UK 
United States
Last year the number one challenge for candidate attraction in the Health & Social Care sector was the ‘poor perception of our industry’, cited by 59% of those polled in the UK Candidate Attraction Survey. However, this figure has reduced by 50% over the last 12 months.
In this insight, we will drill down on the UK Candidate Attraction Report 2020-21 to balance the quality and quantity of candidates for the Health & Social Care sector and the outlook for the next 12 months on hiring levels and recruitment marketing budgets.
Sourcing quadrant overview
Various channels, including job boards, LinkedIn, careers sites, CV Databases, and referrals, all appear to provide sufficient numbers of suitable talent in this sector. Some gain the edge on quality, and some deliver less quality but increased quantity.
So, where is the ideal point in the quadrant? This, of course, will depend on the types of roles you are recruiting. For example, with higher volume, lower-skill roles, you may be willing to sacrifice quality for additional quantity - in which case the lower right quadrant may be suitable for focusing your efforts. Similarly, an excessive volume of candidates can be problematic. Too many applications can increase the administrative burden on recruitment teams.
The Heroes Effect
Candidate attraction in the Health & Social Care sector has typically seen a ‘poor perception of our industry/sector’ hamper efforts to attract the right balance of candidates. However, this figure has halved over the last 12 months, from 59% to 30%, perhaps due to the sector’s heroic work during the pandemic. Incidentally, the Transport & Logistics sector also saw poor perception drop from 60% to 16% – another industry who stepped up when we needed them most as we remained at home.
The next 12 months outlook
The survey asked how hiring levels would change in the next 12 months, and the results for the Health & Social Care sector show an overwhelming response to increased hiring to 70%, 15% expect it to stay the same and 15% decrease. This is further supported by the Recruitment and Employment Federation report that saw the highest weekly numbers of job adverts in mid-March since the pandemic began - 146,000 new job adverts posted in the third week of March, giving a total of 1.29 million active job adverts in the UK.
When asked how recruitment marketing budgets will change in the next 12 months, the responses were as follows – 36% expect an increase, 46% expect them to remain the same and 18% expect a decrease.
What can we learn to recruit in the Health & Social Care sector successfully?
We can expect significantly increased Health & Social Care recruitment in 2021, so understanding and measuring your sourcing channels will help drive the right activity and recruit smarter.
The report shows us that in-house recruiters head straight to their website to advertise jobs on their careers site and only much later look to their existing candidate database, possibly missing out on a wealth of easy to match candidates. Does this sound familiar, or are you or are you talent pooling to connect with warmed-up candidates?
Many companies have invested heavily in candidate-centric career sites. The results seem promising. Careers sites now contain more candidate focused content to help them make informed decisions and promote employer brands. Does your careers site stand up? You can read more on which types of content could make the difference to your careers site on pages 30-34 of the report – see the link below to access your free copy.
More resources here…
All of this and more is covered in the report, available to download for free UK Candidate Attraction Report 2020-21, or watch the report presentation on-demand.
