In today’s highly competitive healthcare staffing landscape, internal recruitment teams face unprecedented challenges. Lokum App, a platform designed to streamline the provider sourcing process, emerged from our deep understanding of these obstacles. Over time, we’ve identified critical inefficiencies within internal teams, many of whom still rely heavily on outdated methods like job boards, unaware that more complex market dynamics are at play or ill equipped by their organizations to do anything about it.
This white-paper highlights the lessons we’ve learned from developing Lokum App and explains why internal recruitment teams are struggling to recruit Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) effectively. Leadership in struggling healthcare organizations may be attributing the majority of their challenges to the severe provider shortage, but that only constitutes one part of the problem. The root of organizations’ struggles often lies not in a talent shortage, as many assume, but in inefficiencies within the teams themselves. Lokum App offers an efficient, flexible, and data-driven solution to help healthcare organizations compete and win in this rapidly evolving market.
The Inefficiencies Within Internal Recruitment Teams
Outdated Processes:
Job boards, cold calling, mass texts, and emails are still a primary reference for many internal teams, but they no longer suffice in today’s fast-paced, competitive market, leading to the heavy use of 3rd party staffing agencies. These platforms are passive, relying on applicants to find roles rather than proactively seeking matches. In today’s market, the job needs to find the CRNA, not the other way around.
2. Resistance to Change:
Internal teams are often slow to adopt new technologies or modern recruitment strategies. This resistance can be linked to internal inertia or a reluctance to overhaul long-established processes. While this is understandable, it presents an expensive problem for organizations seeking an edge in this market.
3. Lack of Agility:
In a market as dynamic as anesthesiology, internal teams are often unable to respond quickly enough to changes in demand. Rigid recruitment timelines and cumbersome approval processes further slow their ability to act. Furthermore, candidates are often left sitting in the recruitment pipeline for too long, leaving ample opportunity for them to be recruited by 3rd party agency companies with far better processes and technologies-sometimes for the same job.
4. Organizational Constraints:
Policies and protocols limit recruiters’ flexibility. They often feel “handcuffed” by organizational requirements that prevent them from using more nimble or creative recruitment strategies, particularly when dealing with time-sensitive, high-demand roles like CRNAs. Many are seeking full time CRNAs, but nobody can manufacture them quickly enough and the organization isn’t willing to employ more creative strategies like posting jobs more flexibly, and employing strategies to gain consistent coverage, while optimizing margins and saving costs.
For example, some teams refuse to communicate with CRNAs to answer simple logistical questions without a resume presentation. While the desire to evaluate a resume in the sourcing process is reasonable, CRNAs are also reasonably cautious of the vulnerability involved. Often, CRNAs will elect to find other opportunities to avoid the risk of being locked out of presentation by an agency in the future. An initial conversation to clarify the role should not involve such rigid roadblocks and ultimately can contribute to the very problem organizations are looking to solve.
5. Limited Market Understanding:
Internal teams may be unaware of the current dynamics in the CRNA market, such as shifting candidate preferences for locum tenens positions, regional variations in demand, or salary competitiveness. This limited understanding leads to ineffective strategies and long vacancy periods. A lack CRNA input in crafting sourcing strategies may also be an issue for many teams.
6. Data-Driven Decision Making:
Without actionable insights, teams rely on intuition rather than facts. Job boards provide limited analytics, making it difficult to track recruitment funnel performance or adapt strategies based on real-time data. A key goal of the marketplace functions within Lokum App includes robust analytics to support teams.
How Lokum App Can Address These Inefficiencies
Streamlined Processes:
Lokum App automates key steps in the recruitment workflow. It’s designed to simplify job posting and applicant tracking while offering targeted matching, and communications features with nudges, significantly reducing the time and effort required to fill open positions.
Enhanced Flexibility:
Lokum App is built to adapt to fluctuating market conditions. Whether recruiting for locum tenens or permanent positions, the platform enables users to modify postings, shift recruitment strategies, and communicate with candidates more efficiently.
Data-Driven Insights:
The platform provides internal recruitment teams with insights to guide their decision-making. As it grows, it offers the opportunity for real-time data on open rates, click rates, and job match success allowing recruitment teams to see what’s working and adjust tactics quickly.
Improved Candidate Experience:
Lokum App enhances candidate engagement with personalized job recommendations and communication. Candidates are matched based on preferences, experience, and skills, making the process feel tailored rather than transactional.
Cost Savings:
By reducing reliance on external agencies and ineffective job boards, Lokum App lowers recruitment costs. Internal teams can manage the entire recruitment process on one platform, leading to fewer placements through third-party recruiters.
Trust:
As a CRNA-founded platform, Lokum App engenders a unique level of trust among CRNAs by addressing their fears transparently, alleviating the fears they experience when dealing with traditional agencies or outdated job boards.
Case Studies: Successful Implementations vs Unsuccessful Implementations
Case Study 1: Large-Sized Anesthesia Group | > 100 Facilities
After implementing Lokum App, a major practice management group saw an increase in quality hires and a significant reduction in recruitment costs. They were able to pull new candidates into their talent pools, cross-credential them at multiple facilities, and save up to 92% on their temporary and permanent staff compared to 3rd party channels. Here’s what they had to say: “This is really the only thing I use to get CRNAs in the door, and it’s really working out for me.”
Case Study 2: Medium-Sized Anesthesia Group | < 100 Facilities
A regional anesthesia practice management group seeking CRNAs was looking for a platform to “get their jobs out there”. They assumed, like many Groups are prone to do, that marketing was the primary issue they faced. They tried Lokum App and in the first 8 hours, had 11 eager CRNA candidates for one of their assignments. The app’s agile functionality allowed the center to quickly respond, optimize job postings for better match candidates’ preferences, leading to more timely and better fitting matches.
Here’s what went wrong: Organizational readiness was low. The recruitment leadership and team was extremely busy and failed to respond to candidates in a timely manner. They lost every lead and CRNAs on the other end were frustrated. Here’s are direct quotes from one of the providers:
CRNA 1: “That ultimately reflects on their practice and how it’s run. Therefore, regardless if I hear anything from them or not,I wouldn’t accept the job due to their ineffective communication skills.”
CRNA 2: “Do they need the help or not?”
CRNA 3: “I emailed them back but I never heard anything back from them. The conversation went well but I had to go ahead and commit to a place in Indiana for most of my needs for next year since I hadn’t heard anything.”
Conclusion
Internal recruitment teams in healthcare are facing unprecedented challenges in attracting top talent, especially CRNAs. Their reliance on outdated processes, resistance to innovation, and limited understanding of market dynamics are causing them to lose the battle in today’s highly competitive environment. Lokum App offers a way forward—streamlining workflows, enhancing agility, and providing the data-driven insights needed to make informed decisions.
To remain competitive in the recruitment of CRNAs and other healthcare professionals, organizations need to adopt platforms like Lokum App. With the right tools in place, internal teams can not only meet the challenges of today but position themselves for future success.