Published Date: 20 October, 2020
Last updated on: 28 April, 2023
Scarcity of qualified candidates
Arguably the most urgent of concerns in the healthcare industry today is the scarcity of qualified applicants. Due to an ageing population of healthcare professionals that are more frequently opting for early retirement, competition is fierce to recruit new graduates.
While the advances of modern technology and medicine have given us the positive that people are now able to live healthier and longer lives than ever before it also means the demand for healthcare is increasing. a
Estimates of the shortfall in healthcare professionals varies according to the source. The UK as an example is typically estimated to have between 40-60K nursing vacancies for a population of circa 66 million. 80% of the world’s nurses work in countries holding half of the world’s population.
Competition to recruit healthcare professionals from overseas will become more fierce going forward and many countries are putting measures in place in an attempt to attract more of their own population into the healthcare industry.
Time to Hire
For many applicants looking to find work in the healthcare sector overseas, the time to hire will be in excess of 9 months from the first point of contact to their start date. Each applicant will most likely have to go through a language, practical and theory test which alone will take months to attend and pass. If the applicant does not have pre verified credentials, they will need to submit their documents for verification to gain their health licence with the regulatory authority. Some countries will require tests to be taken in the destination country, adding a large cost and additional time to what is already a lengthy process.
Verifying an applicant’s credentials early in the recruitment process is one way to cut time from the registration with a regulatory authority as well as the pre-employment screening period. As the most time consuming checks that you would expect to be conducted as part of an applicant’s onboarding; verifying and maintaining your credentials can give applicants a competitive edge in the job market.
The onboarding process and helping applicants settle
For most hospitals it is recognised that diversity of workforce is a good thing. In major cities especially, the population has become more varied and as such it takes a diverse workforce to best provide care to these regions. Helping overseas applicants acclimatise to their new environment is a big part of the recruitment process and is vital to ensuring the applicant can begin to work effectively and feels comfortable to stay and work in their new home country.
The onboarding process is vital to the applicant’s development in their new role and employee engagement and training is a focus for employers. Recruitment agencies will not receive their fee if the applicant does not pass their probationary period and the healthcare facility will need to source a replacement so a lot of time and effort can go to waste if the onboarding of an applicant is not successful.
Recruiters and healthcare facilities partnered with the DataFlow group have cited examples ranging from helping applicants with opening bank accounts, providing initial room and board to helping applicants find social settings compatible with their culture. From an applicant’s perspective this first few months is a daunting period of time in their lives and a certain level of external help could make or break the experience and affect their morale and performance going forward.
Get in touch with us today to learn about how our advanced background screening solutions – Primary Source Verification – can speed up the process of hiring and improve efficiency in healthcare recruitment!
