The healthcare industry is known for its rather brutal working conditions. Most physicians work 40 to 60 hours per week, with some saying they grind out 61 to 80 hours a week. Nurses also have it hard. If you work in a 24-hour facility, such as a hospital, you probably have 12-hour shifts that can leave you feeling physically and emotionally depleted.
Gen Z (people born between 1997 and 2012) is here to change things. They understand that the current healthcare workforce is aging, and they know the reality of burnout.
How can healthcare leaders adjust to attract this generation of talent and maintain robust healthcare recruitment in the coming years? It’s a tough needle to thread, but it helps to stop and consider what the next generation of healthcare professionals want from their careers.
Understanding What the Next Generation Wants
Gen Z and millennials typically want to pursue meaningful careers, so it’s not surprising to see many of them enter the healthcare industry. Simply offering meaningful work, however, might not attract top talent. You need to understand what the next generation wants.
Some of their priorities include maintaining a work-life balance (it’s actually the top concern for 85% of Gen Z workers) and job security. In fact, many of them are willing to take pay cuts in exchange for flexible schedules that give them more control over their lives.Â
Other issues important to Gen Z include:
- Mental health support
- Career development
- Direct communication
- Access to emerging technology
Obviously, individuals within this generation will have unique opinions and preferences. Overall, though, these are important issues to consider when trying to attract Gen Z workers in healthcare and other fields.
Reimagining the Candidate Experience
Gen Z prefers streamlined processes that don’t create a lot of delays or obstacles. If your company uses a clunky application process, some Gen Z candidates won’t work for you. You’ve already shown them that you don’t embrace their priorities.
How can you make the candidate experience easier for Gen Z applicants looking for healthcare jobs? Consider any feature that adds speed, transparency, and empathy to the process.
That often means adopting:
- Mobile-first application platforms candidates can access from anywhere
- Personalized communications that put honesty ahead of formalities
- AI-driven chatbots that can answer questions instantly
Flexibility as a Recruiting Advantage
Gen Z workers want to do good work. They just don’t want their lives to revolve around their jobs. Flexibility, therefore, is an excellent recruiting tool for many candidates.
What does this actually mean? What you can offer depends on the healthcare services you provide and the roles you need to fill. Overall, though, you should try to give employees access to nontraditional career pathways, such as PRN shifts and hybrid or telehealth roles.
You should also rethink how you design your schedules. Forcing everyone to sign up for 12-hour shifts will drive away young professionals who know they have plenty of skills to offer. If you don’t know what type of schedules appeal to your workers, ask them for feedback and take their perspectives seriously.
The Role of Branding in Talent Acquisition
Sites like Glassdoor and Indeed have made it easy for job seekers to learn more about businesses before they accept positions. If current and former employees have a lot of negative things to say about your business, your brand will suffer, and fewer people will apply for open jobs.
Treating employees well is the best thing you can do to boost your brand image and attract talent. You should also use your website, job postings, and other communications to:
- Tell stories about current employees to show potential applicants what experiences they can expect
- Showcase how you embrace innovative technologies
- Demonstrate your commitment to fostering a positive company culture
Partnering for the Long Game
You will almost certainly need to change your recruitment process before you can attract Gen Z’s best healthcare workers. It’s often a hard road, but it’s the path toward long-term success.
Partnering with a recruitment specialist can make it much easier to implement effective changes. MRINetwork stands out as a strong partner because it has already helped so many healthcare organizations connect with young talent pools.
MRINetwork can also review your existing strategy to find opportunities for improvement. Then, we can future-proof your team through succession planning and skills forecasting.
Invest in Talent Like You Invest in Technology
MRINetwork stays at the forefront of effective recruiting strategies to make sure our partners thrive. Our data-driven approach can highlight the most and least effective areas of your current recruitment process. Want to learn more about how MRINetwork can help your healthcare organization attract qualified Gen Z employees? Reach out to an office near you!
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