Electronic Health Reporter

By Dr. Sarah Müller, managing director, kununu.

Companies in the healthcare field have a lot of unique challenges compared to those in other industries. For example, while healthcare companies still, of course, have the same universal business challenge of attaining – and maintaining – profitability, they also have specific healthcare-related challenges such as:

• maintaining positive patient outcomes
• following safety and privacy regulations
• keeping up with advancements in healthcare technology
• retaining and attracting talent despite a major healthcare talent crisis: too many experienced workers are retiring / leaving healthcare and there’s not enough incoming talent to fill the void. As a result, the healthcare industry will add about 2.3 million new jobs from 2016 to 2026, which is three times more than other industries (S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

While each of the above challenges is important, the healthcare talent crisis has the potential to wreak the most damage to healthcare companies, since every organization needs talent to do…well, anything. And more specifically, it’s not uncommon to find leaders in the healthcare industry feeling stuck when it comes to recruiting talent and leveraging employer branding to help them do so.

Here’s how to approach employer branding in healthcare:

Consolidate brand mindshare in your current employees

Sometimes it costs more to recruit, hire and train new employees than it does to maintain your existing work force. This is one reason why you will want to place a priority on consolidating mindshare amongst current workers so that when you do need to recruit new employees, you’ll be able to take on that task more easily and in a more focused way. In other words: if you get your current employees unified and supportive of your company’s employer brand from the inside out, showcasing your company to potential candidates gets to be MUCH simpler.

Do this by displaying your company’s branding within the organization’s walls (on signage as well as printed materials from stationary to logos on coffee mugs) as well as in all electronic documents to clearly establish and reinforce your identity among existing talent. Also, you should find ways to communicate and celebrate your organization’s purpose — your reason for existing! — by sharing your mission statement and code of values any chance you get.

Monitor and manage your reputation as an employer

Your healthcare employer brand ought to help you attract better candidates who want to be associated with a top company. So, employer branding includes flaunting all of the benefits you offer to your employees, staying on top of any press and news that your company gets so that there’s no PR damage, and actively responding to your online company reviews from current and former employees to show that you’re a thoughtful employer with a good reputation. You can count on attracting much more interest from top-quality candidates when your employer brand reputation is nothing short of stellar.

Improve your social media standing

Another avenue to effectively maintain and improve your brand as a healthcare company is on social media. In fact, ignoring social media could come back to bite you because that’s where a lot of

But you also must be vigilant so you can address any complaints, whether serious or unfounded before they do harm to your reputation. Otherwise, potential recruits may avoid your HR department, worried about getting involved in a healthcare company that is challenged by controversy or bad press.

Maintain ties with educational institutions

As you think about your healthcare company’s employer branding, you should remember to account for students who will soon be sending you resumes as well as current workers who are alumni of schools you actively recruit from already. New graduates and soon-to-be graduates are the future of the whole workforce – yours included – so associating your brand as the type of company that intelligent and motivated post-grads are motivated to join only helps solidify your position in the marketplace.

Outsource your branding or rebranding project

As you explore all of the different important considerations you need to make for employer branding for your healthcare company, you may determine that you lack sufficient expertise or resources within the organization to handle it on your own.

That’s not a problem. You can outsource your employer branding (or rebranding) to third party professionals, or partner with a trusted employer branding platform. Outsourcing your employer branding to experts frees up your time so that you can stay focused on your core capabilities of delivering outstanding service to patients.