By Zane Josie
Sometimes, it can look like some healthcare recruiters have all the luck. There are many healthcare recruiters filled with envy for their peers. Some recruiters just seem to get the best applicants, have the vacancies which are the easiest to fill, and never suffer the depressing experience of being ghosted by either healthcare institutions or applicants. But it isn’t luck, it is hard work and deft navigation of a confusing and often complicated jobseeker’s market.
There is no denying the situation is tough for recruiters. In many ways, it has never been tougher. Health Jobs Nationwide, a healthcare jobs service for, among other things, physician assistant jobs, say that the current talent shortage the U.S. healthcare market is suffering is one that is here to stay. It might not last forever, but there’s no sign that it’s going to change any time soon.
To oversimplify things, healthcare providers are fighting over the best talent, and it does seem that there are more losers than winners. This is, in one sense, good news for healthcare applicants, as it is them who can be discerning. Nevertheless, nobody would claim that this situation is good for patients as it’s getting close to a situation whereby there simply isn’t enough talent to go around.
This is a woe for recruiters as well because it is healthcare recruitment services that guide these applicants to the jobs that they want to fill. If recruiters relax standards in order to get more applicants, then they run the risk damaging their reputation by recommending substandard applicants for healthcare positions. This is something you should never compromise on – the way to success as a healthcare recruiter is never to relax standards. It’s to work hard and apply intelligence and strategy when it comes to sourcing top recruits and recommending them for the right positions.
Developing the Right Instinct
As a healthcare recruiter, you cannot be all things to all people. Specialty and focus are key to success. Some recruiters will home in on a specific talent area, whether that be doctors, physician assistants, registered nurses, medical admin professionals, or technicians. If you are having a tough time finding success, it could be that you’re simply taking on a too diffuse array of applicants – you are the jack of all trades and the master of none.
Of course, in the current talent market, it’s very tempting to try to get as many applicants as possible, and certainly you should be looking to expand your roster. But by specializing, you will, over time, develop a “feel” and an instinct for what type of recruits are right. This means you’ll be taking less of a gamble each time and healthcare institutions will be consistently impressed with the talent you provide.
A Major Red Flag
There is a single red flag you can look out for that will at least let you know that you’re going about things wrong. Sometimes, this type of wake-up call is exactly what a recruiter needs. This is candidate concerns at the end of the recruitment process. Quite simply, if a candidate is still asking questions and has outstanding concerns at the point when the offer is about to be made, then they haven’t been vetted properly and really should have been rejected much earlier. If this happens to you, you can set as your first goal to stop that happening. When it stops happening, you’ll know you’re on the right track.
Ultimately, becoming a top recruiter is possible, even in the currently challenging talent market. Nonetheless, you need to give it time and never relax your standards. Apart from anything else, you owe this to the patients.
