According to a study published by St. Augustine University, “the United States is in the midst of a critical nursing shortage that is expected to continue through 2030.” With a labor shortage and an ever-increasing demand for healthcare services, healthcare staffing is currently in the midst of a candidate-driven market. Vendor management systems are poised in a unique position to facilitate expedient hiring, which is critical to obtaining a qualified and skilled workforce in a candidate-driven market.

Administrative tasks related to maintaining a workforce require significant investments of time and money. This can lead to a drawn-out recruitment process during which qualified candidates lose interest. Hospitals and healthcare systems want skilled and qualified top talent. An efficient and timely recruitment and hiring process are necessary to attract quality candidates in a candidate-driven market. With the shortage expected to continue through 2030, the landscape of healthcare staffing has changed significantly. In a candidate-driven market, it is more important than ever to place candidates efficiently.

What Created a Candidate-Driven Market?

A shrinking labor pool and an increase in demand for services have led to intense hiring competition among hospitals and other healthcare systems. The current nursing shortage began long before COVID, but the pandemic worsened the problem. In the aftermath of the pandemic, one in five healthcare workers has quit their jobs. Many healthcare employees who left their positions have also left the profession entirely.

There is no single cause of the current labor shortage. Multiple factors influenced the healthcare professional shortage, including:

• An Aging Population: The World Health Organization states that one in six people will be 60 or older by 2030. An aging population affects the labor market in two ways: increased demand for healthcare services and healthcare workers aging out of employment.
• Excessive Turnover: Turnover rates increased significantly following the COVID-19 pandemic. Turnover not only affects the ability of healthcare organizations to provide care, but it also affects the remaining employees. As healthcare employees leave their jobs, the remaining workers experience higher patient loads and more responsibility – without a pay increase. This results in exhaustion and burnout, causing even higher turnover rates.
• Lack of Nursing Educators: According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), “faculty shortages at nursing schools across the country are limiting student capacity at a time when the need for professional registered nurses continues to grow.” Between budget constraints, aging faculty members, and increased job competition, finding qualified nursing instructors is becoming increasingly difficult.

Why Placing Candidates Quickly Matters

To remain competitive in candidate-driven markets, speed is essential. Understanding why a quick hiring process is necessary can help you to identify candidates and fill positions with more qualified individuals quickly. An expedient hiring process is attractive to both businesses looking to hire and those seeking new employment opportunities. When faced with an extended hiring process, many candidates will choose to remain in their current position or move to another opportunity.

In-demand candidates can afford to be more selective. This means you must act more quickly during the hiring process to attract and retain top talent. Not only do highly qualified candidates tend to make hiring decisions more quickly, but they also tend to view a fast hiring process favorably. To candidates, a lengthy hiring process can negatively impact the assessment of your corporate culture.

In addition to attracting top talent, a swift hiring process can be fiscally beneficial. With a shrinking labor pool and an increased demand for skilled workers, candidates may often receive multiple bids. Extending an offer quickly can avoid a bidding war, allowing you to attract top talent at a lower salary cost.

How a VMS can Help Healthcare Organizations Find Top Talent

Finding the right talent in a timely fashion can be difficult. Hospitals and other healthcare systems have difficulty adapting to the growing demand for skilled and talented professionals. With a shrinking labor pool and time constraints due to other operational duties, finding the perfect candidate for placement is difficult. Fortunately, an experienced VMS can help. VMS’s innovative technology can streamline the entire recruitment and hiring process.

There are several ways in which a VMS can help with expedient hiring, including:

• Tracking Talent: When using a contingent workforce, it is expected that professionals will come and go. The right VMS will maintain meticulous records of the professionals they have placed, which can make it easier to rehire top talent. A VMS can automate tracking of candidates whose performance exceeds expectations, making it easier to rehire valuable individuals. This helps not only provide adequate staffing levels but also reduces the amount of time spent training and onboarding. Additionally, because all employees are tracked, you can eliminate candidates who are ineligible for rehire. Some employees attempt to return to positions by using different staffing agencies, and a VMS that tracks everything can identify this and automatically rule out those candidates.
• Experienced Suppliers: Suppliers with more experience tend to do a better and more efficient job at finding the right candidates for open roles. When using a VMS to handle an extended workforce, you can reduce waiting times for locating candidates by specifying the exact skills each open role requires. Staffing suppliers use the guidelines from the VMS to streamline the hiring process.
• Competitive Rates: The more administrative time it takes to find, hire, onboard, and subsequently offboard contingent workers, the higher the rate. Reducing time spent dealing with administrative tasks allows you to offer more competitive rates to attract top talent. With bill rates on the rise as a result of increased demand for talent, it can be hard to stay competitive. Working with a VMS to streamline and centralize the hiring process can help save money that can then be used to help offer more competitive rates.

With a shortage of labor expected to remain through 2030, industry forecasts suggest a continued increase in demand for talent. Creating a contingent workforce is an efficient and cost-effective way to get the staff necessary for daily operations. A VMS can be an invaluable resource when building a contingent workforce. By streamlining the entire process, a VMS saves hospitals and other health systems a significant amount of money and time required to recruit top talent.

In a candidate-driven market, the speed of the hiring and placement process is more important than ever. Working with a VMS can facilitate easy and efficient hiring, helping you build the workforce you need when you need it. At Management Solution, our vendor-neutral approach and experience managing contingent workforces help you get the top talent your healthcare system deserves.