My Four Part Series for Employer Medical Recruiters: Part I . Medical Recruiters are in the business of fulfilling personnel needs for their companies while helping medical professionals establish or grow their careers – which impact their lives and their families. And as opposed to recruiting in other fields, such as engineering, or public relations, or IT, while these are also important and have their challenges and also filled with talented professionals, employer medical recruiters and their efforts directly impact the lives of their patients and communities. It’s an incredible responsibility. Because of this, it there is a solemn and moral responsibility to be dedicated to continual improvement and professional growth. . This four part series is focused on the four core components required for employer medical recruiters to fulfill this responsibility. .
Part I: You must have a sincere passion – because you are answerable to patients, to want to be the very best you can be, and continually push yourself by growing your knowledge and skills. .
While professional selling experience and training would give someone a huge advantage, that background is not a guarantee for success as a medical recruiter; however, you need marketing and selling training skills and a system to track your results – both to monitor your progress as well as to be able to demonstrate your value to your employer. You need the best possible tools to both leverage your personal shortcomings as well as those (perceived by jobseekers as well as any limitations on your facilities, resources, the service area, etc.) of your employer. And you need to be a team player; that is, learn the value of bridging relationships as well as working with others. Claiming you love your employer and your community, and showing up for work every day, and eventually filling your open jobs, IS NOT ENOUGH.
. I got onto medical recruiting after my father died as a result of a mistake made during a routine medical procedure. What does “I love my community” and “the job was filled by a qualified candidate” mean after I ask the medical recruiter if they have done all they could to make sure my father had the best possible physician and staff delivering care to him? My point is that the abstract, impossible-to-measure “I love my community” and “I have been doing my job for years” and “I am doing what my employer asks of me” are acceptable if you drive a bread truck on a 9-5 job. If it were you and your parent died in the same circumstance, these statements would be excuses given by people in “status quo” career positions which they do not seek to positively influence or improve.
. You don’t have to be a faith-based person to be successful as a medical professional. But I am, and my Christian faith and my church members inspire me. Acts 9:36-43 is about a woman named Tabitha who was beloved, and upon her death disciples called the Apostle Peter (Christ had died and been resurrected by this time). When Peter arrived, many of Tabitha’s friends were there weeping. Peter ushered them out of the room.
. “He turned to the body and said, ‘Tabitha, get up.’ Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. He gave her his hand and helped her up.”
. The reading symbolizes how Christians are asked to continue Christ’s work. I thought about my dad. I thought about how all recruiters have the solemn responsibility to do their very best. Medical recruiting is not the work of an apostle raising the dead, but it is dealing with peoples’ lives in more ways than one.
. So here we are. You are an employer medical recruiter. This scenario above is a real one and could happen to you. What’s more, that patient could be someone you know, or even a friend. .
Passion and Commitment changes your orientation to seek out improvement and better results – without it, your practice slips into “status quo” and mediocrity – with “success” defined in very narrow terms.
. When you are dealing with peoples’ lives and permanent placement recruiting, you should always bring your heart and soul. Recruiters MUST pledge to try their very best and continue to push the limits, and move “out of the box” because of the responsibility of acquiring talented candidates, selling them, and then hiring the very best possible professional while at the same time making a “long-term fit” for both.
. And in the medical profession, employer recruiters absolutely need a conscience to guide them – it cannot be merely about making a placement but seeking to hire the absolute best physician, nurse, or director – even for staff positions researching and marketing to the higher-rated schools and programs.
. This is about having a sincere passion and acute awareness that what you do directly impacts the lives of others – with this mindset you will always have the motivation to understand you have the solemn responsibility to be the best you can be and that you have to keep improving, evolving, growing. This does not have to be a stress-filled orientation but simply a “frame of mind.” Consider that what you can do is simply move yourself onto another “track” that is more efficient and has shorter destinations to the places you want to go. A different mindset can do that for you. . · The truly good employer medical recruiters have this “higher calling” and are conscientious, they constantly evaluate everything, and with the added element of competition, they know they must improve – these are intuitive and born from the acceptance of the job’s responsibilities. . Why must a passion and then commitment beyond “status quo” mentalities, methods and tools exist for the medical recruiter? The real answer is without it, your career and results will be mediocre compared to others.
. Real passion and commitment promotes the moral obligation to seek to hire the best possible professionals and not merely fill a job with any candidate who meets the requirements. All physicians are not alike, nor are all nurses and techs. Lesser practitioners mean less efficient workers and more problems – botched procedures, resulting lawsuits, and worse.
