Understanding the Role of Medical Billers

Before diving into the best practices for hiring billing professionals, it is essential to understand what the role entails. Medical billers are responsible for processing claims and ensuring that healthcare providers receive payment for their services. This requires a thorough understanding of medical terminology, billing codes, and insurance regulations. A skilled medical biller must be detail-oriented, highly organized, and possess excellent communication skills to work with patients, healthcare providers, and insurance companies.

Best Practices for Hiring Billing Professionals

When it comes to hiring billing professionals, there are several best practices to consider. Here are some tips to help you find and hire the right talent for your organization:

1. Define the Role

Before starting the recruitment process, it is essential to define the role of the medical biller. This includes the job responsibilities, required skills, and experience level. This will help attract the right candidates and streamline the recruitment process.

2. Look for Relevant Experience

Medical billing requires specialized knowledge and experience. Look for candidates with a background in billing, coding, or healthcare administration. Candidates with experience working in a medical office or healthcare setting will be familiar with medical terminology, billing codes, and insurance regulations.

3. Evaluate Technical Skills

In addition to relevant experience, it is essential to evaluate technical skills. Medical billing software and technology are constantly evolving, so it is crucial to hire someone who is familiar with the latest tools and techniques. Look for candidates with experience using electronic health record (EHR) systems, medical billing software, and other related technology.

4. Assess Soft Skills

Assessing soft skills is crucial when hiring medical billing professionals. In addition to technical skills, medical billers must have excellent communication, problem-solving, and customer service skills to interact effectively with patients, healthcare providers, and insurance companies. One way to evaluate a candidate’s soft skills is by conducting behavioral interviews that focus on past experiences and actions in challenging situations. You can also administer personality assessments or work simulations to gauge their abilities to work collaboratively, handle stress, and manage their time effectively. By assessing soft skills, you can ensure that you’re hiring candidates who are not only proficient in medical billing but also possess the interpersonal skills needed to excel in the role.

Conduct Behavioral Interviews

To assess a candidate’s soft skills, consider conducting behavioral interviews. These types of interviews focus on the candidate’s past behavior in certain situations. For example, you might ask the candidate to describe a time when they had to handle a difficult patient or insurance company. This can help you evaluate how they would handle similar situations in the future.

Utilize Referrals and Networking

Don’t underestimate the power of referrals and networking when it comes to hiring medical billers. Reach out to your professional network or industry associations for recommendations. Additionally, consider offering a referral bonus to current employees for successful hires.

Provide Competitive Compensation and Benefits

Medical billing professionals are in high demand, and they know it. To attract and retain top talent, you must offer competitive compensation and benefits. Conduct market research to determine the appropriate salary range for the role and consider offering benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off.

Offer Training and Development Opportunities

Medical billing is a complex and ever-changing field. To keep your employees up-to-date with the latest technologies and regulations, offer training and development opportunities. This can include online courses, industry certifications, or attendance at conferences and seminars.

Conclusion

Hiring skilled medical billing professionals can be challenging, but by following these best practices, you can streamline the recruitment process and find the right talent for your organization. Remember to define the role, look for relevant experience, evaluate technical and soft skills, conduct behavioral interviews, utilize referrals and networking, provide competitive compensation and benefits, and offer training and development opportunities. Additionally, outsourcing medical billing services can be a smart move for organizations looking to optimize their billing operations and achieve greater efficiency. By partnering with specialized professionals who have expertise in medical billing processes, regulations, and requirements, organizations can benefit from faster reimbursement, reduced billing errors, and improved accuracy. By incorporating outsourcing as part of your talent acquisition strategy, you can build a strong team of medical billing professionals and position your organization for success in the competitive healthcare industry.

The post The Intersection of Talent Acquisition and Medical Billing appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

All medical professionals and healthcare providers that meet the legal definition outlined in 45 CFR § 160.103 are required by law to register for and acquire an NPI number. Short for National Provider Identifier, NPI is a 10-digit number that lets any concerned party verify the status of a healthcare provider’s license. Basically, you can’t fake being a doctor anymore.

The NPI No tool is leveraging this federal initiative by unlocking a huge database of all healthcare professionals. Source prospects from doctors, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, and even therapists. NPI No has a vast treasure trove of potential leads for recruiters that you should definitely take advantage of. For instance, the site has details on over 1,000 dermatologists in New York alone. You can even filter it down to Brooklyn exclusively, which brings up 55 as of this writing. 

What makes this tool even more powerful is the amount of detail it has on every prospect. From their practice location addresses to contact numbers, everything is in easy-to-read tables. But there’s more! Even a vast sea of data on clinics is on this site, along with associated employees.

For more insight on another great engine for sourcing healthcare talent, check out this great article we wrote on Heartbeat.ai. You can start sourcing healthcare leads for free by visiting NPI No today. 

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Flexibility for workers became a necessity instead of a luxury. Where possible, workers needed to do their job from outside of the office thanks to social distancing, childcare issues or taking care of sick family members.

With the pandemic on the way out and a little bit of normalcy returning, what will the job hiring landscape look like? How will employers retain your best employees and woo exciting new workers? Your insurance and health benefits package can help.

Touting Benefits

Maybe your company had to lay off employees because of poor finances during the pandemic. Maybe your company had to restructure to fit the changing needs of the industry. Any way that you look at it, though, you now need to fill positions. So, where do you begin? Focus on benefits.

Start with the obvious one — health insurance. Potential employees want to know you care and that you’ll help pay for their health care. A recent Insure.com survey of 1,000 workers found that 70% consider health insurance an essential part of recruitment and retention.

But there’s more to health insurance than just offering one option. Employees want more choices so they can find a plan that fits their needs. Don’t go with only one option, such as a high-deductible health plan (HDHP).

