NEWSFLASH FOR HOSPITALS: Physicians are Interviewing YOU-Not the Other Way Around (Part 2)

     In our last post, we discussed how it is a buyer’s market for physicians, and it is in the hospital’s best interest to respond accordingly by making recruitment an easier process. This starts with Fidelis Partners, where we take great pride in representing our clients in the most professional and most polite way possible. Our behavior reflects our clients’ recruitment goals, and we take that role very seriously. Once a candidate is submitted to a hospital, the clock starts ticking and every moment counts. There is a small window of momentum and enthusiasm where a candidate is excited about a job. If we do not act quickly during this window, the chances of securing that physician diminish greatly.

     Ideally, it should not take more than two months to secure a candidate. In a perfect world, this would be the most effective recruitment process in 5 easy steps:

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1. Fidelis Partners finds a physician candidate, submits to hospital/physician recruiter
2. Candidate is contacted by organization within 48 hours, and phone interview scheduled with the
appropriate decision maker within one week
3. If phone interview is successful, candidate is brought out for an interview within 2-4 weeks, with the spouse (spouse is mandatory)
4. Candidate interviews, and leaves the job interview with a template contract or Letter of Intent
    * I must expound upon this step since this is the most crucial one. Physicians should leave a job interview with an Letter of Intent in hand, or the expectation that one will follow within the week. A personal interview should not happen unless the hospital wants to hire that physician. Let me repeat: Before the candidate interviews, the hospital should already want to hire that person. There are many gatekeepers along the path towards a personal interview – Fidelis Partners, in-house physician recruiter, hospital CEO, Director of Medical Group, etc. – the interview should be used to confirm what everyone already wants: To hire that physician!
5. Candidate has a two week deadline to accept or deny the offer

     However, these steps do not matter if each moment along the way, the hospital does not put forth the strongest effort to attract the candidate. There are too many job options out there for physicians, so each moment counts when working with a candidate. The goal is to get the physician to want your job so badly that now you, the hospital, are in the buyer’s seat.
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Lori Vickers is a Senior Search Consultant at Fidelis Partners.
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