After you read all the activities your In-House Recruiters and the additional activities a Healthcare Agency can bring to the relationship, it should become very apparent that no In-House Recruiter effort can address all the avenues that should be worked to find the ideal candidate.

Conclusion (to ensure it is read):  Re-think your position concerning working with Healthcare Agencies.  It will take the pressure off the human beings working in our HR department and it will definitely increase your revenue stream.

Now, here are the important considerations shared by members of NCHCR (not in order of priority.) 

In-House Recruiter Challenge

•    “I never have time to really search for candidates from any databases”.  (Quote from In-House Recruiter)

•    “I never have time to respond to all of the calls coming in daily or the emails”.  (Quote from In-House Recruiter)

•    In-house recruiters should spend time getting to know the people in your facility who need to add physicians and advanced practice providers to their practices. 

•    In-house recruiters should obtain the specifics of what is a perfect candidate and the specifics of the job. 

•    In-house recruiters need to spend their time with the interviewing candidates to learn if they have similar values as your healthcare site. 

•    In-House recruiters are the first line of contact and the main line of contact with your interviewees.

•    Let the In-House recruiter use their time onsite to build relationships with the candidates that you are recruiting. 
This is the beginning of your retention plan

•    In-House recruiters are in charge of recruitment for all Candidates ranging from Physicians, Advanced Practitioners, Nursing, and Allied Health.   

Advantages of using Recruiter Agency 

•    Healthcare Agencies will present Candidates you otherwise will have never been introduced to.  

•    The recruiting firms are talking to 20-30 more candidates per day than your in-house recruiter has the time to even talk to.

•    Let the recruiting firm help with the selection of Candidates who are most qualified and narrow this down for your In-House recruiter. 

•    Hospital administrators need to realize that your In-House recruiters time is very valuable time that is often wasted on tasks that could be performed by an outside agency. Recruiting agencies have many recruiters hence more production, better outreach and generally have more resources at their disposal to accomplish the task. 

•    Agencies network with other agencies hence the production will be exponentially greater.

•    Agencies have the time to develop a relationship with the potential candidate and sell the candidate on the position. The sooner they find a physician the sooner they can put him or her to work and generate revenue faster.

•    Typically, agencies specialize in a particular area of healthcare recruiting therefore they have a database of resumes that is specific to each type of position. 

•    Recruiting agencies can do a lot of the legwork up-front, like references and extensive screening of candidates, to predetermine interest level and how a professional is recommended by their peers. 

•    Agencies can screen for salary preferences and job preferences to determine the best match before candidates are submitted. 

•    Agencies can save time by ensuring only serious and qualified professionals are submitted that are also within the salary range the organization is offering.

•    Agencies use resources that may not be available to their in-house recruitment team, putting candidates in their hand that they otherwise may not have received. 

•    Agencies operate on a contingency basis so there is no risk with reviewing resumes and there is no obligation unless a candidate is hired.

John Frey  johnfrey@nchcr.com  304-699-5426