At Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, we are always hopeful about the future and look forward to the changes that 2010 may bring. But we’re also prepared to continue working with a challenging job market and give candidates the best experience possible.
Like many employers, Children’s saw fewer job openings in 2009 than was typical in previous years. But Roberta Vaden, Director of Recruiting, saw this as an opportunity.
“Not only can we give a positive, productive experience to job seekers already struggling with a difficult job market, but it was an opportunity to build a high quality pipeline of candidates so that when the economy turns around, we will be positioned to be proactive in our recruiting efforts,” Ms. Vaden said.
The solution was to create a place in our application tracking system specifically for future opportunities. For job seekers who cannot find a current open position, they are able to complete a full application for future positions and connect with a recruiter.
When designing the process, the recruitment team agreed that especially in a tough economy, it is important to reach out to as many eligible candidates as possible and to value their time and interest through both constructive feedback and occasional correspondence while they wait for a position to become available. The correspondence includes newsletters with topics such as interviewing and networking tips or how to utilize volunteer positions that could lead to a job.
Kristen Taylor, a recruiter at Children’s, said that candidates are sometimes surprised when they get a call for a job opportunity that doesn’t even exist yet.
“Every candidate that I talk to is so thankful for my phone call,” she said. “It can be very discouraging to apply to companies and not hear anything back so they are relieved to get a call. Even if there is not a current opening, they are just happy to talk to someone for guidance.”
Since the nursing job postings are for positions that aren’t available yet, candidates apply to the job category that is closest to their experience and interest. Currently, the future opportunity job postings include Clinical Research Opportunities, Family Support and Behavior Treatment Opportunities, IS&T Opportunities, Non-Clinical Nursing Opportunities, Non-Clinical Professional Opportunities, Nursing Opportunities, Nursing Leader Opportunities, Rehabilitation/Pharmacy/Nutrition Opportunities and Respiratory/Radiology/Laboratory Opportunities.
Since launching the process in May 2009, Children’s has received 1,200 applications that they would have otherwise missed. From that, there were 422 qualified candidates and 52 new employees have been hired.
Ikeda Williams always wanted to work at Children’s and when the time came to start her job search, that’s the first web site she went to.
“I looked at all the jobs and there weren’t any available at that time,” she said. But then she saw the future opportunities job posting and applied for future jobs in Family Support and Behavior Treatment Opportunities.
“And they called back so quickly, I didn’t have to do anything else,” Ms. Williams said. Within a month, a position had opened and Williams interviewed.
And being able to build and manage a pipeline has helped recruiters reduce their time to fill positions.
“The future opportunities portal has helped me fill positions very quickly,” Ms. Taylor said. “I have even shared candidate applications with managers without current openings in their department. The managers are excited to see recruiting being so proactive and as soon as a position comes open, we have candidates ready to interview.”
Lisa Lohr is a recruiter for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and has been in healthcare recruiting for five years. She also serves as an officer of the Atlanta Association of Healthcare Recruiters.
The full and complete article written by Lisa M. Lohr – Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, can be found at: http://www.healthnewsdigest.com/news/Guest_Columnist_710/New_Recruiting_Tool_in_Place_for_2010.shtml
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