Emerging from the Recruiting Slump

Marysville, WA - August 26, 2002 - Recruiting opportunities arise from a balance of two opposing forces, says former recruiter Frank Heasley, PhD, who today is president and CEO of MedZilla, a leading Internet recruitment and professional community that targets jobseekers and HR Professionals in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and science. "One is demand on the employers' side; the other is availability from the candidates' side. If one far outweighs the other, then there is no opportunity," he says.

With an out-of-balance job market in healthcare, biotech and pharmaceutical, recruiters are finding themselves in a slump. According to Dr. Heasley, current shortages in nursing, pharmacy and some areas of biotechnology are challenging all around. However, the challenges and solutions are different for in-house recruiters than they are for outside headhunters, Dr. Heasley says.

Consultant recruiters: Stay afloat by uncovering hiring opportunities

The current challenge for consultant recruiters and recruiting firms is staying in business, Dr. Heasley says. "Companies are not hiring as much as they were and the labor market is quite replete with candidates, except in a few fields. Companies don't need, for the most part, to hire recruiters to find candidates."

The solution, Dr. Heasley says, is for recruiting companies to identify niches, where hospitals and other employers might have trouble locating candidates. "These should be specialized areas; not broad job descriptions, such as nursing. In biotechnology, examples include professionals in analytical chemistry, executives in regulatory affairs and people who have experience in interfacing with the various branches of the FDA," he says.

One of these hard-to-find areas in nursing (which might be an opportunity for recruiters), according to Dennis Sherrod, EdD, RN, associate director of recruitment and retention, North Carolina Center for Nursing, is cardiovascular surgical nursing. Others are neonatal intensive care nurses and, even, emergency department nurses. "There will always be a place for [outside] recruiters. I think even when you have the number of nurses that you require, there will always be niche areas where it is going to be difficult to find what you need," Dr. Sherrod says.

According to Dr. Sherrod, the trend for employers in North Carolina is to use recruiting consultants for higher level administrative positions. "What we see as a trend in staff nursing in North Carolina is rather than using an outside consultant, most have been bringing in travelers to cover those positions. If they recruit in-house then they can remove those travelers," he says.

In pharmacy, the most difficult positions for employers to find are experienced front-line pharmacists and experienced pharmacy technicians, according to the Pharmacy Staffing Survey 2002, by the American Society of Health System Pharmacists. "Consultant recruiters might know more specialized job candidates and, therefore, can find these people faster," Dr. Heasley says. "Another area where an outside recruiter might find work is in screening candidates, such as potential pharmaceutical sales people."

In-house recruiters: focus on building valuable long-term retention and recruitment programs

The challenge is simply finding nurses, says Pamela Dellinger, RNC, MS, recruitment specialist, Lincoln Medical Center, Lincolnton, NC. But Dellinger has been able to uncover recruiting opportunities.

Dellinger says that while being in a small, rural hospital was a recruiting drawback, today it's a positive. "We are beginning to see some advantages with nurses that are moving rural, not wanting to drive into the city," she says.

Other opportunities have arisen from the poor economy, in general, and poor working conditions at competing hospitals. Dellinger says that many nurses from other hospitals are willing to fill in part time at her hospital because their spouses have lost their jobs. She is also able to offer those nurses who are fed up with high patient loads in large, city hospitals a more relaxed working environment.

Overall, Dellinger is working on offering programs that will meet nurses' long-term lifestyle needs, such as job sharing. "We do not offer sign-on bonuses; they are a quick fix and you're robbing the hospital from down the street. Then, you create such hostility among your loyal employees. We would rather see the money go toward retention programs and what we're looking at is retention," she says.

There's no shortcut when it comes to recruiting, says Dr. Sherrod. Recruiters should instead focus on not only recruiting, but retaining employees and maintaining quality candidate pools. According to Dr. Sherrod, recruiters can add value to their jobs and stay on beyond the point that they fill positions if they focus on how to keep staff for the long run.

For example, recruiters should encourage hospitals to attain Magnet status, a program administered by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. The program recognizes healthcare organizations that provide the very best in nursing care and uphold the tradition within nursing that supports professional nursing practice, according to the American Nurses Association. Dr. Sherrod says that hospitals that are in the Magnet Recognition Program strive to create family-friendly environments and more.

"Research shows that some of the major areas that nurses are concerned about in the workplace is work load, flexibility in staffing, compensation and continuing education," Dr. Sherrod says. "Magnet hospitals are known for creating environments where nurses want to work and, therefore, they have nurses waiting at the door to work."

"It's a tough haul for most recruiters in any field, including healthcare, biotech and pharmaceuticals. Things should ease up when the recession ends. But until then, outside and in-house recruiters will have to focus overcoming very different challenges," Dr. Heasley says.

About MedZilla.com

Established in mid 1994, MedZilla is the original web site to serve career and hiring needs for professionals and employers in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, science and healthcare. MedZilla databases contain about 9,000 open positions and 10,000 resumes from candidates actively seeking new positions. These resources have been characterized as the largest, most comprehensive databases of their kind on the web in the industries served.