Finding a job these days is almost like fishing. It doesn’t matter if you are looking for a job or looking to hire someone for a job. It is a difficult position. As a staffing member of Human Resources (HR), it can feel almost like an endless chore to finally pull the right catch out of the water because even some of the most likely candidates with master’s or doctorate degrees may not wholly fit the descriptions. The task looks simple on paper, but does that really describe the struggle that HR is facing? Why is the task of hiring the right person so tricky?
The Math Behind the Hiring Process
Finding the right candidate can be extremely complicated, and the answer behind the process might surprise you — it also has some math behind it. Out of the 100 people that apply to a job, only 25% or 25 people’s applications will go through. Some are not filled out correctly; others are filled inappropriately, and (sometimes) human error happens and applications are lost. Then out of the 25 people, only 5 people will be able to interview for each open job. These statistics make it a daunting process to attempt to fill a position.
It is important to remember that all of this work in the hiring process is for only one job. Many in-house nurse recruiters have lots of jobs to fill, and the cycle has to be repeated over and over again. It can be as high as 50 current positions, and even in some rare instances up to 100 positions.
The Difficult Requirements
When hiring for higher-level or other hard-to-fill positions, the requirements are non-negotiable. In fact, with the requirements so specific, it is often that there aren’t enough people to hire. Hospitals want high-quality, experienced workers so would prefer to not hire people who are new graduates. Healthcare managers are looking to employ people with one or two years of high-level experience. In those instances, if the candidate does not have it, then HR has no choice but to decline their resume.
The second requirement is often felt but rarely seen. Each manager is the one “feeling the pain” of having positions needing to be filled and tiring staff complaining of being overworked. In turn, the manager puts more pressure on HR and recruiters to have their name at the top of the list. Unfortunately, this gets repeated throughout the entire hospital with endless departments.
The Complicated Process
In the medical field, it is the in-house nurse recruiters and HR that manages the hiring. Recruitment deals with the process of attracting, appointing interviews, reviewing resumes, declining and accepting resumes/interviews and in general, organizing the procedure of employing. HR also takes part in recruiting, screening, interviewing an organizing work. They are in charge of overlooking the interviewing and hiring, making sure the recruiters are doing their job right. Even though the nurse managers have the final say in hiring, human resources are similar to a secondary filter, ensuring that the decision made by the manager is correct.
This process can be challenging to maintain as multiple jobs are in various stages of the hiring process. Many HR departments can run lean and mean, in which, one or two people are trying to perform the work of five employees efficiently. Here are a few tips to help you juggle all those priorities and keep sane and effective:
- It is important to be a go-getter to find new candidates.
- Have dedicated processes to monitor where each candidate is at in the recruitment process.
- Keep hiring managers informed of the processes.
You can also use an outside expert to assist you:
- Headhunters can help focus on the hard-to-fill positions that have been on their to-do list for quite some time.
- It can relieve some of the workload so that HR can focus on everyday issues.
- They can help save your department money and provide stopgap employment during critical times.
- Good headhunters work with HR, not against them. They can help to make the in-house recruiter more successful without creating a competing environment.
