At some point, every recruitment leader will feel like they’ve hit a wall. You’re attempting to fill a complex and important leadership role, but you’re not receiving any applications that capture your attention. Your recruiters have enough on their plates with their current work loads, and you don’t want to add to their burden. You feel you have no other choice but to partner with a recruitment firm. I saw this situation happen over and over again during my time in the hospital and healthcare recruitment world. Recruitment leaders think their only option is to partner with a contingent or retained firm and pay somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 to 35 percent of the first year salary.
Let’s just suppose that’s the way you’re going to go – you should at least go about it properly. If you’re going to engage a hospital recruitment or healthcare recruiting firm, you need to provide them with the information and resources they need to be successful. You need to stop viewing the situation as a competition between you and them. If you engage a recruitment firm, you need to look at them as your partner. Stay focused, and remember that you’re both working toward the same goal.

Make Healthcare Recruitment Firms Your Partner

It is more common than not for recruitment leaders to provide a 10 minute intake call on a position, but they often share very few details, and recruitment firms allow them to get away with this because they’re desperate for the business. However, this situation is a mistake on both sides. Healthcare recruitment firms should not take business from hospitals that are not willing to invest in them and provide them with the tools they need to be successful. Talent leaders should not look at healthcare recruitment firms as a necessary evil. If you engage them, then partner with them – help them help you!
If you choose to partner with a healthcare recruitment firm, you should give them the following information to ensure that you get the most out of your investment:
  • Give them the list of previous applicants that were rejected.
  • Provide them with the ideal candidate profile.
  • Once they have submitted a candidate, share information about the hiring process with them.
  • Set a firm timeline in which their candidates should be contacted, and stick to it.
If you’re a recruitment leader, think about working on a project and putting your heart and soul into finding your client the ideal candidate and sending that candidate to them. Then, think about how the candidate would feel if she or he were never contacted. This situation happens more frequently than you might expect, and it’s your hospital that will suffer the reputational consequences. Your hospital will become known for treating candidates poorly, which can make it difficult to recruit qualified candidates in the future.
Hospital recruiters and healthcare recruitment firms often struggle to provide candidates with proper care due to the demands and volume of candidates they’re screening. If you have engaged a hospital recruiter or healthcare recruitment firm, set aside some time to call notable candidates to ensure that they feel respected and acknowledged. If a firm sends you a candidate that really isn’t qualified, you need to ask yourself two things:
  1. Did you give the hospital recruiter or healthcare recruitment firm enough information to give them an idea of what you’re looking for in a candidate?
  2. Is continuing a partnership with this firm going to be beneficial for you?
When you receive a resume, don’t review it with a harsh and judgmental attitude. Don’t assume you have a poor candidate because they have been in multiple positions recently or have recently graduated from college. I am not suggesting that tenure be ignored, that would be ridiculous; I’m simply saying that you should keep an open mind and give candidates a chance if they seem like they may be a good fit for the position. The ONLY way you will obtain a valid opinion of a candidate is by assessing him or her yourself.

On the Flip Side:

I know personally that contingent firms can send in less-than-ideal candidates. I know many contingent firms earned their poor reputations. They go into Monster, Careerbuilder, or Healthecareers and just pull the first resumes that appear. When you engage a healthcare recruitment firm, you expect them to find and deliver the best possible candidates – after all, you are paying a substantial fee for their services.
I think it’s obvious that the incentives in the hospital and healthcare recruitment world are misaligned and that things need to change. If you must engage a healthcare recruitment firm, work with them as a partner, and don’t harshly exclude candidates that they send you. By stringently rejecting candidates, you are eliminating the possibility of finding a truly promising candidate. Create a contract that encourages success, but also protects you. In the contract, agree to weekly check-in calls to review candidates, processes, and to answer questions. Fifteen minutes is all it takes to make the hiring process streamlined and efficient.
If the hospital recruiter or healthcare recruitment firm is not offering you promising candidates, it may be time to rethink your strategy. Think about what the firm has tried, and think about creative suggestions that might help them improve the hiring process. If you are not communicating regularly, you will not understand what efforts have or have not been made. Before you engage a recruitment firm, try to obtain a reference from a current client. Focus on firms who focus in your industry. Hospitals are within the healthcare industry – true – but why not engage a partner who focuses solely on hospital recruitment? You should know that other options exist if you’re struggling to fill an important and hard-to-fill role. Contingent firms are a dime a dozen, and retained firms are expensive; moreover, very few, if any, focus solely on hospital recruitment.
Hospitals deserve more than two options! For 15 years, eHospitalHire has successfully partnered with hospitals in a way no other recruitment firm can match. We’re not contingent. We’re not retained. eHospitalHire is an actual partner, dedicated solely to your hospital recruitment needs at a fraction of the cost. eHospitalHire provides hospital recruitment teams with seasoned full-cycle recruiters, sourcing, and executive searches to extend your internal team. The next time your team faces a recruitment challenge, connect with eHospitalHire and explore a whole new way to find qualified candidates.