If you work in senior living, you already know the staffing challenges that everyone is facing in 2021. Recruiting top talent is difficult. It’s even harder when there is a talent shortage and hundreds of new jobs are opening up each minute. If you’re struggling with recruitment, here are some tips to help.
Consolidate your hiring process
The biggest roadblock to attracting top talent is the process itself. If it takes 2 hours to fill out the initial application and book an interview, you’re most likely weeding out solid talent, especially when there is heavy competition. The first application should only take a couple of minutes to fill out. Yes, we’re referring to those applications where you manually have to retype everything that’s already on your resume. It’s a total waste of time and you’ll find that a lot of people won’t hesitate to apply elsewhere. Just focus on gathering the essential information in the beginning.
Your interview process should be just as efficient. If you’re stringing them around for 6+ interviews, there’s a problem. Cut down on your interviews when you can. If you have multiple one-on-one interviews, you can combine them into a panel. Remember, top executive talent isn’t going to stay on the market for long. Acting fast is essential.
Assessment tests are also common in the hiring process. These should be incorporated in the latter half of your process and not the beginning. You don’t need 5 different tests to get a good grasp if they’ll fit in.
Communicate your expectations early on
Whether posting on job boards or working with a recruiter, you need to set clear expectations to get the right applicants. This means you need to know the position’s salary range, how much you’re willing to negotiate, and the desired start date. Don’t make any claims you can’t keep. If they need to have specific certifications or meet certain requirements, they need to be aware of them before submitting the application.
You certainly don’t want to exaggerate claims to attract more talent. There is pressure on applicants to be transparent in their resumes. Companies should also be diligent in maintaining expectations. This is why it’s important to establish the status quo during initial phone screenings.
Adjust when needed
As with all industries, the expectation that someone is going to be onboarded and stay with a company for a decade is unrealistic. This is especially true for part-time employees.
This is the perfect time to considering hiring outside talent. With the hospitality industry adjusting to a new normal, professionals are starting to look for new avenues to transfer to. We’ve mentioned the benefits of onboarding hotel talent in some of our previous articles.
Internship programs
For many people enrolled in college, they’re not going to consider the senior living industry career path. If you’re a company that promotes leaders from within, you’re guaranteed to get more outside talent with an internship program. For executive talent this is more of a long-term solution as it provides a career trajectory for employees. Companies that have clear growth tracts are always going to be more marketable.
Use a recruitment firm
To identify employees who are most likely to stay, it’s helpful to turn to the organization’s current staff. Usually, they will have connections that will work well with your establishment. If you don’t have many connections and you’re searching purely off sites like Indeed or LinkedIn, a recruiter can help.
Recruitment firms will have a database filled with the best industry talent. The right recruitment firm will specialize in talent in your industry and know how to access passive candidates. Statistically speaking, you are way more likely to find the best talent in the market. This will ultimately reduce the time and in-house resources dedicated to recruitment efforts.
If you need help with recruiting talent, JDI specializes in senior living talent. You can reach out to one of our recruiters on LinkedIn.