Physician Recruitment Methods:
I would suggest considering the following avenues, in order of cost effectiveness:
- Networking with friends of existing physicians and regional training programs
- Advertise in journals and on websites catering to the specialties you seek. Every specialty has one or two journals and/or websites that most active job-seekers look at.
- Keep your ear to the ground for rumors in your region of groups breaking up, hospitals going bankrupt, etc. Target physicians in those organizations for contact.
- Provide fliers for your existing physicians to post at professional meetings. Ideally, they may invite interested parties for a chat at the meeting.
- If you do #2, you’re going to hear from contingency firms (i.e. firms that you pay only if you sign their candidate) who have interested candidates in the hopper. If the supply of direct contacts isn’t adequate, use the contingency firms. I would try to limit the number of firms to a handful, because at some point having too many working for you tends to create more confusion than value. Read contracts carefully and be very careful that you aren’t obligated to pay for candidates you already know about. For the average search, the best contingency firms will be able to deliver multiple qualified candidates over a reasonable period of time…and those are people you want to continue to work with.
- If all else fails, consider using a retained search firm (i.e. a firm that you pay up front). Based on my experience, and those of other administrators I talk to, satisfaction with retained search firms is very low…it’s a wonder some stay in business. Many will milk you for advertising campaigns at huge markups, in addition to a search fee similar to that of a contingency firm, but of course you pay with no guarantee that they will produce an acceptable candidate. If no suitable candidate materializes, the answer is always more advertising on your nickel. If you don’t pay for more advertising, they tend to lose interest. The only people who seem to like retained searches are those with relatively easy searches and plenty of cash, but no time to screen candidates. Before signing a retained search agreement, I would want to interview and check references not just on the firm, but on the specific recruiter who will be assigned to your search…look for a long track record of satisfied customers with searches of similar difficulty. In many cases, the person you deal with up front is a sales person who will drop out of the picture as soon as you sign the contract, and some firms seem to have a revolving door, especially those where the recruiters are more interested in selling advertising than finding candidates.
Good luck!
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David Smith FACMPE
Administrator
RNM Imaging Partners Inc
Topeka KS
