If you were on CareerBuilder’s recent webinar (you can still listen here) about 2011′s Opportunities in Staffing report findings, you’re already privy to many interesting details about the state of the staffing industry today, what your candidates, employees and clients think of your firm, and how you can make a bigger impact in your recruitment efforts.

If you’re in a staffing firm placing candidates in the health care sector, however, you have unique challenges that may not have been specifically addressed in the main report — which is why we’ve broken down the key findings from this particular sector for you below. Use Opportunities in Staffing’s findings to help grow your health care staffing firm and gain an edge in the recruitment space. This report is designed to help you explore new opportunities and improve your interactions with candidates, employees and clients (many of whom have belonged to more than one of those categories at some point). Did you know that 36 percent of active clients of health care staffing firms have also used a staffing firm as part of their personal job search at some point in their career? It’s true–and there’s more.

What do Opportunities in Staffing’s results say about perceptions of your clients, employees and candidates?

CLIENTS

• Clients are increasingly mobile: Seventy percent of health care staffing clients have data-enabled smartphones, up compared to a year ago.
• There’s a lack of recognition of staffing firms: The average health care sector staffing client can name their primary firm and just 1 or 2 others from memory.
• The average health care client uses between 1 and 2 staffing services, with 80 percent indicating they’ve used their firm to fill a temporary position.
• Many health care clients were once your candidates: More than a third of health care sector clients have worked with a staffing firm as part of their personal job search at some point in their career.

EMPLOYEES

• Most employees feel positive about their firm’s future:The majority of healthcare staffing firm employees are positive about the improvements their staffing firm has made in the past year (55 percent strongly agree their firm has improved), and 57 percent strongly agree they expect their firm will change for the better in the next year.
• Significant generational satisfaction differences exist: Those 31 years old or younger give their staffing firm an Net Promoter Score of 24 percent, nearly 3 times lower than the average score (61 percent) given by Baby Boomers who work for health care staffing firms.
• Employees want more training opportunities: More than a third of health care staffing employees reported feeling they did not have the training opportunities they needed and 44 percent said they didn’t feel they had opportunities for advancement within their firm, higher than staffing employees working in other sectors.
• Work camaraderie is extremely important: When it comes to satisfaction drivers, internal staff rate the enjoyment of working with their colleagues highest.
• Workers expect higher pay this year: Seventy percent of internal staff in the health care sector expect an increase in total compensation in 2012.

CANDIDATES

• Health care staffing firms have huge challenges–and opportunities–in front of them: Only 13 percent of job seekers in the health care sector use a staffing firm as part of their job search, and just 1 percent start their search there.
• Older generations dominate the market: Nearly 50 percent of health care sector job seekers are 50 years old or older and only 19 percent fall into Generation Y.
• There’s a significant lack of awareness of firms: Thirty-seven percent of health care sector job seekers can’t name a single staffing or recruiting firm from memory, and even when shown a list of some of the largest brands in the sector, half recognized 3 or fewer firms within the space
• Job seekers are looking for jobs on mobile devices: 37 percent review job opportunities on a mobile device.
• Lack of communication is their biggest complaint: A lack of communication and responsiveness remain the top issues brought up by job seekers dissatisfied with health care staffing firms.

How your firm can use these findings in 2012:

1. Optimize health care staffing employees’ overall satisfaction and engagement with staffing firms by reinforcing your mission to help place people in meaningful jobs and careers.
2. Don’t overlook your current clients. In many cases, health care staffing clients only use a single staffing service. Educate them on other ways you can help their organization manage growth with flexible talent.
3. Identify key relationships with your top talent early in the process and find ways to stand out with them. Their experience with your firm has a significant impact on their current assignment with your firm and any future assignments.
4. Take advantage of the significant opportunity to reach new clients and job seekers through mobile devices. Health care clients and talent are slower to adopt social media, but are quickly embracing interaction through mobile technology.

These findings only cover a fraction of Opportunities in Staffing’s health care findings–download the report here to read up on all the findings or share with your colleagues.

Which results surprised you the most? Let us know in the comments below.