Healthcare Recruitment and Selection Strategies

This assignment analyzes the unique challenges faced by healthcare organizations in recruiting and selecting qualified personnel. It specifically addresses the impact of retiring baby boomers on the workforce and proposes several strategies to mitigate these challenges, such as attracting fresh graduates, establishing partnerships with universities, and implementing proactive recruitment plans.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT – 635161

Table of Contents
Introduction..............................................................................................................................3
Human resource management.........................................................................................................3
Recruitment and selection................................................................................................................3
Global healthcare industry...............................................................................................................3
Recruitment and selection issues in the healthcare industry...............................................3
Dealing with recruitment and selection issues.......................................................................5
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................6
References.................................................................................................................................7

Introduction
Human resource management
Human resource management is an approach that is used by business organisations in
ensuring a proper management of their human resources. It uses a number of core and non-
core functions, such a performance management, training and development, career
development, etc. to optimise the performance of the workforce and to establish better
workplace relations between employers and employees (Hendry, 2012) Human resource
management has gained a lot of importance in the past few decades because of its ability to
help business organisations in optimising the performance levels of their workforce.
Recruitment and selection
Recruitment and selection is a process in human resource management using which business
organisations are able to forecast all those vacancies that they are likely going to encounter in
their workplace in the near future and inviting job applications to fill up the vacancies
identified (Searle, 2009). Recruitment and selection aims at hiring the right people for the
right job at the right point of time so that an organisation can carry on its operations without a
halt and can avoid shortage of staff.
Global healthcare industry
The global healthcare industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, which
absorbs around 10% of gross domestic product of most of the developed nations. It comprises
of a broad list of services offered by hospitals, physicians, nursing homes, pharmacies,
diagnostic centres, etc. The global healthcare industry offers employment opportunities to
millions of people throughout the world and because of the rise in health related problems,
the industry is becoming one of the most important industries from a social point of view. In
the United States alone, there are over 750,000 physicians and more than 5,200 hospitals,
which is enough to describe the enormous size of the industry (Themedica, n.d.).
Recruitment and selection issues in the healthcare
industry
As discussed above, the global healthcare industry is a major industry because of its
enormous size and also because of the employment opportunities that it offers to the global
population. The healthcare industry offers a wide variety of job types, such as doctors,
assistants, receptionists, nurses, physicians, etc. but there are a number of challenges that the

employers working in the healthcare industry encounter while carrying out recruitment and
selection processes. The recruitment and selection issues encountered in the healthcare
industry are discussed below:
First of all, healthcare industry faces a major scarcity of qualified employees, which is one of
the most pressing issue that is encountered by the healthcare employers during recruitment
and selection of employees. The global population is increasing at an alarming rate and the
numbers of physicians and nurses are dwindling in comparison to the population trends
(Theundercoverrecruiter, n.d.). This very fact provides an upper hand to the candidates in the
negotiation process and makes recruitment and selection decisions more difficult for the
healthcare organisations.
Secondly, making a selection choice is very difficult in the healthcare industry as there will
always be a dilemma between education and experience that the candidates have on their
resumes. For example, it will always be difficult for employers in the healthcare industry to
choose between two candidates where one candidate has graduated from one of the top
universities and has a work experience of one year and the other candidate has a work
experience of 12 years but has attained his or her master degree from a low ranking
institution (Hirsch, 2013). When such cases are encountered, it becomes difficult for the
recruitment and selection personnel to take a decision as both the candidates have their own
strengths and weaknesses and both of them are equally required in the industry.
Thirdly, baby boomers or the people who were born in the range of 1940s to 1960s and have
humungous experience in the field of healthcare, have started to leave the workforce as
thousands of them are retiring on a daily basis. By an estimate, 10,000 baby boomers are
retiring every day, which is creating a steep rise in human resource demand for the healthcare
industry (Gamble, 2012). The attrition rates are having a huge impact on those healthcare
organisations that have employed more baby boomers as these organisations are working
hard to keep their workplaces staffed by continuously carrying out recruitment and selection
programs.
Fourthly, the shortage of talented candidates in the field of healthcare is creating a race
amongst the healthcare organisations to recruit fresh graduates as it is cost-effective and
invigorating. However, recruiting fresh graduates is never an easy task in the healthcare

