Recruiting

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an average of 800 job openings across our health care partners at any given time. That number rose to 1500 open positions in September 2021 and peaked in September 2022 at around 2,200. Since September, it has dropped to around 2,000. The persistently high volume has stretched our recruiters, often requiring them to shoulder more than double the optimum workload.

To meet this challenge, we are innovating and strengthening our recruitment programs to attract, engage and recruit high quality and diverse candidates.

1. Network-wide recruitment teams

Our centralized talent acquisition team, where recruiters focus on filling roles across the UVM Health Network, has expanded our reach, increased efficiencies and eliminated the need to have a recruiting team at each of our facilities. We’ve also started using “sourcers” – a small group of recruiters solely dedicated to finding potential employees before they even apply.

Our progress

10,000

positions were filled at the UVM Health Network through internal promotions and external hires since 2021

1,000

nurses were hired in both 2021 and 2022

600

nursing support positions were filled in 2022

2. Recruitment experts and HR specialists

Our recruiters continuously engage with potential job candidates across the country, with a particular focus on current and past travelers, former applicants, former employees and people who have a connection to our region. We have six employees focused solely on this type of outreach, who are also training all of our recruitment staff on sourcing techniques.

Physician recruitment

The national marketplace for providers is highly competitive. Our Network must be as proactive as possible to secure the best candidates for our open positions, so we have invested in provider recruitment positions to help us reach out to potential candidates and uncover opportunities for recruitment that might have previously been overlooked.

3. Increase graduate nurse hires

We are working to increase the number of graduate nurses we hire by partnering with local and regional schools.

Historically, we hire 110-115 graduate nurses annually. So far in 2023, we have hired:

101 graduate nurses at UVM Medical Center.

34 graduate nurses at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital.

Elissa Piascik, RN, became the first employee to complete UVM Health Network – Central Vermont Medical Center’s new Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) and Registered Nurse (RN) Pathway Programs. Pictured: (L-R) Kristan Longo, LPN, Collette Edwards Macauley, RN, Elissa Piascik, RN.

4. Invest in employee housing and child care

Our people are at the heart of our ability to provide great care. Yet some have made the difficult decision to not join us—and others to leave—because of the limited availability of housing and child care in our region. To recruit and retain the workforce we need, the UVM Health Network is taking a bold, new step by investing in two housing complexes for our employees, one of which will contain a child care center.

Apartments open for UVM Health Network workers

Our first project is now complete, consisting of 61 total housing units. Expected to be completed in 2024, our second project is a larger 120-unit building that will also feature a child care center, with an expected capacity of 75 children. While these two initial projects will be built in South Burlington, similar projects are being explored in our other service areas in Vermont and northern New York.

The first south burlington project consists of

61 apartments.

The second south burlington project will consist of

120 apartments PLUS a child care center for 75 children.

See how these projects can make a difference:

We don’t just want more applicants, we want to attract the strongest candidates. We’re making this a great place to work by offering:

Competitive wages and bonuses
We continue to analyze compensation for positions across the Network so they are competitive in the labor market. We’ve recently reached updated agreements on union contracts with residents, technicians and non-skilled workers, and will continue to work with the other labor unions to ensure competitiveness. This includes:

Recent wage increases for nurses at the UVM Medical Center, Porter Medical Center, Central Vermont Medical Center, Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital, and Elizabethtown Community Hospital.
Recruiting crucial frontline employees by offering referral bonuses to our employees and sign-on bonuses for many roles across the Network.

Remote and hybrid work opportunities
We are putting into place a more flexible approach to work that creates opportunities for us to staff some positions differently. For some roles, we are offering hybrid work and moving some functions to remote off-site work.

Diverse and inclusive environments
We always strive to create an inclusive, welcoming workplace that fosters a sense of belonging.

Improving our technological reach
We continue to find new ways to reach potential employees. In service of this goal, we have built a UVM Health Network Careers website that includes a list of job openings across our health care partners, information about benefits, resources for training and career advancement, and an overview of the culture at our organization and in our region.

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