Over the past year, my colleagues and I have worked with numerous companies and healthcare facilities and based on their needs and our experience, some things are changing in the way that top talent is recruited, contracted and hired. Here are five healthcare recruiting trends that we see emerging for 2013:

1. Video & Skype interviewing will be more prevalent. My clients, i.e., healthcare IT departments, are making video interviewing and Skype a standard as part of a job search. We attribute this to technology advances, slashed travel budgets for both recruiters and candidates/consultants alike, and convenience. In fact, recently a large integrated delivery network wanted to interview for an interim CIO and requested that we facilitate a video interview prior to a face-to-face meeting. This way, they would be able to interview at their convenience, save time and money, and determine if they wanted to move this candidate to the next step of the interview process.

2. Companies & healthcare facilities are now mapping their future talent pool. Healthcare organizations are always hiring, but now are beginning to see the value in continually recruiting and staying in touch with “A” players.  If you wait until you’re in a bind before actively recruiting, chances are that you may have to settle for a “B” or even “C” player.  With healthcare IT always changing due to electronic medical record (EMR) implementations, ICD-10, and government mandates, it’s more important than ever to have the best talent available to get that competitive edge. 

3. Culture-fitting healthcare IT candidates are growing in importance. You may have heard that “people are hired for skills but fired for fit.”  Well, it’s true. Consequently, matching a healthcare IT candidate with an organization’s working environment or “culture” has become an essential part of the interview and selection process. And since the healthcare environment is very different than other industries, culture-fitting a candidate is a must in order to avoid a mismatch or misfit.

4. Mobile platforms will play an integral role. The healthcare workforce is increasingly expecting communications to be delivered through their mobile phones and devices. As such, mobile recruiting presents a tremendous opportunity for employers to engage and stay connected with the next generation of talent. We saw something similar to this technology trend about three years ago when EMR and tablet integration caused processes to be created and/or modified in order to meet the needs.

5. The interview and job offer process will be shortened. Healthcare organizations have lost too many good candidates over the last year due to a time lapse between the interview and job offer. They now realize the value in keeping the momentum going by ironing out the details of the job prior to conducting interviews. Also, it’s important to minimize delays due to hospital bureaucracy and politics so as to reduce the time between a job interview and offer.

New recruitment platforms of 2013 can help healthcare organizations of all sizes to gain insights that will help them to streamline and enhance their current recruitment and hiring practices in order to build the best possible teams and edge out the competition. 

Frank Myeroff is managing partner of Direct Consulting Associates, Solon, Ohio