What’s Trending in Talent Acquisition? News for Job Seekers, Recruiters in Healthcare

November 8, 2023

Written By

Nanne M. Finis, RN MS

Chief Nurse Executive, UKG

As Chief Nurse Executive at UKG, Nanne M. Finis, RN MS, is committed to creating more meaningful and connected work experiences for all healthcare employees. An industry executive immersed in the nursing profession and patient-care delivery for more than 40 years, Nanne is committed to fostering innovation, collaboration, and strategic decision-making across care settings. In addition to serving on the advisory board of The Workforce Institute at UKG, Nanne leads the UKG Chief Nurse Executive Advisory Board, is Co-Chair of the Nursing Advisory Council for Saint Mary’s College, and is a member of the AONL Foundation Advisory Council and ANA/AONL’s Nursing Administration Scope and Standards Revision Workgroup. As a nurse, she’s a lifelong caregiver who finds purpose in supporting the people around her and seeing them thrive.

Yesterday at the UKG Workforce Institute, we launched a special partner series with Employ, the parent company of JazzHR, Lever, Jobvite, and NXTThing RPO, called “What’s Trending in Talent Acquisition?” Over the next two weeks, industry experts from UKG will dive into new research from Employ and discuss current talent acquisition trends across industries, from healthcare and manufacturing to logistics and the public sector.

If you haven’t done so already, check out the first article in our series, in which Michael E. Puck, SHRM-SCP, global partner of human insights at UKG, explores how to overcome the “perfect storm” brewing in talent acquisition. In today’s post, UKG Workforce Institute advisory board member Nanne Finis, RN, MS, chief nurse executive at UKG, discusses talent acquisition trends in the healthcare industry.

As we discussed in the latest Leading Healthcare industry brief, the past three years have challenged healthcare organizations as never before. The healthcare workforce, already facing serious shortages, shouldered much of the enormous demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Record numbers of those at the sharp end of patient care — physicians and nurses — resigned from their jobs, and, in some cases, left their professions altogether. More than a third of nurses say they are likely to leave their job by year-end, according to a survey from the American Hospital Association, and nearly a third of those are planning to leave the field altogether or retire.

This epic disruption spotlighted a critical lesson for leaders: healthcare organizations simply cannot function without a robust, resilient, and sustainable workforce.

There is some good news to share, though: the healthcare industry is showing signs of a recovery. As reported in the October UKG Workforce Activity Report, and here at the UKG Workforce Institute last week, shift work in healthcare has increased 8 out of 10 months in 2023.

The State of Recruiting in Today’s Healthcare Industry

Data from the recent Employ report, titled “Examining Employer and Job Seeker Realities,” indicate that most healthcare organizations are planning for higher levels of recruitment and are prioritizing the speed and quality of their recruitment processes. The traditional ways of workforce management, from recruitment to staffing to working within rigid “job lanes,” no longer meet the challenges of this rapidly evolving landscape.

Today’s healthcare workers seek meaningful work as well as opportunities for professional development and career advancement. They demand leaders who will ease the frustrations of working with antiquated manual systems. Flexibility is key.

This research serves as one source of deep information about the perceptions of the key members of the healthcare workforce as well as the perspectives of the recruiters who are challenged to understand how to best budget and fill positions. Positions must be filled with the right skilled worker and have the most attractive benefits for the optimal talent.

At the same time, job seekers are for the most part very or somewhat satisfied with their current jobs and are searching for the right position. The majority of healthcare job seekers are interested in taking positions if available in their own organizations, but those who desire to leave would do so for superior career advancement, greater work flexibility, and better company leadership and organizational culture. Job seekers identify stress about the economy, burnout in current role, and concern about position elimination as motivators to look for a new job.

What to Do Moving Forward

This research compiles many comparisons between levels of prospective workers to the recruiters desiring to attract them. There are many comparisons across industries that will be helpful to monitor as cross-industry best practices can support any organization in their quest to recruit the most talented workforce.

UKG also offers a tool that may be a unique companion to this Employ research. The Employee Expectation Experience (Triple E) Gap Analysis is an easy-to-use, research-based online tool that enables companies to self-assess how well they are positioned to address dynamic expectations of today’s employees.

The better the perceived experience, the more effective a company will be in attracting, engaging, and retaining talent. All organizations should continuously monitor the dynamic of their existing process to expectations of their own employees and those they would like to attract.

Want to learn more? Download the full report from Employ, and check back here tomorrow at the UKG Workforce Institute for part three of our new series What’s Trending in Talent Acquisition? — featuring a look at recruiting trends in logistics.