A HDHP has its place in a benefits package, but don’t just rely on that sole option and expect employees will like it. Instead, provide at least one other option, such as a health maintenance organization (HMO) or preferred provider organization (PPO) plan.

Offering more than one option gives you a better chance to recruit a solid workforce. Your employees won’t all be the same, so your health insurance menu shouldn’t be either.

A Well-Rounded Offer

The most prominent benefit a company can offer is healthcare, but after you have built a robust menu of options in that area, you’re not done. Job seekers are looking for something that will set your position apart from another offer they receive.

One perk is to offer a health savings account (HSA). HSAs let employees save pre-tax money for future healthcare needs. These accounts are connected to a HDHP and employers can also contribute money to them.

HSAs can be a selling point to help offset out-of-pocket costs. You can make this an even better selling point if you contribute to the employee HSA accounts.

Another way to round out your benefits plan and show job seekers that you care about them as a person as well as an employee is by offering supplemental life insurance. For a small cost to your company, you could offer a group plan with $10,000 death benefits. A group life insurance plan won’t likely be the sole reason someone stays or joins your company, but it can serve as part of a well-rounded benefits package.

Advocate and Educate

With such a competitive job market currently, employers can’t sit back and take a passive role in building their workforce.

When you make an offer to a potential employee, highlight all of your benefits, not just compensation. Talk about the health benefits options and make sure to talk about both the premiums and out-of-pocket costs like coinsurance and deductibles. Promote your health plan’s provider network. Discuss associated benefits like gym memberships.

Tell the prospect why each option matters. Explain why you have such well-rounded coverage.

That communication shouldn’t stop when you hire a new employee. Instead, keep the communication flow about health benefits ongoing.

So much jargon is thrown around in the benefits arena and never explained. Employees are expected to know the difference between coinsurance and copays; the difference between an HMO and PPO; the difference between in network and out of network.

Do yourself and that person a favor by educating them from the beginning. Tell them about each term to help them make health insurance decisions. An educated workforce will make better decisions and keep costs down for everyone.

Let’s face it, a happy employee means company loyalty and less turnover. Ensuring your employees have a benefits package that suits their needs can be vital to keep a productive and stable workforce.

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Here’s how nurse staffing agencies can create flexible opportunities for entry-level nurses.

Give Nurses the Freedom to Choose Where, When and How Often to Work

Offer a variety of positions, locations and assignments for nurses. This gives nurses the flexibility and freedom to choose an assignment based on the assignment length, their interests and previous experience. For example, most contracts range from 4-26 weeks.

Offer Per-Diem and Travel Nursing Opportunities

Per-diem nurses have the flexibility to choose when they work based on hospital demand. For example, a nurse can schedule three shifts at three different hospitals in the same week. Such freedom gives entry-level nurses the opportunity to pick up shifts at the last minute, take weekends off and enjoy the holidays with family and friends.

Travel nurses have similar freedom to choose where and when they want to work with the additional benefit of traveling. Often, nurses can find ICU, OR, ER, psych, med surgical, surgical tech and telemetry travel nursing opportunities.

Build a Mutually Beneficial Relationship

Create an environment where nurses strive to get better and grow with the agency every day. If nurses trust your staffing agency among others, they will likely continue looking for and refer others to your per-diem and travel assignments.

Offer Personalized Attention, Time and Care to Entry-Level Nurses

New nurses will often have inquiries and need guidance during their first assignments, especially if they are traveling to a new location. A 24/7 support system can address questions regarding job placement, housing matters, licensing, etc. Further, an excellent staffing agency will have a policy for nurses to comply with. This policy should cover missed shifts, penalties, pay rate, additional work hours and pay, etc.

Look at Short- and Long-Term Success

Entry-level nurses may have short- and long-term goals while working with a staffing agency. It is important to address both types and foster an environment that focuses on quality care when fulfilling hospital needs. This can ensure that your staffing agency can fill positions based on your high standards and success rather than worrying about nurse retention alone.

Maintain High Standards

With extensive screening, staffing agencies can find exceptional per-diem and travel nurses to fill positions. High standards will strengthen your relationships with hospitals and reputation. Your expectation for quality care, shifts, etc. should be outlined in your staffing agency’s policy.

Partner with Top Hospitals

Partnering with top hospitals can attract entry-level nurses looking to build out their resumes and gain experience from competitive locations. It may also be likely that openings at prestigious locations will fill fast, and those hospitals will get the help needed. As a staffing agency, partnering with top hospitals will further your reputation and credibility among nurses.

Offer Competitive Rates

Find unique and high-demand opportunities with top hospitals to offer competitive pay rates to your hard-working nurses. You can improve your retention rate for nurses with reasonable compensation for per-diem and travel nursing.

Have Regular Virtual Meetings and Gather Input

Staffing agencies should regularly hold virtual meetings with other staffing agencies, as well as nursing organizations. The best way to understand the needs of entry-level and experienced nurses is to communicate with other agencies. Gathering input from organizations that have similar needs and goals will set staffing agencies in the right direction.

Gathering Feedback from Nurses

Getting feedback from entry-level and experienced nurses is a great way for staffing agencies to make positive changes to flexible staffing plans. Collecting direct information, preferences and thoughts from entry-level nurses ensures that the staffing agency has the most information possible in order to provide opportunities. Not only will direct feedback from entry-level nurses build comradery between staffers and employees, but it will also give nurses the opportunity to share their ideas.

With direct feedback from nurses, staffing agencies will have the resources to understand the needs of the medical staffing industry when it comes to flexible job opportunities. Too many nurse staffing agencies blindly follow the status quo of doing things without caring about the feedback and preferences from the nurses for who they are trying to find flexible opportunities. Everyone has ideas, so why not get them directly from the source?