industry because the number of capable candidates are much lesser than the number of
healthcare organisations. Hence, fresh graduates are easily and quickly recruited by the top
healthcare organisations, making the recruitment and selection process more challenging for
their competitors.
Dealing with recruitment and selection issues
To sustain in such a competitive environment, it is important for healthcare organisations to
efficiently recruit, select and retain a large of talented pool of workforce as it is the only way
that can help them in increasing their competencies and outperforming the competitors. Some
strategies that can help healthcare organisations in dealing with the challenges associated
with recruitment and selection in the industry are given below:
First of all, healthcare organisations should work hard to establish a better reputation of their
brand in the market and also amongst the fresh graduates. They should also revamp their
approach towards hiring and recruitment processes and offer such benefits and compensation
packages that the capable candidates look forward to work with them (Larimore, 2012).
Becoming an employer of choice in the industry can help healthcare organisations in dealing
with most of the recruitment and selection challenges.
Secondly, healthcare organisations should try to maintain a balance between the number of
baby boomers and fresh graduates working in their workplaces. It is important for healthcare
organisations to have experienced personnel in various fields as well as fresh graduates from
top class universities to offer better services to the clients.
Thirdly, healthcare organisations can tie-up with local universities and medical colleges and
can start offering job opportunities to the students even before they graduate or any other
organisation approaches them (Flanagan, 2016). The selection process can be done before
they complete their graduation and they can join their jobs as soon as they clear their
graduation.
Lastly, there is no way in which healthcare organisations can prevent baby boomers from
retiring and leaving their organisations. To minimise the impact that the baby boomers can
have on the recruitment and selection process, healthcare organisations can start to prepare

for their departures and develop proactive recruitment strategies, which would help them in
fulfilling the vacancies even before they are encountered.
Conclusion
Recruitment and selection of employees is an important process from a business point of
view. It helps business organisations in keeping their workplace adequately staffed and fully
operational. Thus, recruitment and selection strategies should be efficiently prepared and all
the issues related to recruitment and selection of employees should be carefully dealt with.
For the companies operating in the healthcare industry, the above strategies can come in
handy while dealing with recruitment and selection challenges.

References
Hendry, C. (2012). Human Resource Management . Routledge.
Searle, R. (2009). Recruitment and selection. In D. G. Collings, Human Resource
Management: A Critical Approach .
Themedica. (n.d.). Medican Industry Overview. Retrieved September 30, 2017, from
www.themedica.com: http://www.themedica.com/industry-overview.html
Theundercoverrecruiter. (n.d.). The 4 Challenges Facing Healthcare Recruitment in 2017 .
Retrieved September 30, 2017, from theundercoverrecruiter.com:
https://theundercoverrecruiter.com/challenges-healthcare-recruitment/
Hirsch, M. D. (2013, August 9). The 3 top healthcare industry staffing challenges--and how
to solve them . Retrieved September 30, 2017, from www.fiercehealthcare.com:
http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/healthcare/3-top-healthcare-industry-staffing-
challenges-and-how-to-solve-them
Gamble, M. (2012, February 27). 6 Unique Challenges of Healthcare Hiring . Retrieved
September 30, 2017, from www.beckershospitalreview.com:
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-management-administration/6-
unique-challenges-of-healthcare-hiring.html
Larimore, R. (2012, April 10). Recruitment & Selection—Step Two of Building the Right
Healthcare Culture . Retrieved September 30, 2017, from
www.wphealthcarenews.com: http://www.wphealthcarenews.com/recruitment-
selection-healthcare-culture/
Flanagan, T. (2016, April 20). 3 Challenges Facing Healthcare Recruiters in 2016 .
Retrieved September 30, 2017, from www.hcrnetwork.com:
http://www.hcrnetwork.com/3-challenges-facing-healthcare-recruiters-2016/