As an HR professional in healthcare, you’re likely aware of the recruitment challenges in today’s competitive market.
Smart recruitment strategies are essential for staffing your facility with high-quality healthcare professionals.
This guide outlines various ways you can effectively attract skilled doctors, nurses, and staff so that you can build a strong team of healthcare professionals in your organization this year.
Key Takeaways
• Healthcare recruitment has become increasingly challenging because of labor shortages and competition in the face of strong demand for services.
• The demand for telehealth services, changing demographics, increased mental health needs, health informatics, and remote patient monitoring have all contributed to changing recruitment trends.
• In 2025, recruiters should adopt strategies to improve branding, pursue varied, diverse recruitment channels, increase employee retention, improve candidate engagement, and streamline the recruitment process.
How is Healthcare Recruitment Changing in 2025?
The U.S. healthcare workforce is facing increasing labor shortages. The Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) reports an expected shortage of medical doctors across practice areas of 139,940 over the next 15 years as well as shortages across all allied health disciplines.
The American Hospital Association (AHA) reports an ongoing nurse shortage exacerbated by the pandemic and burnout. They report an estimated 100,000 nurses left the healthcare workforce in the last two years, and another 610,000 indicated they plan to leave by 2027.
The well-documented labor shortages in healthcare require healthcare recruiters to adapt and implement innovative strategies to attract and retain workers in a highly competitive market.
The following trends also point to how recruitment is changing along with circumstances in the healthcare industry.
1. Rise of Telemedicine and Hybrid Work
Telehealth rapidly increased during the pandemic, and usage levels remain significantly higher than pre-pandemic.
According to the Office of Public Health Policy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), 20% of adults surveyed reported using telehealth services during the previous four weeks.
The demand for telehealth services has translated into a need for hybrid healthcare workers who can transition between virtual care and in-person care.
As a result, recruiters look for healthcare professionals who have strong communication skills that translate well for virtual appointments, are comfortable with technology, and can adapt to different healthcare service settings.
2. Increased Mental Health Needs
More people are seeking mental health services today than before the pandemic.
Even though the pandemic has ended, it brought the importance of mental health and the shortage of available services to the fore.
The American Psychological Association (APA) reports that more than half of all psychologists surveyed were not accepting new patients and that more than one-third were experiencing burnout.
As more people are seeking mental health services in the face of rising rates of anxiety, depression, and other mental health disorders, healthcare organizations are expanding their mental health services to meet the demand.
Healthcare recruiters are actively searching for psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, and other behavioral health workers to fill these positions and address the mental health crisis.
3. Need for Health Informatics
Health informaticians and healthcare data analysts are in high demand because of the vast amounts of data generated by healthcare organizations.
Analytics and generative AI improve efficiency and patient outcomes, leading to a focused effort to attract health informaticians and data analysts to help organizations understand their data and make necessary changes based on their findings.
4. Focus on Remote Patient Monitoring
As the population ages, more people suffer from chronic conditions. Because of this, remote patient monitoring is a rapidly expanding field.
Healthcare recruiters are searching for professionals who can analyze remote patient monitoring data and take actionable steps to improve care.
5. Shortage of Doctors Leads to Increased Demand for NPs and PAs
As previously noted, the shortage of doctors is expected to continue over the next 15 years, leading to an increased reliance on nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) to deliver primary care.
To fill the demand, healthcare recruiters actively search for NPs and PAs to fill primary care service positions.
6. Demographic Changes Lead to New Focuses
Changing demographics, including longer life expectancies and falling birth rates, have necessitated an increased focus on providing age-based care for older adults.
As Baby Boomers continue to enter and pass retirement age, recruiters must focus on attracting more healthcare professionals who are attuned to the needs of elderly adults.
16 Healthcare Recruitment Strategies for 2025
Building a Strong Employer Brand
When your organization has a strong, positive employer brand, you are more likely to attract quality healthcare professionals who will remain loyal.
