Today’s skilled nursing employee is not approaching this career path as did those of yesteryear. They have a different mindset about their needs on the job in everything from wages to hours to scheduling flexibility. They are also departing the industry in record numbers: between February and December of 2020, the long-term care industry lost five percent of its workforce, or nearly 342,000 employees.

In fact, an industry survey last year of 616 nursing homes found that 94% of nursing homes are experiencing a staffing shortage. This is obviously a challenging hiring environment for SNFs that are still learning their way through the modern hiring cycle, but even some experienced SNF HR departments are not seeing the results they want.

“Many facilities have the ability to use their own ATS (applicant tracking system), yet that doesn’t work anymore,” says CEO Shmuel Septimus of health care industry recruitment firm Quality Recruit. “Finding people, scheduling them, calling them — even if you’re already posting jobs online and using your own ATS, that by itself is no longer sufficient because there are too many competing jobs vying for the same candidates.”

Septimus says that SNFs must embrace three simple steps for finding, and winning, today’s job applicant.

Step 1: Be as flexible as possible

For SNFs and their residents and patients, the bottom line is simple.

“We just need to get staff into your building,” Septimus says.

That necessity means flexibility. SNFs must adjust their hiring standards and make choices they might have previously disregarded.

“Ignore experience level and hire people out of school,” Septimus says. “We encounter agencies that are turning down leads because the applicant has never worked in a nursing home. Now is not the time to get stuck on those details.”

Of course, if the SNF finds those applicants, all the better. And compliance issues are a separate matter. But flexibility is important.

“There are valid reasons to stick to your guns about certain things, but now is not the time to be rigid,” he says. “To find out that the applicant didn’t check off every box is not a reason not to hire them. Any place where there is room for flexibility, you want to take it.”

Step 2: Evaluate your hiring process

The modern job applicant is compelled by different strategies than the ones that worked even just five years ago. They don’t want to waste time, Septimus says, such as with an interview process that can be front-loaded with paperwork prior to the interview itself.

“An applicant doesn’t want to waste their time filling out paperwork for a possible job that might not come through for them,” he says. His recommendation is to reverse the paperwork paradigm by shortening the pre-interview process. Get applicants into the interview faster and, if applicable, into the hiring phase faster.

After that is over, if you hire the applicant, they will be more open to the same paperwork you wanted before the interview. (Operators, though, still should be careful about not overloading applicants with paperwork.)

The other strategy that needs a tweak, Septimus says, is personal: the interviewing process. Anyone representing a SNF in the interview process should be positive and upbeat — everyone from the head of HR to the front-desk receptionist. Ensuring that positivity across the board can lead to “instant results,” he says.

Step 3: Show each applicant the “why”

Today’s SNF job applicants have a world of employment options. Because of that, SNFs must show each applicant the “why” — why that applicant should choose their SNF over a competitor.

To do that, they must examine the reasons applicants are choosing them over their competitors, or their competitors over them, Septimus says. One area to evaluate, of course, is pay scale, along with related wage questions, such as bonuses. That can be a challenging moment of self-reflection, but it is vital. And it might even include an open conversation with competitors.

“Talk to your top five competitors and ask how much everyone is paying CNAs, housekeepers and others,” he says. “Find out where you fall. Are you paying competitively? Above average? Below average? If someone interviews with five places in your area and your pay is the lowest, they’re not going to work for you.”

​​Of course, the paycheck alone is not the only deciding factor. Many qualified candidates nationwide are aligning in droves with staffing agencies, and not only because of the agencies’ recruitment tactics. This suggests that many SNF employees seem to place higher value on flexible work schedules and instant pay in a non-monotonous work setting, unlike past applicants who may have been lured by job stability and retention bonuses.

Septimus believes that SNF operators should consider more flexible scheduling options and payment structures for qualified employees, options that, perhaps, more accurately reflect the lifestyle choices of today’s applicants.

In today’s landscape, that’s what everyone must answer.

“It’s critical for us to realize that this is not business as usual, and in all likelihood, it’s never going back to the way it was,” Septimus says. “Those who embrace the change will be best prepared for the future changes to come.”

This article is sponsored by Quality Recruit. To learn more about how to capture today’s worker, visit quality-r.com.