. Intense Competition: The bell curve of the baby boomer population was in 2016 before the retirement age was changed by the government – which is promoting that the curve is being “carried” to 2020. But people are still getting older. Moreover, statistics for certain illnesses, such as diabetes, are growing. There simply are not enough medical practitioners. The need to not only get the best practitioners, but fill all openings and pools to limit short staff problems, is keen and costly if not accomplished.
. Efficiency Models: Not only is it important to fill jobs with the best and most talented professionals, but now there are studies out in abundance regarding the lost revenue of healthcare employers from unfilled jobs – so filling jobs faster is also now a key issue. The Advisory Group Inc., in Washington, DC claims hospitals lose a minimum of $100,000 for every month a physician job is unfilled. It is startling that a hospital can go 9 months before filling a specialty physician job, resulting in an “opportunity loss” of a million dollars and higher. .
. Technology Changes and the New Jobseeker: Anyone except those living under rocks knows the Internet has changed the game. But the better recruiters know it is not just about posting your jobs online. The psychology of how people use the computer, “reaching” people in a new way, and how information can be not just delivered, but in a manner that improves the sale, pre-qualification of candidates, encourages referrals – improves the process for both sides, is requisite for healthcare employers who want to stay ahead of competitors out there for the better and more talented workers – who will make their companies better than the others (and again, offer better treatment to patients – which is what it should really about and motivate medical recruiters). In a future post I will address the new jobseekers and approaches and tools that will promote improved results – even for those without professional selling backgrounds or training.
. Financials and Partnerships: Today the actual negotiation of the career position is a factor for medical employers and hospitals. For instance, physicians now have the option of establishing a private practice, joining an existing practice, they can choose an employed model offered by an individual employer, and there are practice management services which employ doctors and offer them to hospital clients as a “service.” Almost anything is negotiable. Medical Recruiters can impact the candidate’s choice in this regard – in many cases physicians don’t know these options. The “presentation” of career opportunities by the medical professionals, through closing the physician or practitioner while being aware of the options that can be provided, can impact landing that candidate.
. Classic Selling Concepts never get outdated: Are you skilled at asking for referrals? Imagine filling a second opening without repeating a long, expensive search simply by remembering to ask a candidate you have just closed for a peer referral? I will share signature selling tenets that will promote quantum leaps in your approach regarding effectiveness, efficiency, competitiveness, and time savings – but remember we first have to make sure we have you committed to this first feature, because having a sincere passion required to be great promotes seeking to improve.
. The hidden pandemic of Retention: A physician leaving after a great deal of time, effort, money, and uncountable hours of initial set up by many people, are all ruined if after 6 months the newly-recruited physician leaves – and the process has to be stared again. It is also a demoralizing experience. Here is another example of merely “making the placement” isn’t a measure of success – and also suggests you really cannot determine if the placement was successful until much later.
. I laugh at the public statements made by many hospital companies who seem to brag about the amount of money spend on physician recruiting as well as the number of new physicians they recruited – because as a patient, neither would matter to me. “How are you recruiting? Are you being both economical to save money that could be better spent on me, and what are you doing to attract and retain the best talent?” Are these not the questions a patient or hospital board member, or the medical recruiter, should ultimately be asking? .
Are you willing to be great for your patients? Do you accept the solemn responsibility that being an employer medical recruiter affects lives, so you must endeavor to continually improve? . The difference between a .250 hitter and a hall of fame .300 hitter over 550 at bats is just 27 hits. Over a six month season (26 weeks), that's effectively a hit a week. Sure, talent is a big part of it, but I can show you a basic path that is more important than talent to promote a truly fulfilling career. In my next entries I will review the basics you need to fulfill that pledge to yourself, but you must first have the foundation to build on – and it starts with your sincere motivation.
. Make this Foundation Commitment #1:
“I understand that my work directly impacts the lives of people. I commit to take a silent moment of reflection on this fact before I begin work every day. I acknowledge that I am passionate about my career position and this will be my guiding motivator to continually improve – acceptance of the status quo is never acceptable because it is never an answer for our patients and their families.”
. Carl Brickman For more information about me or to reach me, visit my company’s website at http://www.onlinejobtour.com/ |
Monday, May 31, 2010
Raising Dreams and Lives…Together
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Raising Dreams and Lives…Together: My Four Part Series for Employer Medical Recruiters
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