Retained is not a FOUR letter word….Unless you are a clinic or hospital who has been fleeced for 30k at least once over the years by a retained approach. I have been recruiting healthcare providers for over 20 years and if I had a dime for every time a prospect (in-house recruiter or hospital CEO) asked me if my approach was retained, I could finance this country’s national debt. In other words, do we have to make an upfront investment for your services? That question is “code” for, we don’t use retained firms, we have tried that before and got taken for 40k, our Board has a policy in place that we don’t use retained firms, we only use Contingent, and the list goes, of statements after you answer the question emphatically, YES!!
Of course, they have heard all of the Retained firms new twists on the word Retained. Replacement words like Hybrid or Accountable are used in place of Retained. But let’s call a spade a spade. If a recruiting company demands one dollar before they launch a search for your organization, they are part of the FOUR letter dictionary. Of course, I get a chuckle when the powers to be ask me if there is an upfront investment for our services. I like to answer that question with a few questions of my own. How long have you been looking for the provider you are seeking? Have you invested in any Job Board to source a candidate for your opportunity? Have you conducted any semblance of a marketing campaign such a snail mail or email campaign? Does your organization pay you a salary for your efforts? Have you brought some Panera bagels to a residency program? Have you been to job fair and set up a booth representing your organization?
If the answer is
YES to any of these questions, you have already made an upfront investment into the process and your particular search. So the issue is not, will there be an investment made into the search, but how will the investment be used and how will dollars be spent. The larger question is…how much is too much of an upfront investment? Only you can answer that question and determine how your time is best spent.
There are four legs any recruitment process.
Sourcing, Screening, Presenting, and Closing. Sourcing is without a doubt, the heavy lifting, and the ditch digging of recruiting. If I could line up 50 qualified candidates daily for each recruiter I employ to speak to about their cadre accounts, I would have applicants lined up around this building seeking employment. An organization has to make a decision and that decision is how much is too much to spend on the actual effort. It’s actually a simple formula.
Past Revenue Lost +
Continued Revenue Lost + Future Income -
Upfront Investment = ?
There are a lot of firms out there promising you the moon. Both, large firms, all the way to the one man shop that sits at home with ESPN Sports Center playing in the background with the dogs barking in the background. Before you ultimately make a decision, ask a couple of questions. What exactly is done to source candidates for their practice opportunities and what financial safeguards are they willing to put on your upfront fees.
Four Pillars to Sourcing
1) Exposure
2) Repetition,
3)
Method
4) Execute
If there are 10,000 candidates that fit the parameters of your provider you are seeking, then you have to ask yourself, how effective have you been in getting the opportunity message to those 10,000 candidates. Now we can all accept the reality that it is impossible to reach all 10,000 providers with your message. You can certainly order names from a list company and conduct mail campaign on your own. The challenge with that approach is MAIL is another FOUR letter word that has run its course. The USPS is not 16 billion in the red because this service is being over used. Sooo, Mr. Smarty Pants, if sending out 5000 mailers and sitting around like the Maytag guy waiting for a call is not the answer, then what is it?
I propose, if you have the budget, utilizing in part, technology to get the opportunity message out to the masses is a large part of the sourcing answer. That includes but is not limited to, voice blasting, text blasting, PURL’s, job boards, E-Blasting, Landing Pages, YouTube videos and acquiring additional data points on your candidate pool, just to name a few things you have to engage in order to be successful. If you are considering a recruiting firm and all they want to talk about is their database that is old and worn out and the mailer they want you to purchase for $2.10 each times 15,000 pieces, when they have .38 in each one, you are going to be part of the group of people that say Retained is a Four letter word. Mail is DEAD. Put a fork in it.
The other piece to this decision process is, what safeguards is the recruiting firm putting on my investment. If they truly believe they can filly your opportunity, then it’s time to put their money where their mouth is. If your organization was purchasing a brand new GE Open MRI and you wrote a deposit check for 75k, I bet you would expect GE to drop off that piece of equipment. If they didn’t you would probably call your legal counsel and begin deliberations on how to get your money back. I believe if a recruiting firm believes in the heart of hearts, they can fill your search then they should place financial guards on at least part of your upfront fees. A true partnership is forged when both parties share in the risk. If you are considering a firm that only guarantees on the back end if the candidate never shows or gets fired within 6 months from employment start date, then you may be part of that screaming cussing group that swears off Retained firms once again.
The Hire Connection offers its clients the industry's most comprehensive range of recruitment services. Coupling technology, expertise and accountability, The Hire Connection services are designed to source, screen, qualify, present and place the RIGHT providers to satisfy recruitment goals and improve provider retention. Give us a call today!
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