Experts are saying that they foresee a recession in the future, which will further complicate the recruitment process no matter what industry you’re in. With that being said, there are a few steps you can take to put yourself ahead of the curve during physician recruitment. Recruitment can be difficult, but it doesn’t need to be. PracticeMatch is here to help you succeed.

Consider the ways that the recession is affecting people from all industries. In one way or another, all industries are tied together. Economic factors that impact one industry may have a ripple effect on another industry. It’s important to keep in mind things like budgets, spending patterns, and spending power of the physician candidate.

Take a long view. When you’re recruiting, recession or not, look ahead about 24 months. That will provide the flexibility to adjust to market conditions that are shaping the behavior of physician candidates. Historical trends will provide the benchmark to compare what is different moving forward and allow for a strategy correction.

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 increase connections with 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.

Improve job opportunity visibility. As a recruiter, you are responsible for jobs that are posted. To increase brand awareness and job opportunity visibility, you should be utilizing a marketing team, whether you have one in-house or you need to hire externally. There is a number of tools out there that you can utilize in your marketing efforts: geofencing, banner ads, postcards, and text messaging are just a few. You can also add email marketing to the mix if you so choose.

Consider what makes your job offer stand out among others. It’s easy to focus solely on compensation when comparing your facility’s opportunities to opportunities at other facilities, but there’s more to look at. Pay attention to things 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.

Seek out 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 physicians 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 a right turn out of their driveway to go to work every day. Leverage affordable, desirable housing if that is an aspect of your geographic location. 

The 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.

If you have a strategy that works for you, or if there’s something you wish to add to this list, feel free to reach out to us at information@practicematch.com! We love connecting with you!