By: Allison McCarthy, MBA
Internal stakeholders can be our greatest strength or management challenge. Whether its hospital leaders or the medical staff, we have to give them our attention, direction and guidance to be successful.
In two issues of Leading Physician Recruitment, I offered insights and recommendations on how to manage internal stakeholders. One issue addressed leadership and the other the medical staff. Our role with each is to be the “influencer” – ensuring that all of these critical pieces are in place.
- Market orientation – a solid understanding among internal stakeholders of supply/demand, candidate requirements, etc…
- Prospect enticing opportunities – offerings that appeal to desired target physicians
- Disciplined execution – a recruitment process that is streamlined, reliable and on pace with candidates’ search timelines
- Sense of urgency – shifting from passively to assertively working the recruitment effort
- Internal credibility – organizational trust and confidence in the recruitment team and process
- Organizational engagement – internal stakeholders’ buy-in and support
We often take pride in doing everything ourselves – sourcing, interviews, site visits, assessments, references, negotiations and on-boarding. Our profession is building its reputation on the ability to limit the use of external resources and support. But is the internal management aspect of our function suffering as a result? In reality, the lead generation pieces can effectively be outsourced. However, the internal management component cannot. We have to own that piece ourselves.
I believe it’s time we rethink how we view our role and the promises we’re making to our organizations. Internal stakeholders are critical to getting the dollars, people and organizational attention needed to impact recruitment success. We have to learn to “influence” – moving our internal partners to action without official authority or title. It takes more of our time, energy and effort than we might think. But how do we deliver results without their participation, support and commitment?
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