Mar 23
2020
How To Approach Employer Branding As A Healthcare Company
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.