The pandemic has flipped the previously hot physician job market to a market with more uncertainty, adding another layer of confusion to an already unpredictable time. What is easily forgotten, though, is that behind nearly every job for a doctor, a physician recruiter is rising to the challenge.

Whether you are a one-person recruiting show at a small facility, part of a team of many at a large healthcare facility, or somewhere in the middle, remember the profession of being a physician recruiter is still relatively young. It can be difficult to sketch out a specific long-term career path. Job descriptions for physician recruiters can vary a lot from one healthcare organization or recruiting firm to another, as well.

A variety of recruiting roles offer room for growth and professional development, but how do you continue to change and evolve? In our current climate, it’s essential to work mean and lean – and work together. 

Here are a few tips for recruiters during these challenging times.

1. Stay attuned to physician practice patterns. Knowing what physicians are planning to do will help you understand their career needs. For instance, a recent Doximity study reports that 20% of all medical visits in the U.S. will be conducted via telehealth this year, representing $29 billion of medical services. This knowledge about the future of the industry will likely change your recruiting tactics.
2. Work cross-functionally with other departments. Recruiting is a team sport. It’s critical to have a good rapport and working relationship with other departments—efficient recruiting means reaching across apartment department lines for HR issues, onboarding, credentialing, and more. If you’re still working from home, try putting a recurring meeting on some of your colleagues’ calendars, even just once a month. It can be valuable to stay in the loop with various departments and is an excellent way to stay connected with co-workers. We’re all in this together, especially at work! 
3. Reach out to colleagues and professional networks to help brainstorm or troubleshoot. Other recruiters understand the challenges you face regularly, so your network can be invaluable in providing solutions. We shared some online resources for physician recruiters in a previous blog.
4. Be a wealth of information yourself. Did you read an enlightening article about physician compensation or a policy that will affect a medical specialty? Share it with your colleagues, candidates, leaders, and anyone who can learn from it. It can give you an essential strategic advantage.
5. Keep up-to-date on marketing and virtual tools. Great physician recruiters typically excel in marketing. This era of social distancing, virtual interviews, and virtual onsite visits requires you to be more focused on a marketing approach that attracts excellent talent before your competitors do. Learn how to make your candidate’s virtual experience stand out here.
6. Get certified. If you really want to stay relevant to physician recruiting and learn the skills you need to source and recruit the best talent, you may consider becoming a certified Fellow of AAPPR (FASPR). The industry views the AAPPR fellowship as a seal of excellence, and it might help you map your future. Doximity Talent Finder also offers a free online course on social recruiting.

The pandemic has most of us asking, “What now?” but physician recruiters are rising to the occasion and have proven excellent at overcoming challenges. There’s a lot of satisfaction in continuing to learn and innovate, and we see physician recruiters doing it every day. In more good news, the  U.S. has finally added about 53k more healthcare-related jobs (per the latest jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). 

It's no secret that COVID-19 has caused a massive acceleration in the use of telehealth, too. As this short-term spike turns into a long-term trend, are you prepared to recruit for telemedicine? Learn more about how telemedicine is changing at our October 13^th webinar. Just click the button to save your seat.