5 Reasons Job Board Postings May Fail to Fill Your Physician Recruitment Need

Whenever a new physician recruitment effort gets underway, the first thing the vast majority of physician recruiters do is post the new position online. Some recruiters will even rely solely on a job board posting to generate candidates to fill a position. But while job board postings can be a good source of candidates, there is a high probability that a posting on a job board will not be the way you fill your recruitment need. 

So why is it that everyone posts openings to job boards if they don’t usually work? And more importantly, why don’t they usually work?  Below are five major reasons that a job board posting is unlikely to fill your physician recruitment need.

1. They’re not on job boards

You’d think that prospective physician candidates would regularly check job boards for potential opportunities, but in fact those candidates tend to be active job seekers and account for less than a third of all possible physician candidates. Posting your opportunity to a job board won’t get your position in front of passive seekers – you have to reach them a different way. And it might not get it in front of active job seekers either – a recent survey reported that 64% of physicians hadn’t used job boards during current or past searches. 

2. They prefer other channels for recruitment communication

Most physician candidates don’t enjoy hunting through job board postings, trying to find the right fit. Most would instead prefer to be directly contacted with opportunities that fit their experience and qualifications by other means, mostly email and direct mail. 

3. Mobile is key

Around 77% of job seekers use mobile devices to view and apply to new opportunities. Because of this, providing potential candidates with mobile optimized applications and sites is crucial. But many health care job boards – especially those for specific specialties and societies – are not optimized for mobile, and many more do not have a mobile application for potential candidates to use. This friction caused by accessing a site from a mobile device that is not optimized for mobile can cause you to lose out on over three quarters of potential candidates.

4. Too many fishermen – too small a pond

If you look at the main physician job boards, you’ll likely see that dozens upon dozens of positions (especially in primary care) are posted, and hundreds of recruiters are scanning posted CVs for their next hire. Meanwhile, the physician shortage means that there aren’t enough physicians to go around, especially when you’re competing directly with other recruiters and opportunities. Instead, try reaching passive candidates that don’t often go to job boards – and who aren’t seeing an endless stream of opportunities from the competition.

5. Lack of personalization

For the qualified physician candidate, the candidate experience is taking on increased importance. One way this has come to the forefront is through the growing importance of personalization through the targeting of specific candidates through detailed candidate profiles. Most job boards, however, don’t allow for this type o personalization, instead showing all opportunities of a specific specialty and in a specific location. This can be overwhelming to a potential candidate, especially when compared to the experience of being presented with positions that are tailored to candidate’s unique experience and qualifications, and to present them in such a way as to speak to their unique motivations and professional desires.

Key Take Aways:

• Make sure to try to reach candidates through a variety of channels – not just job boards – in order to reach passive candidates as well as active ones.
• If you are going to use job boards as part of your physician sourcing strategy, make sure it is one that is optimized for mobile and offers candidates the opportunity to receive tailored job notifications to their inbox.
• Personalization is key! Create a candidate profile and use it to tailor the job description accordingly. This should improve your chances of getting responses on the job boards, especially from your ideal candidates.