Here are several strategies to help build your brand.
1. Improve the Candidate’s Experience
In the competitive healthcare market, candidates can quickly lose interest and go elsewhere if the hiring process is long and complex.
HR professionals and healthcare organizations should take steps to improve the candidate experience by reducing the time to hire, keeping candidates fully informed throughout the process, and using skills-based assessments to screen out unqualified applicants.
Consider the background process, for example. Many candidates are left in the dark while waiting for their background check results with no information about how much time it might take.
At iprospectcheck, we leverage a SwiftHire Mobile app that allows your candidates to be fully informed during the background check process.
2. Offer Creative Perks, Benefits, and Competitive Salaries
When healthcare professionals have multiple opportunities to consider, your organization can stand out as an attractive option if you offer competitive salaries, creative perks, and an attractive suite of benefits.
Providing these helps applicants and employees know that you value them by showing your willingness to richly compensate them for the services they provide.
3. Leverage Social Media
Building a strong social media presence for your organization through which you provide helpful information, links to blogs, and highlight employee achievements can help establish your organization as a trusted voice in the community.
Highlight the culture at your organization, and showcase the positive experiences your employees have when working for you.
4. Provide Fast, Reliable Background Checks
Healthcare background checks that take too long to come back can frustrate candidates who are waiting to begin work.
By partnering with a reliable third-party background company like iprospectcheck, you can ensure your background checks are completed quickly without sacrificing accuracy, reliability, and legal compliance.
Because of our extensive access to reliable resources and advanced research techniques, we return background checks in as little as a few hours.
We are also well-versed in federal and state background check laws and healthcare regulations and always comply with them when we conduct background checks.
5. Focus on Diversity and Inclusion
The healthcare workforce and the overall population are highly diverse, and your organization should ideally reflect that.
Value people from diverse backgrounds when making hiring decisions, and implement and encourage inclusion within the workplace.
Active Outreach and Varied Recruitment Channels
6. Healthcare Focused Job Boards
Recruiters and organizations should prioritize advertisements on job boards with a focus on specialized platforms for healthcare professionals.
Advertising job openings on these channels targets candidates with the right qualifications.
People who search healthcare job boards are also likelier to be interested in working for your organization since they are actively looking for positions in the field, which means your job advertisements might be viewed by more relevant candidates than ads placed on general job boards.
7. Partner with Educational Institutions
Don’t overlook educational institutions offering healthcare degrees and certifications in your area as a ready source of new talent.
Contact schools to participate in internship programs through which up-and-coming nurses and other students can complete required internships with your organization in exchange for course credit.
Internships also allow you to evaluate potential new talent and choose to continue your relationship with them as future employees.
8. Implement a Persona-Based Strategy
Your organization must determine its employee value proposition, which is what employees who work for you value about their jobs.
Once you have determined the value you offer, you must ensure you clearly communicate it to each candidate. However, how you communicate your organization’s employee value proposition will differ based on the varying priorities of different groups.
A persona-based strategy allows you to tailor how you communicate with prospective applicants by identifying demographic trends and values and highlighting specific aspects of what your organization has to offer accordingly.
For example, if you are communicating with members of Generation Z to fill healthcare jobs, it’s important to show that your organization values diverse viewpoints and offers growth opportunities.
A large cohort of this generation prioritizes diversity, equity, and inclusion, so communicating that your organization likewise does so might make working for you a more appealing option.
If you are communicating with mid-level candidates who might have family commitments they need to meet, emphasizing your organization’s focus on work-life balance through its flexible scheduling can make your company more attractive as an employer.
Employee Value and Retention
9. Offer a Strong Employee Value Proposition (EVP)
To stand apart from competitors, you must define your employee value proposition (EVP) and establish your organization as the standard to beat.
While your EVP certainly includes the salaries, benefits, and perks your organization offers, it goes beyond compensation to include other factors that drive your employees’ loyalty and commitment.
