According to the "Building The Future Care Force " report by Care England , the healthcare sector is facing significant challenges in its recruitment processes, with the average time to hire reaching 78 days—almost twice as long as in other industries. This delay is largely due to manual, labour-intensive, and inefficient hiring practices that result in losing valuable candidates who may accept other offers during the lengthy application and onboarding process.
A critical bottleneck in the healthcare recruitment process is the referencing stage, which our independently commissioned research with DJS Research identifies as one of the most time-consuming and challenging aspects of recruitment in the healthcare sector.
We delve into the specific issues surrounding referencing, drawing on our independently commissioned research conducted with 155 recruitment professionals across various sectors, including healthcare, financial services, legal services, and Ofsted-regulated schools. We explore how these challenges impact hiring timelines and propose how to streamline and improve the process.
Maintaining adequate staffing levels in the healthcare sector is more crucial than ever, given the increasing demand for services. However, the recruitment process is often hampered by inefficiencies, particularly during the referencing stage, leading to extended hiring times and potential delays in patient care. This whitepaper seeks to understand the specific challenges of referencing in healthcare recruitment and proposes practical solutions to improve efficiency.
Referencing: A Critical Bottleneck in Healthcare Recruitment
Our research highlights referencing as a significant contributor to the prolonged hiring timelines in the healthcare sector. The process of obtaining and verifying references is often cumbersome and time-consuming, with the following key challenges emerging:
Time-Consuming Follow-Up Process: The task of obtaining responses from referees is predominantly manual, which can be both time-consuming and subject to delays. Healthcare recruiters often find that this stage can significantly hinder the overall recruitment timeline, as responses are frequently slower to arrive than anticipated.
Inaccurate Referee Information: Incorrect or outdated contact details for referees introduce additional complications, forcing recruiters to spend extra time locating the correct information. This not only prolongs the referencing process but can also lead to frustration for both the recruiters and the candidates.
Low Response Urgency from Referees: Many referees do not see responding to reference requests as a priority, often relegating these tasks to the bottom of their to-do list. This lack of urgency means that recruiters often need to follow up multiple times, further lengthening the referencing process.
Insufficient Reference Detail: Even when references are obtained, they often lack the depth required to make fully informed hiring decisions. Many referees provide only basic information, such as a simple "yes" or "no," which may necessitate further follow-up and thus extend the overall time to hire.
Sector Comparisons: Healthcare vs. Other Industries
When comparing sectors, our research reveals that the healthcare sector faces unique challenges in the referencing process. While many organisations across industries request at least two references, those in healthcare are more rigorous in ensuring comprehensive responses, particularly concerning an employee’s sickness or absence record. For example:
Healthcare (76%) vs. Financial Services (48%): Healthcare organisations are significantly more likely to require detailed records of an employee’s sickness or absence compared to other sectors. This insistence on thorough referencing is vital for ensuring patient safety but adds to the overall time-to-hire.
Chasing References: Recruitment professionals in healthcare report finding it more challenging to chase references compared to those in legal or financial services. This added difficulty stems from the high stakes involved in healthcare recruitment, where verifying a candidate’s history and qualifications is critical.
Qualitative Insights: The Human Element of Referencing
Beyond the quantitative data, qualitative insights from our research underscore the frustrations and challenges faced by recruitment professionals in the healthcare sector. Key themes include:
Manual Follow-Ups: Recruiters often need to repeatedly follow up with referees, switching from emails to phone calls and sometimes even involving the candidate to provide alternative contact details. This manual effort is time-consuming and can delay the candidate’s start date.
Impact on Start Dates: Delays in the referencing process can push back start dates for new hires, impacting service delivery and placing additional strain on existing staff.
"That person can't come and work for us until we've gone through those references, we've checked them, and that kind of thing- and we find that that's a really long process that really holds everything up.“
Healthcare
The Desire for Automation: Many respondents expressed a strong desire for automation in the referencing process. An automated system that sends reminders, tracks responses, and flags any missing information could significantly reduce the burden on HR teams and speed up the overall recruitment process.
“I think automation would be ideal, if there was something that could take an application and say these are the references from this application and it be automated that it gets pulled out and an e-mail sent or maybe reminders or contact details pop up somewhere so that it's easy for people to pick it up rather than going in and looking through things.”
Healthcare
Proposed Solutions
To address these challenges, several strategies can be implemented to streamline the referencing process:
Automation and ATS Integration: Implementing an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) with advanced automation features can alleviate many of the manual tasks associated with referencing. Automated reminders, status tracking, and digital verification tools can help ensure references are collected more efficiently.
API Integration: Leveraging APIs to connect with services such as uCheck can streamline background checks and reference verifications, reducing delays caused by manual processes.
Streamlining Process Steps: Combining reference checks with other stages of recruitment, such as DBS checks, can help shorten the overall timeline by reducing the need for separate processes.
Dedicated Resources: Allocating specific staff members to focus on the referencing process can improve organisation and efficiency, ensuring that references are chased and verified in a timely manner.
Conclusion
The referencing stage is a significant factor contributing to extended hiring times in the healthcare sector. Addressing this bottleneck through automation, streamlined processes, and dedicated resources can help reduce delays and ensure that healthcare organisations can maintain the staffing levels necessary to provide high-quality patient care.
About HARBOUR
HARBOUR is dedicated to transforming recruitment in the healthcare sector. Our advanced Applicant Tracking System (ATS) lets you choose between highly customisable and configurable or entirely bespoke systems.
For many of our clients, our standard ATS provides a cost-effective and flexible solution, particularly in compliance-driven sectors like healthcare, where control and checks are critical. It’s easy for any ATS vendor to say their system will keep you compliant, but for a recruiter to ensure their process meets compliance standards such as CQC on an ongoing basis requires a very different ATS.