Nearly 75 percent of recruiters still aren’t using data to inform their decisions (per Jobvite). Why? Because data can be intimidating and there’s often too much of it. But you can’t improve what you don’t measure! Being competitive for great candidates means you need to leverage information.

So, how effective are the items in your recruiting toolbox? In physician recruitment, lead generation is about capturing new potential candidates. But not just any candidate will do––it’s important to ensure your candidates are converting into hires.

It’s easy to go for the low-hanging fruit first, but approaching data as a recruiter should focus on verifying what’s working, not (as commonly assumed) what’s wrong. And you don’t need anything more than a calculator or your cell phone to figure out some fundamentals.

Let’s start with hard and soft metrics and keep it simple.

Hard metrics offer clear measurements that directly impact business or financial goals. Hard metrics are tied to revenue and might include new candidate leads, conversion rates, quality of hire, time to hire, and anything that reduces the cost of a hire.  

Soft metrics are non-financial benefits that act as a precursor to revenue. These don’t have an immediate impact on financial goals and are qualitative initiatives that drive engagement, conversations, and interactions and increase brand awareness.  

To calculate the ROI of your recruitment tools, you first need to know what you’re spending, where you’re spending it, and decide how you’ll standardize (on an annualized or per-hire basis, for instance). Total costs are exactly what they sound like: the sum of all the different sources you’re using to find candidates.

Calculate your Cost Per Hire

While Cost per Hire doesn’t tell the whole story, it’s a simple but powerful metric to show how effectively you’re using your resources. As we mentioned in our first article in this series - What’s the ROI of your recruiting? - physician recruitment comes down to the bottom line, so Cost per Hire is one of the most important metrics to track. Here’s how to calculate Cost per Hire:

(Total Cost to Generate Candidates) divided by (Total Number of new Hires) = Cost per Hire

You can also determine your Cost per Candidate. This helps you determine if your allotted budget is enough to fill your Candidate Pipeline. Here’s how to calculate it:

(Total Cost to Generate Candidates) divided by (Total Number of Candidates) in your pipeline = Cost per Candidate

Cost per Candidate by Source helps you dig deeper to determine where you’re finding your most qualified candidates. We’ll dig into this topic deeper in another article, but to get the best ROI for your buck, you should really consider what each tool provides and how much it costs. Here’s how to calculate Cost per Candidate by Source:

(Total Cost of Source) divided by (Total Number of Candidates Generated from that Source) = Cost per Candidate by Source

Nurturing candidate leads

Once you’ve captured the attention of new candidates, you need to convert them from potential candidates to hires. You can track your success with key metrics from campaigns you’re using on social media, email and DocMail campaigns, and other marketing recruitment strategies. Do you have a blog and are candidates reading it? Track your candidates through email campaigns, job postings, and any relevant information that captures their interest. These strategies are more often linked to marketing, but when you use marketing strategies as your recruiting tools, you’ll increase the success of your candidate sourcing.

Improving ROI from your lead generation efforts comes from constantly assessing and analyzing the data. By reassessing your results, you understand what makes a successful and competitive contact list, allowing you to constantly improve the list to ensure the right people are being called and prospected.

To keep your candidate pipeline full of promising prospects, your lead generation must stay on track when it comes to maximum return on investment. Try these methods to boost your lead generation ROI:

1. Make sure your lead database is populated with the most up-to-date and valid data. If you’re using Doximity Talent Finder to source and recruit great candidates, remember every physician in the U.S. is listed on Doximity, so use its database as a first form of reference on new candidates

1. Be an employer of choice. How do you want candidates to view your company? Your employer brand needs to convey your value and tell a great story. Is it apparent, when a candidate does research on your company, that your opportunity is a good fit for them? You are an ambassador of your brand. Candidates are putting themselves out there, and recruiters must tell their own story – especially now when sourcing candidates is so complex. Read more about your employer brand here.
   

Doximity Talent Finder is the social recruiting platform built on Doximity, the largest social network dedicated to physicians and clinicians – and 84% of organizations now use social media for recruiting, per the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Doximity Talent Finder allows you to discover and connect solely with physician candidates – versus culling through broad social networks or CV databases. You can search over 800,000 U.S.-licensed physicians who practice in 40 specialties in all 50 states and browse an unlimited number of profiles and digital CVs.

You can use a targeted and personalized approach to introduce physician candidates to appealing practice opportunities. Recruiting via Doximity Talent Finder also establishes trust and confidence, something physicians appreciate because they’ve grown weary of faceless “spam” emails. We’ll write more about the ROI of using Doximity Talent Finder as a Sourcing Channel for physician recruiters in an upcoming article.

Another important metric: Retention Rates

The cost of losing a physician can be as high as 10 times their salary if the position isn’t filled for 12 months, so once you calculate the costs of hiring a new physician, you must look at Retention Rates. This goes beyond the costs associated with hiring a new physician and includes loss of productivity and rehiring. Do you know what the turnover rates are at your facility? You should track this over a period of time to identify trends.  

This is Part 2 of our Physician Recruitment ROI Series. Next up: To Improve your Recruiting ROI, Maximize your Candidate Funnel. Or you can now jump to Part 4 or Part 5. And make sure to download our 11 Terms to Remember When Calculating ROI.