May is a month where we traditionally hold many employee celebrations. These celebrations are ways to thank you for your dedication to your colleagues, patients and customers, and to recognize you for a job well done. Some might argue that 2022 should be THE year for celebrations as we continue to overcome so much as a health care system.

Out of the many challenges we’ve faced during the pandemic, and I know there have been a lot, recruiting and retaining employees continues to be at the forefront. Ensuring we have great teams in place to meet the needs of our communities and the people we serve is paramount, but we also need to grow our UF Health Shands family because having talented co-workers is essential to help you feel supported in your role.

One of the recruiting tools we use is beneficial to employees in two ways. The employee referral bonus program allows you to help recruit your colleagues while also being eligible* for financial compensation. This program has been expanded over the last year and now includes a more comprehensive list of entry level, bonus-eligible positions, including linen techs, transport attendants, patient care assistants and more. With 278 referrals for FY22, this more than triples the number of referrals for FY20.

This is a win-win for everyone at UF Health Shands — broadening our network of recruits by financially incentivizing our employees for referring friends and family to us. Learn more by visiting Bridge.UFHealth.org/shands-hr and clicking on Employee Referral Bonus under Quick Links.

Virtual recruiting initiatives have also become the new normal for collegiate, localized, national and international recruiting events. Although different from how we used to recruit, they have proven successful so far. For January and February of this year alone, we’ve held five events, representing 17 different titles, and extending 38 offers. For example, our yearly in-person graduate nurse bash changed from a large in-person event to 100% virtual in 2020. Initially concerned about the success of a virtual event, we found that our reach was broadened to more universities, gaining more nurse applicants.

In addition, international nurse recruiting continues to grow. From March 9-11, 12 of our nurse managers participated in virtual interviews that resulted in the hiring of 60 nurses from the Philippines.

Over the last 18 months, we’ve made strides on platforms like Indeed, Glassdoor and LinkedIn. Also, jumping heavily onto social media and partnering with our UF Health Web Services team has been extremely beneficial.

We’ve tapped into search engine marketing, or SEM, to ensure visibility of job postings on Google or Bing, and advertised through email blasts, text campaigns, professional job boards and through specialized organizations. Internally, we’ve also updated our career site for mobile-friendly usage.

Partnering with local education programs, such as Eastside High School, has been fulfilling to develop a pipeline in our community for encouraging students interested in health care and helping them with employability skills. The goal is for students to intern in various departments for entry-level roles and hopefully apply after they graduate.

We have also looked at new ways to provide professional growth opportunities to existing employees.

The Grow Your Own program encourages our colleagues to gain interest in surgical technologist careers. UF Health pays for employees to go into the surgical technologist program at Santa Fe College while they continue to maintain their full-time pay and benefits as an employee. In return, they sign a commitment to work for UF Health for three years as a surgical technologist when they graduate. In August, 22 students will be graduating from this program.

Our future as a health care system needs to be foundationally solid in embracing what we know and expanding upon what we learn. Thank you for continuing to make UF Health Shands great.