You must be able to communicate that candidates will find an experience with your organization that they won’t be able to find elsewhere.
Your EVP should align with candidates’ goals and might include some of the following:
- Opportunities for advancement, training, and career development
- Supportive, collaborative workplace culture
- Emphasis on employee well-being
- Ability to make meaningful contributions to improve others’ lives
- Approachable, involved leadership with a vision for the organization’s future
Offering a strong EVP beyond benefits and salaries can improve your organization’s retention rates and also expand your talent pool.
Consider the advantages working for you offers healthcare workers that they couldn’t find if working elsewhere.
You can start by surveying your current employees about why they accepted jobs with your organization, the positive experiences they have had, and the reasons why they stay.
These surveys should be conducted continuously since employee priorities can change with time.
10. Provide Attractive Growth Opportunities
Employees dislike feeling as if their jobs have a ceiling for growth.
Make sure your organization offers attractive growth opportunities through training, development, and other initiatives.
Consider offering tuition benefits to encourage existing employees to continue their education and move into positions within your organization that offer more opportunities.
For example, if you want to retain talented employees who are currently working as certified nurse assistants, offering tuition payments for them to attend nursing school could lead to having a pool of pre-vetted, talented nurses who will want to continue working for you once they complete their RN degrees.
11. Hire From Within
If you have positions open up within your organization, look inward at your existing employees first.
Providing opportunities for employees to progress in their careers through promotions is a good way to develop your current staff and retain valued employees.
12. Implement an Employee Awards System
When you implement an employee awards system, you show your current staff how much you appreciate what they do.
Recognize employees who have gone above and beyond in their jobs. Consider implementing an incentives-based program through which employees can earn rewards based on their efforts.
Know Before You Hire
Recruitment Efficiency and Process Improvement
13. Use Advanced Technologies to Streamline the Recruitment Process
Advanced technologies can help streamline the recruitment process and make it more effective.
AI-powered algorithms and machine learning assist recruiters by quickly analyzing volumes of data and identifying top talent.
AI-powered applicant tracking systems (ATS) can scan through resumes and match applicants with positions by candidate skills and job duties. ATS can also track candidates’ progress through the recruitment and hiring processes to ensure they remain on track.
Virtual assistants and chatbots can be invaluable in maintaining candidate engagement during the hiring process by quickly answering common questions.
14. Evaluate Candidates’ Soft Skills
You should use skills-based assessments early in the application process to screen out those who are not the right fit for your organization.
These assessments should go beyond holding degrees or certifications and assess whether a candidate has good communication skills and others that would make them a good fit for your organization and team.
Candidate Engagement
15. Meet Candidates Where They Are
To find the best candidates, go to where they are. Engage them on their preferred platforms and spaces.
By meeting candidates where they are, your organization can become an important part of their conversations.
Consider attending industry conferences and career fairs at area colleges and universities, and deliver presentations to showcase why working for your organization makes sense.
Post on healthcare industry job boards to connect with people who are interested in working in the field and encourage candidate engagement.
16. Incentivize Employee Referrals
Your current employees likely have friends who share their values and interests.
This makes your employees a potentially rich resource for finding new, like-minded candidates.
Set up an employee referral program and incentivize employee referrals.
For example, establish a monetary incentive for employees who make the most referrals leading to new hires within a set period.
Partner with iprospectcheck to Remain Ahead of Recruitment Trends
Healthcare recruitment in 2025 is highly competitive because of critical labor shortages and demographic changes.
HR professionals must stay abreast of current recruitment trends and implement innovative strategies to help them attract and retain key talent for their healthcare organizations.
Partnering with iprospectcheck can improve the candidate experience and ensure your organization receives fast, accurate, reliable, and legally compliant background checks to speed your hiring process.
To learn more about our background check services, contact us today for a free quote: (888) 509-1979.
DISCLAIMER: The resources provided here are for educational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. Consult your counsel if you have legal questions related to your specific practices and compliance with applicable laws.
