The TMA Healthcare Recruiting Summit and Talent Acquisition Summit were held August 15^th & 16^th in Philadelphia.  It was a privilege for us to not only attend the sessions, but to present as well.  Our own Regional Director, Shannon McAulay-Newcomb, spoke on the topic, ‘Demystifying Recruitment Analytics: Winning the War for Talent in Healthcare’.  Regional Directors Roger Dowie and Katrina Polansky rounded out our coverage of these events as we also hosted a table to field questions and engage in informative discussions with conference attendees.

Here’s What We Found

Data is King

Our topic turned out to be timely, and was a key theme throughout both days of each summit. Collecting data, and more importantly deciphering it in a meaningful way, is significant when distinguishing yourself in competitive markets. The concept of ‘big data’ was also fundamental in the day’s discussions. While gathering large amounts of data to be analyzed is nothing new, the notion of big data typically encompasses volume (quantity), velocity (speed generated and processed), and variety (type). TA organizations can utilize big data via predictive analytics to assist and sometimes dictate processes in identifying key candidates for critical roles. Some impactful areas to harness the capabilities of big data are: predicting hiring needs, boost employee retention and loyalty, and developing an effective hiring blueprint.

Strategic Marketing & SEO

Other recruiting strategies discussed revolved around TA Marketing tactics. The notion of applying SEO as a tool to assist in better recruiting was a substantial talking point. Clearly, SEO strategies should be targeted and include specific key words and thematically relevant terms. Today’s competitive market requires SEO strategies to be savvier than ever. Recruiters need to discover and submit candidates before they’re even a glimmer in their competitor’s eye. A few ways to make the most out of SEO are SEO-friendly job titles and descriptions (the majority of today’s candidates go to Google to begin their job search), include the job’s location as many candidates search with a specific location in mind, and ensure your URL is search optimized. The use of media is another tactic to consider – search engines and social media platforms tend to prioritize video over other asset types.

There Are Options

Candidate sourcing options were a hot button for conference speakers and attendees alike. RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) was at the core of some discussions. Some TA organizations may utilize RPO to better optimize their talent supply pipeline. There are challenges with going this route – the main one being ensuring you’ve selected the right partner. RPO firms go further than staffing companies, contingent, and retained search providers as they own the recruitment process completely…so pitfalls could crop up if not careful.

Search tools were another option discussed for sourcing. Sure, every recruiter has their usual suspects to leverage, but what about for those hard to fill roles? Those that require seemingly unobtainable attributes that only a sliver of a percentage of candidates would possess? Alternative solutions such as taking a look at dating sites as well as consumer-facing sites that allow individuals to rate, comment, and recommend were explored.  Much can be gleaned about a person from these avenues that could eventually turn them into a potential candidate.

We saw a great response to our topic, ‘Demystifying Recruitment Analytics: Winning the War for Talent in Healthcare’. Shannon dug into strategic ways to manage third party agency resources, as those in Healthcare and other competitive industries turn to third party recruiting more and more. With the overall goal being to find quality talent faster while staying ahead of the competition, Shannon focused on how to optimize efforts and investment. Third party search is expensive – we enjoyed sharing ways in which to get the most out of third party spend while maximizing collaboration with agencies.  (As an additional resource on this topic, take a look at the results from our recent survey, ‘Out to Search: A Third Party Recruiting Collaboration & Performance Survey’.  This report includes findings from more than 1,000 surveyed Human Resource, Talent Acquisition, and Recruitment professionals and highlights some analytics that might take you by surprise.)

Our team was on hand at our table listening to the concerns and challenges in talent acquisition that conference attendees were facing, and connecting those challenges to ways the BountyJobs platform could serve their specific needs.

Catch Ya Later Philly!

We’re headed back to Austin, and while it was a whirlwind trip, we enjoyed our time at the conference as well as in the great city of Philadelphia. All sessions at the conference were well attended – full of industry professionals with common goals such as: innovative ways to source the best talent faster, fresh approaches to increase competitive edge when attracting candidates, and the big kahuna…optimize data collection and utilize predictive analytics.

It was great to run into friends from NY Presbyterian, Providence, HCA, Nationwide Health, Goodyear and others… One of our favorite aspects of conferences is the added opportunity to reconnect with folks we’ve had the pleasure of working with over the years.  What a beautiful city Philadelphia is. Here’s a quick snapshot of City Hall: