Healthcare Staff Assessment: Level Up Your Healthcare Recruitment

How would you determine the most appropriate candidate for the job in the healthcare system?

Identifying the ideal healthcare candidate in healthcare recruitment involves a thorough screening process. Review qualifications and experience to ensure minimum requirements are met. Conduct pre-employment tests to evaluate clinical skills, critical thinking, and other competencies.

It’s no secret that healthcare recruitment is facing an unprecedented staffing crisis. According to a recent survey by Sterling, 47% of HR teams are struggling to find qualified talent, while an additional 16% are grappling with higher-than-typical turnover rates.

The repercussions of this shortage are far-reaching, impacting not only healthcare organizations but also patients’ well-being. Recruiteze’s alarming prediction suggests that by 2030, the United States could face a deficit of up to 100,000 physicians—a chilling statistic that underscores the situation’s urgency.

During this hiring turmoil, healthcare organizations are scrambling to find effective solutions.

Jobvite’s research highlights the top recruiting priorities: improving the quality of hires, enhancing employee retention rates, and reducing the time-to-hire. However, achieving these goals in the face of such a severe talent shortage is no easy feat.

It’s time to think creatively and embrace innovative strategies that can help improve your healthcare recruitment efforts. One approach that is gaining traction since the pandemic is the implementation of pre-employment assessments, commonly referred to in the medical field as healthcare staff assessments.

How Do Healthcare Staff Assessments Work?

Pre-employment tests give objective data about candidate skills and provide valuable insight into the abilities and personality traits of potential new hires. A variety of pre-employment tests help hiring managers and HR teams determine whether an applicant is suitable for a specific role. 

The assessments can measure candidates’ cognitive abilities, relevant skills, expertise, and behavioral traits.

The Benefits of Pre-Employment Testing in Healthcare Recruitment

According to Leaders for Today,  more than half of employers report rejecting applicants due to a lack of critical skills. To address this challenge, pre-employment tests have become an essential hiring tool for managers. 

Measure Soft Skills

Recruiting healthcare professionals with the right skill set can be challenging. Along with professional competencies, soft skills such as attention to detail and communication abilities are also imperative in healthcare. 

Conducting pre-employment assessments can provide you with comprehensive insights beyond what a basic resume or interview can offer, allowing you to objectively evaluate candidates’ soft skills.

Reduce Unconscious Bias

Pre-employment test scores can provide a more objective assessment of a candidate’s skills and abilities, which can help reduce the impact of unconscious biases and improve the overall fairness of the hiring process. 

By relying on test scores as a guiding factor, employers can make more informed hiring decisions and ensure that they are selecting the most qualified candidates for the job.

Streamline Onboarding Processes

It is a common misconception that onboarding begins on the first day. It’s instead a process that starts the moment a job opening is publicly advertised. Pre-employment tests have proven over time to be a valuable part of that onboarding process. 

By assessing a chosen candidate’s weak points and understanding them on a professional level even before hiring, their onboarding experience can be personalized and optimized.

For example, testing for a candidate’s data entry skills can influence the training they receive during the onboarding process. If they show solid basic data entry skills, but have issues with more complicated tasks, their onboarding could focus only on the aspects of the program they need help with. 

Tackle Turnover

According to Health Care Management Review, the cost of turnover at one major medical facility was more than 5% of the total yearly operating budget. For many hospitals, that can be the difference between profit and loss for the year.

What strategies can healthcare organizations use to reduce turnover? 

While turnover can be caused by different reasons, one place to start is with the hiring process. Because of the healthcare skills shortage, firms must make every hire count. Recognizing which job applicants are most likely to thrive long-term will reduce turnover.

Pre-employment tests have shown to be very reliable providers of such information. Employers can make more informed hiring decisions by reviewing assessment results, which indicate the candidates who have the best long-term job success potential.

Which Tests Can You Use for Healthcare Recruitment?

For your healthcare facility to provide exceptional care and operate efficiently, your staff must have a diverse range of skills and abilities. Each role, from patient care staff such as nurses and back office administration roles such as receptionists, demands unique competencies.

To help you navigate this complex landscape, use a pre-employment testing company offering a comprehensive healthcare staff assessment toolkit. Such testing categories should include:

Customer Service Test 

Although customer experience is important for any organization, it’s especially important in the healthcare industry. Because their everyday tasks focus on treating patients, it is crucial to think of healthcare personnel as customer service representatives. 

Knowledgeable and customer-focused employees serve the best interests of both the consumer (patient) and the service provider. The customer service test focuses on abilities such as troubleshooting, decision-making, and communication clarity, among others.

Attention to Detail Test

Attention to detail is one of the most important skills for candidates to have, because it lowers their risk of making mistakes. Mistakes can lead to higher costs, miscommunication, and fatal results.

Pharmacists and nurses, for instance, must be exceedingly cautious with drug specifics and dosages. The wrong medicine delivered at the wrong time might do great harm. 

A competent candidate will be able to show that they can recognize data inconsistencies, spot flaws in their own and others’ work, and accurately follow specific directions.

Computer Skills Test 

For medical office staff, computer skills are a must. These roles, which include receptionists, medical secretaries, and medical assistants, cover a wide range of responsibilities. Their day-to-day tasks include scheduling appointments, collecting patient information, and processing paperwork such as billing and insurance.

Your administrative hires should be comfortable with computer systems and software, including security and password protocols, as well as Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems, if applicable. They should also be able to manage files, enter data accurately, and communicate effectively via email or other electronic means.

Medical Office Skills Test

To really understand your applicants’ technical ability and healthcare qualifications, you can administer a medical office staff skills test. This test includes subjects such as medical billing and coding, knowledge of most-used abbreviations, and HIPAA compliance. 

Strengthening Healthcare Recruitment with Pre-Employment Assessments

In the midst of the healthcare recruitment crisis, simply increasing employee count is not enough. You need to hire the most qualified candidates for each role. Healthcare staff assessments not only improve morale and decrease turnover but also enhance the overall patient and employee experience.

Pre-employment tests make it easier for HR managers to assess candidates’ abilities, regardless of industry or sector. By avoiding costly hiring mistakes, organizations can reduce hiring expenses by 5 to 20 times, ensuring better cost management and minimizing the financial impact of mistakes made by underqualified hires.

To calculate how much your company can save by using pre-employment tests, try this ROI calculator tool. To determine which test suits your HR team’s needs, review this test list, then try a free sample test today!