Why is Travel Nurse Recruiting Unique?
Several Travel nursing continues to grow every day with many people opting to train in this lucrative industry. However, the dynamics in this new and fast-growing industry has meant that travel nurse recruitment should be as unique than ever before in order to meet the challenges of modern day nursing. In this article, we seek to detail why travel nurse recruitment is unique, challenges facing travel nurse recruiters. We also detail some of the ways recruiters can overcome these challenges.
Numerous factors converge to make travel nurse recruiting extremely unique. Although some of these factors apply to other industries, other elements are unique to this field. When combined, these factors can make travel nurse recruiting challenging to navigate. Here are some of the factors every recruiter needs to be aware of:
1: Growth of Vendor Management Services
First, the growth of vendor management services has meant increased number of agencies that customers can connect with. Since recruiters are doing this for each individual agent, the rate of competition is high. This also implies that there shall be ineffective communication between agencies and their clients because of the presence of a middle-man.
2: Short-Term Nature of Assignments
Second, the fact that such recruitment assignments are short-lived means that travel nurse recruiters are always on the lookout for new jobs every day. This is typically very difficult since as a recruiting agent, you are always on your toes. A typical contract for a travel nurse recruiter is barely 3 months or less compared to an IT staffing contract of 6 months. What this means is that recruiters in this field need to devote more resources in order to search for jobs to deal with a higher turnover in candidature.
3: Short Notice of Travel Nursing Assignments
It is a norm for clients in the industry to experience short lead-time as they attempt to fill the openings. In fact, it is common practice to see recruiters begin their search process 4 weeks to the start of their assignment.
4: Extensive Paperwork and Submission Requirements
Unlike in other industries where simple paperwork can get them an opening, travel nursing recruiters are expected to submit volumes of paperwork in order to increase the chances of accepting their candidates. Agencies are required to submit numerous documents, including copies of licenses, professional certifications. It is extremely demanding for candidates to meet all these requirements and doing so requires agencies quite some time to compile the details.
Approaches to Travel Nurse Recruitment
The aspects discussed above present numerous challenges to Travel Nurse Recruiters. Ideally there are two fundamental approaches to travel nurse recruitment, including recruiting for the job and an agent acting as an ambassador. Most agents choose the former approach in which the agent focuses on searching for qualified candidates to fill the openings and selling them to the clients.