The post How Nurse Staffing Agencies Can Create Flexible Job Opportunities for Entry-Level Nurses appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

In the meantime, the cottage industry of corporate wellness started offering novel services like mindfulness meditation to a new generation of millennial startups.

As a $52.8 billion industry (with a CAGR of 7.0 percent from 2021 to 2028), one might say that corporate wellness companies were foresighted when the world came to a halt. Even though remote work and social distancing acted as catalysts for new technological and creative solutions, the industry’s innovative nature gave companies an edge.

Thus, in 2020 and 2021, we can see how the changes in consumer behavior and the new set of challenges and priorities inspired growth in this sector.

Virtual Corporate Wellness Solutions

The aftermath of COVID’s mental-health toll is still way away.

And the data pulled by the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom shows that we’re at the beginning of a mental health crisis. Because of the social restrictions, virtual solutions became the safest option.

However, it’s not only a question of safety but also one of well-being. And the data is showing us that these corporate programs are not only trends but a necessity. Thus, we saw the development of:  

• Pinterest & Brainstorm: The Stanford Lab for Mental Health Innovation launched the Compassionate Search Project.
• Fuseproject launched Dreem, an application that provides users with a drug-free, custom-tailored solution for better sleep.
• Sweat Force started offering virtual fitness as the central pillar of its corporate wellness program. Companies like Peloton, ClassPass, Wellbeats, BurnAlong, Movement Rx, and many others jumped on the bandwagon.

The expansion of virtual solutions exploded in the past year because wellness companies push the limits on immersive experiences. The key is a high level of customization for each employee or team. The goal is overall wellness.

Wellness as a Game Experience

Another avenue wellness companies are exploring is the concept of wellness as a game experience. Or, as SonicBoom put it, gamifying wellness.

The notion might not be as novel as tracking COVID-19, but the methods and the strategies are because they are driving engagement. Using any app that tracks wellness goals and asks users to fulfill specific objectives (game jargon: quests) is a form of gamification.

Users are “tricked” into incorporating healthy habits into their lifestyles through the power of fun and exciting activities. Moreover, they get brownie points and a rush of dopamine every time they fulfill an objective.

Video games (at least the good ones) use this basic model to attract players, and wellness companies borrow it to help users lead healthy lives.

Telemedicine

The rise of telemedicine in the past year has been unprecedented, with 9 million users receiving a telehealth service from mid-March through mid-June alone.

The reasons for this growth might be obvious: the pandemic, the social distancing rules, or the cost. However, flexibility and convenience might hold the keys to the castle. Not only for the users but for the providers.

Telemedicine services can be easily adapted into the workflow, and more importantly, the quality of the service remains high. Wellness companies that develop telemedicine platforms focus on seamless integration within the EHR system.

Hence, since the pandemic, the list of companies working in the telemedicine field got bigger – the expected CAGR is shocking 25.2 percent. The industry’s key players are Teladoc, MeMD, iCliniq, Amwell, MDlive, Doctor on Demand, and soon many others.

Tracking Covid-19

A textbook example of how a company can step up during a difficult time with an innovative solution is Fitbit.

In May 2020, Fitbit announced a COVID-19 study to build an algorithm that detects COVID-19 before symptoms start. According to its findings, and with more than 100,000 Fitbit users analyzed, the company can detect nearly 50 percent of the cases one day before the first symptoms.

The benefits of this research are obvious. Moreover, the company is also tracking changes in heart rate and breathing rate connected to COVID-19. All of the gathered data is publicly available.

Digital Wellness

Another valuable byproduct of the COVID-19 pandemic is the recognition of digital wellness.

As people spend more and more time integrating technology into their lives, the effects of that integration are not always positive. Social media is more addictive than cigarettes, and the average U.S. adult will spend 44 years staring at screens.

Hence, the goal of digital wellness is to achieve balance with technology and social media. Moreover, apart from the wellness companies, even big corporations like Google started developing digital well-being toolkits.

The COVID-19 pandemic increased the overall dependency on technology, and because of that, wellness companies started developing digital wellness programs that offer modern solutions to modern problems.

Wellness companies are in a unique position to drive innovation for the next decade because the market has rapidly shifted its focus on health and well-being. Moreover, with the development of blockchain technology and AI, the possibilities for new and extraordinary products and services are massive.

It’s going to be fascinating to see where the wellness industry will take us in the next few years.

The post How Wellness Companies are Driving Innovation in 2021 appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

This credentialing process takes weeks to complete. Now, more than ever, healthcare staffing organizations must streamline the administrative process without compromising compliance. 

Moreover, resources are needed for vaccine delivery, testing, and contact tracing, further straining not only clinical roles but also non-clinical roles such as pharmacy technicians, traffic controllers, security, greeters, contact center agents, schedulers, and environmental services personnel.

Healthcare staffing firms can implement several key best practices including pre-credentialing travel nurses that are needed at a moment’s notice.

And, they can leverage technology to automate sourcing and screening of talent, thus speeding up the recruiting process and deploying workers as quickly as possible where they are needed most. 

Pre-Credentialing for Rapid Response Clinicians

When a crush of COVID-19 patients strained the U.S. healthcare system in late 2020 and early 2021, hospitals struggled to meet the needs of the most serious cases, with some counties coming precariously close to exceeding ICU capacity.

Healthcare systems needed more clinicians to do the specialized work of managing COVID-19 patients. And, while frontline healthcare workers increasingly became vaccinated, healthcare systems still found themselves short-staffed as they dealt with fallout from those who were exposed to the virus and forced into quarantine.

In that environment, the demand for travel nurses rose steadily.

This scenario is an extreme example of the sometimes high-stakes world of rapid-response nursing, in which lives are at stake and a cumbersome credentialing process is not an option. Moreover, combined with a lengthy application process to become a new traveler for a staffing organization, many travel nurses limit how many organizations they apply to because it takes so long for them to become active at a new staffing firm.

