8 tips for travel nurse recruiting
These tips can help your organization recruit travel nurses and find high-quality candidates:
1. Partner with a staffing agency
If you don’t have a travel nurse recruiter on your staff, consider partnering with a staffing agency. Travel nurses’ jobs are unique, as their employment contracts often include housing stipends, bonuses and other forms of compensation. Partnering with a staffing agency streamlines contract management and provides access to current local compensation and benefit rates.
You can also benefit from the relationships that agency recruiters have with travel nurses. It’s not unusual for a nurse to accept multiple contracts from the same agency, so travel nurses and recruiters often work together for years at a time. If you need to fill a role quickly, an agency shortens your time-to-hire for qualified candidates.
2. Use a targeted digital and social media strategy
Digital platforms are invaluable for reaching specialized healthcare professionals. Instead of relying solely on generic corporate postings, commit to sharing active, transparent contract details across dedicated travel nursing groups and social networks.
To maximize your return on investment, support organic posts with targeted pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns on Google and Facebook. Narrowing your parameters to specific geographic regions, license types and clinical experience levels places your active openings directly in front of nurses actively seeking travel assignments. Remember to include your facility’s full name, exact city location and a direct link to your dedicated careers portal.
3. Keep your website updated
Keeping your website updated ensures travel nurses can quickly determine that your facility aligns with their career goals. When a travel nurse visits your website, they are usually trying to ascertain details about your nursing philosophy and open positions.
It’s important to highlight the benefits available to travel nurses, such as sign-on bonuses, housing allowances and reimbursement for moving costs.
4. Refine the hiring process
Maintaining a straightforward hiring process encourages experienced travel nurses to apply to your facility.
For example, if you currently require two in-person interviews, consider conducting the first via video conferencing. This eliminates the need for travel nurses to commute to your facility twice.
Another option is to streamline the application process. For example, if you require applicants to enter their job history and qualifications in an online form, don’t request a separate résumé. Eliminating duplicate data entry protects your application completion rate and keeps candidates engaged.
5. Focus on building relationships
Successful travel nurse recruiting relies heavily on the strength of your candidate relationships. Whether you’re conducting screening interviews or making offers, treat every applicant with respect. They may not accept a travel contract with you right now, but they’ll remember how you treated them.
If applicants have positive experiences with your organization, they may refer other nurses to you or apply for full-time positions at your facility when they’re ready to stop traveling.
6. Optimize job boards with explicit pay breakdowns
When you advertise a travel nursing job, make sure you include all relevant details. A clear travel nurse job description works well when it explains exactly what you seek in a travel nurse, including compensation.
“Most travel nurse job postings include information about compensation per week, as well as contract length, expected shifts, hours, overtime, differential rates and any meal or housing stipends. Being as detailed and transparent as possible in your posting will streamline the hiring process and attract the nurses who are most interested in the position.”
—Michelle Hensley, DNP
7. Ask for referrals from current employees
When you’re looking for new talent sources, don’t forget about your current employees or current travel nurses who already work for your organization. Offering referral bonuses may help you attract high-quality applicants more efficiently, making it an excellent way to increase your applicant pool.
In-house referral programs are also often cost-effective. If your facility doesn’t have the budget for cash bonuses, you can offer additional time off or other incentives for high-quality referrals.
8. Maximize in-person networking events
While digital channels deliver quick results, your organization can build long-term brand equity by maintaining a presence at physical recruitment and industry events. Sourcing talent face-to-face helps your team to make an immediate impression and capture passive candidates who may not be browsing traditional job boards.
- Host a presence at job fairs: Job fairs provide recruiters direct access to qualified candidates with the exact skills and experience required for open roles. Attending a job fair can significantly help grow your applicant pool.
- Attend professional nursing conferences: Sending representatives to regional or national nursing conferences is a great way to maximize face-to-face recruitment. Your hiring team can distribute marketing collateral, capture contact information from hundreds of passive candidates and pitch the unique structural benefits of accepting a short-term assignment with your healthcare system.
