Why You Should Review Your Recruiting Process

Let’s be honest here. If you are trying to recruit someone to your small town who will be required to take call every other night and every other weekend, and who might be doing the job of two people, you need to have something to offer them other than “we have a slower pace of life”. Many times you might only have one or two candidates who apply for your job, so it’s essential that you make the most of it. This is the time to make a great first impression.

Let’s talk money. In this new healthcare economy of hospitals trying to do more with less, healthcare providers are becoming harder to recruit. Many directors want someone who can work in multiple areas of imaging and laboratory. Let’s just say X-Ray and CT for example. This person will not be offered any additional compensation for this dual role. Now this is nothing new, and it’s been happening for years, but things should change. Or, perceive to change in the eye of the person you are trying to recruit. This type of healthcare provider generates hundreds of thousands of dollars to a hospital, but yet paying them a premium for a dual role is rare or non-existent.

Being a healthcare recruiter for more than 25 years, I can say that the number one thing you need on your side is a leadership team who has the flexibility to negotiate beyond the standard pay scale. This means paying for the expertise and experience someone brings to the table, not the position/title itself. For example, a smart manager will pay three to five dollars per hour more because he/she knows the value that this person brings to the table, and the money that will be saved by eliminating contract labor and overtime. It simple math really. Let’s just say you pay someone an extra five dollars per hour. That’s basically $10,000 per year. Now, what are you paying the travel company each week to keep that traveler there? Maybe $100.00 to $120.00 per hour in many cases? Again, do the math. But the other factor is now you have someone who will likely be there for years because he/she is being paid top dollar, and it’s very rare that someone will be recruited by your competitors for less money. This significantly helps your retention.

Patient Care. If you’ve been around the block a time or two, you’ve probably seen the quality of care decline when your facility has been understaffed. Your staff may be working with fewer people to cover the same number of patients and/or working longer hours. You have overtime and recruitment costs to contend with as well. One of the biggest factors we see when a person leaves a job is just burnout. They don’t have enough people in the over-night and weekend call rotation and they see their quality of life diminish as a result of inadequate staffing. This in turn will also affect patient care and how a patient perceives the care he/she is given.

So what are some other things that can be done to help fill your openings? Well first, ask yourself the question “why am I here”? If it’s anything other than “my family is here”, or “I grew up here”, etc. then start there. Maybe there is a quality of life in your town that’s different than the other 15,999 small towns in America. What are they? Can this be monetized in a way that helps you sell the candidate?

Look at how you recruit people, or your entire process.

1. First and foremost, take action quickly. When you get an applicant, don’t sit on it for a week or two. Pick up the phone, make an introduction, and schedule a follow-up call on a specific day and time if necessary. Quick engagement is extremely important in today’s job market. If you wait even a day or two, your chances of recruiting this candidate go down significantly.
2. Do you recruit the spouse too? Not literally offer them a job, but engage them and help them with resources for finding employment, services, etc. Do you even talk to them?
3. Do you offer to fly the spouse to the interview? Would you make a decision without your spouse visiting the small town with you? Spending an additional $300 for the spouses’ ticket can go a long way when recruiting someone.
4. How much time do you spend on the interview? I have some clients that literally meet the person for two hours and then turn them loose. Fail!
5. Do you take them to dinner while they are there? Getting to know them personally (and vice versa) is a secret ingredient in the recruitment process. They need to feel as if they will have “a friend” to help them get there. You need to be that friend in the beginning.
6. How flexible are you with your relocation package? This is key, and I’ve seen many deals go south just because the hospital will only pay the candidate based upon receipts they provide after they move, as opposed to paying the moving company directly. What’s the difference? Make it easy for the person to relocate. Moving a household is by far the most stressful part of taking your job, so why not help eliminate some of the stress by making the moving process easier? Most hospitals completely fail at this.
7. Do you arrange a community tour? From our experience, some hospitals do but most don’t. Never take a chance on your recruit ending up on the wrong side of town, or in a rundown neighborhood. Schedule them with a reliable Realtor that will give them a two-hour tour of the area, or do it yourself.
8. Your staff is the key. Meet with your staff prior to the interview and give them some personal details about the candidate they can use during the interview. Not just the resume. It’s possible that one of your team members might have something in common with your prospect that will build instant rapport. Most staff members have no idea how to interview someone properly. Train them! But more importantly, make sure your most positive and engaging people are involved with the interview.
9. What information is provided to the candidate prior to the onsite interview? Do you have videos of the community or surrounding area that they can watch? YouTube is full of them. Make a small investment in a recruiting video. While it’s an easy process, many hospitals fail to do this. If you don’t have this, have you at least sent them photos and community data?
10. Have you discussed money with the candidate? Don’t lose the candidate over a low offer. There is nothing worse than losing a candidate after you’ve spent eight hours and $1,000 on the interview. There is really no excuse for this to happen. If you have gotten far enough in the interview process that you are going to fly the person out for an onsite interview, you should first “pre-close” them on the financial package. If you lose the person, it should never be over money.

Recruiting is a process and frankly there is little to no training provided for hospital hiring managers, recruiters and HR professionals. Sure, most are taught the basics on how to screen candidates, posting job openings on the various job boards and how to manage Taleo, but recruiting is really sales. Unless you have a ton of things to offer a candidate, you need to sharpen your sales skills and differentiate your recruiting process from the others. Trust me, they will notice the difference.