gle, searchable database for recruiters seeking qualified health
care professionals and those workers looking for career opportunities in the field. Jobs posted to the network appear on all relevant association sites, so job seekers on an association career
Web site see more jobs, and employers on an association career
Web site receive better results. A single job posting on the network now can reach more than 120 association career centers
and their1 million members.
“Our member hospitals are struggling daily to find enough
qualified workers to fill open positions. The network provides a
way for health care organizations of every kind to find qualified
workers,” says Rich Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the AHA.
“Health care associations that join the network will be expanding the opportunities for their members to find the right jobs.”
INCREASED EXPOSURE
Each association retains its own branded job board. The network
expands the reach of an association’s job board by allowing
participating associations to select keywords for job postings in
the network. Thus, when a job posting at the online AHA Career
Center includes a keyword for “nurse,” the job board at the
Infusion Nurses Society, for example, will display the opportunity as will any other network association with the same chosen
keywords. When an association joins the network, its members
find more job opportunities aligned with their skills without having to leave their association’s job board. Employers who seek
qualified candidates on an association’s job board will be able to
access more resumes in less time without any extra work. The
goal: shorten the time positions are unfilled.
For the AHA, this means its hospital and other health care provider
members may more quickly fill open positions with quality talent. It
can post a position once with the option to distribute that posting
to multiple sites throughout the network — saving time and money.
Overcoming the job shortages will have a positive impact on
patient care and hospital and health care providers’ performance, Umbdenstock says. Hospitals employ more than 5 million
workers nationwide — representing the largest employer segment
in health care and the second-largest private sector employer,
according to the AHA.
“Our vision is to create an integrated employment development network, including all health care associations and professional membership societies, that is the only destination for
health care recruiters and hiring managers,” Umbdenstock says.
A CRITICAL ALLIANCE
The National Healthcare Career Network’s five founding partners are the AHA, American Health Care Association, National
ABOUT AHA
The AHA is a national organization of health care provider
organizations and individuals that are committed to the health
improvement of their communities. It serves as a national
advocate for its members, which include more than 4,800
hospitals, health care systems, networks and other providers
of care, and 37,000 individuals. Founded in 1898, the AHA
provides education for health care leaders and is a source
of information on health care issues and trends. For more
information, visit www.aha-solutions.org or www.aha.org.
The National Healthcare Career Network booth at the SHRM conference.
Center for Assisted Living, American Association of Homes and
Services for the Aging, and ASAE & The Center. Boxwood,
which operates the Association Forum of Chicagoland’s Online
Career Center, is the network’s managing partner. It provides
network participants with customer service, billing, revenue
distributions, marketing strategy and support, and access to
performance metrics such as which postings are receiving hits
and employment or applications for positions.
The network formally launched with six associations. Since
then, it has grown to more than 120 linked associations. Associations that participate range from national to regional in scope
and general to specialty in function — such as the South Carolina Orthopaedic Association and the American College of Cardiology, Florida Chapter to the National Kidney Foundation and
American Society of Anesthesiologists. This list also includes
seven AHA-managed personal membership groups:
• American Society for Healthcare Environmental Services
• American Society for Healthcare Human Resources
Administration
• American Society for Healthcare Risk Management
• Association for Community Health Improvement
• Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management
• Association for Healthcare Volunteer Resource Professionals;
and
• Society for Healthcare Consumer Advocacy.
Creating the network was the right strategy for the AHA,
according to the organization, for several reasons: the network
is dedicated to health care; the connection and collaboration
with other professional health care societies and the knowledge
that quality talent and dedicated employees come from associations; job sharing means more jobs and higher traffic throughout
