With the ongoing shortage of physicians creating extreme competition for the recruitment of physicians across specialties, it has never been more important for healthcare administrators to fully understand their recruitment costs and the impact of time-to-fill. Today, healthcare organizations should be looking at their recruitment costs as an investment and calculating their returns, or as a Return on Investment.
When physician recruitment is identified as an investment, healthcare organizations can take action on improving their ROI and can also understand the impact of their recruitment efforts on their practice.
First, let’s determine how you can calculate physician recruitment ROI.
Physician Recruitment ROI Calculation
ROI can be calculated by comparing Costs and Revenue. To look at it from a physician recruitment perspective, utilize your cost-per-hire against physician generated revenue. Cost-per-hire will include advertising fees, recruitment team labor and commission, travel expenses, relocation, and any signing bonuses distributed. As a formula, it will look something like this:
| Physician Recruitment ROI = Physician Revenue Generated – Cost Per Hire |
Another way of considering ROI is by looking at more than physician generated revenue. This will still include revenue, but may also include things like cultural contributions in the workplace. A physician’s contribution can include a lot of factors, some are monetary, and others are not. For example, being short-staffed for extended periods increases the burden on other physicians and staff, leading to increased burnout, more turnover, decreased patient satisfaction, and more. Each organization is different, which increases the importance of understanding how each variable is impacting your bottom line. For a quick way to see how time-to-fill impacts your bottom line, use our Physician Recruitment ROI Calculator.
Four Ways to Improve Physician Recruitment ROI
When you have a clearer understanding of what your recruitment ROI is, it is easier to take actionable steps for improvement. Here are four things your organization can do today to improve Physician Recruitment ROI.
Implement Continuous Recruitment. One of the biggest mistakes many healthcare organizations make is treating each vacancy as a separate occurrence. Firing up the recruitment process only when you have a vacancy is the surest way to draw out costly time-to-fill ratios. Typically, it takes six to nine months to hire a physician, and if you are not continuously recruiting, then your time to fill can be even longer. Continuous recruitment allows you to always have candidates in your hiring pipeline. Also, by not treating each vacancy as a one-off scenario, you can recover more quickly to unforeseen snags in the hiring process and have candidates ready to hire in the event of unexpected turnover.
Hire for Fit. The better you know your organization, the better your hiring process will become. Understanding the types of individuals who are successful and contribute to a positive work environment allows you to seek out and attract those same types of individuals during the recruitment process. Hiring for fit is one of the most important ways to improve your recruitment ROI and also protect you from making a bad hiring decision. Physicians who are engaged are, on average, 26% more productive and generate 51% more inpatient referrals. If you do not have a solid understanding of what is driving your organizational culture, take the time and complete a cultural assessment so you can attract candidates who will fit into your culture instead of detracting from it.
Improve Your Hiring Process. Implementing continuous improvements in your hiring process can help you maintain efficiencies and avoid costly delays. One of the keys to an efficient hiring process relates back to understanding your cultural values and how that plays a role in attracting the right candidates. During the hiring process, prospective candidates should be able to experience the organizational culture first-hand through the people they meet during the interview process. Another important aspect of the hiring process is creating an effective site visit. Taking the time to cater to both the physician and their loved ones is an important factor in presenting your specific opportunity in a positive light over the other offers the physician may be considering.
Utilize a Recruitment Partner. An often overlooked aspect of improving your ROI is finding a strategic recruitment partner. Cultivating a relationship with an organization that has a nationwide reach and proven recruitment techniques allows your administrative team to spend time focusing on refining your interviewing and hiring process. This strategy also saves you money on sourcing and advertising. The right recruitment partner leverages technology to source the right candidates for you and always has access to a network of candidates, which decreases your time to fill rates and saves you money in the long run.
If you are interested in learning more about physician recruitment ROI you can read more here. If you need to find a trusted partner to help you attract the right physician candidates for your organization, contact the industry professionals at Jackson Physician Search today.
