketing strategies for recruiting purposes, Hospital B has adopted inbound marketing, allowing it to reach a greater number of potential candidates.
Although this scenario is just an example, it’s a situation healthcare recruiters know all too well. Even though the current economic scale still bends toward employers in almost every industry, hiring rockstar healthcare professionals has become a challenge for hospitals of any size. In order to bring the right applicants to your doorstep, you have to attract them.
Relying on traditional marketing strategies alone can thwart your ability to find the best candidates for your company. Here are some of the reasons using inbound marketing can strengthen your recruiting endeavors:
Stellar healthcare candidates only want to work for equally influential healthcare providers. They want to play for the winning team. If your online brand leaves anything to be desired, this can send a red flag to a worthy candidate.
Whether you’re a world-renowned clinic or a small, yet highly successful, private practice, it’s important never to get too comfortable with your status. Although you may have developed a reputation as a leader in the healthcare world, globally or locally, you should never stop working to maintain this position. And, if you’re still fresh on the scene, establishing yourself as a leader is even more imperative.
Developing relevant eBooks or whitepapers, videos, blog posts and other pieces of highly engaging and educational content not only inspires trust from your prospective patients, it also instills a sense of faith within the industry as a whole—including accomplished professionals looking to move forward in their career.
After all, wouldn’t you prefer your candidates be the types of people constantly seeking to educate themselves on topics important to your brand? Just as inbound marketing helps you convert prospects into brand loyalists, it helps you convert the right candidates into enthusiastic applicants.
When companies utilize inbound marketing automation tools like those offered by HubSpot, they have the opportunity to score leads based on how likely the lead is to convert and where these individuals fall within the sales funnel. This way, sales and marketing departments can determine the next logical step.
Healthcare providers can apply this same practice to candidates. Candidate scoring will allow hiring teams to immediately determine whether or not an applicant is ready to move on to the next phase. For example, if you’re hiring an ER nurse, did the applicant download your eBook on “Best Practices for Emergency Room Nurses”? Has he read your “About” section, reviewed your hospital’s blog or followed your hospital on social media?
Or if he reviewed these items, but has not yet applied, it may be helpful to send him an email regarding open positions to encourage him to take the next step.
On the other hand, once an interested individual has taken the time to learn about your institution, the position and required skill set, she may realize it’s not the job she’s looking for and decide not to apply. Or, perhaps you’ve discovered, through social monitoring, a candidate either isn’t qualified or isn’t a good fit, and can choose not to engage him further.
HR departments are always looking to simplify and streamline internal processes. Hiring, however, can quickly become a convoluted mess of redundant paperwork and documentation. However, inbound marketing helps hospitals better obtain candidate data for easy organization. Because you know more about candidates ahead of time, you can narrow down your applicant pool and move only the most qualified applicants to the next round.
The same holds true for the onboarding process. Once you’ve chosen a candidate, you can use the contact information you’ve acquired to keep the lines of communication open, send hiring paperwork and provide training materials. This can help reduce time spent onboarding, and get hires to their work faster.
Overall, inbound marketing is a philosophy that focuses on attracting the right prospects rather than buying their attention. In hiring, it helps companies adequately target the right sorts of candidates and bring in the best of the best. Plus, by taking the time to evaluate and measure the success of each inbound marketing campaign, you can discover what works, what doesn’t and how to stretch your marketing dollar further.
