Recruiting the Right People
Not everyone has the luxury of personally hiring each physician in their group, much less having a surplus of candidates that are outstanding in every dimension. The reality in 2005 is that there continues to be demand for hospitalists far exceeding the available supply. This “seller’s market” (i.e., a hospitalist “sells” his or her services to an employer) represents a challenging dynamic for new or growing hospital medicine groups attempting to recruit the top candidates. It gets even worse when you consider hospital medicine as a new specialty, often finding itself in hospitals where the medical staff are skeptical or apprehensive in accepting the new group, and one bad hire can undermine the group’s chances of success. Furthermore, there may not be adequate experience or expertise in recruiting new physicians or correctly identifying those who would be a proper fit for the group. So how does one go about recruiting the right people?
Planning begins with having defined the group in terms of the mission and values. Knowing the vision and specific strategies to be employed lends insight into what type of individual would best fit with the needs and culture of the group. It is important to list the desired qualities on paper and plan for assessing each one, knowing that there is no perfect candidate and these characteristics must therefore be prioritized. Remember, what makes a good hospitalist in your group does not mean they will be good somewhere else; be sure you define very clearly what exactly “good” means. At the same time, it is also critical to outline the selling points of potentially joining your group in terms of 3 areas: the practice itself, compensation, and location.
The next step consists of preparing a slate of candidates for interviews. There are many methods of finding (i.e., sourcing) strong candidates, one of the best of which is to ask members of your current group or other trusted colleagues for referrals. If you are interested in filling a position with a more specific skill set such as information technology, palliative care, or clinical teaching, then a “make or buy” decision needs to be made to either recruit for the individual already in possession of such credentials or to hire more generically and then train accordingly. Once candidates are identified, a deliberate process of reviewing their written materials and interviewing them by telephone will determine the appropriateness of an in person interview. Speaking with references can occur at any time, and some advocate for this to occur prior to bringing a candidate for formal interview, as another mechanism of screening and to focus interview questions on site. The formal interview itself should be well structured and enable your key stakeholders to meet with the candidate and submit an immediate assessment. The shorter the turnaround time to extend an offer, the more decisive and committed to the candidate you will appear. Likewise, if you have a diverse composition of interviewers who weigh in with their perspectives, then there should be little to delay a hiring decision.
There are 3 additional points to remember when looking to hire an additional hospitalist into your group. First, it is estimated that 70% of physicians who leave a job do so because of spousal discontent. To mitigate this possibility, invite the spouse to accompany the candidate to the interview location, and assemble a parallel agenda for him or her.. Do not consider yourself on a “best behavior” basis during courtship alone; you need to continue nurturing the candidate and family well into the first year of employment to ensure a good transition. Second, be realistic about your expectations. There is no perfect candidate, so you must prioritize those qualities you want most from them. If you wait for perfection, the delay will cause you to overlook many very good physicians. Finally, take another look at the performance management pyramid. The reason the area for recruitment is so large is because of the disproportionate amount of time that one should invest in recruitment processes. Hiring the right people up front will make the rest of the steps far easier and minimize the likelihood of your being drawn into the nadir of the pyramid.