As a physician recruiter, you know you’ve done something right when the physician’s wife sends you a handwritten thank-you note after the on-site physician interview.
Have the events of the past year and a half changed your perspective on your current physician job? Are you looking to move to be closer to your loved ones? If so, then you might find yourself in a similar situation as Dr. F, an Internal Medicine physician who had been working at the same facility in Northern California since he left his residency nearly 20 years ago. He was passionate about his profession, but he was looking to relocate. His kids were in school in Oregon and he and his wife wanted to be closer to them.
Around the same time, one of our clients in Oregon came back to Search Consultant Misha Fabick. Just six months prior, Misha placed a primary care physician with this clinic in just 90 days, and they needed another. Could she work her magic once more and secure another great physician?
Promoting the Right Details with Digital Marketing
The pressure was on, but Misha trusted the 100% digital recruitment strategy pioneered by Jackson Physician Search. Once she crafted the physician job advertisement, it would be posted on 10+ national job boards and sent out in a targeted email campaign to relevant members of our vast opted-in physician database. For this reason, the details of the job advertisement would be especially important.
Fifty-five percent of doctors are contacted weekly about physician job opportunities and less than 10% of those recruiter communications are relevant. Because our goal is finding the perfect long-term fit for both physicians and clients, we avoid this industry trend of sending irrelevant physician job ads. This is one major reason why physicians like working with Jackson Physician Search. It is not unusual for candidates to come back to us when they are ready to find their next physician job.
The facility was beautiful, a new building set on a picturesque hill in rural Oregon. The team was a tight-knit group, enthusiastic about the work they were doing. The town was small, but most of the staff lived in neighboring towns. Just 15 minutes from the coast, there was plenty to offer in the surrounding areas. Misha was confident that with the right marketing strategy, she could attract candidates. It was just a matter of finding the best long-term fit for her client.
A Physician Interview Process Designed to Get to Know the Candidate
The “Coastal Oregon” headline of the physician job board advertisement caught Dr. F’s eye, and he reached out to Misha by email. After one phone conversation, she got a sense of his personality and knew he would be a good fit for the client.
How did she know? “He was just a really genuine person,” Misha explains, “And very considerate of others – including me! I think you can tell a lot about how a candidate will treat staff and even patients based on how I’m treated as the recruiter.”
Clinic Goes the Extra Mile to Make the Physician’s Wife Feel Welcome
Misha presented Dr. F to the client and they scheduled a call with him a few days later. As soon as his schedule allowed, he traveled to Oregon for two on-site interviews, one with Misha’s client and the other with a larger healthcare organization. Dr. F instantly clicked with Misha’s client. The whole team seemed to genuinely enjoy working there and they put Dr. F and his wife at ease. When his wife needed to participate in a video conference for work, leadership arranged a private room at the clinic where she could access wi-fi and attend the meeting without interruption. These details went a long way with Dr. F and his wife, and they left feeling like they had found their new home.
Dr. F called Misha from the airport to express his enthusiasm. When he compared his experience at the clinic with the intense, formal physician interview process at the larger organization, it was clear where he belonged. Misha confirmed the feeling had been mutual, and he hung up with her to immediately call the realtor who had shown him and his wife around. Because Misha did such a great job matching Dr. F’s personal and professional needs, he was so confident that this was the place for him. He put an offer in on a new home before receiving a formal employment offer.
Dr. F and His Wife are “Beyond Excited” to Continue Their Story in Oregon
What is Misha’s secret? Certainly, the digital marketing strategy was effective in making the initial connection, but from there, the physician’s relationship with the recruiter, and then, with the hiring organization was pivotal. Misha established a rapport with Dr. F, and the more she got to know him, the more sure she was that he was the right fit for her client and vice versa.
“This client always does an excellent job of really getting to know the candidate and helping the candidate get to know them,” says Misha. “It’s not a formal, buttoned-up process, and it really works to identify if someone is a good fit.”
It also helped that Misha had a great sense of what type of personality would fit best with the organization, and she would never recommend a candidate who she didn’t think would be a long-term match.
Misha was thrilled to hear her client was pleased, but it was the handwritten note from Dr. F’s wife that brought even more satisfaction. She writes: “We are beyond excited to begin this next chapter of our lives, and it could not have happened without you!”
If now is the right time for you to consider a new opportunity, the recruitment team at Jackson Physician Search is here to help you every step of the way. Get started now and search our 500+ physician job openings.
