Aspiring to work in healthcare is a noble call to arms – you’re following in the footsteps of many millions of selfless individuals in helping care for your community and the most vulnerable in society. You’ll also discover just how rewarding a healthcare career can be, personally and professionally.
However, every employer has its quirks, every job has its draws, and you need to know what constitutes the right job for you.
After all, healthcare candidates have a right to know what a good opportunity looks like – and navigating the fast-changing world of healthcare recruitment and job opportunities can be difficult!
So below, you’ll find an easy-to-understand list of healthcare application priorities—a 4-point highlight reel of what to look out for when you’re applying for a role in healthcare and what sort of job advert, description, or employer brand message represents an objectively good place to work!
1. What’s the career development plan?
Healthcare is a dynamic and rewarding industry, and you’ll have no end to opportunities to increase your healthcare skill set and specialize in a certain field. However, at the point of application, you should look at career development as a promoted aspect of the job.
The last thing you, or any candidate within the healthcare industry, wants is to be pigeonholeed into a role without any idea of how and where your career could develop. Most candidates now entering the healthcare workforce straight out of school (Gen Z healthcare workers) stipulate career growth as one of, if not the most important, factors in a job.
You deserve to have your career with a healthcare provider mapped out. This should incentivize and drive you to succeed in your job.
2. Seek reviews
Helpful employer review websites like Glassdoor can help you understand a certain employer’s working culture and pay scales. But we say to look a little bit further into a potential employer’s brand messaging and communications to assess their reputation and community relationships.
How do they speak to their audience? Do you want to work for this company based on how they relate to their people?
You should take a few minutes to explore any employer’s social media channels and local media/news stories to see if anything untoward comes up.
For example, if a brand’s social channels are full of customer complaints, or local news has scandalous stories about their operations, you may want to forgo applying for the role.
3. Benefits and Beyond
Analyzing an employer’s benefits structure can always give you a sense of what they are like and how they manifest their work culture.
Now it’s worthwhile saying the job adverts like to leverage benefits as a workplace perk, almost like a candidate magnet.
However, it’s worth remembering that some roles (such as medical sales) could attach benefits to figures, KPIs, or revenue made (commission-based work). So, make sure you always ask how the benefits package is structured, how it works for new staff, and then make sure the benefits structure works for you!
4. Average Tenure
An important question to ask any employer, especially at the interview stage, is “Why did the last person leave this role?” or “What is the average tenure of team members at your company?”
If the average tenure is short (say, under 6 months), that’s a fair indication that an employer has a fairly high staff turnover rate. Of course, this could indicate a series of coincidences, or it could signal a workplace that is toxic, unsupportive, and unfit for work.
Summary
Alongside your staple interview and post-interview questions about contract negotiation, working hours, remote work, and more, the above four-point list should help frame any application and employer in either a positive or negative light.
It should give you all the context and information about an employer’s workplace culture and career handling that you’ll need to finally apply for a role!
To find out more about Neurodiagnostic careers, or if you need resume help when applying for medical roles, get in touch with our complimentary Career Coaches:
References:
https://www.performio.co/insight/kpi-examples-for-sales-representatives
https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/careers/compensation/commission/