The only way to do true rapid response travel nursing – where nurses are sourced, recruited, and placed in 24-48 hours – is to have their credentials nearly complete, with only the few state and facility-specific documents remaining to be quickly completed.

This process of pre-credentialing is often handled by third-party partners that can cost-effectively handle surges in demand by cutting down the one to two-week credentialing process by up 30% or more.

Given the competition to add new travelers to their roster, staffing organizations are finding ways to make life easier for their travel nurses. One example is the use of credentialing software that allows firms to conduct almost all credentialing in advance, making it easy for travel nurses to upload their documents.

Many staffing organizations have set up the software via a virtual wallet that gives travelers access to their credentials for future placements – even with competing staffing firms. Such solutions give travel nurses easy and rapid access to the hospitals that need them most.

Streamlining Recruitment of Clinicians and Non-Clinicians for Testing, Vaccinations and Contact Tracing

Clinicians working in ICUs, ERs, and other parts of the hospital form a crucial part of the front line in battling the pandemic. So, too, do the clinicians and non-clinical staff who are needed to support testing, contact tracing, and vaccine delivery.

All three of these areas are critical in fighting COVID-19.

For example, mass vaccination locations in convention centers and other large facilities are being set up rapidly around the country. They can require several hundred hires, including:

• staff to guide traffic
• security guards, observers
• contact center staff
• clinical staff
• nurses
• nurse practitioners
• EMTs
• phlebotomists
• MDs and more.  

And, now that pharmacies such as Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid, and more will be involved in vaccine delivery, many states are enabling pharmacy technicians to conduct immunizations with pharmacist supervision.

This means there will likely be a shortage of pharmacy technicians in certain markets, especially densely populated areas that could see a sharp increase in vaccine demand as more doses become available.

How can healthcare staffing organizations fill this wide variety of roles in such a short period of time? Given the high volumes required, traditional passive recruiting tactics like job boards just won’t be sufficient.

Instead, organizations should actively market to drive inbound applicant flow. By aggressively leveraging recruiting marketing, they can turn up hiring quickly, and turn it down once they’ve met demand.

Healthcare staffing firms should consider recruitment marketing partners who leverage programmatic marketing, which uses technology to cost-effectively target candidates based on their browsing habits.

Technology platforms can automatically engage candidates via text and email, gauge their interest in the role, and schedule time for interviews. Then, recruiters can interview the applicant and go so far as to extend an offer on the call and start the onboarding process.

Automated candidate engagement solutions send offer letters, provide links to onboarding materials and remind employees about time and location of their first day of work.

Conclusion

When it comes to beating the global pandemic, healthcare staffing firms have to be armed and ready for surges in demand – whether they come in the form of clinicians or non-clinicians or hospitals, vaccine delivery sites, contact tracing, or testing facilities.

Now, more than ever, the right people at the right time will be key to saving lives and putting an end to this pandemic.

And, after it is over, those same firms will be prepared for increases in demand for maintenance healthcare that many have put off for over a year.

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Hibob Study Reveals Which Employee Groups Have Experienced Significant Mental Health and Job Satisfaction Declines

The survey reveals that men and employees in management positions are grappling less with mental health and job satisfaction issues than women and individual contributors.

NEW YORK – October 8, 2020 – People management platform Hibob unveils the results of its latest workplace study, showing that a majority of U.S. employees have been suffering from a mental health decline since the start of the pandemic.

While the decline is apparent across the board, data indicates that individual experiences are shaped by gender, age, personal environment, and role at work. These factors impact productivity levels and rates of mental health decline and feelings of job satisfaction and security.

“As companies continue to power through the pandemic, they cannot ignore their role in supporting employees who are struggling, and must take action to address them,” said Ronni Zehavi, CEO at Hibob. “With the unpredictability of the future, it’s important for leaders to support its people.

Transparency up and down the organization is paramount to creating a strong culture, and HR teams must strive to maintain genuine ongoing engagement and communication with employees. Without open communication, the struggles employees are facing maygo unrecognized, which could impact their productivity and job satisfaction, and therefore, the organization overall.”

The Disproportionate Decline of Mental Health and Wellness

A vast majority of employees (93%) have seen a direct impact from COVID – either from personal or family illness, or changes to their financial situation due to the economic environment. When experiencing these external changes, employee satisfaction dropped by 27%, and mental health and wellbeing dropped a staggering 33%.

While both economic and physical health played a role in influencing employees’ mental health, Hibob’s survey reveals that changes to someone’s financial situation – such as a layoff or change in employment status – weigh the most heavily on Americans, decreasing mental health in 11% of workers.

On the other hand, less than three percent of those who contracted COVID-19 or had a family member fall ill saw a decline in their mental health.

Hibob’s study also looked into discrepancies between mental health and wellbeing among employees in management positions versus employees who are not managers (individual contributors). This revealed a 22% decline in mental health for individual contributors; 65% of individual contributors ranked their mental health as good or great before the pandemic, compared to just 43% now.

Alternately, those in management positions only saw a 12% decline in mental health since the onset of the pandemic. Additionally, 57% of those in management positions felt confident in the ability of their firm’s HR teams to address employee wellbeing and mental health, as compared to only 40% of individual contributors.

Data suggests that managers have more trust in HR than employees. Especially in today’s environment, companies must promote transparency to establish trust. By communicating more openly and creating more evident initiatives to support employees at all levels, company leaders and HR teams can fortify confidence regardless of the tumultuous times.

Statistics also show that the mental health of older employees and women has been impacted and is hurting their job satisfaction. Around one-quarter of people 55 and older saw their mental health decline (26%) and became less satisfied with their jobs (24%), whereas only 10% of those aged 18-24 experienced mental health declines.

