How to Choose Your Healthcare Recruiter Wisely

Being a Healthcare Recruiter in today’s ultra-competitive job market is not for the faint of heart! With the unemployment rate among Registered Nurses at 1.4%, and Nurse Practitioners at 1.1%, it has never been harder to attract qualified candidates. Couple this with salaries on the rise in the healthcare space as demand increases, candidates being pickier than ever before about taking a job opportunity, bonuses being used as incentives, and competition among healthcare employers at Game of Thrones-level fierceness—how do you navigate all of this to standout and find the valuable talent you need in your organization?

Working with a Professional Healthcare Recruiter makes a lot of good sense in an environment like this. The challenge is keeping them accountable and ensuring they meet your expectations to fill open positions in your healthcare organization. What differentiates one partner from another? Also, how do you find a partner that will truly understand what you need and deliver value?

To help you with evaluating healthcare recruiting partners, here’s a checklist of questions to ask:

• Do you truly understand our industry and can you speak the same language as the candidates we want to recruit?
  
  
• What kind of industry specific networks do you have access to and how do you find qualified candidates?
  
  
• Can you accurately represent to candidates the distinctive culture that exists in healthcare organizations?
  
  
• Can you assist with branding our organization to help attract candidates and increase our chances of retaining them long term?
  
  
• What recruiting tools do you use to find candidates that are actively seeking opportunities and qualified candidates that could be in the market to make a move if presented with the right opportunity?
  
  
• How much of the recruiting process can you assist us with? Do you have capabilities for us to fully outsource this to your team? Partially outsource?
  
  
• Can you provide reviews from candidates and the healthcare community detailing their experience working with you? What is your track record for securing quality hires?
  
  
• Do you provide data and analyses related to salaries and benefits that will help us make informed decisions about potential hires?