The Hire Connection: 5 Mistakes Amateur Recruiters Make (And How To Avoid Them)

Recruiting quality medical staff for your facility is unlike any other task you will ever undertake. Due to the physician shortage, the number of open positions greatly outweigh the number of doctors searching for new careers. As a result, healthcare recruiters must be at the top of the game in order to attract the best candidates - a single mistake could send the candidates looking elsewhere. Our physician recruiting experts have compiled a list of the most common mistakes amateur recruiters make and how you can avoid them in your future efforts.

1. Delaying The Communication Process
When you are recruiting prospective team members, timely communication is essential. Candidates need to know where they stand and where you are at in the hiring process. If they go several days (or worse, weeks) without hearing from you, they may assume that you have filled the position with someone else and begin actively searching for other opportunities. Even if they respond when you do reach back out to them, the delay will have likely given the candidate an unpleasant impression of your facility.

2. Extending An Offer To The First Promising Candidate
Screening and interviewing candidates is incredibly time-consuming. If you are conducting your recruiting in-house, it also becomes incredibly expensive. In an effort to save time and money, you may be tempted to extend an offer to the first promising candidate you come across. However, just because a certain candidate is more promising than others you have interviewed does not mean he is a perfect fit for your facility. Your best bet will be to find three to four outstanding candidates, and hire someone from that pool.

3. Not Allowing For Enough Face Time With Promising Candidates

What does your typical interview process look like? Most recruiters screen candidates based on their initial applications and resumes. From this initial pool, they will choose physicians to interview over the phone. From there, they will narrow it down to candidates they wish to interview in person. If the initial in-person interview goes well, you should arrange for the candidate to shadow someone in your facility and spend several hours with you or the other recruiters. Your initial conversations with the candidates will likely be relatively shallow and the candidates will be making a conscious effort to make a good impression. If you want to really get to know them, you have to allow yourself more time to spend with them.

4. Neglecting To Include A Signing Bonus In Your Offer
Once upon a time, signing bonuses were unique incentives recruiters included to entice candidates to accept their offers. As the number of open opportunities continues to outweigh the number of available candidates, however, candidates have the freedom to be more and more picky about which offers they accept. Signing bonuses have evolved from a special perk to an expected commodity. Some signing bonuses are even climbing into the six-figure range. If you neglect to include a signing bonus in your offer, your chosen candidate may go looking for a better one.

5. Attempting To Do It All Yourself
In today's extremely competitive job market, attracting the best available physicians is not an easy task. Inexperienced in-house recruiters often do not have the industry experience and expertise required to do the job well. If you are preparing to hire a new physician, you can better set yourself up for success by contracting an experienced medical recruiting company to assist you with the process.

If you are looking for a professional healthcare recruiting firm to assist with your recruitment efforts, we would love to talk to you. Owned and lead by a pioneer in the healthcare recruiting industry, The Hire Connection consists of a team of highly trained physician recruiting experts who are dedicated to your company's success. Our all-inclusive pricing structure offers guaranteed results (without any hidden fees) or your money back. To learn more about our medical recruiting team and how we can help you, visit our website at www.TheHireConnection.net. We look forward to hearing from you!

The Hire Connection Team