While analyzing the differences in mental health ratings between men and women, the survey revealed that 10% fewer women rated their mental health at work 4 or 5 as compared to men, which can likely be attributed to the fact that women have been tasked with balancing work while actively caring for children and elderly parents or other circumstances. Additionally, more women (41%) admitted to feeling guilty taking PTO during the pandemic, compared to only 32% of men.

This negative correlation of women’s wellbeing and PTO calls attention to the urgency of addressing mental health on the individual or circumstantial level.

The Inequalities of Job Satisfaction and Productivity, Influenced by HR

Since the start of the pandemic, individual contributors have reported lower job satisfaction levels than those who were in management roles. Directly influencing job satisfaction and work from home productivity was HR’s ability to set WFH expectations and address COVID-19 WFH concerns.

While only 54% of individual contributors felt their HR teams have supported and adapted to the pandemic’s effects on the company, a majority (71%) of those in management positions felt HR had done an excellent job communicating and being helpful.

This confidence directly corresponds to job satisfaction, where 18% of individual contributors reported a decline since March, while 10% of managers were similarly impacted. Lastly, a surprising 61% of managers felt very productive while working remotely, whereas less than half (44%) of individual contributors felt productive at home.

Although managers may be under more pressure by company executives, these results indicate a serious need for U.S. companies to audit and reevaluate how they’re setting up individual contributors for success and satisfaction.

When comparing job satisfaction from pre-pandemic to now, 25% of women reported decreased job satisfaction, while 15% of men reported this. Today, roughly half of women (51%) respondents answered they were satisfied with their jobs, and only 11% of women felt their HR teams had set the standard for work from home productivity, compared to 18% of men.

These findings prove that HR must evaluate how to increase job satisfaction for women separately from men, and provide solutions for different groups with different needs, i.e. childcare for women.

How can HR teams solve these issues and improve the employee experience?

Data reveals that creating a hybrid work environment can be a successful way for HR to improve job dissatisfaction due to the pandemic. Regardless of gender, age, or role, those whose offices had implemented hybrid work from home/work from office policies reported higher job satisfaction (68% and 65% job satisfaction of 4 or 5 vs. only 45% for employees that do not have a hybrid work policy available).

“As employees continue to work from home and in hybrid models, these findings have proven just how important it is for companies to check in with their staff regarding their mental health. Tools such as Hibob’s survey feature allow companies to gauge how people are doing, feeling, and how HR can provide solutions that address the real needs of employees,” comments Zehavi.

“During this time, many people are distracted in the day-to-day; they forget how disproportionately some are being affected. It is the responsibility of HR and leaders to tackle these issues head-on.”

The national survey was conducted online by Pollfish on behalf of Hibob on August 25, 2020. It includes responses from 1,000 full-time employees, ages 18 and up in the United States.

About Hibob

Hibob, the company behind the transformative platform bob, which brings together employees and managers to help them communicate and collaborate more effectively, is dedicated to helping businesses grow their people. Founded in 2015, Hibob understands that as younger generations begin to dominate the workforce, they are creating demand for a new way to manage people for the future of the workplace. bob enables fast-growing companies to attract, excite, retain, and develop their most valuable asset, their people, through data-driven tools. With offices in New York, London, and Tel Aviv, Hibob helps hundreds of businesses worldwide grow their people. www.hibob.com

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Talent Technology Roundup – April 10, 2020

More Providers Dive into Virtual Career Fairs

Since California issued its shelter-in-place order on March 19, recruiting technology providers have been quick to offer free services and new digital options to employers. Often, without worrying whether users were customers or not.

Not only has the use of video recruiting tools skyrocketed over the last three weeks, but a steady stream of vendors have begun adding virtual career fairs to their suites as well.

This week, social media platform Jobcase unveiled a virtual event capability that allows employers and candidates to communicate directly. The company said the tool provides employers with a “scalable and repeatable” way to continue hiring, even when employers can’t hold in-person events. The platform also offers tools to manage event promotion, online registration, video and webinar-style presentations, and chat tools.

Jobcase’s announcement came just a week after Paradox and Eightfold.ai launched similar products, within hours of each other. Paradox’s Virtual Hiring Events uses the company’s AI-based assistant to help employers create online career fairs and connect with candidates via a chat-style interface. Eightfold.ai’s Virtual Event Recruiting offers similar features, though the firm highlights its ability to scale.

Travel restrictions and social distancing measures took hold. Paradox saw an opportunity to “reimagine” the virtual event experience, according to Chief Product Officer Adam Godson. While many companies have frozen hiring, others continue to seek new workers. Plus, those who’ve suspended hiring want to keep candidates engaged, he said.

These products are sure to find a ready market. They’re rolling out at the same time of year that businesses embark on recruiting excursions to college campuses around the world. Forbes reports that college recruiters without a virtual event solution are using Skype or Zoom to meet with candidates, and spreadsheets or email to keep records.

Dynamic 2020 for Healthcare Jobs

The competition for healthcare talent was fierce enough in 2019. COVID-19 will make it more ferocious during 2020, a report by Recruitics said. Indeed, industry employers will continue to feel pressure in hiring even as the immediate crisis fades.

Many trends in healthcare’s labor market were already in place before the coronavirus appeared. They have gained intensity as hospitals, researchers, and others in the space put all hands on deck to treat patients and search for a vaccine.

In the coming months, Recruitics expects to see:

•  A growing talent gap, especially for nurses. Even before the virus hit, “registered nurse” was the most frequently searched job title on Indeed. Six of the top 10 were healthcare-related.
• Increased focus on employer brand as healthcare organizations compete for scarce talent.
• More use of virtual recruiting and onboarding tools: Besides keeping people safe, Recruitics noted, these products offer the added value of speeding up the hiring process.
• A series of revised laws and regulations meant to streamline the hiring and onboarding of healthcare workers.
• Employers looking for qualified candidates in new communities, including retirees and the military.
• A renewed focus on employee well-being. Driven by the stress healthcare workers experience working on the pandemic’s front lines.
• Improved training and development programs that focus on recognizing the virus and caring for infected patients.

