Finding Qualified Healthcare Workers Should be Easy
It seems that now, more than ever, the resources required to do a job well are increasingly less than adequate. With many advents in technology, you would think the opposite would be true. Surely, in the 21st century, tasks such as hiring new employees can be fully automated. It’s simple, right?
Sure! Just create the list of required certifications and attributes, be savvy with keywords and reach on job boards – voila, all of the most qualified applicants will be flooding your inbox in seconds! From there, you can easily shortlist to a couple of eager candidates who will readily accommodate your schedule, a breezy day of well-run interviews where you’ll make your final decision and hire in time for your necessary start date. The position will be filled, a happy new employee has joined the team and will fit right in with your corporate culture. Give yourself a pat on the back, your ingenuity combined with your acute job posting skills have checked that one off the list in record time! Ha, if only.
When we turn to hiring itself, we find that employers are missing the forest for the trees: Obsessed with new technologies and driving down costs, they largely ignore the ultimate goal: making the best possible hires. Source
Hiring Healthcare Workers:
What’s Involved?
Ok, so let’s break it down. Creating the list of certifications and attributes – also known as “defining the hiring need” – is where it all begins. Get this wrong and you set yourself up for a painful hiring process that is inherently flawed. Depending on the organization you’re working for and the position you’re looking to fill, this task can range in difficulty from moderately easy to extremely complex. Typically, the larger the healthcare organization the more levels of bureaucracy and the more “must-haves” you need to include. And be careful, even the words used in defining your ideal candidate can prove to be a delicate job. Ever-changing requirements and terminology are important facets of hiring in the pursuit of a politically correct approach that satisfies your HR department.
Keywords and job boards, onto the fun stuff! You can take your well-defined brief and load it onto job sites that will undoubtedly only solicit responses from qualified individuals that suit the position you have posted. If only that were true! Did you know that improperly outlining and posting a job can actually cost you a significant amount of time and energy, garnering costly non-verified clicks? And worse, blowing up your inbox with a list as long as your arm of job seekers that aren’t even close to qualified for the position you posted. HOW – DOES – THIS – HAPPEN!?
By now you’re starting to see the benefit of an experienced healthcare recruitment agency, trying to recall how their fee structure worked… and didn’t they take care of all of this for you?
Identifying the Nuances
Possibly you’re one of the few, an exception to the rule, a seasoned veteran who’s played the hiring game for a while. You can identify and outline quickly, you’ve got templates on file for all of the different healthcare positions you’ve hired for. With a plethora of resources at your disposal, the tricky part now is the “people” part. How will the new PA or NP or Physician you’re looking to onboard fit in with the rest of the team? Who’s handling the negotiations and what is this candidate’s long-term goal? Yes, now you recall, this is where a seasoned recruiting firm specializing in the healthcare industry can make the real difference.
For hospital medicine, the overall cost of turnover is probably at least $400,000 per provider and could easily be $600,000 or more. Yet another reason to hire well and retain providers for years.
David A. Frenz, MD source
If you have a well-built system, and an accurate database, you should be able to leverage technology to benefit your job search. This is definitely the strategy behind the successful linkPAs model. The tipping point though, is the “people” part, the ever-evolving pulse of any healthcare organization. Even with a shortlist of qualified candidates, there are many nuances that need to be delved into prior to making a sound medical hiring decision. linkPAs has recognized the benefits and the limitations of technology, and we bring the right blend to the table, ensuring fit on both sides of the hiring equation.
When it comes to negotiations and candidate expectations, you will definitely experience better outcomes when working with a dedicated recruiter. The recruitment agency has approached its candidates from the perspective of “tell us your most ideal job” and “what are your career aspirations?”. Simply looking at human nature, this approach is yielding the most honest response as the individual seeks the best job placement possible to satisfy his or her own needs.
When you skip the third party, candidates can become swayed by the job posting, convincing themselves it’s a “fit” because they need a job and they are willing to settle for the time being. Depending on the job and the healthcare organization doing the hiring, this can translate to a costly part of the hiring process. For example, annual costs associated with physician turnover alone will more than pay the fees associated with a successful placement through a healthcare recruiting firm.
Selecting a Medical Recruiter,
Benefit Must Outweigh the Cost
No process is ever foolproof and turnover will never be avoided completely, but the risk can be mitigated. Much of the above is a tongue in cheek discussion about the pros and cons of managing healthcare hiring internally. Some larger healthcare organizations have in-house recruitment and may have systems set up to aid in their search and successful placement of NP’s, PA’s and Physicians. Smaller organizations want to at least try and handle the hiring on their own to avoid unnecessary expenses. When resources are lacking, it can be hard to take the “spend money to make money” approach, especially if you don’t have a proven healthcare recruitment agency on speed dial. How do you know they will do a better job?
The question to ask is not IF a Medical Recruitment Agency can benefit your hiring process, but HOW they can most benefit your specific healthcare hiring needs. Don’t ask WHY work with a dedicated team of hiring professionals, ask WHICH team has a proven track record and guarantees their work. The takeaway here is that there is tremendous value in working with a specialist when hiring your next Physician, PA or NP as long as you’ve done your homework and have partnered with a recruiting specialist that goes beyond the job board.
We view every angle of recruiting as a way of forming new connections. Hiring someone and finding a job are two aspects of recruiting that should be founded on a trustworthy connection.
Lynda Gregg, linkPAs, Team Leader & CoFounder
Click here for linkPAs Medical Recruitment Agency Checklist for the Discerning Healthcare Hirer, a handy comprehensive list of must-haves for any Healthcare Recruitment Agency you are considering working with. We aren’t changing the way recruiting works, we’re just doing it better.
