6 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Making a Physician Recruitment Offer

So you’ve finally found the perfect candidate for your position – or so you think. They’ve interviewed, toured the facilities, and met the other providers they would be working with. Now is the time to start drafting up a physician recruitment offer, right? 

Not quite. Before drafting up and presenting an offer, make sure to ask yourself these six questions to decrease the chances of the candidate turning down your offer and increase the likelihood that they’ll stay on long term if they accept.

1. Do the candidate’s values align with the values of the organization?

What is it that drives your candidate? Are they motivated by providing cutting edge care? If so, they may not be a good fit for a practice that has yet to implement an EHR. Does the physician place value on developing strong relationships with patients through longer appointments? Then they might not be a fit for a practice that expects a provider to see 25 or more patients a day.

2. Is the candidate a good cultural fit?

Retaining the physicians you have is just as important as recruiting new ones.Today, over 30% of physicians who leave a position do so because of cultural fit, which is why ensuring cultural fit before making an offer to a candidate is so important. Make sure that your prospective candidate’s characteristics align with those of your star physicians and your company’s culture code to increase the chances they’ll accept – and that they’ll stay with you long term.

3. What is the candidate’s EQ?

As hospitals move towards value based care, more and more are using patient satisfaction as a key benchmark. But in order for physicians to have high patient satisfaction scores, they need to be able to interact with them in a way that will make them feel comfortable and heard. This is where emotional intelligence comes in. Physicians with higher emotional intelligence tend to provide more compassionate and empathetic care. Make sure to get a good understanding of a candidate’s EQ before making the decision to make an offer.

4. How does the family feel about the move?

At the end of the day, when a candidate is considering a career move – especially one that would require physically moving their family to another community – the candidate isn’t the only one calling the shots. The candidate’s spouse and children often have a large say in whether the family will move. Because of this, it’s important to have a good idea of how much the family is buying into the potential move before you make your offer.

5. What compensation package can you offer – and what will get them to sign?

At this point in the physician recruitment process, you should have at least a vague idea as to what the physician is looking for compensation-wise. Get an idea of what you can offer, and if the base isn’t quite in-line with what the candidate is looking for, find out if you can throw in some physician recruitment incentives to sweeten the pot.

Key Take Aways:

• Do your research! Make sure candidates match your organization’s culture and values – alignment in these areas correlate with higher retention rates
• Get buy-in from the family –  if they’re not on board, your candidate will not be likely to relocate
• Talk turkey – know what you can offer and what your candidate is looking for. If necessary, consider adding additional recruitment incentives to sweeten the deal