If you’re recruiting to fill a key role in the senior care and assisted living niche, you may wonder whether to hire a recruiting firm or handle the search in-house. In many cases, partnering with expert recruiters can save money, accelerate timelines, and achieve better results – and there’s a good reason why.
A Recruiter Can Save Time and Reduce Cost
If you’re trying to stick to a tight budget, you might start to think that one cost-cutting measure could be to simply conduct a search yourself. In reality, the opposite is likely to be true. If one critical position goes unfilled for around three months, the “lost” income from leaving the role empty could probably have paid for an expert recruiter to fill it. When your organization is missing a component and you’re unable to offer clients the services they need – even temporarily – it’s more likely to cost you money in the long run, even if you’re “saving” money by not paying that particular salary.
When facing economic uncertainty, it’s always a good idea to more closely examine expenses and try to see all angles of a budget plan. An expert recruiter can pay for themselves, so to speak, with the benefits of providing an expedited, streamlined search to find quality candidates for key roles. An expedited timeline benefits current employees just as much. When a role is empty, especially a role that includes key functions, existing staff are often asked to pick up the slack. The healthcare industry as a whole is still feeling the effects of burnout, lower work quality, and workers leaving the field altogether after being asked to do just that over the last few years. In contrast, working with a recruiter shrinks the window of time where other employees have to cover, reducing their stress levels.
A Recruiter Can Free Up Your Existing Team
Hiring a recruiter to find talent for key roles means that the rest of your team can focus on the core work of providing and supporting care for your clients. Over the past few years, healthcare has seen a lot of strain as teams have been stretched thin. While people have certainly stepped up to cover the gaps and ensure continued client care, it’s not sustainable in the long term.
Instead of spreading talent too thin, the most cost-effective operation is to simply allow experts to focus on what they’re best at. Your team brings unique expertise to the table; they know the ins and outs of how your organization works, its goals, and how it functions to bring the best care to clients. Similarly, recruiters are experts in finding and landing talent – they, too, have unique expertise that makes them particularly effective at what they do.
When your company partners with a recruiter, your current team is freed up to focus on the central business; the details of recruiting are outsourced to experts. It’s a more efficient use of both your team’s time and your budget – plus, it’s the likeliest way to achieve results.
A Recruiter Can Secure Better Talent
Recruiters aren’t just good at streamlining processes – they also give you access to an extensive talent pipeline and in-depth search tools that you wouldn’t have on your own. In many cases, the “right” candidate for a role is already employed somewhere else, not actively thinking about leaving, but willing to consider a change for the right offer.
Recruiters are experienced with strategic planning to reach passive talent. Thanks to their existing relationships with an expanded talent network, they can offer that access to clients. In turn, their understanding of clients’ goals allows them to “sell” passive talent on the company in question and the specific open role. Since they have extensive experience working directly with candidates, recruiters are well-positioned to understand candidates’ preferences and priorities. Compensation is important, but not all candidates consider it the most important factor, and experienced recruiters can communicate these priorities to the client and establish a clear connection and career path.
After making initial contact with a prospect, recruiters utilize sophisticated interviewing skills in communicating with candidates. A recruiter knows how to present opportunities in ways that appeal to top candidates. They’ll share the advantages of the role and the organization overall, ask the right questions to ensure that an offer, if made, will be accepted, and they have a strong sense of what aspects will “seal the deal.” Even after an offer has been made and accepted, recruiters can help to smooth the way for onboarding and integrating new employees into the organization’s culture and succession planning.
Market Intelligence and Onboarding
If you’re a smaller organization, you’re most likely to benefit from market data intelligence that expert recruiters bring to the table. A professional recruiter has the resources to obtain and analyze data about what other organizations (especially your direct competitors) are paying their employees. This data can go beyond base salary to even cover bonuses, benefits, and other perks. When recruiters partner with your internal teams, they can then expand your knowledge of the current market and advise on changes when necessary.
Although it might feel like a recruiter’s job is done once an offer is made and accepted, an expert recruiter can do much more. Your recruiting partner can streamline onboarding, drive strong retention strategies by establishing clear goals and career paths from the start, and even check in with new hires to ensure that the role is, in fact, a good fit.
At Aspen Associates, we’re committed to being the recruiting partners you need to drive success in searches for roles in senior care, assisted living, long-term care, and more. Our recruiting strategies are designed to secure top talent and ensure continued high performance and great client results. Contact us today to learn more about how we can accelerate growth and drive continued success for your organization.
By Tom Zeleny, NHA