By: Allison McCarthy, MBA
I admit I’m a productivity “junkie.” I grab anything I can get my hands on that offers tips and techniques to “get more done.” But what I’m learning (yes, I’m slow) is that I can’t improve everything at once. Consistent focus is required to change patterns and habits that over time lead to improvement.
If you want to enhance your physician recruitment outcomes, what’s the one thing you would improve, the one challenge you would address or the one strength (yours, your teams’ or the organizations’) that you could use more to your advantage?
Here are a few ideas to help you get started.
- Have a plan. Many physician recruitment programs operate with a reactionary orientation. Large or small, many organizations launch a search only when faced with a departure, retention concern, practice capacity or need for volume. The one thing these organizations need is a proactive plan. If a medical staff development plan is available, determine what has already been accomplished, what has changed and what still needs to be done. Then work with the internal team to agree on the next 12-month priorities. If a current medical staff development plan is not available, start now to have one completed.
- Generate more leads. Your plan is in place. You know what needs to be accomplished. But your lead/fill ratio is too small. Your one thing is ramping up your sourcing efforts. This may mean greater diversity in your search approach – if the “tried and true” resources are not generating results. Or it may mean you have to dedicate more time on “proactive” efforts, such as going beyond emails and making telephone calls to those database prospects.
- Track progress. Some of you may be facing increasing pressure to show progress. Verbal reports may have historically been enough; but now leadership is looking for “details” to better understand their physician recruitment “return on investment.” Your one thing is creating meaningful reports that showcase recruitment activities and outcomes – beyond the number of open versus closed positions. If you have a tracking system, commit to learning its reporting capabilities and regularly make the necessary updates to chronicle effort and outcome. If not, create a simple spreadsheet that tracks the lead/candidate ratio, “reasons for loss” by category, lags in internal responsiveness or whatever else will help you communicate progress and barriers.
- Onboarding. For you, everything in the recruitment side is “spot on.” But feedback from new recruits suggests they’re disappointed with their early practice experiences. Consider surveying or interviewing recent recruits and summarizing their insights. Then bring a team together to share highlights and improvement recommendations.
Ideas for enhancement abound. Focusing on one thing at a time, or even a “select few,” is the challenge. It takes resolve to achieve noticeable results. We’ve been tricked into thinking that “instant fixes” work, that we just need to invest in the latest application or software program to solve a problem. However, to make a real difference what we need is to invest consistently into one or two key areas. What will your key areas be?