The Strategy of Health

Recruitment and Marketing Strategies for Healthcare with Alysha Davis

By: The American Journal of Healthcare Strategy Team | Oct 04, 2024

Recruitment and marketing in healthcare are undergoing a seismic shift. With workforce shortages intensifying, especially for nurses and clinical specialists, and competition expanding from local to national markets, health systems face a new reality: you must attract talent with the same sophistication as you market to patients. The stakes couldn’t be higher. According to the American Hospital Association, the U.S. could see a shortage of up to 124,000 physicians by 2034, with nursing and allied health recruitment also at crisis levels. In this climate, what truly works—and what doesn’t?

That’s the question we tackled with Alysha Davis, MA, Communications Manager at WellSpan Health. Davis is uniquely positioned at the intersection of communications, marketing, and recruitment, tasked with shaping the “new team member experience” for over 23,000 WellSpan employees. In this episode, Davis shares candid, field-tested strategies—ranging from “guerrilla-style” outreach to data-driven digital campaigns—that any healthcare leader can adopt, whether you’re at a major system or a resource-strapped community hospital. Her story is also a blueprint for the kind of agile, mission-driven leadership today’s healthcare sector demands.

How Did Alysha Davis Transition from Journalism to Healthcare Marketing?

Alysha Davis’s roots in journalism laid the foundation for her communications leadership in healthcare. Her journey started early: “Really, it started when I was five and my neighbor handed me a tape recorder and I interviewed everyone. So that led to me just having a natural curiosity all through my life and I ended up in journalism.” Davis honed her skills in newspapers along the East Coast, covering everything from corruption scandals to deadline-driven investigations.

But the financial crisis forced a pivot. “When I graduated college it was 2006 and I was dumped directly into the recession… I had to move a lot to run from that layoff tsunami.” Returning home to Pennsylvania, she spent seven years as a local editor and reporter before moving into healthcare communications, first with Geisinger Health Plan and later, after agency work in Nashville, at WellSpan.

What did Davis bring from journalism to healthcare?

  • Relentless curiosity and the courage to “ask tough questions”

  • Storytelling expertise to humanize complex issues

  • Crisis management and deadline discipline

Her story underscores a key takeaway: leaders who can translate storytelling and investigative skills to healthcare have a unique edge in recruiting both talent and trust.

Why Did Davis Join WellSpan, and What Culture Does She Value?

Davis’s move to WellSpan wasn’t just about compensation—it was about alignment with mission and culture. She admits, “There were a few things that stood out to me when I built my Excel sheet and did my pros and cons… Money is great, right? But would it fill my cup? Would it fill my spirit?”

Ultimately, she chose WellSpan for three reasons:

  1. Cultural Alignment: “The culture was very aligned with my own sense of values, with how people treat each other. I found people to be kind and that is what made me make that decision.”

  2. Empowerment: “They let me take chances. I will sometimes come up with a wacky idea… and they do [let me try].”

  3. Mission-Driven Work: The chance to impact recruitment, well-being, and organizational strategy directly.

Key insight for leaders: Recruitment and retention hinge as much on emotional and cultural fit as on salary or benefits. Organizations that empower creativity and trust—and that “let people fly”— create environments where high-impact strategies can take root.

What Makes Recruitment Marketing in Healthcare Different Today?

Recruitment marketing now requires sophisticated, multi-channel strategies and relentless stakeholder engagement. Davis’s role was created post-pandemic, when traditional pipelines had dried up: “There wasn’t a lot of collateral, photos that they could use for flyers… I took 182 requests in an Excel sheet in the first four months.”

Her approach, step-by-step:

  1. Start with Clear Goals: “We started to say, okay, what are the goals for talent acquisition? Who are you trying to reach?”

  2. Define Objectives and Budget: Build a strategy and a tactical plan.

  3. Prioritize Efforts: Use triage—“What has to happen first? Will the site close? Will we lose a ton of money? Set priorities.”

  4. Deploy Targeted Outreach: For instance, when seeking to re-engage nurses who left during COVID, Davis used a layered approach:

    • Personalized phone calls from hiring managers (not recruiters)

    • Postcards featuring familiar workplace images with a QR code to recruiters

    • Handwritten notes: “We did handwritten note cards from previous hiring managers… a small, guerrilla-style campaign.”

This “communications mindset” is key: Don’t just market jobs—build campaigns that feel personal, strategic, and multi-touch.

How Do You Get Stakeholder Buy-In and Build Cross-Functional Teams?

Success in recruitment marketing depends on cross-departmental collaboration and relentless stakeholder engagement. Davis is explicit: “The biggest way to make some of those big plans come together… is to make sure you have the right people in the room.”

