By: Think of your favorite crime TV show. Whether it’s Law & Order, CSI or Criminal Minds, there is a recurring theme – finding the right people and asking the right questions to “make a case.”
We have a similar obligation in physician recruitment. To effectively conduct a search, we need to identify all the key details to present our “case.” That includes the following elements:
- Opportunity – for each type of specialty and position, most physicians want to know:
- Clinical versus administrative hours
- Patients and/or case types
- Practice setting, including layout, equipment and staffing
- Colleagues – those they will practice with plus referral base, specialty resources and hospital support services
- Call coverage schedule
- Compensation including salary, benefits, and incentive
- Employment or partnership terms
We need enough of this content to establish credibility and interest. For a resident or fellow – insufficient information translates into checking you off their consideration list. For physicians comfortable in their current situation, the initial pitch needs to have enough information in the initial pitch needs to be compelling enough to convince them it’s worth their time and energy to learn more.
- Community – this includes both the personal and professional benefits of the opportunity. Most recruiters can easily describe the personal attributes of the geographic region. The gaps can be in messaging how the open position would professionally benefit the physician. These attributes can be:
- Learning from other more established colleagues
- Advancing procedural skills
- Selecting and working with new equipment
- Establishing a new service
- Opening a new market
- Leading the care for an under-served population
- Moving into a leadership position
- Practice Growth Potential – data or testimonials that illustrate the need for a new physician makes the recruitment case more compelling. Whether this is a community need assessment: community health research: market research that identifies access challenges; or, physician colleagues who can voice the need for candidates, proving to the recruit that this opportunity is more than just the hospital’s desire to have him/her is an important part of the message. Beyond that, sharing with the recruit the marketing or referral development plan provides further evidence that the organization is ready to ensure their success.
- Collegial Support – do all the practice members, referral sources and fellow specialists agree that another physician is needed? If not, the recruitment effort can be easily sabotaged by even a single voice. Sometimes it is more prudent to delay the search until there is buy-in. Otherwise, dollars are wasted, and credibility may be damaged.
For recruiters to get beyond the minimum details needed to be effective, we have to become like a television attorney or police detective. Remove the “in-your-face” approach, and model the questioning persistence. That skill base will be just what you need to ensure that you are making a good “case.”