Introduction
What do these healthcare professionals need to stay in the contingent workforce? And how do these expectations differ across healthcare roles and generations? We surveyed nearly 400 healthcare contingent workers in North America to determine what they want from staffing agencies. Healthcare candidates want recruiters to understand their specialized skills and serve up the right jobs (and only the right jobs) quickly. They also want recruiters to smooth out the kinks in the process throughout their work assignments; that means making sure their time is submitted, their pay is correct, and their credentialing is easy. Healthcare professionals want to go wherever they are needed to help patients, and rely on their staffing agencies to handle the rest.
Read on to discover:
What do healthcare candidates expect from staffing agencies?
Where does the talent experience let candidates down?
How ready are healthcare candidates for AI-enhanced recruitment?
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Healthcare workforce trends
92% of healthcare contingent workers hope to leave the contingent workforce in the next two years. Most are seeking the stability and predictability of a permanent, full-time job; this is especially true for doctors. If even a small percentage of them follow through, it could significantly impact the healthcare contingent workforce and potentially exacerbate regional clinician shortages in some areas of the U.S.
85% of candidates are considering permanent work in a health system
This number is fairly stable compared to 2023. Physicians are largely looking for the stability of health system employment. Travel nurses want that as well, but they are also concerned about career growth and a decrease in available assignments – a reasonable concern given the shrinking travel nurse market. However, there are still many pockets of opportunity in particular specialties and geographies for highly-skilled professionals. Successful agencies will match these candidates quickly and consistently, creating a frictionless talent experience.
Fewer healthcare candidates turn to staffing agencies
When it comes to job hunting, only 45% of healthcare professionals are working with staffing agencies, as opposed to 79% last year. And 72% of those working with staffing agencies are working with more than one at a time. A larger percentage of healthcare candidates rely on industry-specific job boards compared to those in other verticals. This suggests they are looking for specialized, healthcare-specific resources. This represents an opportunity for savvy agencies to demonstrate expertise in healthcare job matching, licensure, and placement, proving their value to discerning talent.
What do healthcare professionals expect from staffing agencies?
Healthcare candidates are heavily influenced by past experience and available job opportunities. But they also expect recruiters to play a more active role in curating and coordinating their experience while on assignment as compared to candidates in other industries.
Candidates even more heavily influenced by past experience than last year
55% of candidates chose a staffing agency because of a positive past experience, their own or someone else’s. This is even higher than last year when the total was around 35%, and is especially influential among travel nurses. 29% of all healthcare candidates chose an agency because they had the right jobs for them — particularly allied professionals — but this is a decline from last year when that number was 35%. Given how many locums were swayed by direct recruiter communication, this may represent an opportunity for agencies to lean into this kind of proactive outreach.
Healthcare professionals expect more from recruiters
Like the rest of the contingent workforce, healthcare candidates say the top value recruiters provide is faster placement (21%) and finding the right jobs (21%). And job matching is even more challenging in healthcare, a complex industry with multiple specialties, settings, and licensures. When it comes to what healthcare professionals expect their recruiters to handle for them, their top expectation is the same as the rest of the contingent workforce: finding the right job. But the rest of their expectations are quite different. Healthcare professionals are more likely to want recruiters to handle communicating with potential employers. And they really want recruiters to understand their licensure and only offer jobs that they are allowed to do — failing to understand those requirements could seriously affect candidate loyalty and satisfaction.
What drives loyalty among healthcare candidates?
Healthcare professionals want staffing agencies to wick away work and reduce friction in the recruitment process. They are looking for recruiters to optimize processes and make their experience easier and smoother throughout, especially with respect to credentialing.
Communication and process optimization drive candidate loyalty
Communication and process optimization are the common themes of what drives candidate loyalty. And support and communication go beyond first placement, including redeployment and reskilling. Healthcare professionals find real value in their recruitment relationships and getting it right has a huge impact on loyalty, especially when recruiters are transparent, communicative, and supportive and make their healthcare professionals feel taken care of.
Every stage of the recruitment process matters
When it comes to the recruitment lifecycle, every stage presents an opportunity to delight candidates and cement their loyalty to a staffing agency. In healthcare, getting paid on time and easily makes the most difference when it comes to candidate loyalty, more than doubling the likelihood that they stay with their current agency. But across the board satisfaction at each stage boosts loyalty by at least 30%.
Poor job fit and complicated workflows are where the experience goes wrong
Areas of dissatisfaction really speak to process and technology optimization — healthcare workers are annoyed with online systems that are too complicated, not well-integrated, and too cumbersome. And they are frustrated that recruiters don’t understand their highly specific job needs and skill sets — 58% felt their recruiters didn’t understand their needs and 38% said the jobs presented didn’t match their skills. And around half find credentialing to be a big pain point. All of these cases represent an opportunity for agencies to apply AI tools and agents to really uplevel all these functions.
78% of healthcare candidates would rely on AI if it speeds up the process
Overwhelmingly, healthcare contingent workers are willing to work with AI if it delivers value and gets them into the right jobs faster. As the US healthcare market struggles to balance out clinician shortages with faster credentialing and better job matching across regions, AI may be the single biggest tool to help the contingent workforce be part of the solution.
AI already yielding benefits for healthcare professionals
55% of healthcare contingent workers already know they are working with AI in the recruitment process — nearly ¾ of locum tenens are working with AI. And it seems to already be speeding up response times and helping candidates get matched to the right jobs faster — 71% of per diem nurses say AI has meant better job matches. Locums and travel nurses are especially eager to work with AI if it speeds up the process, 87% and 86% respectively.
60% of healthcare candidates are comfortable with AI at every stage of recruitment
Candidates are remarkably comfortable with AI agents handling every stage of the recruitment process, especially job matching (75%). Even the category with the lowest result, getting paid, shows nearly 60% comfortable with AI. And that is significantly higher for some sub-groups, with 86% of travel nurses happy to have AI handle job fit, and ¾ of per diem nurses looking for AI to take over compliance and onboarding. The message is clear: healthcare candidates are ready for AI to make their lives easier.