Recruiting physicians is like playing a sport: it takes time and practice to be at your best. But what if the best players in the game could share their advice with the rest of us to give us a head start?

Lucky for us, our Talent Finder Client Success Team took the initiative and asked some of our seasoned recruiters for their most valuable lessons learned in physician recruiting. Here’s what they had to say:

1. Send follow-up messages. One thing we heard across the board from recruiters is that they used to be overly passive with their recruitment messaging campaigns (i.e. they didn’t follow up with candidates who didn’t reply). However, after years of experience, they realized the value in following up to previous outreach. One recruiter told us, “at the end of the day, physicians are busy people and it’s easy for messages to slip through the cracks, even if they are interested. Sometimes they might also overlook a message because they weren’t ready for that next opportunity, but if you reach out again, they just might have a different perspective”.

The bottom line? It’s impossible for recruiters to understand the different circumstances that physicians are in at any given time, so follow up increases your chances of reaching a physician at the right time.

2. Write brief and to-the-point messages.  While it can be tempting to include all the perks of the job in your outreach message, most candidates are just going to skim it, so it’s important to only include the necessary elements in your recruitment messages. Think about it like a newspaper article where most viewers only look at the headlines and the first one or two lines. Then, remove anything that wouldn't make the newspaper header or first sentence of a paragraph. Remember, your job description will be attached, so only give the candidate enough information to get he/she to click that attachment.

3. Recognize ‘Not Interested’ responses as an opportunity rather than a loss. Although the position may not be a fit for that physician, they may have a colleague or peer who might be interested, so it’s always worth reaching out again just to see. The fact that they took the time to take any action at all is a sign they care enough about your message to have opened and read it in the first place.

4. And while we’re at it..always, always ask for referrals. You never know who your candidates might know, and it can never hurt to remind them that you are there and eager to help! Whenever it feels natural, a friendly plug when chatting with candidates (or even those you know in your personal life!) could lead to a potential referral.

5. Understand the value in developing a candidate pipeline. This is something that takes time and effort through months (or years) of personalized outreach. Candidates may not be interested in a position right now, but if the time does come where they are searching for a job, you want them to remember you. Just because now isn't the right time, next year might be, so remember to circle back, send them thoughtful messages if you come across something they might be interested in. Maintaining strong relationships can pay off in the long run.

6. Send DocMails early in the week. This allows for more time for physicians to respond to your messages before the weekend. Sending messages to physicians on Friday afternoon might mean you’ll be checking your Inbox over the weekend.

7. Take advantage of incentives whenever you can. Certain platforms may reward you for writing good messages, even if the messages go unanswered. Make sure you take advantage of these types of programs if they are available. At Doximity for example, if a recruiter sends a message to a physician that includes the compensation for a position, and the message doesn’t get a click within 10 days, the recruiter will get that message credit back. Transparency is what candidates want, so recruiters should give as much info as possible about a position.

8. Leverage known connections. We heard this from many of our recruiters, so we can’t stress it enough. Take advantage of your own network and your organization’s network by asking for candidate referrals For example (if applicable), can you tap into your organization's medical school or residency program network?

9. Set up meetings with yourself. Schedule time in your calendar to utilize your recruiting tools, such as Doximity Talent Finder. In the invite, note exactly what you need to do during that meeting (i.e. search for candidates for your open cardiac surgery position, build a list or send messages from your Family Medicine list). Holding yourself accountable like this can help you stay organized and on top of weekly and monthly goals.

10. Lists are never a waste of time. Using notes or lists will help you to stay organized in all aspects of your job. They can be especially valuable when you are building a mix of candidates to source from when running searches.

Some of this advice might feel out of your comfort zone, or maybe there is a task listed above that you simply dread doing. Whatever your hesitations might be, try and remember this advice came from real recruiters who’ve been in the industry and on Talent Finder for a number of years. This is what they wish someone would have told them a long time ago. Who knows, maybe your next hire will come from practicing one (or more!) of these suggestions.

Want more recruiting tips from Talent Finder Client Success Managers? Check out these 11 things they say to never do in a job post.