“Healthcare employers will need all the help they can get to attract, support and retain quality talent as we move forward in this ‘new normal,’” Recruitics said.

Doing Business

Dice introduced a private email option to its platform. Allowing both candidates and employers to remain anonymous during the initial steps of their conversation. Going forward, the platform will automatically hide a candidates’ personal email address when they make their profile visible. Candidates themselves will decide when to share their identity.

Dice Private Email also lets users unsubscribe from messages they deem irrelevant. Over time, the system uses this opt-out information to provide candidates with the most pertinent opportunities. It also helps employers measure the effectiveness of their candidate communications.

CareerBuilder introduced a new tagline; We’re Building For You. The company said the motto is a “brand promise” that its solutions are developed with the goals and success of seekers and employers in mind.

The post HCM Talent Technology Roundup – April 10, 2020 appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

Article posted on booleanstrings.com.

In sync with the times, I want to share some Healthcare sourcing tips to implement in addition to what you are already doing.

I know that sourcing for Healthcare professionals is challenging from experience. Last year, I ran a project sourcing for (bedside) Registered Nurses with 2-3 years of experience for a hospital in Texas. While LinkedIn is a site that can verify the length of experience, it produced a ridiculously small outcome: 200 RNs out of tens of thousands RNs who live in Texas.

However, the industry has its advantages in terms of finding info online, including:

• There are searchable databases
• Hospital websites have bios and contact lists
• Hospital websites have “structure” for filtered search via Custom Search Engines

Sites, where you can search for doctors and nurses, include doximity.com, healthgrades.com, vitals.com, and zocdoc.com (Google these together and you will find more). Physicians’ profiles usually have degrees, licenses, specialization, education, affiliation, address, phone number, and ranking. Some profiles have more info, including email or gender. However, searching within the sites is limited.

View the rest of the article at the link below:

more: Healthcare Sourcing Techniques

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Monster recognizes that our current climate has put immense pressure on the job force, especially in the healthcare industry. In an effort to provide resources to those who need it most, Monster is offering free job listings to all frontline healthcare providers to help companies connect with eligible workers.

To gain further insight on how employers and employees, healthcare and beyond, are handling this uneasy time, Monster conducted a poll within their network and found the majority of employers (57%) would consider changing their work from home policies indefinitely if it proves productive during the coronavirus pandemic. The complete poll results can be found here.

We understand that these are unprecedented times, and Monster wants to help. If you have any questions on Monster’s initiatives or are interested in speaking with our Career Expert, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Free Healthcare Job Listings

We recognize that the healthcare industry is facing an unprecedented challenge in the coming weeks as the coronavirus situation continues to evolve. The need to quickly find qualified people has never been greater. We want to help.

Starting now, we’re providing free access to 30-day job postings for front line healthcare companies with staffing needs as a result of COVID-19. This offer will extend through April 30, 2020.

These Monster job postings immediately give you access to:

• a healthcare-targeted audience
• our site, mobile app, and partner network

The post Free Healthcare Job Listings on Monster.com appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

Experienced recruiters know that the process of recruiting remains roughly the same across different skillsets or jobs one is recruiting for.  As Mile Zivkovic, writer for Hundred5 (now Toggle Hire), points out, “No matter the type (external or internal) or their niche, there’s a common set of recruitment skills that every good recruiter needs to have to do their job well.”

While Mile is right about the transferable skills (attention to detail, marketing skills, and communication skills) every recruiter has, you need to prepare and understand the new field you’re tackling. Without an intimate knowledge of an industry, you may lack the business acumen that drives that industry, and you might significantly miss the mark.

To put it simply, you might make some wrong assumptions about the industry you are about to recruit for. Follow these tips to ensure that you’re prepared for changing industries as a recruiter. 

Understand the industry and terminology

According to Lou Adler’s Recruiter Competency Model, a key pillar of success is “Knowing the Business.” 

With that in mind, answering these questions is a good place to start: 

• What is the product or service and who are the customers?
• How is the product or service designed, made, and delivered? 
• How do companies make a profit in this industry, and how profitable are they?
• Who are the biggest and most profitable companies in this industry? Is my client one of them?

Some answers to these questions can be found in centralized places.  Company websites, LinkedIn profiles, and Glassdoor pages name a few.  So, get online and research before you engage with your clients, hiring managers, and hiring teams. You can also ask for some clarifying information in your kick-off meeting.

Each industry and the skill sets that drive it has its own vocabulary, and many large corporations have a language of their own! Just read through a few job descriptions in your new industry. You’ll find terms, technical jargon, buzzwords, and acronyms you may not have heard before.

Plan to spend some time looking up terms, researching definitions and understanding the differences between similar terms. You’ll find that some terms are spelled differently by some companies or candidates.  Some acronyms are arranged differently but refer to the same term.  These are important nuggets of knowledge for when you start building your Boolean strings.

Another valuable resource is your hiring manager and the hiring team. They can be a great sounding-board for any questions you may have about the industry. By asking questions, you’ll gain respect and build a much stronger partnership if they see you are really learning the details of their unique field.

Understanding Different Cultures 

Research from Energage, an employee advocacy tool, shows that different industries prioritize different values. For example, the retail industry values family and integrity, while the tech industry emphasizes support and inclusivity. These differences result in different communication styles, dress codes, and language potentially used in the workplace. 

For example, if you are working with a client in the transportation or warehouse space, you might find that the company, managers, and candidates communicate via text messaging. If you’re recruiting in the financial services sector, the hiring managers and client contacts will require more data, written documentation, detailed contracts and commitments, and a high level of risk mitigation. Learn about the many nuances of the industry and how to best work with those nuances, rather than against them.

