The provider recruitment space is as frenzied as ever, as evidenced by the high energy at the 2023 Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR) annual conference in Austin, Texas. Almost 1,000 industry professionals practiced their Texas two-step as they bounced between presentations and state-of-the-industry conversations over three busy days.
It was standing-room-only for one of our ECG-sponsored sessions in which physicians fielded questions from recruiters about what they want from their next practice and how they interact with potential opportunities. But that was only one of the takeaways we gleaned from this year’s exhibit hall interactions, breakout sessions, keynote speakers, and all the networking conversations in between.
1. Providers still want the basics, but preferences are evolving as a new generation enters the workforce.
While the healthcare landscape is changing every day, what providers are looking for in their next position has largely stayed the same.
Location, Location, Location
Yes, providers still have location preferences, and some geographies are easier to recruit into than others. The long-parroted fact that most physicians practice within 100 miles of their residency program still rings true among recruiters.
Quality of Life
Work-life balance has long been an important factor for candidates seeking their next position. The pandemic has revealed the magnitude of provider burnout, with many job seekers hoping to find better quality of life in a different position. Many recruiters report that work-life balance has surpassed compensation as the biggest consideration when providers initiate a new job search.
Compensation
More on this later, but compensation continues to be a top priority for candidates, particularly with cost of living and inflation pressures mounting every day. And for many providers, it’s just as much about what they will earn as it is what is expected of them. That latter part is less clear; many recent graduates have no understanding of how they will be paid, depending on whether they are moving to organizations implementing value-based metrics or those with productivity models.
Supportive Culture
Newer entrants to the provider workforce are seeking guidance as they establish their practice, both through mentorship from seasoned providers and high-caliber clinical and support staff. That, along with a positive workplace culture, can be the difference between younger providers putting down roots or moving on to their next opportunity.
On a related note, diversity and inclusion are increasingly important to candidates, so organizations should be prepared to discuss how their organization is not only tackling these topics within the workforce, but more broadly addressing health equity and social drivers of health.
2. Money matters, particularly when there is a need to move beyond the benchmarks.
Many in-house recruiters expressed growing frustration with fair market valuations and compensation packages they feel are behind the times. They long for innovation in what they can offer providers, particularly for less-desirable locations or hard-to-recruit specialties. Several told stories of having to offer compensation packages that were capped at the national 50th percentile or that were out of touch with competing offers.
Recruiters want the flexibility to tailor compensation packages to provider experience and predicted productivity, within fair market value of course. They also would like a menu of options to offer within approved parameters. For example:
- Some candidates may have no educational debt but need a loan for a mortgage down payment.
- Others may not require relocation assistance and would instead prefer that amount be included in a signing bonus.
3. The notoriously-difficult-to-fill specialties aren’t getting easier, even as succession risks loom.
Not only is new provider recruitment getting harder, but replacing the rapidly growing number of providers approaching retirement is a looming threat. Primary care was consistently cited as one of the highest-priority specialties for recruitment. Cognitive medical specialties such as neurology were also mentioned as consistent national sourcing challenges.
Many recruiters attending AAPPR commented on the increasing need for advanced technology platforms to be successful in their candidate pursuits. One hot topic was predictive analytics, with some platforms demonstrating the ability to detect when providers are dissatisfied and passively looking for their next opportunity. Investment in emerging analytic resources will be important for organizations that wish to stay ahead of provider supply shortages.
4. Recruitment and onboarding delays negatively affect the candidate experience and the organization’s bottom line.
Organizations with overly complicated, loosely defined, and unnecessarily lengthy recruitment processes often struggle to sign candidates, while those with slow and inefficient onboarding processes often see start dates delayed. Both affect the bottom line.
Providers in high-demand specialties—which is most these days, or so it seems—often consider multiple opportunities. Organizations that aren’t ready to move quickly through the process may lose out on the best candidates—many of whom expect to get an offer during their interview visit—which in turn results in more vacancy days without a physician.
Meanwhile, delays in onboarding, including lengthy state licensure processes and cumbersome payer credentialing processes, can result in lagging productivity and quality metrics that change provider compensation while also contributing to sunk labor costs for the organization. Though licensing and credentialing durations are beyond a recruiter’s control, organizations that streamline the elements of the recruitment and onboarding process they can control will have a competitive advantage in the search for top provider talent.
5. Happiness matters, and burnout is real.
Recruiters want to be viewed and treated as strategic partners. Yet many side conversations characterized the siloing of recruiters, away from decision makers and strategy shapers, as a catalyst for burnout. A recruiter is often the first person a candidate interacts with from an organization and should be an ambassador of the organization’s culture and strategy. Additionally, a strong recruiter understands how outsiders perceive their organization.
Many seasoned recruiters expressed a desire to help craft future workforce strategy, not just act as the executors of a provider workforce plan. Recruiters often have insights on areas where the provider supply may be tightening and can proactively develop a pipeline for emerging areas of need. They also want to understand the mechanics of provider compensation administration and valuation within their organizations so they can confidently present offers to candidates.
The importance of provider recruitment was clearly on display at AAPPR, with hundreds of professionals taking time to seek out strategic industry partnerships, learn from recruitment leaders, and share best practices with their peers.
All in all, our takeaway was that this is an exciting time to work in the provider recruitment space, and the momentum will only continue in the coming years.
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Learn MoreEdited by: Matt Maslin
Published March 30, 2023