National Nurses Week wrapped up this past Wednesday. Each year, the highly celebrated week begins on May 6 and ends on May 12. Designed to recognize the contributions that nurses and nursing make to the community, this year’s National Nurses Week was even more powerful after more than a year of caring for patients during a global pandemic.

This year, a mere “thank you” didn’t seem like quite enough and many businesses – large and small alike – worked to make the week more special and memorable for these trusted healthcare professionals. Select restaurants offered discounts, Dunkin’ Donuts offered free coffee, Crocs gave away 10,000 free pairs of shoes for 5 days and many other deals were offered by individual franchises and chains throughout the country.

There is no denying the importance of the nursing profession and the value nurses provide to patients in a multitude of settings. Today, there are more than 4 million Registered Nurses in the United states. To put it in perspective, this means that 1 in every 100 individuals is a Registered Nurse. As their roles range from direct patient care to case management to directing nursing care systems and everything in between, it is crucial for healthcare organizations and other businesses and institutions to hire and retain nurses to fill dynamic needs.

However, according to the American Journal of Medical Quality, a shortage of Registered Nurses is projected to continue to spread in the United States until 2030. In fact, current studies indicate that there will be an estimated shortage of 500,000 RN jobs in the United States by 2030. Such news isn’t likely to be a shock for healthcare organizations and specialized acquisition teams.

There have been longstanding challenges when it comes to hiring healthcare professionals as there are positions that are notoriously hard-to-fill and there is often difficulty communicating in real-time with candidates. Throw in a sustained nursing shortage and you have a trifecta of challenges when it comes to recruiting new employees.

While recruiting nurses is a challenge, it is not one that cannot be overcome.

Through our research, we know that currently, 14% of Capital Region healthcare employees are planning to look for a new job in the next 12 months. This is about a 5% increase from last year. Also, on a high-level, we know who they are and what they are looking for in a job and in a company as a whole. According to the Pew Research Center, more than 35% of U.S. workers are millennials. As such, recruitment campaigns must be partially or wholly tailored around this demographic as they are both the present and the future of our country’s workforce.

We know that these individuals want to make a positive impact on their organization. However, retaining this demographic of workers can be a challenge. The U.S. economy loses roughly $30.5B every year due to millennial turnover. For healthcare organizations looking to not only hire for hard-to-fill nursing positions, but retain these employees as well, companies must consider their messaging in recruitment ads and also place a higher emphasis on employee onboarding, professional development and position benefits to avoid negative impacts to an organization’s bottom line.

To fully influence a candidate’s opinion of an organization, companies must understand the journey of the job seeker as well as their wants and needs and take a closer look at their branding and marketing efforts. Through a multi-channel marketing and branding approach, healthcare organizations will not only attract quality candidates, but also create a company culture that aligns with overarching business goals – and that largely involves retaining employees!

For help implementing a comprehensive recruitment strategy, our Recruitment Marketing team can help. Contact us today to assist your organization in hiring its next great employee!

####