Fraser Health reinvents the job post

Health care is one of those industries so large and complex, that updating systems and processes is a monumental task, sometimes met with reluctance to change. To add another layer, government and union partnerships often instruct how health care systems are set up — from what coverage looks like, to funding, down to how health care professionals are hired.

For providers in Canada, this is exactly the case — there are many guidelines to follow and highly complex methods of negotiation, and work alongside diverse stakeholder groups. Compensation, including benefits, is held constant across the board and job descriptions and requirements are written and approved with strong union partnerships. This can be a blessing and a curse for an industry that is always looking for talent and never has enough.

Take Textio customer Fraser Health, for example. On one hand, it doesn’t have to worry about “competitors” offering better pay or giving more time off to lure employees. The playing field is level, and prospective workers have consistent expectations employer to employer.

On the downside, Fraser Health doesn’t have to worry about competitors. Yes, you read that correctly. If everything is the same, how does Fraser Health make it clear that there is a better choice and it is it? How can it demonstrate that it has something different to offer when job seekers see the same thing career site after career site?

Explain what makes you different

Culture is the one thing that is unique to an organization, no matter how strictly its industry is governed. Culture helps define the type of people who will want to work at an organization and who will ultimately thrive. Culture is experienced internally, but illustrated externally through a thoughtful interview process, starting with a candidates first touch point — the job description.

Fraser Health came to Textio because it knew it was the better place to work, and needed help effectively conveying its message to bring in the quality and quantity of candidates needed to grow.

Reclaiming the Job Post to Hire Better

In order to meet aggressive hiring demands, Fraser Health needs to reach the right candidates. It is taking back the traditional job post, transforming it from commonplace to customized for each role. While job requirements and expectations will remain the same, as outlined by unions, a second, more colorful job post highlights why Fraser Health is the place to be.

Textio took a deep dive into Fraser Health job posts from February 2017 through February 2018. Fraser Health’s data shows that its top 50 percent of descriptions (scoring a 38 or higher) attract 30 percent more candidates that are qualified enough to move through to the first interview. With this top of mind, Fraser Health is using Textio to reach higher scores and, ultimately, hire better employees.

James Nielsen, Director of talent acquisition and onboarding at Fraser Health, explains that the team is already starting to see the impact high scores are making. An executive director had a job opened for nearly a year and struggled to find the right person for the job — until a few months ago the job was still open. Within a month of rewriting the original description with Textio to a higher score, the same executive director had 10 highly qualified people to choose from for the role. That is just one example of the tangible benefits of augmented writing.

And that’s just half of the story. In addition to score, gender tone plays in a role in how qualified applicants are for Fraser health positions. When compared to biased job posts, posts that include more masculine or feminine leaning language, neutral jobs attract 11% more candidates that are qualified enough to be reviewed by the hiring manager and 50% more are sent to the interview stage.

It’s just the beginning

Fraser Health’s data prove the value of writing to high scores and with a neutral tone. This layer of insight works a forcing function for its recruiting department to change its approach to writing and see better results. By writing with Textio, Fraser Health now has the ability to unmask the hidden meaning behind its job post language and pivot its writing to connect with the job seekers it needs.

Stay tuned as we follow along with Fraser Health as it works with Textio to redefine health care job descriptions in Canada and improve hiring performance.