In addition to understanding the nuances of different industry cultures, you might be recruiting people from entirely different cultures. 

The Silicon Valley Leadership Group reports that every major tech hub in the United States has more foreign-born workers than domestic ones. With an economy that is becoming increasingly global, being aware of different cultural customs and tendencies will serve you well.

This article on LinkedIn, which references Erin Meyer’s work from the Harvard Business Review, is a quick summary of several key cultural differences. Articles like these are a good starting point and will help enhance your relationship-building skills and minimize stereotypes. 

The more knowledgeable and comfortable you are with the industry, its terminology, your candidates and their cultural backgrounds, the better candidate experience you will give. In turn, this will increase your success rate in helping your client make faster, higher-quality hires.

The post Can You Pivot? Transferring your recruiting skills to another industry. appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

Despite five generations now being in the workforce, an aging population means the demand for nurses will only grow while the prospect of filling all those positions will only become more difficult.

As a result, innovative approaches to hiring nurses will be crucial for human resources departments and administrators charged with the recruiting task.

Consider the fact that, according to a US Census Report report in 2014, there is forecast to be 83.7 million residents age 65 or older by 2050, nearly double the approximately 43.1 million in that age group in 2012.

Hiring nurses to meet demand will become dire even before 2050, however. By 2022, for example, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the nation will require over 1 million new nurses to care for aging Americans as well as to replace retiring nurses. Meanwhile, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), in its 2018-2019 Enrollment and Graduations in Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in Nursing report, notes that US nursing schools had to turn away over 75,000 qualified applicants from such programs last year because of a lack of enough faculty, clinical sites, classroom facilities, and other issues.

Adding to these difficulties is that fact that the hiring process overall has actually become more onerous, despite the use of technology.

Peter Cappelli, the George W. Taylor professor of management at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and director of Wharton’s Center for Human Resources, says the ability for job candidates to submit applications electronically has overwhelmed many employers, “and companies responded with software that screens applications cheaply and quickly—and in many cases, too aggressively.”

A combination of stringent requirements for any application to avoid automatic rejection and many companies’ muted interest in people actively seeking jobs has turned these systems “into black holes for applicants,” he says.

Filling positions has taken longer, too. As Capelli notes, surveys by employers over the years have found that more steps have been added to the selection process—an increase in the rounds of interviews, drug and background tests, and a general inefficiency in securing permission to hire from financial controllers interested in keeping staffing lean. He cites a study by Indeed.com in 2015 that found that job candidates are put off by having to clear too many hurdles: The number of people applying for jobs fell 50% when online applications had more than 30 questions.

In trying to negotiate such an environment to hire nurses, ChrysMarie Suby, President-CEO of the Labor Management Institute, which published its 29th PSS Annual Survey of Hours Report for healthcare, recommends these innovations for those attempting to hire nurses:

• Provide career classes/clinics related to nursing or hold a seminar or class about an important “hot” topic related to your unit or service-line to meet new nurses who may potentially want to join your team.
• Go to healthcare-centered job fairs to meet qualified candidates interested in joining your team.
• Use as many digital job boards as you can. Digital job boards play an increasing role in how prospective employees search for jobs in 2019 and it will only increase in the future. Some job boards are fee-based because they offer “filter tools” to help find only the most ideal candidates that meet your requirements and descriptions and help you avoid unqualified candidates.
• Work with your human resources departments to fix organizational reviews on social media, and have managers fix their unit reviews. She cites a Glassdoor study that found a job applicant will read six reviews before applying for a job. Bad reviews make a greater impression than a great job description and deter candidates from applying.
• Use search engines sites such as Yahoo and Google, among others, to advertise job openings. Paying for the advertisements can be cost-justified if it attracts just one or two quality applicants, especially if it leads to a faster time-to-fill ratio when it comes to vacant positions.

The post RECRUITING WARS FOR NURSES WILL REWARD THE INNOVATORS appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

it’s estimated that 32% of all US employers will offer student loan contribution programs by 2021

Recruiting in a time of low unemployment is tough in all industries. But, recruiting in healthcare is especially challenging with both the rising cost of education combined with an exceptionally low unemployment rate of 2.6% in the field. With the cost of turnover increasingly high, healthcare employers are now seeking more innovative ways to attract and retain top talent.

One of the exciting newer benefits that is becoming much more common is employer-student loan repayment assistance. In fact, it’s estimated that 32% of all US employers will offer student loan contribution programs by 2021. It’s clear employers in healthcare are already moving much more quickly.

Because the healthcare industry requires a highly educated and specialized workforce, the student loan repayment benefit can be especially impactful. You cannot be a nurse, a pharmacist, a physician, or any other specialized role in a health system without a college education – but unfortunately, wages in those fields aren’t keeping up with the cost of that education. While other industries may face a changing education landscape, it’s unlikely healthcare will in the near future. Healthcare professionals are required to go through years of high-cost education to be able to perform patient care safely.

nurses’ wages have hardly increased to compensate

Adjusted for inflation, the average cost of a four-year degree at a public institution has increased 63% since 2002. Yet, nurses’ wages have hardly increased to compensate. In 2002, nurses made about $50,000, which has the same buying power as $71,000 today; however the average salary of nurses today is $70,000.

Likewise, physicians are feeling a similar burden. The average debt of physician graduates has increased by over $100,000 since 1991. The average wage of family practice physicians was $105,000 in 1989, when adjusted to 2018 dollars that’s an average salary of $190,000. Today the average annual salary of a family practice physician is $199,000. That represents very little growth in salary despite a growing burden of student loan debt.

