Economic downturns create hiring challenges across all industries, and healthcare recruitment is no exception. As experts predict economic uncertainty in the coming years, recruiters must prepare for shifts in candidate behavior, budget constraints, and increased competition for top talent.

While recruitment can be complex, PracticeMatch is here to help you analyze your hiring strategies and stay ahead of the curve. Here’s how you can adapt and strengthen your recruitment approach, even during a recession.

Consider the ways that the recession is affecting people from all industries.

A recession doesn’t just affect one industry - it has a ripple effect across multiple sectors, including healthcare. Consider:

• Budget constraints: Health systems may tighten hiring budgets, making cost-effective recruitment strategies essential.
• Shifting candidate priorities: Physicians and advanced practitioners may hesitate to relocate or seek greater job security before making a move.
• Competitive job market: Even as demand for healthcare professionals remains high, economic uncertainty can change job-seeking behaviors.

Take a long view before starting the recruitment process. 

Successful physician recruitment isn’t just about filling today’s openings - it’s about planning for the future.

• Look 24 months ahead when forecasting hiring needs.
• Use historical trends to anticipate future workforce shortages.
• Maintain flexibility to adjust hiring strategies based on market conditions.

A recession can create short-term shifts in recruitment, but long-term workforce planning ensures your organization stays prepared.

Be proactive when sourcing candidates. 

Go beyond the job posting and be assertive in your follow-up. Texting is getting a high rate of response from candidates. Coupling text messages with phone calls will enhance your recruitment process and increase connections with potential candidates. Have a solid game plan for following up. You'll move out in front of your competition if you have a quick, consistent response and follow-up strategy with your physician candidates throughout your entire recruiting process.

You can also take a look at internal candidates during recruitment. Are there any existing employees that may be a good fit one or more of the open positions? Encourage them to apply. Sometimes it's easy to overlook the best candidates for a job because they're already employees, and they may not have applied for the job on their own.

Improve job opportunity visibility. 

As a recruiter, you are responsible for job openings that are posted. To increase brand awareness and job opportunity visibility, your recruitment strategy should include utilizing a marketing team for recruitment marketing, whether you have one in-house or you need to hire externally (known as recruitment process outsourcing).

There is a number of tools out there that you can utilize in your recruitment marketing efforts: geofencing, email marketing, banner ads, postcards, attending job fairs (virtually or in person), and text messaging are just a few. You should also ensure that you're posting your open position(s) across multiple job boards. Some companies have implemented an employee referral program as a way to encourage employees to recommend their employer to their friends.

As we mentioned earlier, another way that you can increase your pool of qualified candidates and fill open positions is by employing internal recruitment. Recruiting existing employees can help speed up the recruitment process. Rather than searching for qualified candidates solely outside of your organization, try looking at those already employed at your facility. Internal recruitment reduces the risk of bad hiring, provides growth opportunities to existing employees, reduces hiring costs, provides job security to existing employees, and more. Having high visibility on your job opportunities is a great way to effectively attract

Consider what makes your job offer stand out among others. 

Keep the candidate experience in mind during recruitment. The right candidate can be hard to come by, so it's important to consider what they want to see in your job description. It's easy to focus solely on compensation when comparing your facility's job openings to openings at other facilities, but there's more to look at. Pay attention to things that potential candidates may be interested in, like facility type, number of employees, call schedule, culture, and teaching opportunities.

Look at how many physician partners are in the practice. Are you offering telemedicine opportunities? Any bonus opportunities to reward hard work? Take advantage of your differentiating job characteristics and use your competitors' information to have consultative, strategic discussions to shape a competitive offer. It also doesn't hurt to take a look at job openings on multiple job boards.

When crafting a job description, consider including details about the hiring process. If you're a healthcare recruiter, you already know that hiring is a tedious process in this industry. Candidates are already jumping through hoops before they make it to you, and the last thing they want is to continue to jump through hoops just for you to end up wasting their time. As long as you follow all of these guidelines, you'll find the right candidate in no time.

Seek out qualified candidates that won't need to relocate to accept your position. 

Affordable housing is difficult to find in today's market, and in the same realm, physicians are hesitant to relocate. Leverage affordable, desirable housing if that is an aspect of your geographic location. Instead of seeking out job applicants who are hundreds of miles away, search for someone local. They're more likely to take a chance on a facility that's close to home than they are to move themselves (and their family, if applicable) across the country to accept a job. You're asking them to make a small change and take a left turn instead of reworking their entire life and making a right turn out of their driveway to go to work every day.

Take a look at the current political landscape. 

There has been a substantial rise in conversation about the political position of your state on the most current political issues. This is providing opportunity for change for practicing and for graduating physicians to make a decision on where to practice.

Employ human resource management to accompany your recruitment strategy.

A strong recruitment strategy doesn’t end when a physician is hired - it continues with effective retention efforts. Human resource management focuses on supporting and nurturing employees to:

• Improve job satisfaction and engagement.
• Reduce turnover rates and hiring costs.
• Foster a positive work environment that encourages long-term commitment.

Recruiting is only half the battle - retaining top talent is just as critical to long-term success.

Whether you need help with your recruitment strategies, you have something that works for you that we didn't include, or there's something you wish to add to this list, feel free to reach out to us at information@practicematch.com!

*Originally posted on 7/29/2022. Last updated on 1/15/2025.

With a career focused on healthcare Business Development and Service Line performance, Paul had recently been at the forefront redefining the traditional In-house Provider Recruiting role. In his position as Medical Staff Development Officer at University Hospitals, Lake Health Region in Cleveland, Ohio, Paul integrated collegial interaction, analytics, and provider experience expertise to drive a differentiated recruitment strategy.

 

Paul has brought that knowledge and experience to Client Sourcing at PracticeMatch. Joining PracticeMatch in 2021, Paul supports Client Sourcing’s pro-active recruiting model that generates a robust prospect pool, creates an effective and efficient recruiting experience, and identifies key metrics to ensure optimal performance for the client. Paul has a commitment to learning, development and passion for building a team of recruiting professionals to leverage their national footprint which benefits its client organizations and their candidates.