5 Ways to Ramp Up Your Physician Recruitment Efforts in 2017

Whether it’s by utilizing technology, analyzing your past efforts, or tweaking existing marketing strategies, there is always some way to improve your ability to source, recruit, and retain the best quality candidates. Now, it’s a new year and it’s time to find out how you can improve your physician recruitment efforts for 2017, especially if you want to meet your recruitment goals.

Between reflection, new recruitment trends, and new tools, the following five suggestions will help you recharge your post-holiday recruitment efforts to meet your physician recruitment goals.

1. Revamp Your Social Media Presence

The number of Americans active on social media is higher than ever, and physicians are no exception. Many physician candidates are active on at least one site, with most graduating physicians with accounts on more than one. Additionally, more and more physician candidates are reporting that they visit an organization’s social media pages to learn more about their company culture, mission, and open positions. The start of the year is the perfect time to look over your social media pages and analyze which have the most engagement, what types of posts resonate, and which could use more attention.

2. Invest in Marketing Automation

If you have a robust internal database and a solid ATS, investing in good marketing automation software is your next step. Marketing automation can do double duty: cut down on time recruiters spend on following up with applicants and help keep passive physician candidates engaged using lead nurturing programs. Find one that integrates with your ATS/CRM and utilize it to send candidates reminders, status updates, and useful job search information so that they will continue to view your organization as both a potential place of employment as well as a source of useful information.

3. Analyze Your Outcomes from 2016

Do you know what your best sources for candidates were in 2016? Every recruiter should regularly analyze which sourcing tools get them the best results, and which fail to generate any. Review which candidate sourcing tools provided the highest number of applicants, and of those the percent that interviews and were placed. This will give you a good idea of which sources provide volume and which provide high quality candidates. If some sources only provide low quality candidates, or no candidates at all, begin shifting your financial resources to trying different sourcing tools that may yield results.

4. Review Compensation Reports & Competitors’ Ads

At the beginning of each new year, firms and organizations will post physician compensation reports, analyzing the changes in compensation models and salary ranges from the previous year. Additionally, many of your competitors will post new open positions, or update existing ones, with compensation and recruitment incentive information. By reviewing these, recruiters can see what organizations around the country and in their backyard are offering to entice physician candidates to join their teams. Recruiters can then compare this with what their organization is offering and if necessary, use the information to suggest changes in their offered compensation structure and incentive program to be more attractive to prospective candidates.

5. Refresh Your Job Descriptions and Advertisements

Despite your best efforts, there are likely some positions at your organization that have been open for some time. The new year is the perfect time to refresh your existing job descriptions and make them appear different from what has been posted for months. Without making some changes, candidates can begin to see the same job that has been open for months negatively, thinking that there is something wrong with the position. By refreshing the posting and making some changes, recruiters can avoid these negative assumptions.

Key Take Aways:

• The new year offers physician recruiters the opportunity to review and revamp their social media accounts, job descriptions, and compensation packages with new eyes and fresh insights
• After a full year of recruitment, recruiters should also review what tools and resources have been most effective at sourcing quality candidates, allowing them to decide how to reallocate their limited resources
• New tools and technology come out every year, and recruiters can review what is newly available and how it can help them more effectively fill their open positions