Tactics that worked:

  • Over-communicate early and often: “Almost over-communicating… It would start out with an initial call: ‘Hey, I’m new here, can you help me figure this out?’”

  • Old-school phone calls and in-person meetings, not just email

  • Build cross-functional teams including marketing, talent acquisition, and nursing

Key lesson: Many new leaders take on too much themselves or fear asking for help. Davis’s experience is a clear call to “get all the right people at the table”—especially for complex, high-stakes recruitment pushes.

What Sets WellSpan Apart—and What Can Smaller Organizations Learn?

WellSpan’s success is rooted in freedom, flexibility, and a bias for action. Davis credits organizational culture for her ability to innovate: “There’s a lot of hierarchy or red tape at some other places… [but here] we can more easily cross the aisles and work together without asking for permission.”

Concrete takeaways for other institutions:

  • Encourage calculated risk-taking and experimentation

  • Flatten hierarchies where possible to empower cross-departmental teams

  • Optimize continually: “Our team has gone through a lot of change and reorganization… It’s constantly evolving to optimize itself.”

For smaller, resource-strapped organizations, Davis is blunt: you can compete—by being nimble and creative.

“If you’re a small organization, you feel like you just can’t compete with the big dogs—you can. There’s not as much of, you know, leadership levels and approvals, so use that to your advantage and do some of the fun things.”

Low-cost, high-impact marketing ideas for small orgs:

  • Build clean, branded social media profiles on platforms your audience actually uses (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc.)

  • Post original stories or “owned” content regularly to boost SEO

  • Leverage viral content opportunities (e.g., “therapy dog visits NICU” stories)

  • Use micro-budgets to boost posts ($20 can expand reach significantly)

How Can Clinicians and Subject Matter Experts Drive Recruitment?

Getting doctors and clinicians involved in recruitment marketing is both possible and powerful. Davis has done it, and her advice is direct: “It’s flattering when you approach someone that way—‘Hey, can you share your expertise with the world?’ Nine times out of ten, they’re going to say yes.”

Best practices for engaging clinicians:

  1. Prepare a clear, respectful outreach plan

  2. Offer support with content creation—“Ghostwrite a little bit till they find their voice”

  3. Recognize their time constraints—sometimes a phone call works better than email

“They enjoy being recognized, and those interactions always go really, really well,” Davis notes. By featuring expert voices in blogs, social media, or video, organizations can not only attract new talent but also boost their brand credibility.

How Do You Measure Success—and What Are the Results?

The numbers speak for themselves: WellSpan set ambitious goals for their digital campaigns and saw record results. “We had another record year… highest ever on record, with over 99,100 applications in June.” These weren’t just vanity metrics—the campaigns drove applications specifically for high-need roles.

Measurement and ROI:

  • Always direct applicants to a single landing page for tracking

  • Use granular analytics to measure cost per click, conversion, and hires

  • Davis’s example: “We geofenced the Heart Rhythm conference… total cost around $4,000, and we’ve had over 20 hires so far with more in the pipeline.” Compared to six-figure headhunter fees, this is extraordinary value.

Summary of success factors:

  • Clear, measurable goals

  • Multi-touch, creative campaigns

  • Granular tracking and cost discipline

Action Steps for Executive Leaders and Marketers

What should leaders take away from Davis’s approach? Here are the must-do actions, whether you lead at a major system or a rural hospital:

  1. Map Out a Strategy: Always start with clear goals, defined audiences, and measurable outcomes.

  2. Involve Stakeholders Early: Cross-functional buy-in isn’t optional—get all the right people at the table.

  3. Experiment and Iterate: Use low-cost, creative tactics and track the results relentlessly.

  4. Leverage Internal Expertise: Engage clinicians and thought leaders in your marketing efforts.

  5. Measure and Adapt: Track every campaign and adapt quickly based on real data.

  6. Prioritize Culture: “Freedom and support to take chances” is what sets the best organizations apart.

Takeaway: Building a Recruitment Engine for Modern Healthcare

Healthcare recruitment isn’t just about filling roles—it’s about building an engine for sustainable growth and organizational culture. As Alysha Davis, MA, shows, success today means:

  • Fusing communications, marketing, and recruitment expertise

  • Leaning into organizational culture and empowerment

  • Running agile, creative campaigns—at any scale

  • Measuring outcomes and adapting fast

In Davis’s words: “Have a plan, have a strategy, get the buy-in, and you’ll reap the rewards and the ROI.” Whether you lead at a 20,000-person system or a 200-person clinic, the same principles apply. The organizations that will win the war for talent are those that blend strategy with storytelling, agility with accountability—and who never forget that recruitment, at its heart, is about people.