By Michael P. Broxterman, Chief Operating Officer, Pinnacle Health Group
Is the Internet replacing traditional methods of physician recruiting? While the Internet provides unique advantages in recruiting, clearly, there is no such thing as a single, “best” recruiting method. The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) Market Research Department states that “we view the net as a complement to traditional methods.” Internet recruiting is another tool, and does not minimize the need for recruiters to sell, talk to clients and candidates, check references and credentials, conduct interviews, etc. The bulk of recruiting still involves interpersonal skills, communicating one-on-one with people.
While networking and referrals were selected as the number one tools physician’s planned to use in their next job hunt, at least one-third (31.5%) said they used the web for their last or current search. According to the NEJM’s article, 19% of physicians said they would consider using the Internet for their next job search. This number is likely to increase as websites continue to customize information and services to the needs of physician. Journal ads were mentioned almost as frequently, suggesting that although the web is becoming more attractive, traditional tools will continue to be used.
Growth Creates Demand
There were approximately 577,000 physician jobs in 1998. A 21% to 35% increase in physician jobs are expected over the next ten years, representing an increase of 698,170 to 778,950 new jobs. While the exact number of recruiting websites in existence today is unknown, it is thought that there are at least three million. Physician-recruitment sites, specifically, total at least 3,000, not including numerous specialty-specific sites. A November 2001 keyword search on Yahoo for “physician recruiters” displayed 1,170 website matches; “healthcare recruiters” displayed 962 matches; and “medical recruiters” displayed 333 matches. Additionally, while only approximately 25,000 resumes were posted on the web in 1994, today there are over 16,000,000 and the number is growing.
What’s our there now? A range of services is available on the Internet today for physicians, recruiters, and hirers. These include spider sites, distribution networks, job boards, community-based recruiting sites, corporate boards, talent markets, career centers, job databases, resume banks, online classifieds, referral networks, and trade association sites.
The Physician’s Perspective
According to the NEJM survey, physicians most favor sites that offer quality listings, have excellent reputations, are secure, and easy to use. While extras such as online resume services and job hunting tips did not rate high as ‘essential services’, these are becoming more and more attractive to the job hunting physician as the services are fine-tuned and ultra-specialized.
Physicians are finding that job hunting on the Internet, as opposed to traditional methods, is faster and more convenient-they can peruse job postings 24-hours per day, which fits into their often uncompromising schedules. Interactive capabilities such as one-to-one online career counseling, bulletin boards (used to post questions and answers), continuing education resources, and “niche” news articles top the list as advantages in web recruiting sites.
In addition to the usual information regarding minimum qualifications and compensation, physicians want details – and the more details, the better: a clear job description, details about work environment, who they will be working with, a description of the facility, how busy he/she will be, and community information. Physicians like the fact that they can easily request (via email or web contact form) any additional information they may need and often, a response is immediate. Additionally, physicians want relevant, fine-tuned search results. Physicians cited inaccurate search results as their primary dissatisfaction.
The Recruiter’s Perspective
Physician recruiting firms are jumping on the band wagon. With the slowing economy and the tightening of recruiting budgets, 78% of recruiters felt that their recruitment dollar was best spent on Internet job postings, compared to 12% who selected print classifieds. Recruiters cited that the potential of reaching millions of candidates and the ease of job postings were top reasons for using the Internet as their choice of media. Acknowledging that healthcare is a niche market, many physician recruiters are tightening their online services to evermore specialization, for example, Pinnacle Health Group (www.phg.com) focuses on physicians only, and do not represent physicians’ assistants, nurses, and other non-physician medical personnel.
Pinnacle Health Group
Creating a recruiting website has been challenging. However, Pinnacle has found success by using a variety of recruiting techniques and by customizing them to the client’s needs. These include multiple site recruiting strategies, sourcing, posting, email programs, advertising, networking, and direct mail. Posting involves placing your opportunity on a job board and hoping to get a response. It is a one-shot deal, little work is involved, and ideal if you don’t have the staff to conduct sourcing. Sourcing involves entering your requirements into an online database. You immediately get a list of matches, and generally more and better results than from posting, but sourcing is more time-consuming to manage. Direct Mail covers the most ground and is relatively inexpensive, also it can be reproduced and easily modified. Direct mail lacks immediate feedback but, is extremely targeted and effective.
We recommend that recruiters and clients utilize multiple strategies in their recruitment endeavors, and that candidates utilize all available resources. It is important to track the results of your efforts and to manage the process. Recruiters and clients may want to consider joining a professional association such as the National Association of Physician Recruiters (www.napr.com), which hosts the World Job Bank; or the American Society of Physician Recruiters (www.aspr.org).
To summarize, Internet recruiting technology will continue to be helpful to recruiters, clients, and candidates in that it allows automation of large amounts of data. Databases and search functionality have become indispensable tools in recruitment, as well as the advantages the Internet lends to networking, referrals, and communication in general. However, it is agreed among clients, recruiters, and physicians alike, that one-to-one, interpersonal skills are critical to the recruiting process, and that traditional recruiting methods will continue to be necessary recruiting tools. The Internet has not and will not replace traditional recruiting methods, but it will continue to be a key element in the process, and it will be interesting to see where the technology takes us in the future.
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Michael P. Broxterman is the Chief Operating Officer of Pinnacle Health Group, one of the largest physician-recruiting firms headquartered in Atlanta, GA. Our services include qualification and reference checks, background checks and providing a written report detailing the information we obtain. We also can provide expert licensure and credentialing service where requested. Pinnacle is one of the largest physician-recruiting firms in the industry which provides personal on-site visits, a consultative approach, and experienced recruiters.
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1 For a complete summary of this report, “How Physicians Use Websites to Find Jobs”, email the New England Journal of Medicine at nejmads@nejm.org or call 1-800-NEJM-991.
2 How Physicians Use Websites to Find Jobs, New England Journal of Medicine