The demand for healthcare workers is set to increase at a rapid pace. A large portion of America’s population is aging, which means a potentially overburdened healthcare system. This will lead to increased responsibility for healthcare professionals who must provide more services for more people than ever before. At the same time, the eligible applicant pool is not keeping pace with this growing demand. It’s imperative we encourage college students to pursue careers in the medical field to meet these growing needs. Unfortunately, the fear of getting into large debt is often a deterrent for young people. That’s why the adoption of the student loan repayment benefits, through platforms like Tution.io, will allow budding healthcare professionals to have peace of mind when deciding to make the leap into the field.

21-48% reduction in employee turnover rates among their healthcare clients

Loan repayment benefits will help grow a larger group of healthcare workers, and we are seeing the initial impact of these programs today. The student loan repayment program is a relatively new, but a highly desirable benefit, that acts as a competitive advantage for employers. Health systems offering this benefit can set themselves apart and attract and retain top new talent. To date, Tuition.io has seen a 21-48% reduction in employee turnover rates among their healthcare clients. Not only does Tuition.io’s service allow employers to contribute to employees’ student debt, but the platform also provides a variety of financial wellness tools that aggregate data and provide best practices for repayment.

We are on the verge of a crisis in the healthcare industry and unless we find solutions quickly, our body of medical professionals will become even more strained. With a strong economy and low unemployment rate, companies across all industries must find ways to bolster benefits to aggressively attract top talent. Through focusing on better benefits that align with what employees need the most, like student debt repayment, employers can and must set themselves apart.

The post How Tuition Reimbursement Can Help Healthcare Recruiting Efforts appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

AMN Healthcare, a provider of workforce products and staffing services for healthcare facilities, released its 2017 survey of 3,347 registered nurses. In this Survey of Millennial Nurses: a Dynamic Influence on the Profession, researchers studied generational differences among the RNs, revealing how many more millennial nurses (19-36 years old) craved advancement as compared with their older colleagues.

For example, 36 percent of the surveyed millennials aspired to leadership positions, as compared with 27 percent of Gen Xers and 10 percent of baby boomers. Earning an advanced degree was a goal of 71 percent of millennials, with nearly 40 percent planning to pursue a master’s degree in the next three years, and another 11 percent seeking a Ph.D. Just under 30 percent of millennials with ambitions of an advanced practice degree wanted to become a nurse practitioner. The second choice was a clinical nurse specialist, followed by certified nurse anesthetist and a certified nurse midwife.

In a recent interview, AMN Chief Clinical Officer Marcia Faller touted the millennial ambition in my recent interview as a transition that could “further improve patient care and help healthcare organizations,” and nearly two-thirds of the millennials thought so too. Even more (66 percent) considered medical care-transparency, through Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and such, to be vital to the quality of patient care.

Well over two-thirds of millennials nurses were convinced that the introduction of a national nursing license would advance their career

“There is a quasi-national licensure, but it has to be adopted state by state,” Faller told RecruitingDaily. “Thirty states currently have joined the multi-state contract, so that if a nurse has a license in one of those states she or he can work in another of those states without getting another license. The survey question was, essentially, wouldn’t it be great if it were expanded to include all 50 states, as well as the Virgin Islands and Guam.”

Faller said that millennials were eager for the national licensing because they were more mobile than older generations, less inclined to have mortgages and other local ties.

“They desire to move easily without needing to get a new license,” she said.

The great number of millennials interested in management raised concerns about front-line staffing – that is, the number of nurses available for direct patient care, according to Faller.

“We are encouraging registered nurses to return to school, get their advanced degree, move into leadership and into practitioner roles,” she said. “We’re in desperate need of practitioners these days because of the physician shortages out there. All the people that are going to move into those roles are in staff positions at hospitals today, however. It completely exacerbates that nursing shortage problem for sure.”

Why fewer older nurses want to lead is primarily about stress

“When you step into leadership, it’s a ton more responsibility, you have several units under you and you’re now on salary with no overtime, so really the net pay might be the same or less,” she said. “But I think overwhelmingly the disinterest is less about the money and more about the stress and how hard the leadership job is.”

Faller told us that millennial nurses often have employer support for their managerial ambitions. Many hospitals partner with schools to offer advanced classes right at their facilities, while other healthcare employers offer tuition reimbursement or education sabbaticals. Facilities that have established professional development or education departments often provide leadership development training as a supplement to regular nursing classes.  

AMN has leadership training as well, for Chief Nursing Officers.

“We are on our 9^th CNO Academy this fall,” Faller said. “We have four or five each year, a two-and-a-half day intensive for those who aspire to be CNO’s or already are. It’s not about budgets and strategy, but about communication, developing others, and removing barriers.”

Those are the skills that the millennials, new to nursing, are lacking. While many of them start their nursing careers with a bachelor’s degree, that plus two or three years on a medical or surgical floor does not adequately prepare them for leadership, according to Faller.

“It’s more about communication and strategy and developing other people,” she said.

Whether the number of these millennial leaders will be adequate to replace retiring boomer nurse managers is uncertain, however. According to Faller, it’s a major industry concern. 

“We know there won’t be too many millennial nurses to fill these leadership roles,” she said. “But no one really knows if there will be enough.”

So, what’s the resolution for healthcare employers who need these leaders?

“Millennials want a lot of support and development, they want to know how they’re doing,” Faller said. “One of the key survey takeaways is that we as leaders have to make sure we’re doing more in developing them now and preparing them to step into that leadership position when the time is right for them.”

For details and statistics on the inclination of millennials and other generations of nurses to change jobs, their satisfaction with current leaders, and more, read Survey of Millennial Nurses: a Dynamic Influence on the Profession.

The post What Are Nurses Looking For In The Job Market? appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

Meet Relode.

One of our bosses over at RD, Noel, was a long-time healthcare recruiter -- and he can speak to you for days about the issues within that sector of the industry.

So can Matt Tant, who founded Relode. He's also a former member of the San Diego Chargers.

Read More

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